Komodo 12.2 Announcement

[lkaufman]

Komodo 12.2 has been released at komodochess.com. As usual it is free for subscribers and discounted 20% for purchasers of Komodo 11 or higher. It includes both the normal and MCTS versions. This is a rather major release, for several reasons.

The strength of the MCTS version is vastly improved, up around 200 elo points at blitz levels, perhaps 150 at much longer time controls. Our predicted ratings for it on the CCRL 40/4 scale are 3320 on 1 thread, 3350 on 2, and 3380 on 4 threads. We now believe that the MCTS version is stronger than the normal one when both are using MultiPV = 3 or more, and would rank in the top five independent engines if substituted for normal Komodo.

The low thread limit for MCTS is gone, we believe it can benefit from up to 64 threads, although this has not yet been proven beyond 30 threads.
The many-years old slow startup of Komodo on big machines with big hash tables is solved! Also Komodo is now able to make better use of big hardware with more than one “NUMA Node”. These are important for major tournaments like CCC and TCEC, and most people with 12 or more cores should see some benefits.

The playing strength of normal Komodo has been improved about 10 elo on four threads at blitz time controls, somewhat less on single thread. In general MP play has been improved noticeably since last (12.1.1) release.
Several minor bugs have been fixed.

We are considering splitting normal and MCTS Komodo into two separate engines in the future, but if so subscribers will be eligible to receive both. As to whether the MCTS version will surpass the normal one and become our main (or even only) version, only time will tell. Now that the gap is down to about 100 elo, it is at least a realistic possibility.

[mbabigian]

Larry, in your opinion, which version scales best with time and which with cores?

Mike

[mjlef]

Komodo 12.2 has been released at komodochess.com. As usual it is free for subscribers and discounted 20% for purchasers of Komodo 11 or higher. It includes both the normal and MCTS versions. This is a rather major release, for several reasons.

I should add that Komodo 12.2 also supports up to 128 cores/threads.

[lkaufman]

Larry, in your opinion, which version scales best with time and which with cores?

Mike

The normal version still scales better with cores, although the MCTS is not bad in this respect. With time it's not clear which scales better, except that MCTS won't work properly at speeds much faster than bullet chess.

[menniepals]

Larry, when is the Android version coming out?

[lkaufman]

Jeremy Bernstein makes the Android versions for us, it's just a question of when he can find the time to do it.

[Guenther]

We are considering splitting normal and MCTS Komodo into two separate engines in the future, but if so subscribers will be eligible to receive both. As to whether the MCTS version will surpass the normal one and become our main (or even only) version, only time will tell. Now that the gap is down to about 100 elo, it is at least a realistic possibility.

Is the version number for the MCTS version currently the same as for the normal version?
I am asking for the entries in my XB/UCI chronology.

[Graham Banks]

Thanks Larry and Mark.

Interesting developments!

[Joerg Oster]

Komodo 12.2 has been released at komodochess.com. As usual it is free for subscribers and discounted 20% for purchasers of Komodo 11 or higher. It includes both the normal and MCTS versions. This is a rather major release, for several reasons.

The strength of the MCTS version is vastly improved, up around 200 elo points at blitz levels, perhaps 150 at much longer time controls. Our predicted ratings for it on the CCRL 40/4 scale are 3320 on 1 thread, 3350 on 2, and 3380 on 4 threads. We now believe that the MCTS version is stronger than the normal one when both are using MultiPV = 3 or more, and would rank in the top five independent engines if substituted for normal Komodo.

The low thread limit for MCTS is gone, we believe it can benefit from up to 64 threads, although this has not yet been proven beyond 30 threads.
The many-years old slow startup of Komodo on big machines with big hash tables is solved! Also Komodo is now able to make better use of big hardware with more than one “NUMA Node”. These are important for major tournaments like CCC and TCEC, and most people with 12 or more cores should see some benefits.

The playing strength of normal Komodo has been improved about 10 elo on four threads at blitz time controls, somewhat less on single thread. In general MP play has been improved noticeably since last (12.1.1) release.
Several minor bugs have been fixed.

We are considering splitting normal and MCTS Komodo into two separate engines in the future, but if so subscribers will be eligible to receive both. As to whether the MCTS version will surpass the normal one and become our main (or even only) version, only time will tell. Now that the gap is down to about 100 elo, it is at least a realistic possibility.

Thank you for this new version.

However, there seems to be a problem/bug with the displayed score in the MCTS version when outputting the final info line after the search stops.
Didn't check the A/B version.

Example 1

Code: Select all

info depth 22 seldepth 29 time 58059 score cp -112 nodes 34122 nps 587 pv f1f4 c6a4 f4g4 e7f6 f5h5 f8f7 g4g6 e4g5 h5h7 g5h7 g6f7 b7f7 b3f7 c3b2 b1b2 a4c6 d4f6 h7f6 g2g3 g7g5 b2c1
info nodes 35333
info depth 22 seldepth 29 time 60001 nodes 35333 nps 588 score cp -28
bestmove f1f4 ponder c6a4

Example 2

Code: Select all

info depth 22 seldepth 16 time 58044 score cp 992 nodes 34904 nps 601 pv g2g7 f7e8 d6e7
info nodes 36421
info depth 22 seldepth 16 time 60001 nodes 36421 nps 607 score cp 45
bestmove g2g7 ponder f7e8

Please note the difference in the final score compared to the former info line.

Komodo MCTS was running in a terminal under Linux, 1024 MB MCTS Hash, MCTS Explore set to 12, 1 min per position.
It also happens after a 'go infinite' and 'stop'.

[mjlef]

We are considering splitting normal and MCTS Komodo into two separate engines in the future, but if so subscribers will be eligible to receive both. As to whether the MCTS version will surpass the normal one and become our main (or even only) version, only time will tell. Now that the gap is down to about 100 elo, it is at least a realistic possibility.

Is the version number for the MCTS version currently the same as for the normal version?
I am asking for the entries in my XB/UCI chronology.

Yes. Right now there is only one Komodo executable file, so just one version number. To search using MCTS, set/check the "Use MCTS" UCI option. If it is off them it searches regularly.