Stockfish Handicap Matches

[Chessqueen]

Larry, if I want to play against Komodo at rook handicap at chess.com, is it possible ?
There is many skill level for Komodo, but is there many handicap level to play against ?

We could have an accurate rating of Komodo based on any handicap like this.

Which would be a greater Odds or handicap Komodo to give its Queen for my Rook or to take the Knight plus the b2 or c2 pawn from Komodo ? I would also like to play versus Komodo on Wednesday at 7 PM

[lkaufman]

Larry, if I want to play against Komodo at rook handicap at chess.com, is it possible ?
There is many skill level for Komodo, but is there many handicap level to play against ?

We could have an accurate rating of Komodo based on any handicap like this.

Which would be a greater Odds or handicap Komodo to give its Queen for my Rook or to take the Knight plus the b2 or c2 pawn from Komodo ? I would also like to play versus Komodo on Wednesday at 7 PM

Queen for Rook odds is even more than rook odds, because in the opening a queen is better than two rooks, and also because with queen for rook it's like a pair of rooks have already been traded. Rook odds is slightly more than knight plus b2 or c2 pawn. Traditionally the handicap scale went pawn and move (f7), pawn and two moves, pawn and three moves (sometimes omitted), knight, knight and move, rook, rook and move...But the gap between knight and move, and rook odds, is pretty wide, so knight and b2 or c2 is a reasonable step in between. If you or anyone else wants to play Komodo at handicap on chess.com, I need the player's handle on chess.com, real name, any OTB ratings (I can look up chess.com rating), desired handicap, and desired start time. Players can send me ("hissha") a message on chess.com. Once all is agreed, the board will pop up with the handicap removed at the proper time, and the clock will start. I'm thinking 15' + 10" would be reasonable, allowing for several games while still at what appears to be the most standard Rapid time now.

[JJJ]

I think it's a good idea Larry. I m not ready to play handicap match myself yet, but my suggestion was for others to play against Komodo at handicap and get an accurate rating for Komodo

[Chessqueen]

I think it's a good idea Larry. I m not ready to play handicap match myself yet, but my suggestion was for others to play against Komodo at handicap and get an accurate rating for Komodo

I bought this Quad Intel i7 https://www.atmarktrade.com/products/re ... 4358391872 and decided to play versus Komodo three games 1st Knight plus b2 pawn odds, 2nd game with Knight and c2 pawn odds and last game by removing the Rook on a1 from Komodo and I removed my b7 pawn, and I am too ashamed to even post these three games here since I lost all the three games using this cheap refurbished compunter, and NOT to mention it is not even close to your 32 cores

PS: Since I lost those three games using a much weaker system than what you have, I will NOT even try to play, komodo is simply too strong or it is the best program to give odds versus humans and even Jorge Sammour told me that, after he played versus Stockfish and Komodo .

[JJJ]

I really like to see the rating for each handicap. Maybe changing the name for each handicap like : Knomodo for Knight handicap, Rookmodo , Komoshop and so son.

[lkaufman]

I think it's a good idea Larry. I m not ready to play handicap match myself yet, but my suggestion was for others to play against Komodo at handicap and get an accurate rating for Komodo

I bought this Quad Intel i7 https://www.atmarktrade.com/products/re ... 4358391872 and decided to play versus Komodo three games 1st Knight plus b2 pawn odds, 2nd game with Knight and c2 pawn odds and last game by removing the Rook on a1 from Komodo and I removed my b7 pawn, and I am too ashamed to even post these three games here since I lost all the three games using this cheap refurbished compunter, and NOT to mention it is not even close to your 32 cores

PS: Since I lost those three games using a much weaker system than what you have, I will NOT even try to play, komodo is simply too strong or it is the best program to give odds versus humans and even Jorge Sammour told me that, after he played versus Stockfish and Komodo .

