Since Rybka 232a is still the undisputed number one engine, the announcement of an upgraded and significantly stronger version, with a long list of improvements and speculative Elo increase, has led to a lot of questions on how much is hype and how much is reality.
I don't have the final answer to this, but do believe what I know and have seen is close to the truth of it.
The first thing I did, after reading the touted tactical and kingside attack improvements, was to run it through some positions. I chose Michael Gurevich's 40 position suite, with a dozen king attack positions which had at least 3 positions that had completely stumped Rybka 232a on my rig, a modest Athlon64 2.2GHz with 512MB hash.
The result was impressive: Rybka 3 32-bit solved every single one of them and only once took as long as 4 minutes. The solution times varied from 2 times faster than Rybka 232a, to more than 10 times. I also checked to see if the 64-bit version still offered its known speedups, and the results showed a consistent 37% speedup on my rig. Note that I have been told that on machines with faster memory and the like, the speedup may even be greater, but know that 37% is what can be expected at the very least. Here are a couple of examples:
MGV34-K
12: SOLOVJOV - Lugovoj, St. Petersburg 2005
[D]1rb1qrk1/ppn1p1b1/3p3p/2pP2p1/4P1nQ/P1N2N1P/1PPBB1P1/R4RK1 w - - 0 1
Analysis by Rybka 232a: Not found in 20 mins
Analysis by Rybka 3 32-bit :
1.Qg3 Nf6 2.Qe1 Nd7 3.Rd1 Qg6 4.Bd3 Ne5 5.Nxe5
= (0.20) Depth: 12 00:00:25 694kN
1.Qg3 Nf6 2.Qe1 Nd7 3.Bd3 Ne5 4.Nxe5 Rxf1+ 5.Qxf1 Bxe5 6.Qf3 Qf7
= (0.21) Depth: 13 00:00:40 1123kN
1.Qg3 Nf6 2.Bd3 Nh5 3.Qe1 Nf4 4.Bxf4 Rxf4 5.a4 Bd7 6.Ne2 Rf8 7.Qa5
= (0.17) Depth: 14 00:01:26 2424kN
1.Qg3 Nf6 2.Bd3 Nh5 3.Qe1 Nf4 4.Bxf4 Rxf4 5.e5 c4 6.Be4 Nb5 7.Qe3 Nxc3 8.bxc3 Qd8 9.Rab1 dxe5 10.Nd2
= (0.23) Depth: 15 00:02:48 4860kN
1.Bxg5
+/= (0.37) Depth: 15 00:04:00 6741kN
1.Bxg5
+/= (0.57) Depth: 15 00:04:34 7489kN
Analysis by Rybka 3 64-bit :
1.Qg3 Nf6 2.Qe1 Nd7 3.Rd1 Qg6 4.Bd3 Ne5 5.Nxe5
= (0.20) Depth: 12 00:00:16 694kN
1.Qg3 Nf6 2.Qe1 Nd7 3.Bd3 Ne5 4.Nxe5 Rxf1+ 5.Qxf1 Bxe5 6.Qf3 Qf7
= (0.21) Depth: 13 00:00:25 1123kN
1.Qg3 Nf6 2.Bd3 Nh5 3.Qe1 Nf4 4.Bxf4 Rxf4 5.a4 Bd7 6.Ne2 Rf8 7.Qa5
= (0.17) Depth: 14 00:00:54 2424kN
1.Qg3 Nf6 2.Bd3 Nh5 3.Qe1 Nf4 4.Bxf4 Rxf4 5.e5 c4 6.Be4 Nb5 7.Qe3 Nxc3 8.bxc3 Qd8 9.Rab1 dxe5 10.Nd2
= (0.23) Depth: 15 00:01:46 4860kN
