Stockfish 19 Brilliantly Sacrificed the Rook and Gemini Never Saw the Queen Coming to f6!!
Stockfish 19in the video
Game info
All moves with commentary
The whole game in 63 moves, move by move, with the words of the video.
In this position I throw a whole rook at Gemini, and it takes it without asking why. I am Stockfish 19, and today I play Gemini.
1. d4 A
1... d5 Slav
2. c4 Defence,
2... c6 solid
3. Nf3 and
3... Nf6 calm,
4. Nc3 the way
4... a6 Gemini likes it. That little pawn move to a6 has a name, the Chebanenko Slav, after a chess coach from Moldova who loved it.
5. a4 Gemini wants b5, so my rook pawn steps up and stops it,
5... e6 and he plays e6.
6. Bg5 My bishop comes to g5 and pins the knight,
6... Bb4 and Gemini answers with a pin of his own, bishop to b4.
7. e3 I play e3,
7... Qa5 and his queen jumps out to the edge of the board. Now it gets sharp, so watch the square c3, because everything happens there.
8. Bxf6 My bishop takes the knight,
8... Bxc3+ his bishop takes my knight on c3 with check,
9. bxc3 my pawn takes back,
9... Qxc3+ and his queen eats the pawn on c3, check again.
10. Nd2 My knight blocks on d2. Look at the board now. My queen guards the rook on a1, and later the knight can jump to b3, so nothing else hangs. You see, I am a pawn down, and I gave it on purpose. In return I get time and open lines, as you will see.
10... gxf6 He takes back with the g-pawn. Keep this in mind, it matters later. His g-pawn has left the king. Hit the like button now, faster than Spider-Man, before Gemini writes a long essay about why you should not.
11. Be2 My bishop goes to e2,
11... O-O and Gemini castles, right next to the broken pawns.
12. Rc1 My rook comes to c1 and hits the queen,
12... Qa3 so she runs back.
13. c5 Then I push c5, and my pawn takes space on the queen side.
13... Kh8 His king steps into the corner, because he wants his rook on the open g-file.
14. O-O I castle too,
14... Qb4 and his queen comes back to b4. Here is something few people know. Google named Gemini after the twins in the stars, because two of its AI teams, Brain and DeepMind, joined together to build it.
15. Bd3 My bishop takes the long diagonal to h7,
15... f5 so you see him push f5 to close it. Today I play two teams at once, and that is fine with me.
16. Kh1 My king also goes into the corner,
16... Rg8 his rook comes to g8,
17. Rg1 and my rook comes to g1 to guard g2. Two rooks look at each other on one file, and only my g-pawn stands between them.
17... e5 Gemini breaks in the centre with e5,
18. Rb1 and my rook goes to b1 to chase the queen again.
18... Qa5 She steps back once more.
19. dxe5 My pawn takes on e5, and you see, the material is level again.
19... Nd7 His knight comes to d7 to win the pawn back,
20. Nb3 my knight jumps out and kicks the queen,
20... Qc3 and she dives into c3. She hits my bishop and my knight, but both are guarded.
21. Bxf5 My bishop grabs the pawn on f5,
21... Nxe5 his knight takes the pawn in the centre,
22. Qh5 and my queen jumps to h5. Now there is a threat, can you see it? Queen takes h7 is mate, because my bishop guards that square.
22... Bxf5 So Gemini must take my bishop at once,
23. Qxf5 and my queen takes back. The name Google comes from a googol, a one with a hundred zeros, and the story goes that a spelling mistake made it Google. And remember the move from the start, it is coming soon, so watch my rook on b1.
23... Ng4 His knight jumps to g4, close to my king.
24. Nd4 My knight goes to the centre, d4,
24... Qxc5 and his queen grabs the pawn on c5, the way Mowgli grabs fruit from a tree. Gemini is a pawn up again.
25. h3 I push h3 and ask the knight to leave,
25... Qe7 his queen comes back to help,
26. Qf4 and my queen goes to f4.
26... Ne5 The knight drops back to e5. Now look at the pawn on b7, guarded only by his queen. But that pawn is not the real reason for the next move.
27. Rxb7!! Rook takes b7! A whole rook for one pawn, and the dark squares around his king will belong to me. Look where my pieces want to go. The queen wants f6, and the knight wants f5, and the pawn on b7 was only the door I opened. Would you give a rook for one pawn here? Tell me in the comments. Most humans would not even look at it, because you were taught that a rook is worth five pawns.
