Komodo vs. Larry K on chess.com

[lkaufman]

This Wednesday (Aug 28) at 5 pm Eastern time on chess.com, I'll take on Komodo myself, for the first time in a publicly announced match. Since chess 960 (FRC) is about to be showcased in St. Louis in a few days, with matches including Caruana vs Kasparov, I thought I should make this a 960 match, at knight odds. As with the 960 games played by my son Raymond, the kings and rooks will all be on normal squares so we don't need to use special 960 software, which would not allow for removal of the knight. So it's normal chess castling rules but with 960 start positions. There are 18 such positions common to normal chess and 960. In order to follow the usual custom of removing a b1 knight, there needs to be a b1 knight to remove, which leaves 7 eligible positions (excluding normal knight odds) with b1 knight removed. Of these seven positions, based on a 30" analysis by Komodo, three have evals around 3.50 in black's favor or more, while the other four are in the 3.1 to 3.2 range. In order to maximimize the challenge, I'll take on these four most difficult positions, which include the two my son played unsuccessfully. But I'll increase the time limit to the one used in the World Rapid Championship, namely 15' + 10". So far no human has scored even a draw in six tries against Komodo at knight odds chess 960 (the two by Ray at 10' + 5", and four by FM John Meyer at 45' + 15"), so I have no illusion that it will be easy. The evals are not as overwhelming as with normal knight odds, and the positions will be strange and unfamiliar. But I do know more than most strong players about how to play against engines, especially with handicaps, and the time limit is enough for my slowness with mouse and other age-related issues to be only small factors, so perhaps I have some chances. Look for games of "playkomodo" vs "Hissha" (that's me).

[JJJ]

Nice Larry

[Marcus9]

Thank you larry, we love what you do for the computer chess community

[MikeB]

This Wednesday (Aug 28) at 5 pm Eastern time on chess.com, I'll take on Komodo myself, for the first time in a publicly announced match. Since chess 960 (FRC) is about to be showcased in St. Louis in a few days, with matches including Caruana vs Kasparov, I thought I should make this a 960 match, at knight odds. As with the 960 games played by my son Raymond, the kings and rooks will all be on normal squares so we don't need to use special 960 software, which would not allow for removal of the knight. So it's normal chess castling rules but with 960 start positions. There are 18 such positions common to normal chess and 960. In order to follow the usual custom of removing a b1 knight, there needs to be a b1 knight to remove, which leaves 7 eligible positions (excluding normal knight odds) with b1 knight removed. Of these seven positions, based on a 30" analysis by Komodo, three have evals around 3.50 in black's favor or more, while the other four are in the 3.1 to 3.2 range. In order to maximimize the challenge, I'll take on these four most difficult positions, which include the two my son played unsuccessfully. But I'll increase the time limit to the one used in the World Rapid Championship, namely 15' + 10". So far no human has scored even a draw in six tries against Komodo at knight odds chess 960 (the two by Ray at 10' + 5", and four by FM John Meyer at 45' + 15"), so I have no illusion that it will be easy. The evals are not as overwhelming as with normal knight odds, and the positions will be strange and unfamiliar. But I do know more than most strong players about how to play against engines, especially with handicaps, and the time limit is enough for my slowness with mouse and other age-related issues to be only small factors, so perhaps I have some chances. Look for games of "playkomodo" vs "Hissha" (that's me).

+1 Good Luck ! ... you'll need it ..

[lkaufman]

This Wednesday (Aug 28) at 5 pm Eastern time on chess.com, I'll take on Komodo myself, for the first time in a publicly announced match. Since chess 960 (FRC) is about to be showcased in St. Louis in a few days, with matches including Caruana vs Kasparov, I thought I should make this a 960 match, at knight odds. As with the 960 games played by my son Raymond, the kings and rooks will all be on normal squares so we don't need to use special 960 software, which would not allow for removal of the knight. So it's normal chess castling rules but with 960 start positions. There are 18 such positions common to normal chess and 960. In order to follow the usual custom of removing a b1 knight, there needs to be a b1 knight to remove, which leaves 7 eligible positions (excluding normal knight odds) with b1 knight removed. Of these seven positions, based on a 30" analysis by Komodo, three have evals around 3.50 in black's favor or more, while the other four are in the 3.1 to 3.2 range. In order to maximimize the challenge, I'll take on these four most difficult positions, which include the two my son played unsuccessfully. But I'll increase the time limit to the one used in the World Rapid Championship, namely 15' + 10". So far no human has scored even a draw in six tries against Komodo at knight odds chess 960 (the two by Ray at 10' + 5", and four by FM John Meyer at 45' + 15"), so I have no illusion that it will be easy. The evals are not as overwhelming as with normal knight odds, and the positions will be strange and unfamiliar. But I do know more than most strong players about how to play against engines, especially with handicaps, and the time limit is enough for my slowness with mouse and other age-related issues to be only small factors, so perhaps I have some chances. Look for games of "playkomodo" vs "Hissha" (that's me).

+1 Good Luck ! ... you'll need it ..

Better skill would be even better than good luck! Seriously, 52 years ago, when I was able to give queen odds to the world's strongest engine (MacHack), I could not imagine that any engine would ever reach my level, let alone reach the level of giving me knight odds! I may not even be a weaker player now than I was then, although I was certainly stronger in between then and now.

[rcmaddox]

No way I'm missing this!

[Ovyron]

Is there any chance to get video coverage about the event?

To see what I mean, compare this video where the person (GM Andrew Tang) that plays the engine (Leela Chess Zero) provides commentary and streams the match live on twitch (this is a Youtube archive):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBQLF2YVavI

And then this video where at the same time, ChessNetwork is providing live coverage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqYAy-l1c6g

So in April 2018 we had options to watch live coverage of Human vs. Engine matches from the player's POV or from a third-party covering the event (I watched both videos in full) but one year later we can't get anything similar for Komodo?

It's like these matches are being organized back in 2012 (instead of 2019) when all these broadcasting technologies weren't available, and one has to have some account in some website to follow someone to see the moves or something...

[lkaufman]

Is there any chance to get video coverage about the event?

To see what I mean, compare this video where the person (GM Andrew Tang) that plays the engine (Leela Chess Zero) provides commentary and streams the match live on twitch (this is a Youtube archive):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBQLF2YVavI

And then this video where at the same time, ChessNetwork is providing live coverage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqYAy-l1c6g

So in April 2018 we had options to watch live coverage of Human vs. Engine matches from the player's POV or from a third-party covering the event (I watched both videos in full) but one year later we can't get anything similar for Komodo?

It's like these matches are being organized back in 2012 (instead of 2019) when all these broadcasting technologies weren't available, and one has to have some account in some website to follow someone to see the moves or something...

For official chess.com events, there is normally a twitch tv broadcast. But this is not an official chess.com event, it is just being played on chess.com. Although I stay up to date regarding chess and computer chess, I'm still living in the stone age with regard to lots of today's social media etc., I don't know how to do this stuff myself.

[lkaufman]

starting in a couple minutes

[AdminX]

Link Please.