I've been playing handicap games myself vs. the top engines and also pairing them in handicap games with "Benjamin" (near 2700 CCRL). In general Komodo does best, with Stockfish NNUE a close second. Regular SF maybe in third place, Lc0 70xxx in fourth place. Since I'm a bit too strong for knight odds in Rapid (maybe knight odds Armageddon where Black must win is fair though) I've been trying to determine the most challenging and interesting handicap for me, and it seems to be "pawn and three moves" (no f7, e4,d4 played, WTM). This is not that far from knight odds, as long as White prepares a bit and plays a few accurate initial moves. I have won from SF and got draws from others, but still lose more often than not. Similarly "Benjamin" (one thread) in bullet (1' + 1") comes out ahead of all the other engines on 7 threads at knight odds and behind at pawn and three moves, but not by big margins in either case. In the 1800s, pawn and 3 moves was not nearly as often played as pawn and 2 moves, probably because players weren't sure that it was less than knight odds so many just skipped that step. With engine analysis I can say that it is in between, but it is closer to knight odds than to pawn and two moves.

[JJJ]

I think it's a good idea Larry. I m not ready to play handicap match myself yet, but my suggestion was for others to play against Komodo at handicap and get an accurate rating for Komodo

I bought this Quad Intel i7 https://www.atmarktrade.com/products/re ... 4358391872 and decided to play versus Komodo three games 1st Knight plus b2 pawn odds, 2nd game with Knight and c2 pawn odds and last game by removing the Rook on a1 from Komodo and I removed my b7 pawn, and I am too ashamed to even post these three games here since I lost all the three games using this cheap refurbished compunter, and NOT to mention it is not even close to your 32 cores

PS: Since I lost those three games using a much weaker system than what you have, I will NOT even try to play, komodo is simply too strong or it is the best program to give odds versus humans and even Jorge Sammour told me that, after he played versus Stockfish and Komodo .

I've been playing handicap games myself vs. the top engines and also pairing them in handicap games with "Benjamin" (near 2700 CCRL). In general Komodo does best, with Stockfish NNUE a close second. Regular SF maybe in third place, Lc0 70xxx in fourth place. Since I'm a bit too strong for knight odds in Rapid (maybe knight odds Armageddon where Black must win is fair though) I've been trying to determine the most challenging and interesting handicap for me, and it seems to be "pawn and three moves" (no f7, e4,d4 played, WTM). This is not that far from knight odds, as long as White prepares a bit and plays a few accurate initial moves. I have won from SF and got draws from others, but still lose more often than not. Similarly "Benjamin" (one thread) in bullet (1' + 1") comes out ahead of all the other engines on 7 threads at knight odds and behind at pawn and three moves, but not by big margins in either case. In the 1800s, pawn and 3 moves was not nearly as often played as pawn and 2 moves, probably because players weren't sure that it was less than knight odds so many just skipped that step. With engine analysis I can say that it is in between, but it is closer to knight odds than to pawn and two moves.

Don't you think Lc0 10XXX is far better than 70xxx for knight handicap ? Did you test that ? I was thinking Lc0 10xxx best net like 11248 or 11258 would be better than even Komodo at knight handicap.

[lkaufman]

I think it's a good idea Larry. I m not ready to play handicap match myself yet, but my suggestion was for others to play against Komodo at handicap and get an accurate rating for Komodo

I bought this Quad Intel i7 https://www.atmarktrade.com/products/re ... 4358391872 and decided to play versus Komodo three games 1st Knight plus b2 pawn odds, 2nd game with Knight and c2 pawn odds and last game by removing the Rook on a1 from Komodo and I removed my b7 pawn, and I am too ashamed to even post these three games here since I lost all the three games using this cheap refurbished compunter, and NOT to mention it is not even close to your 32 cores

PS: Since I lost those three games using a much weaker system than what you have, I will NOT even try to play, komodo is simply too strong or it is the best program to give odds versus humans and even Jorge Sammour told me that, after he played versus Stockfish and Komodo .