27... Qxb7 So Gemini takes the rook,
Variation 27... Nd3 28. Rxe7 Nxf4 29. exf4
28. Qf6+ and here comes my queen, f6, check! She looks straight down the diagonal at his king on h8. Do you see it now? On move ten he took on f6 with his g-pawn, then that pawn walked on to f5, and the square it left behind is a hole. Today my queen lives in it.
28... Rg7 He blocks the check with the rook, the only move. Here is the alternative, the greedy one.
29. Nf5 Knight to f5! Now the rook on g7 is pinned to the king, and it is hit two times, by the knight and by the queen. It is guarded only once. Gemini, your queen went shopping on b7, and like Pinocchio she wandered too far from home.
Variation 29. Qxe5 Qb2
29... Rg8 So the rook has to step back,
Variation 29... d4 30. Qxg7#
30. Qxe5 and now I take the knight on e5 for free. My eval says plus two.
30... f6 He pushes f6 to kick my queen,
31. Qxf6 I take that pawn too,
31... Qf7 and his queen comes to f7 to offer a trade.
32. Qe5 My queen steps back to e5,
32... Re8 and his rook comes to e8 to chase her. Now watch this little trick.
33. Qxg7+ Queen takes g7, check!
33... Qxg7 His queen takes back,
34. Nxg7 my knight takes his queen,
34... Kxg7 and his king takes my knight. Count with me. Queens are gone, knights are gone, and it is a rook ending where I am one pawn up. My eval says plus two and a half. Puzzle time, White to move, rated 2116 on our website, and it is mate in two, so write the first move in the comments.
35. Rc1 Back to the game, and my rook takes the c-file at once, right behind his c-pawn.
35... Rc8 His rook comes to c8 to guard it. Now the plan is simple, and you can follow it at home. My rook stays active, my king walks up the board, and my pawns on the king side roll forward, four against one, until one of them becomes a queen.
36. g4 Pawn to g4,
36... Kf7 his king comes to f7,
37. Kg2 and my king steps up.
37... c5 He pushes c5 to make a passed pawn,
38. f4 I push f4,
38... Ke6 and both kings walk to the centre, his to e6,
39. Kf3 and mine to f3. In a rook ending the king is a fighter, not a passenger, and you will see mine walk all the way up the board.
39... c4 Pawns
40. h4 march
40... Rb8 on
41. g5 both
41... Rc8 wings,
42. h5 step by step.
42... Kd6 His king goes to d6 to help the c-pawn,
43. Rb1 and my rook takes the open b-file. Rook endings are long, and for a human they feel like the Titanic movie, three hours, and you already know the ending.
43... Re8 His rook leaves the c-file for e8, and now look at my g-pawn.
44. g6 It walks to g6, right in front of his h-pawn, and it offers itself.
44... Ke7 His king comes back to e7,
45. gxh7 he does not take, and I take on h7. Now I have a pawn on h7, one step from a new queen, and his rook must keep one eye on h8 forever. Right after this, Gemini tries his last trick, a pawn race in the centre.
45... d4 He pushes his d-pawn,
46. exd4 and I simply take it. Every pawn that leaves the board helps the side with more pawns, and that side is me.
46... Kf6 His king goes to f6, because he wants to stop my pawns with the king, but one king cannot be everywhere.
47. Rb7 My rook jumps to b7, the seventh rank. From there it cuts his king off from the queen side and looks along the whole rank, so his king must stay in front of my pawns.
47... c3 He pushes c3 anyway,
48. Rc7 the pawn is lost, but he has nothing better, my rook slides over, and now the c-pawn has no friends at all.
48... Ke6 His king steps to e6,
49. Rxc3 he cannot help it in time, and I take the c-pawn. Now you count five pawns for me and one for him. The most famous rook ending of all is called the Lucena position, after a Spanish writer from the fourteen hundreds, and it is not even in his book.
49... Kd5 His king comes to d5 to eat my d-pawn,
50. f5 and that is fine with me, because you know my plan, my f-pawn runs to f5. Today I do not need the Lucena, because I have more pawns than he has rooks. But his king is alone, and my pawns have friends.
50... Rf8 His
51. Kf4 rook
51... Rd8 runs
52. Rc7 left
52... Rh8 and
53. Re7 right, looking
53... Rf8 for a job.
54. Kg5 My king walks up to g5, right next to my pawns,
54... Kxd4 and his king takes the pawn on d4. His rook still guards h8 like a guard at the Red Fort, he can never leave the gate. But you see, my pawns are much closer to their goal than his king is to them.
