On 26 April 2014 the traditional Haifa hosted the 10th draughts festival.
For the first time in the ten-year history of draughts festivals in Israel, the well-known computer draughts program «Edeon» took part in the competition and won a gold medal on board 2 without losing a single game. One of the creators of «Edeon», master of sports Vasily Naumik, annotates Edeon’s games.
M. Fazylov – Edeon, game 1

Haifa, 2014
« City game »
1.cd4
How else are you supposed to play against an iron brain? Straight into the centre!
dc5 2.bc3 fg5 3.cb4 gh4 4.b:d6 e:c5 Edeon chose the opening City game, a theoretical duel lies ahead!
5.ab2 cd6! Best move !, writes Edeon 6.gf4 ba5 7.d:b6 a:c5 8.bc3 de7
A well-known key position of the City game.
9.hg3! A move first played by V. Sokov against Shutilkin in 1938 and first shown by V. Sokov at a lecture in Moscow in December 1940.

9…gf6
After 9. . . ef6 there can follow 10.cb4
Edeon knows the theoretical line starting 10.cd4 ba7 11.d:b6 a:c5 12.gh2 This sharp continuation gives Black the initiative.
12…fe5 13.cb2 ab4! 14.fg5! h:f6 ( Stronger is 14. . . h:f4! 15.e:g5 h:f616.bc3 fe7! 17.c:a5 ed4! )15.bc3 hg5 16.c:a5 gh4 17.dc3 fe7 18.ab6 c:a7 19.ef4 gh6 20.cd4 ec3 21.fg5 =.
10. . . a:c3 11.d:b4 fe5 12.ed2! (12.cd2? loses: gf6 13.ba5 bc7! 14.dc3 fg7 15.cb4 fg5 16.ed2 cd4 17.e:e7 g:c1 and so on x )
12. . . gf6 13.ba5! 13.dc3? loses: fe7!14.cd2 hg7 15.ba5 fg5 16.ed4 g:c1! 17.dh8 cb4 18.a:c5 d:d2 x.

13. . . bc7! 14.dc3 ed4! A splendid sacrifice! 15.c:g7 h:f6 and White has only one move, 16.cd2! =+.
10.gh2
10. . . fe5 V. Sokov pointed out that this is a bad way to play because of 11.ab4! c:a3 12.ed4 ef6 13.dc5 d:b4 14.f:d6 but Edeon has its own opinion about this line, which is considered bad for Black.
fg5 15. cd4 ba7

An unexpected move! Nobody has played like this before! Black invites White into the kings. The point is that Edeon started playing «with its own head» once there were 8 pieces against 8 on each side — that is how the programmers configured the opening database for this tournament.
It is interesting to think how grandmaster M. Fazylov would have played if Edeon had gone on following its opening database, for example: 15…hg7. Probably, on V. Sokov’s recommendation, 16.fe3 hf2 17.eg1 and so on, as in V. Vysotsky and V. Tsinman, volume 5, «Opening encyclopaedia of Russian draughts, 2014, p. 36″
16. dc7 ab6 17. cb8 gf4 18. g:e5 bc5 19. d:b6 a:c7 20. b:d6 bc3 21. d:b4 a:e7
So that is what it is about! Edeon has calculated a draw from far away and is «racing towards it at full steam». Edeon evidently sensed that it was playing against a grandmaster, a well-known theoretician of Russian draughts.
22. fe3 hg5 23. ed4 ef6 24. e:g7 h:f6 25. dc5 fe7 26. cb6 ed6 27. ba7 gf4 28. cd2 dc5 29. dc3 fe5 30. ab8 cb4 31. c:a5 ed4 32. b:g3 h:f2 33. e:g3 dc3 = An interesting theoretical duel!