On 07/09/2011 10:20 AM, Olivier Teytaud wrote:
Exhibition games from the years 2004-2007, during the Mainz chess
festivals, indicated that human grandmasters seemed to do easier
against bots in Chess960 compared with normal chess.
Thanks a lot for this helpful comment, I was not aware of this.
I wouldn't take it seriously without further data. Going by the
Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess960
2004: "At the same tournament in 2004, Aronian played two Chess960 games
against the Dutch computer chess program The Baron, developed by Richard
Pijl. Both games ended in a draw. It was the first ever man against
machine match in Chess960. Zoltán Almási won the Chess960 open
tournament in 2004."
Problem: "The Baron" wasn't a top chess program. An archive page of the
computer chess rating list from 2006, the earliest I could find, shows
it at around 2500, whereas top program, Rybka, from the same list is
around 3000. Source:
http://web.archive.org/web/20060701031247/http://www.husvankempen.de/nunn/40_40%20Rating%20List/40_40%20All%20Versions/rangliste.html
2005: "In 2005, The Baron played two Chess960 games against Chess960
World Champion Peter Svidler; Svidler won 1.5–0.5. The chess program
Shredder, developed by Stefan Meyer-Kahlen from Düsseldorf, Germany,
played two games against Zoltán Almási from Hungary; Shredder won 2–0."
Again, "The Baron" lost, but Shredder (rated around 2850 from the same
list) won both its games.
2006-2007: Games between computers and grandmasters aren't listed. I'm
suspicious that this isn't a coincidence once the top programs got into
the field.
If you've got other evidence, Ingo, please share. Given that humans rely
so much on experience, and computers are so good at tactics, it would be
surprising if Chess960 was more difficult for computers. I'd also think
computers would have a big advantage in creating an opening database for
all 960 positions if the programmers so chose to create one.
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