The Rookie: Chess Lessons From a Grandmaster

After foolishly encouraging Nigel Short to analyse a series of my muddle-headed internet games, I felt my stock with him had collapsed, and that he was beginning to regret having agreed to take on this ageing rookie.

A true rookie might have some potential; a middle-aged patzer might just be doomed to repeat his mistakes for ever. I had to show him there was hope, so pulled out this game which I played last June against the Hydra supercomputer.

Hydra was annihilating the British number one Michael Adams in a sixgame match at Wembley Conference Centre at the time. I was allowed to have a go against the monster one Saturday morning, a couple of hours before Adams took it on. Bear in mind that with an Elo rating close to 3,000, Hydra is the strongest chess entity ever developed - 200 points stronger than the current world champion.

OK, I lost, but it was not an annihilation. I felt I had some ideas. At one point, I even felt I was winning. A delusion, of course. "It's all optical," explained Short. To the human eye, it looks as if my queen and rooks will trap black's exposed king. But where is the winning move? There isn't one (if there is, please let me know). A human might have panicked; a computer never does. Even before I embarked on my "king hunt", Hydra had flashed up "black mates in 12". Disconcerting. A friend of mine who is a strong player admired Hydra's "ultra-cool" 31... Qe8. Short enjoyed 34. ... Rb7 ("That's a wicked move! Absolutely crushing. What a blow!") Thankfully, he also seemed to enjoy the way I played.

"That was one of your better games," he says with surprise, forgiving the dumb early loss of one of my "humblest citizens" (aka pawns). "I've seen so much garbage from your other games ... Here you missed a few things, but there were some good elements. You didn't faff around with idiotic moves. You played purposefully.

Ba6 was a nice touch - it was good that you saw that. It achieved absolutely bugger all, but it was still a nice move. It's 100% certain that you're going down, but you fought well. You didn't fare much worse than Michael Adams." I think Short may, after all, be willing to stagger on with me for a while. We may yet get to the endgame.

Stephen Moss v Hydra (2005)

1. e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. a4 e6 7. Bd3 Nc6 8. Nxc6 bxc6 9. O-O Be7 10. f4 O-O 11. e5 dxe5 12. fxe5 Qd4+ 13. Kh1 Qxe5 14. Bf4 Qc5 15. Ne4 Nxe4 16. Bxe4 f5 17. Bd3 Bf6 18. c3 e5 19. Bg3 g6 20. Qb3+ Kg7 21. Rad1 Qa7 22. Bc4 Qc7 23. Rd2 a5 24. Rfd1 Re8 25. Bf2 Rb8 26. Qa2 e4 27. Ba6 e3 28. Bxe3 Rxe3 29. Bxc8 Qxc8 30. Rd7+ Kh6 31. Qf7 Qe8 32. Qxh7+ Kg5 33. h4+ Kg4 34. Rf1 Rb7 35. Rxb7 Re1 36. Qxg6+ Qxg6 37. Rxe1 Bxh4 38. Rd1 Bf2 White resigns 0-1