I've been playing handicap games myself vs. the top engines and also pairing them in handicap games with "Benjamin" (near 2700 CCRL). In general Komodo does best, with Stockfish NNUE a close second. Regular SF maybe in third place, Lc0 70xxx in fourth place. Since I'm a bit too strong for knight odds in Rapid (maybe knight odds Armageddon where Black must win is fair though) I've been trying to determine the most challenging and interesting handicap for me, and it seems to be "pawn and three moves" (no f7, e4,d4 played, WTM). This is not that far from knight odds, as long as White prepares a bit and plays a few accurate initial moves. I have won from SF and got draws from others, but still lose more often than not. Similarly "Benjamin" (one thread) in bullet (1' + 1") comes out ahead of all the other engines on 7 threads at knight odds and behind at pawn and three moves, but not by big margins in either case. In the 1800s, pawn and 3 moves was not nearly as often played as pawn and 2 moves, probably because players weren't sure that it was less than knight odds so many just skipped that step. With engine analysis I can say that it is in between, but it is closer to knight odds than to pawn and two moves.

Don't you think Lc0 10XXX is far better than 70xxx for knight handicap ? Did you test that ? I was thinking Lc0 10xxx best net like 11248 or 11258 would be better than even Komodo at knight handicap.

Well, 11248/58 are trickier nets, they play more wild moves like g4 and such, so perhaps better vs. humans. But the 70xxx nets play handicap chess correctly, that is they show sensible evals and PVs and don't blunder, unlike the 20x thru 60x nets. Maybe I'll try comparative runs vs. Benjamin at knight odds to see. There is a difference between computers and humans though; it seems that Komodo mcts is better than standard Komodo at giving knight odds to humans, but worse at giving it to engines.

[JJJ]

I think it's a good idea Larry. I m not ready to play handicap match myself yet, but my suggestion was for others to play against Komodo at handicap and get an accurate rating for Komodo

I bought this Quad Intel i7 https://www.atmarktrade.com/products/re ... 4358391872 and decided to play versus Komodo three games 1st Knight plus b2 pawn odds, 2nd game with Knight and c2 pawn odds and last game by removing the Rook on a1 from Komodo and I removed my b7 pawn, and I am too ashamed to even post these three games here since I lost all the three games using this cheap refurbished compunter, and NOT to mention it is not even close to your 32 cores

PS: Since I lost those three games using a much weaker system than what you have, I will NOT even try to play, komodo is simply too strong or it is the best program to give odds versus humans and even Jorge Sammour told me that, after he played versus Stockfish and Komodo .

I've been playing handicap games myself vs. the top engines and also pairing them in handicap games with "Benjamin" (near 2700 CCRL). In general Komodo does best, with Stockfish NNUE a close second. Regular SF maybe in third place, Lc0 70xxx in fourth place. Since I'm a bit too strong for knight odds in Rapid (maybe knight odds Armageddon where Black must win is fair though) I've been trying to determine the most challenging and interesting handicap for me, and it seems to be "pawn and three moves" (no f7, e4,d4 played, WTM). This is not that far from knight odds, as long as White prepares a bit and plays a few accurate initial moves. I have won from SF and got draws from others, but still lose more often than not. Similarly "Benjamin" (one thread) in bullet (1' + 1") comes out ahead of all the other engines on 7 threads at knight odds and behind at pawn and three moves, but not by big margins in either case. In the 1800s, pawn and 3 moves was not nearly as often played as pawn and 2 moves, probably because players weren't sure that it was less than knight odds so many just skipped that step. With engine analysis I can say that it is in between, but it is closer to knight odds than to pawn and two moves.

Don't you think Lc0 10XXX is far better than 70xxx for knight handicap ? Did you test that ? I was thinking Lc0 10xxx best net like 11248 or 11258 would be better than even Komodo at knight handicap.

