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I am exploring a semi-novel idea in the London system, where I play 2...b5!? after 1. d4 Nf6 2. Bf4

A main line goes 3.Nf3 Bb7 4.e3 and now:

4...a6 5.Bd3 e6 or Nh5 4...a6 5.c4 bxc4/b4 4...b4 5.Bd3 e6/Nh5/c5 4...b4 5. a3 a5

The order in which White plays Nf3 and e3 is interchangeable.

2...b5 is worth exploring, and would be interesting to see outside of blitz games at the top level. White may finally start to get out of their comfort zone with a non-standard pawn structure and black activity.

Based off of Caruana vs Vachier-Lagrave 2018 1/2-1/2, (blitz)

Where White may decide to go on autopilot with the standard Nbd2, h3, 0-0. However, I believe that black's option to either attack the queenside or preserve the LSB is a powerful counter to the London's boredom.

As with any rare line, there is a lack of games and they are not exactly uniform. To simulate new games (let's say 100), I propose letting two engines play each other from the starting position after the second move. Local computer would probably explode if I tried to do this, which is why I am asking if it can be done on the cloud. What would be the best way to do this?

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    "Local computer would probably explode if I tried to do this..." why? Modern chess engines are quite powerful. Are you trying to run all 100 in parallel? That might be difficult, but there are chess utilities that can organize games between engines so that you can play, say, 8 games in parallel. I regularly use this method to improve my chess engine. You can even save the PGNs and review them later. Jun 7, 2022 at 18:20
  • @ChristianDean Running 8 games in parallel would suffice. I am just trying to generate more games for an idea, and am controlling for players. What would the chess utilities be?
    – DdogBoss
    Jun 7, 2022 at 19:06
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    it's called cutechess. Go here to download the installer. You can either use the GUI to run 8 games in parallel, which would be more costly. Or what I recommend is finding the folder where cutechess was installed, and using cutechess-cli, the command line program instead. See here for the details on how to use. Let me know if you have any questions. Jun 7, 2022 at 19:12
  • @ChristianDean Is there a way to run cutechess in the background? Making this sample size is going to take time.
    – DdogBoss
    Jun 7, 2022 at 21:53
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    Absolutely. Just open up a command-line/terminal instance and let cutechess chug away while you do other work. No maintenance is required. I do this all the time when testing patches to my engine, letting it regularly run several thousand games over several hours while I go about my day; even overnight sometimes. Do note though that depending on your computer specs playing that many games simultaneously, with a large hash can run your hardware quite hard. Jun 7, 2022 at 23:47

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From the comments, you can use cutechess to arrange matches between engines.

For the line of play you described (1.d4 Nf6 2. Bf4 b5) Stockfish 15.1 models 70 wins, 929 draws and 1 loss.

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