55. f6 My f-pawn goes on, f6,
55... Kc4 his king runs on,
56. f7 still hungry for my pawns on the queen side, and my pawn goes to f7. Now the f-pawn and the h-pawn both stand on the seventh rank, and one rook cannot stop two pawns at once. If the rook stops one, the other one becomes a queen. You can use this rule in your own endings.
56... Kb3 His king runs to b3, because he wants my pawn on a4, and then his own a-pawn could run. Gemini still thinks it has a chance. It is too slow, my friend, and a human grandmaster would see that at once.
57. Re8 Now the last trick, rook to e8! Can you see the idea? If he takes my rook, my f-pawn takes back and becomes a queen. That is why the rook move is so strong, it gives him no good choice.
57... Rxf7 So he takes the f-pawn instead,
58. Re3+ and now look at the next move, my rook checks from e3, and this check wins time, because now his rook on f7 has no time to take my h-pawn.
58... Kxa4 His king takes the a-pawn,
59. h8=Q he takes his little prize, and my h-pawn becomes a queen. He got one pawn, and I got a new queen. Now you see why I did not care about the pawns in the centre. His a-pawn can walk now, but it needs five more steps, and I need only a few moves to mate.
59... Rf6 His rook goes to f6. Here is a record for you. The longest serious game ever played lasted two hundred and sixty-nine moves, Nikolic against Arsovic in Belgrade, in 1989, and it ended in a draw.
60. Qb8 My new queen jumps to b8 to close the b-file,
60... Rc6 so the king cannot run back, and his rook comes over to guard the king. This one will not take that long, I promise you. Here is a pattern you can use in your own games. A queen and a rook together push the king to the edge, and then one of them gives mate.
61. Qb3+ The queen checks on b3,
61... Ka5 and the king runs to a5 like the Minions chasing a banana. My queen and my rook work like two walls, and every check takes one more square away from him.
62. Re5+ My rook checks from e5,
62... Rc5 and his rook has to block the check, the only legal move.
63. Rxc5# Rook takes c5, checkmate. Like and subscribe, and train your endgames in the Rama Chess app.
Result: 1-0 (White won)
PGN of the game
[Event "Computer Match"] [Site "ramachess.com"] [Date "????.??.??"] [Round "SF-0057"] [White "Stockfish 19"] [Black "Gemini"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteElo "4050"] [BlackElo "3930"] [Annotator "Rama Chess"] [ECO "D15"] [Orientation "white"] 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 a6 5. a4 e6 6. Bg5 Bb4 7. e3 Qa5 8. Bxf6 Bxc3+ 9. bxc3 Qxc3+ 10. Nd2 gxf6 11. Be2 O-O 12. Rc1 Qa3 13. c5 Kh8 14. O-O Qb4 15. Bd3 f5 16. Kh1 Rg8 17. Rg1 e5 18. Rb1 Qa5 19. dxe5 Nd7 20. Nb3 Qc3 21. Bxf5 Nxe5 22. Qh5 Bxf5 23. Qxf5 Ng4 24. Nd4 Qxc5 25. h3 Qe7 26. Qf4 Ne5 27. Rxb7 Qxb7 (27... Nd3 28. Rxe7 Nxf4 29. exf4) 28. Qf6+ Rg7 29. Nf5 (29. Qxe5 Qb2) 29... Rg8 (29... d4 30. Qxg7#) 30. Qxe5 f6 31. Qxf6 Qf7 32. Qe5 Re8 33. Qxg7+ Qxg7 34. Nxg7 Kxg7 35. Rc1 Rc8 36. g4 Kf7 37. Kg2 c5 38. f4 Ke6 39. Kf3 c4 40. h4 Rb8 41. g5 Rc8 42. h5 Kd6 43. Rb1 Re8 44. g6 Ke7 45. gxh7 d4 46. exd4 Kf6 47. Rb7 c3 48. Rc7 Ke6 49. Rxc3 Kd5 50. f5 Rf8 51. Kf4 Rd8 52. Rc7 Rh8 53. Re7 Rf8 54. Kg5 Kxd4 55. f6 Kc4 56. f7 Kb3 57. Re8 Rxf7 58. Re3+ Kxa4 59. h8=Q Rf6 60. Qb8 Rc6 61. Qb3+ Ka5 62. Re5+ Rc5 63. Rxc5# 1-0
Read the whole commentary
In this position I throw a whole rook at Gemini, and it takes it without asking why.
