I guess. as long as white doesn't hang any pawns it seems pretty one sided. I think Lichess has stockfish in Variants, maybe try that.
How can I win the Horde variant as Black?
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Jul 5, 2022
0
#3
Horde is actually imbalanced.but if black gets something on the 1 rank,white is hopeless
black is up a few points of material.
no, horde is legit and you can win it.
It's all about structure and sacrificing in certain patterns. a5 and h5, for example are good, and d6 + e6 for the small center, then develop knights to d7 and e7.
I'm pretty decent at it, got a +9 position against the female world champion once.
Jul 6, 2022
0
#6
I've always thought the exact opposite: that it's nearly impossible to win for White. I's very easy for Black to inflitrate the horde since the horde is broken apart as soon as White makes the first move. Once Black gets to the last two rows with a Queen or Rook, it's game over.
Nerd-Man wrote:
I've always thought the exact opposite: that it's nearly impossible to win for White. I's very easy for Black to inflitrate the horde since the horde is broken apart as soon as White makes the first move. Once Black gets to the last two rows with a Queen or Rook, it's game over.
That's cutting it short a bit.
Black can infiltrate to the backrank, but with accurate play white can still bust black on the other side. The trick is to know when to defend and when to attack - keeping the initiative is often best rather than responding to the opponent's threats. In the end this is all a matter of calculation though.
Here is a pro tip: seek to develop a connect-x pawn chain, and then double it up from below.
So you have one pawn 'ladder' going diagonally up, and then push pawns underneath it so you get two stacked pawn ladders - one for the light squares, one on the dark squares. This combination is one of the strongest pawn structures you will ever see in horde. It makes for lots of maneuvering potential once you reach the upper ranks and it's very hard to defend, especially if white has already sacrificed material.
Lichess has a good engine analysis module for horde.
There are some key squares that determine the entire position.
By the way in the game above 11...Bxg4, fxg4 Qxg4, to Rxh4, to Ne7-Nf5 is already winning.
Jul 9, 2022
0
#8
zone_chess wrote:
Nerd-Man wrote:
I've always thought the exact opposite: that it's nearly impossible to win for White. I's very easy for Black to inflitrate the horde since the horde is broken apart as soon as White makes the first move. Once Black gets to the last two rows with a Queen or Rook, it's game over.
That's cutting it short a bit.
Black can infiltrate to the backrank, but with accurate play white can still bust black on the other side. The trick is to know when to defend and when to attack - keeping the initiative is often best rather than responding to the opponent's threats. In the end this is all a matter of calculation though.
Here is a pro tip: seek to develop a connect-x pawn chain, and then double it up from below.
So you have one pawn 'ladder' going diagonally up, and then push pawns underneath it so you get two stacked pawn ladders - one for the light squares, one on the dark squares. This combination is one of the strongest pawn structures you will ever see in horde. It makes for lots of maneuvering potential once you reach the upper ranks and it's very hard to defend, especially if white has already sacrificed material.
Lichess has a good engine analysis module for horde.
There are some key squares that determine the entire position.
By the way in the game above 11...Bxg4, fxg4 Qxg4, to Rxh4, to Ne7-Nf5 is already winning.
Thanks. I'll try that.
it seems impossible to win the Horde variant as Black. But there must be a way, right?