Komodo vs Hikaru

[lkaufman]

Tomorrow (Sunday) at 1 pm Eastern Time, chess.com will host a match between Komodo and GM Hikaru Nakamura, the number 2 blitz player in the world and formerly number 2 at standard chess. It is actually two separate matches. The first is a twenty game blitz series (five minutes plus 5 seconds) in which Hikaru will play levels 1 thru 20 while talking about the games live. Of course, he will win almost all of these games other than level 20, which is Komodo at full strength but on only one thread. These games are with normal Komodo version. Then, he will play three handicap games at 10' + 5" against the latest dev. version of Komodo MCTS, running on my overclocked 16 core i9 machine. The 12 thread limit has been raised to 15 so the machine will be fully utilized (leaving one thread for internet, operating system, etc.). The three handicaps are "pawn and two moves" (meaning f7 removed, White gets to play 1e4 and still move first), "knight f7" (meaning the f7 pawn is replaced by a third knight, human playing Black), and "Knightmare" (Komodo as White has 7 knights in place of the seven non-king pieces, Black normal but removes both knights). That one is rather weird and just for entertainment value; I think it is slightly less than knight odds would be.

Predictions?

[Nordlandia]

Will follow tomorrow

Is this «Knightmare» staring position?

[lkaufman]

Will follow tomorrow

Is this «Knightmare» staring position?

Yes.

[JJJ]

it might be 3 draws ! I would be surprised to see naka win some games on these handicap matches, unless he prepares well.

[Nordlandia]

Much appreciated for choosing "f7 knight".

Is more than 32-piece setup, i.e. ( 10 pawns for human player) feasible odds condition?

I know Komodo support such in cutechess gui, albeit not primarily designed for playing with more than standard 32-men.

[JJJ]

Yeah, the f7 knight was one of my idea I suggested some times ago.

[Nordlandia]

Human player is white.

[lkaufman]

Much appreciated for choosing "f7 knight".

Is more than 32-piece setup, i.e. ( 10 pawns for human player) feasible odds condition?

I know Komodo support such in cutechess gui, albeit not primarily designed for playing with more than standard 32-men.

I suppose it might work, but I wouldn't be able to predict whether it would cause weird play. In general, I try to keep these games as close to normal as practical, although obviously I made an exception with with Knightmare at the request of chess.com. I don't see any advantage in having more than 32 men on the board.

[mjlef]

Human player is white.

[Nordlandia]

In my view i don't mind somewhat offbeat setups for odds matches. "Change rejoices"

Komodo doesn't play weird when using more than 32-pieces. K defated SF quite easily in this 4+4 blitz game with extra a and h pawns.

https://lichess.org/xeszrUsQ