Well, 11248/58 are trickier nets, they play more wild moves like g4 and such, so perhaps better vs. humans. But the 70xxx nets play handicap chess correctly, that is they show sensible evals and PVs and don't blunder, unlike the 20x thru 60x nets. Maybe I'll try comparative runs vs. Benjamin at knight odds to see. There is a difference between computers and humans though; it seems that Komodo mcts is better than standard Komodo at giving knight odds to humans, but worse at giving it to engines.

Let me know about your test. Knight handicap matters only against human to me, not against computer. That's why I m surprised you said Komodo mcts is better than lc0 at knight handicap.

[lkaufman]

I think it's a good idea Larry. I m not ready to play handicap match myself yet, but my suggestion was for others to play against Komodo at handicap and get an accurate rating for Komodo

I bought this Quad Intel i7 https://www.atmarktrade.com/products/re ... 4358391872 and decided to play versus Komodo three games 1st Knight plus b2 pawn odds, 2nd game with Knight and c2 pawn odds and last game by removing the Rook on a1 from Komodo and I removed my b7 pawn, and I am too ashamed to even post these three games here since I lost all the three games using this cheap refurbished compunter, and NOT to mention it is not even close to your 32 cores

PS: Since I lost those three games using a much weaker system than what you have, I will NOT even try to play, komodo is simply too strong or it is the best program to give odds versus humans and even Jorge Sammour told me that, after he played versus Stockfish and Komodo .

I've been playing handicap games myself vs. the top engines and also pairing them in handicap games with "Benjamin" (near 2700 CCRL). In general Komodo does best, with Stockfish NNUE a close second. Regular SF maybe in third place, Lc0 70xxx in fourth place. Since I'm a bit too strong for knight odds in Rapid (maybe knight odds Armageddon where Black must win is fair though) I've been trying to determine the most challenging and interesting handicap for me, and it seems to be "pawn and three moves" (no f7, e4,d4 played, WTM). This is not that far from knight odds, as long as White prepares a bit and plays a few accurate initial moves. I have won from SF and got draws from others, but still lose more often than not. Similarly "Benjamin" (one thread) in bullet (1' + 1") comes out ahead of all the other engines on 7 threads at knight odds and behind at pawn and three moves, but not by big margins in either case. In the 1800s, pawn and 3 moves was not nearly as often played as pawn and 2 moves, probably because players weren't sure that it was less than knight odds so many just skipped that step. With engine analysis I can say that it is in between, but it is closer to knight odds than to pawn and two moves.

Don't you think Lc0 10XXX is far better than 70xxx for knight handicap ? Did you test that ? I was thinking Lc0 10xxx best net like 11248 or 11258 would be better than even Komodo at knight handicap.

Well, 11248/58 are trickier nets, they play more wild moves like g4 and such, so perhaps better vs. humans. But the 70xxx nets play handicap chess correctly, that is they show sensible evals and PVs and don't blunder, unlike the 20x thru 60x nets. Maybe I'll try comparative runs vs. Benjamin at knight odds to see. There is a difference between computers and humans though; it seems that Komodo mcts is better than standard Komodo at giving knight odds to humans, but worse at giving it to engines.

Let me know about your test. Knight handicap matters only against human to me, not against computer. That's why I m surprised you said Komodo mcts is better than lc0 at knight handicap.

Knight handicap is only important vs. humans, but the only way to test it and get decent samples under identical conditions is against weaker engines rated somewhere near the humans. My results (20 game runs at 1' + 1", 7 threads (or 2080 GPU) for White giving knight odds, 1 thread for Benjamin with the extra knight) were Lc0-11248 lost by 268 elo, Lc0-703747 lost by 210 elo, Stockfish (July 6, max Contempt) lost by 70 elo, StockfishNN2 (NNUE) lost by 53 elo, Komodo (latest dev, Standard, Contempt 100) lost by 35 elo, and same Komodo with Contempt 75 actually won by 35 elo, the first match victory over Benjamin at knight odds.