Could Stockfish win at knight handicap against a GM ?

Discussion of computer chess matches and engine tournaments.

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lkaufman
Posts: 5960
Joined: Sun Jan 10, 2010 6:15 am
Location: Maryland USA

Re: Could Stockfish win at knight handicap against a GM ?

Post by lkaufman »

Ovyron wrote:
lkaufman wrote:The chess.com matches are broadcast on chess.com/tv and Twitch. Some are commented by the players themselves, others by outside commentators.
Thanks, I had no idea about this.

Since this is content that interests me I suggest reuploading those matches with commentary to Youtube, perhaps in chess.com's channel or another one. I doubt I'm the only one enjoying those matches but that had no idea there were twitch streams.
I think chess.com has at least some of these matches available for viewing on demand; I don't know if membership is required. Today we had some unofficial games with my son Raymond (IM) at a variety of handicaps and time limits. He won one blitz game at knight odds, lost all the others. We've gotten most of the bugs out of the automated play, but one remains to be fixed, namely that "ponder" doesn't work yet for automated play.

My general impression from all these handicap games with strong players is that the best handicaps in terms of interesting, normal-looking, and reasonably balanced games are the ones based on the rook for knight exchange, with or without removing the computer's "a" pawn as well. They are relatively easy for the human to play in that all that is required is to head for an endgame, although that is easier said than done. Handicaps built around removing the "f" pawn put a premium on quick attack and on preparation, and are therefore less like normal chess. But knight for pawn is also an interesting handicap.
Komodo rules!