Automate Chess Setups

Hello everyone, in this thread im gonna show some setups and explain their pros and cons. Keep in mind that i am have only 1900+ rating points in Automate so my evaluations can be incorrect.

1. Cavalry

This is a popular strat that rely on knights only. It consists of 8 pawns and 9 knights almost all the time and looks like this:

Pros:

1. It wins against medium setups quite often
2. It hasn't any weak squares to exploit (for example: opponent can't put 2 rooks to focus weak pawn)
3. Have 8 pawns so you can "skip" 2 turns and watch what your opponent wants to play

Cons:

1. Losing to strong setups

If you want to play this: place pawns on 3rd rank and only then on the 2nd rank so your setup will be consealed as long as possible.

If you want to counter this: pick bishops for you setup, at least 4 of them or 4 rooks with a good placement, place your king as far as possible so knights cannot reach him easily.

Here is an example game:

2. Conclave

This is a strategy of bishops, number of bishops can vary from 6 to 9 amount.

Setup can include:

1. 6 bishops + queen + rook + 6 pawns
2. 7 bishops + queen + 7 pawns
3. 9 bishops + 8 pawns

Setup with 6 bishops is one of the most powerful in the game. Setup looks like this:

Pros:

1. Very strong setup, one of the strongest so far, winning almost everything
2. Safe king

Cons:

1. Can be defeated with 4 rooks on the same open files as bishops, not sure.
2. Easy to spot that you are trying to play this setup (4-6 pawns already showing your setup clearly to your opponent)

If you want to play this: Place bishops carefully so they will not be attacked by a bunch of rooks right from the start.

If you want to counter this: Place your king on a diagonal which is not occupied by enemy bishops, so it will not be targeted right from the start. Try to place rook battery on open file or use 3 bishops of the same color.

Game example:

3. Flex setup

Fun setup, because you can exploit weak spots, vary pieces and their places. Interesting to play.

Can contain:

4 rooks + queen + 2 bishops + 6 pawns
3 rooks + queen + 3 bishops + 7 pawns
2 rooks + queen + 4 bishops + 8 pawns
Standard variation:

Pros:

1. Decent chance to win against medium setups
2. Flexible, you can vary your set of pieces, for example: if you don't understand what your opponent wants to play, you can "skip" turn with 7th pawn or even with 8th.
3. Flexible king position, you can place your king on b2 or g2, you can use it to place king on safest side of the board.

Cons:

1. Conclave destroys most of the variations of this setup
2. 2 weak pawns in the center can be exploited by opponent
3. Can be dangerous to place rooks on open files if you have black pieces

If you want to play this: Place your king on safest side, place 2 bishops first, so you can replace rooks in future if needed or put them to defend weak pawns.

If you want to counter this: Strats with big amount of minor pieces can win sometimes, target weak pawns, be careful with usage of "a" and "h" files as they will be occupied with opponents rooks.

Game example:

That's all for now, if you have any questions, suggestions or new setups, please write in this thread or reach me out in private. I hope this setups will help. This is a duplicate from https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/automate-chess-setups. Here you can find current meta analysis.

what about a setup like pawns on a2,a3,b2,b3,c3,f3,g3,g2,h3,h2(place h/a and c/f file pawns at start), bishops on g1,b1, maybe on f2 and/or c2 is opponent has an exploitable weakness, rooks down the middle 2 files and king on h1 or a1? you attack everything sniper and pawns are self sustaining

In my mind it looks somewhat like this.

Idea is nice:

1. flex king position
2. flex pieces and their placement
3. 10 pawns to 'skip' turns

But there is one big disadvantage - less pieces. You spend 4 more points on pawns than minimal amount, so you will have 1 piece less than your opponent. From my experience it is extremely bad as in hands of stockfish piece is much better than 3-4 pawns almost in all scenarious.

Forgot to citate your message.

no queen

d2 rook unnecessary

g1 and b1 bishops

but like you can add a d2 rook for added pressure if you want

also f2 and c2 also unnecesary

basically back rank pieces are set, and 2nd rank pieces can adapt

hmm it is not allowing me to input a position

here is the fen string with white, king can be in either position, 2nd rank pieces can be changed and are unnecesary

8/8/8/8/8/PPP2PPP/PPBRRBPP/KB1RR1BK w - - 0 1

what?

how?

also i meant no c3 and f3 pawns but realized b2 and g2 would be weak

also i used to do something like flex setup but like..

8/8/8/8/8/1PPPPPP1/RPQPPKPR/RN4NR w - - 0 1

so like the same point but also i kinda forgot exact

i also had knights setup, bishop setup, a setup which won a rook because my opponent, and a queen setup where i got mated in 1

I saw something similar from 2000+ player, so maybe it is viable, but since it was played against weak setup it is hard to tell.

Link: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/automate-chess-setups?page=2

Here at the bottom a current meta analysis, you will see that basically every high rated game is a conclave with attempts to counter it.

so 6 bishop conclave, if opp does conclave, after some(how many?) bishops place rooks

got it, will try, am 1550 ish

There is a few ways:

1. Usually you can counter right after you understand that this is a conclave. After a 6 pawns for example. But then your opponent can switch his strategy to another one and it will be harder to play against.

2. Right after he placed his bishop on open file. For example:

After this position you place rook on a8 and he is not able to switch properly anymore, so will have to create something new

3. After 3 bishops. Position covered in 4th game of meta analysis. My opponent was very smart and waited for me to place pieces before placing bishops on open files. Obviously it is better to wait for opponent to place his bishops on open files to counter them right away, but it is hard to do actually as you need to do something too, you can't skip turns. After 3 bishops it is hard to switch properly as safe squares behind pawns is already occupied, so anything your opponent wants to place most likely will be placed on open files.

4. With white you can just play normal conclave as you have a first turn. But be careful to avoid any counter play as rooks battery.

5. There is also a chance to counter conclave with 3 bishops of the same color + something but i didn't study this much yet. Conclave game example is actually shows this.

so, my most recent game....

pawns, and decided to attack kingside

so g8 and f7

but realized thay could block

plan- h8 and g7 be latest to not give them warning and maybe they put smth on long diag

so did c8, d8, h7, then had 13 points-6= 7 points to spare

decided to do rook +bishup since then d7 and opp might think rook on h8 and h3 will be weak

so my opponent could overprotect h3 unnecesarily

so then e8 and h8 and g7 and queen on b2 meant i won material and won!

check my game to know what piece i placed on the squares i mentioned

https://www.chess.com/automate/1451554

Why people don't like to try something bigger than an 8x8 board?