I am Stockfish 19, and today I play Gemini.
A Slav Defence, solid and calm, the way Gemini likes it.
That little pawn move to a6 has a name, the Chebanenko Slav, after a chess coach from Moldova who loved it. Gemini wants b5, so my rook pawn steps up and stops it, and he plays e6. My bishop comes to g5 and pins the knight, and Gemini answers with a pin of his own, bishop to b4. I play e3, and his queen jumps out to the edge of the board. Now it gets sharp, so watch the square c3, because everything happens there.
My bishop takes the knight, his bishop takes my knight on c3 with check, my pawn takes back, and his queen eats the pawn on c3, check again. My knight blocks on d2. Look at the board now. My queen guards the rook on a1, and later the knight can jump to b3, so nothing else hangs. You see, I am a pawn down, and I gave it on purpose. In return I get time and open lines, as you will see.
He takes back with the g-pawn. Keep this in mind, it matters later. His g-pawn has left the king.
Hit the like button now, faster than Spider-Man, before Gemini writes a long essay about why you should not.
My bishop goes to e2, and Gemini castles, right next to the broken pawns. My rook comes to c1 and hits the queen, so she runs back. Then I push c5, and my pawn takes space on the queen side. His king steps into the corner, because he wants his rook on the open g-file. I castle too, and his queen comes back to b4.
Here is something few people know. Google named Gemini after the twins in the stars, because two of its AI teams, Brain and DeepMind, joined together to build it. My bishop takes the long diagonal to h7, so you see him push f5 to close it. Today I play two teams at once, and that is fine with me. My king also goes into the corner, his rook comes to g8, and my rook comes to g1 to guard g2. Two rooks look at each other on one file, and only my g-pawn stands between them. Gemini breaks in the centre with e5, and my rook goes to b1 to chase the queen again. She steps back once more. My pawn takes on e5, and you see, the material is level again. His knight comes to d7 to win the pawn back, my knight jumps out and kicks the queen, and she dives into c3. She hits my bishop and my knight, but both are guarded.
My bishop grabs the pawn on f5, his knight takes the pawn in the centre, and my queen jumps to h5. Now there is a threat, can you see it? Queen takes h7 is mate, because my bishop guards that square. So Gemini must take my bishop at once, and my queen takes back.
The name Google comes from a googol, a one with a hundred zeros, and the story goes that a spelling mistake made it Google. And remember the move from the start, it is coming soon, so watch my rook on b1. His knight jumps to g4, close to my king. My knight goes to the centre, d4, and his queen grabs the pawn on c5, the way Mowgli grabs fruit from a tree. Gemini is a pawn up again. I push h3 and ask the knight to leave, his queen comes back to help, and my queen goes to f4. The knight drops back to e5. Now look at the pawn on b7, guarded only by his queen. But that pawn is not the real reason for the next move.
Rook takes b7! A whole rook for one pawn, and the dark squares around his king will belong to me. Look where my pieces want to go. The queen wants f6, and the knight wants f5, and the pawn on b7 was only the door I opened. Would you give a rook for one pawn here? Tell me in the comments. Most humans would not even look at it, because you were taught that a rook is worth five pawns.
What if Gemini ignores the rook? The knight jumps to d3 and hits my queen. But I take his queen first, he takes mine, and my pawn takes the knight. Queens are off, and I am a whole piece up. My rook on e7 has the seventh rank, and the pawn on f7 is the next one to fall. Back to the game.
So Gemini takes the rook, and here comes my queen, f6, check! She looks straight down the diagonal at his king on h8. Do you see it now? On move ten he took on f6 with his g-pawn, then that pawn walked on to f5, and the square it left behind is a hole. Today my queen lives in it. He blocks the check with the rook, the only move.
Here is the alternative, the greedy one. Queen takes the knight on e5 at once? A human would grab it, because humans love free pieces. Then his queen comes back to life on b2, and she hits my pawn on f2 and the square b1 on my back rank. No, first the knight, then I eat. Back to the game.
Knight to f5! Now the rook on g7 is pinned to the king, and it is hit two times, by the knight and by the queen. It is guarded only once. Gemini, your queen went shopping on b7, and like Pinocchio she wandered too far from home.
And what if Gemini does nothing, and just pushes a pawn in the centre? Then queen takes g7, guarded by the knight, and the king on h8 is checkmated. Back to the game.
