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Dmitry Eskin wrote on Tue, Nov 29, 2016 12:56 PM UTC:

About Fairy-Max:

I have tested 200 games for each non-mirror match-up (100 white + 100 black) and have got this statistics:
Elf < Human 46,25%
Elf < Orc 40,25%
Human < Orc 38,25%
It seems to be: Orc > Human > Elf, but the game analysis indicates that Elf > Human > Orc at the openings. And it is logically, because Elves have more active Pawns and the Orcs have less. That's why the Elves and Humans must be initiative but they don't, prefer to passive openings. They don't get any advantages in space, and Orcs, after the opening without any problems, punish them for their passivity. The Orcs have equal statistics playing white and black, it only confirms their weakness in the openings (potential but not real in auto games).

And this is a problem (and the feature) of asymmetry, different sides mean different opening's speed. If we will skip openings playing passive style and our side have an advantage at openings, then we will lose this advantage.

Without strong openings I can't get an answer to the question: are the Orcs imba, or not?

I have tested games at the time control of 1 sec per turn because each game need to be manually shown and I have no time to watch a lot of games in a long time. The WinBoard have a serious bug to incorrectly counting the wins and loses in the match of the same engines. It may show 20-20-10, but really there was 30-10-10 (if manually watching the games).

For example of opening's advantages:
- Elves have active Bishops from the very beginning, such moves are available and not bad (vs Human): 1.e4 - Bf4!
- Elves have active Rooks from the very beginning, move like 1.Ra4 is available (vs Human), the Orcish Wyverns may also leaping there, but only the Pegasus' move is good (because creates a real threats of Rxa7 or Ra5 - Rxa8)
- Elvish Knights (Unicorns) are centralized and can quickly enter the game through the squares of e2 and d2 (although not quickly as Human Knights), but Orcish Knights need to free squares f1 and c1 first (need to starts with their Bishops).
- Elves don't need to activate their Bishops, they are already active! Elves even don't need to move them for castling, because even simple Kf1 and then, if necessary, Re1 (leaping over the King and the Bishop) do the same, but faster.
- Orcs have problems with their short Bishops, because Be3 or Bd3 may block central Pawns (much more important than f и с after Human Knights moves Nf3 or Nc3).
- Elvish Pawns have many variants to enter the game, but Orcish Pawns lose all their defensive bonus when moving. Elves can checkmate Orcs at the first move: 1.g3?? Bxg3#


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