New draws in the Black Hole

[Ed Gilbert]

This evening I have posted at the kingsrow web site 5 new draws for the Black Hole. These include at least one new draw against each of white's three main attacks. AFAIK this is new play that has not been published before. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Follow this link for more details, and also to download an opening book file that you can use with kingsrow to play out these draws. Here is an excerpt from my web site:

In defense to 25-22:
1. 10-14 22-17 2. 9-13 17x10 3. 6x15 25-22 4. 15-19 24x15 5. 11x25 29x22 6. 8-11 draws
1. 10-14 22-17 2. 9-13 17x10 3. 6x15 25-22 4. 15-19 24x15 5. 11x25 29x22 6. 5-9 draws
1. 10-14 22-17 2. 9-13 17x10 3. 6x15 25-22 4. 15-19 24x15 5. 11x25 29x22 6. 1-6 draws

In defense to 24-19:
1. 10-14 22-17 2. 9-13 17x10 3. 6x15 24-19 4. 15x24 28x19 5. 7-10 draws

In defense to 21-17:
1. 10-14 22-17 2. 9-13 17x10 3. 6x15 21-17 4. 13x22 26x17 5. 11-16 draws

Of course I'm not recommending that you run out and play these lines at your next tournament :-) Since they were not uncovered by the book generators using 8-piece programs, they're probably more difficult to defend crossboard than the draws that have been previously published. Still it's interesting to know that there are all these ways to draw the Black Hole. After all, it was not until 2002 that this opening was even known to be a draw at all. Before then it was considered to be a loss for black. When I did the first expansion of this in 2001/2002, it took several months of computing. At that time only one drawing line could be found against each of the three primary white attacks. Later on, with stronger programs and 8-piece dbs, 12-16 was added as a second sound defense to white's 25-22, to go along with 7-10. I am quite surprised to find that there are now so many new ways to draw this opening.

-- Ed

[Alex_Moiseyev]

Amazing !

[tommyc]

With all due respect to Ed.Gilbert and Kingsrow its pretty well known this side of the Atlantic that i showed the first draw (after about 12 mths analysis) in The Black Hole not in 2002 but a year before in 01 with some assistance from the great Mail player Tom Sheehan who added the finishing touch. (See irishdraughts.org)This was in the 5-9 defence as the 811 and 710 lines didnt look like they would stand up back then, the 5-9 defence was the first known draw line no matter what Brian Hinkle may think!!
Wcc has actually improved my play on this line since.

Regardless of that im glad now the 811 and 710 lines have been proven to draw also by Ed. Gilbert. I just thought i would correct this fact!!
Tommy Canning.