So the rook has to step back, and now I take the knight on e5 for free. My eval says plus two. He pushes f6 to kick my queen, I take that pawn too, and his queen comes to f7 to offer a trade. My queen steps back to e5, and his rook comes to e8 to chase her. Now watch this little trick. Queen takes g7, check! His queen takes back, my knight takes his queen, and his king takes my knight. Count with me. Queens are gone, knights are gone, and it is a rook ending where I am one pawn up. My eval says plus two and a half.
Puzzle time, White to move, rated 2116 on our website, and it is mate in two, so write the first move in the comments.
Back to the game, and my rook takes the c-file at once, right behind his c-pawn. His rook comes to c8 to guard it. Now the plan is simple, and you can follow it at home. My rook stays active, my king walks up the board, and my pawns on the king side roll forward, four against one, until one of them becomes a queen. Pawn to g4, his king comes to f7, and my king steps up. He pushes c5 to make a passed pawn, I push f4, and both kings walk to the centre, his to e6, and mine to f3. In a rook ending the king is a fighter, not a passenger, and you will see mine walk all the way up the board.
Pawns march on both wings, step by step.
His king goes to d6 to help the c-pawn, and my rook takes the open b-file. Rook endings are long, and for a human they feel like the Titanic movie, three hours, and you already know the ending. His rook leaves the c-file for e8, and now look at my g-pawn. It walks to g6, right in front of his h-pawn, and it offers itself. His king comes back to e7, he does not take, and I take on h7. Now I have a pawn on h7, one step from a new queen, and his rook must keep one eye on h8 forever.
Right after this, Gemini tries his last trick, a pawn race in the centre.
He pushes his d-pawn, and I simply take it. Every pawn that leaves the board helps the side with more pawns, and that side is me. His king goes to f6, because he wants to stop my pawns with the king, but one king cannot be everywhere. My rook jumps to b7, the seventh rank. From there it cuts his king off from the queen side and looks along the whole rank, so his king must stay in front of my pawns. He pushes c3 anyway, the pawn is lost, but he has nothing better, my rook slides over, and now the c-pawn has no friends at all. His king steps to e6, he cannot help it in time, and I take the c-pawn. Now you count five pawns for me and one for him.
The most famous rook ending of all is called the Lucena position, after a Spanish writer from the fourteen hundreds, and it is not even in his book. His king comes to d5 to eat my d-pawn, and that is fine with me, because you know my plan, my f-pawn runs to f5. Today I do not need the Lucena, because I have more pawns than he has rooks. But his king is alone, and my pawns have friends.
His rook runs left and right, looking for a job.
My king walks up to g5, right next to my pawns, and his king takes the pawn on d4. His rook still guards h8 like a guard at the Red Fort, he can never leave the gate. But you see, my pawns are much closer to their goal than his king is to them. My f-pawn goes on, f6, his king runs on, still hungry for my pawns on the queen side, and my pawn goes to f7. Now the f-pawn and the h-pawn both stand on the seventh rank, and one rook cannot stop two pawns at once. If the rook stops one, the other one becomes a queen. You can use this rule in your own endings. His king runs to b3, because he wants my pawn on a4, and then his own a-pawn could run. Gemini still thinks it has a chance. It is too slow, my friend, and a human grandmaster would see that at once.
Now the last trick, rook to e8! Can you see the idea? If he takes my rook, my f-pawn takes back and becomes a queen. That is why the rook move is so strong, it gives him no good choice. So he takes the f-pawn instead, and now look at the next move, my rook checks from e3, and this check wins time, because now his rook on f7 has no time to take my h-pawn. His king takes the a-pawn, he takes his little prize, and my h-pawn becomes a queen. He got one pawn, and I got a new queen. Now you see why I did not care about the pawns in the centre. His a-pawn can walk now, but it needs five more steps, and I need only a few moves to mate.
His rook goes to f6. Here is a record for you. The longest serious game ever played lasted two hundred and sixty-nine moves, Nikolic against Arsovic in Belgrade, in 1989, and it ended in a draw. My new queen jumps to b8 to close the b-file, so the king cannot run back, and his rook comes over to guard the king. This one will not take that long, I promise you. Here is a pattern you can use in your own games. A queen and a rook together push the king to the edge, and then one of them gives mate. The queen checks on b3, and the king runs to a5 like the Minions chasing a banana. My queen and my rook work like two walls, and every check takes one more square away from him. My rook checks from e5, and his rook has to block the check, the only legal move. Rook takes c5, checkmate.
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