Monday 19 July 2010

Rybka v Stockfish

Unlike matches (or tournaments) involving human players, matches between the top computer programs are pretty easy to organise. Instead of appearance fees, accommodation and travel costs, all you need is a couple of computers and the programs themselves.
At the moment two of the worlds best programs, Rybka and Stockfish are battling out in a 48 game match. You can even watch it in real time at the match website. After 40 games Rybka has a convincing (and match winning) lead 24.5-15.5, although the match is being played to the finish.
As with most computer v computer matches the chess is fairly dry, with errors being rare. One of the more interesting games occurred early in the match, with Stockfish beating Rybka for the first time (after having lost the previous 3 games). The key moment came at move 20, when Stockfish planted the knight on e5. After that Rybka's position got steadily worse, with White being up a rook when Black finally resigned.

Stockfish 1.8 - Rybka 4 [A60]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5 Bd6 5.Nc3 exd5 6.cxd5 0-0 7.e4 Re8 8.Bd3 c4 9.Bxc4 Nxe4 10.0-0 Nxc3 11.bxc3 Na6N [RR 11...Qc7 12.Qd3 Bf4 13.Bxf4 Qxf4 14.Rfe1 Rf8 15.Re4 Qf6 16.Rae1 b5 17.Bxb5 Na6 18.Re8 Bb7 19.Rxa8 Rxa8 20.Bxd7 Nc5 21.Qb5 Qxc3 22.Bc8 g5 23.Bxb7 Rb8 24.Re8+ Rxe8 25.Qxe8+ Kg7 26.Bc6 Bobula,M (2423)-Shrentzel,I (2228)/Warsaw POL 2007/The Week in Chess 684/1-0 (33)] 12.Bd3 h6 13.Qc2 b6 14.Bb2 Bb7 15.c4 Rc8 16.Bh7+ Kh8 17.Bf5 Kg8 18.Qc3 Bf8 19.Rad1 Nc5 (D)
20.Ne5 Qe7 21.Qh3 Qf6 22.Rde1 b5 23.Bc3 b4 24.Ba1 Rxe5 25.Bxe5 Qa6 26.Qg4 Na4 27.Bd3 Nc5 28.Bc2 Ne6 29.dxe6 dxe6 30.Bd3 Bc6 31.Re3 Be8 32.Rg3 g6 33.Qh4 1-0


Thanks to Milan Ninchich for information on this match.

2 comments:

TrueFiendish said...

It's now 26-16. Stockfish was going okay for a bit but hasn't won since game 27.

Anonymous said...

I prefer to watch humans play...:-)