Reactions about AlphaZero from top GMs...

[Albert Silver]

Interesting reactions about AlphaZero from top GMs at the London Chess Classic, and a lengthy comment from Tord Romstad:

https://www.chess.com/news/view/alphaze ... ish-author

link to the video clips from above article:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/207621332

Strange Tord nitpicking on time control issue. That's a bit silly for a 28-0 score. Other thing of Tord and of some GMs are interesting.

I don't think Tord was nitpicking. He just pointed out some facts. But the best was the summary: "Stockfish vs AlphaZero is very much a comparison of apples to orangutans"

I think he was just defensive because Stockfish, his brainchild, was the sacrificial lamb in this announcement and test.

[Eelco de Groot]

I think Tord would have used the same arguments if it had been Komodo, Houdini, Rybka or any other engine on the altar. Stockfish is a further development of Tord's Glaurung but that is no reason to get overly sentimental over being slaughtered (As any scientific experiment has to have a discussion at the end, what the results mean and what could be improved methodologically). Several testfactors could have influenced the tests to an unknown degree if changed, although almost 100 points difference would not be easy to overcome. It is not just about the demonstration of learning, it is about the inherent superiority of their very different approach to tackling artificial chessplaying, and that would have deserved more attention to detail, if possible, given their own timeconstraints for instance.

[Frank Brenner]

Interesting reactions about AlphaZero from top GMs at the London Chess Classic, and a lengthy comment from Tord Romstad:

https://www.chess.com/news/view/alphaze ... ish-author

link to the video clips from above article:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/207621332

Strange Tord nitpicking on time control issue. That's a bit silly for a 28-0 score. Other thing of Tord and of some GMs are interesting.

I don't think Tord was nitpicking. He just pointed out some facts. But the best was the summary: "Stockfish vs AlphaZero is very much a comparison of apples to orangutans"

Why ? Is the first playing Chess (in know for sure that SF plays chess) and the other is playing Othello ?

[shrapnel]

Why ? Is the first playing Chess (in know for sure that SF plays chess) and the other is playing Othello ?

Ignore them. Just frustrated rants by old men seeing their Life's work going down the Drain.
Understandable.

[Eelco de Groot]

Look Anil, this is supposed to be a discussion forum, it's not the TCEC chat, not a freefight match or a Monty Python sketch. Please keep the noise level down a bit. We're just trying to have some fun here. Thank you.

[Nay Lin Tun]

Interesting reactions about AlphaZero from top GMs at the London Chess Classic, and a lengthy comment from Tord Romstad:

https://www.chess.com/news/view/alphaze ... ish-author

link to the video clips from above article:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/207621332

Strange Tord nitpicking on time control issue. That's a bit silly for a 28-0 score. Other thing of Tord and of some GMs are interesting.

That is exactly what I would like to say. Although we dont know exactly how many times AZ got hardware bonus than SF ( Let us say 100 times) but AZ chess skill is at least comparable or superior than Stockfish. A 20 years old chess program fritz 3 on 100 times hardware cant beat current stockfish. ( The only nitpick I would like to blame google is that they used 1GB ram whereas 8GB is standard for mid range PC in the market )

[gbtami]

Interesting reactions about AlphaZero from top GMs at the London Chess Classic, and a lengthy comment from Tord Romstad:

https://www.chess.com/news/view/alphaze ... ish-author

link to the video clips from above article:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/207621332

Strange Tord nitpicking on time control issue. That's a bit silly for a 28-0 score. Other thing of Tord and of some GMs are interesting.

I don't think Tord was nitpicking. He just pointed out some facts. But the best was the summary: "Stockfish vs AlphaZero is very much a comparison of apples to orangutans"

Why ? Is the first playing Chess (in know for sure that SF plays chess) and the other is playing Othello ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-NyH_rKCwE

[Laskos]

Interesting reactions about AlphaZero from top GMs at the London Chess Classic, and a lengthy comment from Tord Romstad:

https://www.chess.com/news/view/alphaze ... ish-author

link to the video clips from above article:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/207621332

Strange Tord nitpicking on time control issue. That's a bit silly for a 28-0 score. Other thing of Tord and of some GMs are interesting.

That is exactly what I would like to say. Although we dont know exactly how many times AZ got hardware bonus than SF ( Let us say 100 times) but AZ chess skill is at least comparable or superior than Stockfish. A 20 years old chess program fritz 3 on 100 times hardware cant beat current stockfish. ( The only nitpick I would like to blame google is that they used 1GB ram whereas 8GB is standard for mid range PC in the market )

Yes, but Tord also said the most important thing, IMO. In maybe 5 years, the times of low budget single brilliant author or 1-2-3 brilliant authors of close to top engines will end. Massive hardware (and budget) will be needed for training the networks, and such giants as Google or whatever have a decisive advantage. Maybe at top will be 2-3 large distributed projects aside from some large companies. Seems a pretty gloomy future.

[corres]

[quote="Eelco de Groot"]
...
It is not just about the demonstration of learning, it is about the inherent superiority of their very different approach to tackling artificial chessplaying, ...
[/quote]

I agree.
The "normal" chess engines can not use effectively a hardware owing much more than 64 cores.
But AlphaZero using a more bigger and more complicated hardware can enhance further not only the Elo number but the playing quality of the chess playing machines.

[corres]

[quote="Eelco de Groot"]

Look Anil, this is supposed to be a discussion forum, it's not the TCEC chat, not a freefight match or a Monty Python sketch. Please keep the noise level down a bit. We're just trying to have some fun here. Thank you.

[/quote]

As if I would have been say....