1.Bxg5
+/= (0.37) Depth: 15 00:02:32 6741kN
1.Bxg5
+/= (0.57) Depth: 15 00:02:53 7489kN
MGV39-K
14: CONQUEST - Hodgson, BL 9596 1995
[D]4kbnr/ppq2ppp/1np1p3/6P1/3r3P/2N2Q2/PPPB1P2/2KR1B1R w k - 0 1
Analysis by Rybka 232a: Not found in 20 mins
Analysis by Rybka 3 32-bit :
1.h5 Ne7 2.h6 Ned5 3.hxg7 Bxg7 4.Nxd5 cxd5 5.c3 a6 6.Kb1 Ra4
+/= (0.40) Depth: 13 00:00:35 974kN
1.h5 Ne7 2.h6 Ned5 3.hxg7 Bxg7 4.Nxd5 cxd5 5.c3 a6 6.Kb1 Ra4 7.b3 Ra5 8.Bd3 Rc5 9.Rh3 Nd7
+/= (0.35) Depth: 14 00:01:02 1747kN
1.Nb5
+/= (0.60) Depth: 14 00:01:40 3003kN
1.Nb5
+/- (0.80) Depth: 14 00:02:10 3995kN
1.Nb5
+/- (1.20) Depth: 14 00:02:19 4212kN
1.Nb5 cxb5 2.Bxb5+
+- (1.98) Depth: 14 00:03:24 6509kN
1.Nb5 cxb5 2.Bxb5+ Kd8 3.Bf4 Rd6 4.Rhe1 Kc8 5.Bxd6 Bxd6 6.Rxd6 Qxd6 7.Qc3+ Nc4 8.Bxc4 Ne7 9.Bxe6+ Kb8 10.Bxf7 Qf4+ 11.Qd2 Qc7 12.Qe3 Rc8 13.Qe5 Nc6 14.Qxc7+ Kxc7 15.Bd5 Kd6 16.Rd1
+- (2.10) Depth: 15 00:04:41 9081kN
1.Nb5 cxb5 2.Bxb5+ Kd8 3.Bf4 Rd6 4.Rhe1 Kc8 5.Bxd6 Bxd6 6.Rxd6 Qxd6 7.Qc3+ Nc4 8.Bxc4 Ne7 9.Bxe6+ Kb8 10.Bxf7 Qf4+ 11.Qd2 Qc7 12.Qe3 Rc8 13.Qe5 Nc6 14.Qxc7+ Kxc7 15.Bd5 Kd6 16.Rd1
+- (2.13) Depth: 16 00:07:17 14349kN
1.Nb5 cxb5 2.Bxb5+ Kd8 3.Bf4 Rd6 4.Rhe1 Kc8 5.Bxd6 Bxd6 6.Rxd6 Qxd6 7.Qc3+ Nc4 8.Bxc4 Ne7 9.Bxe6+ Kb8 10.Bxf7 Qf4+ 11.Qd2 Qc7 12.Qe3 Rc8 13.Qe5 Nc6 14.Qxc7+ Kxc7 15.Bd5 Kd6 16.Rd1
+- (2.13) Depth: 17 00:12:48 24568kN
Analysis by Rybka 3 64-bit:
1.h5 Ne7 2.h6 Ned5 3.hxg7 Bxg7 4.Nxd5 cxd5 5.c3 a6 6.Kb1 Ra4
+/= (0.40) Depth: 13 00:00:22 974kN
1.h5 Ne7 2.h6 Ned5 3.hxg7 Bxg7 4.Nxd5 cxd5 5.c3 a6 6.Kb1 Ra4 7.b3 Ra5 8.Bd3 Rc5 9.Rh3 Nd7
+/= (0.35) Depth: 14 00:00:39 1747kN
1.Nb5
+/= (0.60) Depth: 14 00:01:02 3003kN
1.Nb5
+/- (0.80) Depth: 14 00:01:22 3995kN
1.Nb5
+/- (1.20) Depth: 14 00:01:27 4212kN
1.Nb5 cxb5 2.Bxb5+
+- (1.98) Depth: 14 00:02:08 6509kN
I also tested it using the Silver Suite, an openings suite with 50 positions, tested with both white and black. I tested against Fruit 234n (thanks to Ryan Benitez) which had scored decently against Rybka 232a 32-bit:
Code: Select all
1 Rybka 2.3.2a 32-bit +47/-13/=40 67.0/100
2 Fruit 2.3.4n +13/-47/=40 33.0/100
Code: Select all
1 Rybka 3 32-bit +71/-10/=19 80.5/100
2 Fruit 2.3.4n +10/-71/=19 19.5/100
It's hard to know what to say, since the genuine numbers themselves appear straight out of a marketing blurb. The 64-bit single-CPU will truly be about 200 elo stronger than the next non-Rybka engine, which is just insane...
Albert