Lots of conversation..hand wringing and speculation concerning the “results” of a mysterious “in house unsanctioned” chess match between Google’s Deep Mind Alpha Zero and Stockfish 8. When the news of the “Match Result” broke I happened to be running my annual engine tourney but with all the buzz and controversy figured it best to read some of the numerous articles/opinions

https://www.wired.com/beyond-the-beyond/2017/12/deep-mind-alpha-zeros-immortal-zugzwang-game-stockfish/

https://medium.com/@josecamachocollados/is-alphazero-really-a-scientific-breakthrough-in-ai-bf66ae1c84f2


http://www.chessdom.com/interview-with-robert-houdart-author-of-the-champion-engine-houdini/

http://www.captainchess.com/alpha-zero-break-chess-traditionalism/

https://en.chessbase.com/post/the-future-is-here-alphazero-learns-chess


https://www.chess.com/news/view/alphazero-reactions-from-top-gms-stockfish-author

https://www.quantamagazine.org/new-theory-cracks-open-the-black-box-of-deep-learning-20170921/

https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/7hzda9/google_deepminds_alphazero_crushes_stockfish_280/


https://en.chessbase.com/post/kasparov-on-deep-learning-in-chess

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/12/14/deepmind_alphazero_ai_unfair/


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxtEDLpJoqQ (Alpha Zero Refutes E4?)


https://content.iospress.com/articles/icga-journal/icg0012
who is the master..rating chess

https://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2017/12/17/truth-from-zero/
Alpha Zero Rated 4500?

https://en.chessbase.com/post/alpha-zero-comparing-orang-utans-and-apples


http://www.espn.com/chess/story/_/id/21768874/viswanathan-anand-ai-engine-alphazero-win-scramble-chess-world

Anand discusses Alpha Zero effect on chess…



and set about trying to make some sort of sense of events. After a bit of searching found a pgn file with 10 of the 100 games played in the “match”, (all wins by Alpha Zero) with NO drawn games posted! (that means 90 games of the 100 game “match” are missing. Of the 100 games 28 were supposedly “wins” and 72 were drawn. Time losses/wins or program bug issues are unknown. Entered all available information into Fritz and reviewed some of the 10 games (used Deep Fritz 14) Produced a ratings graph based on estimated chess engine
Strengths (Alpha Zero had no rating prior to the match) used
3000 for Stockfish and 2600 for Alpha Zero…Graph gives a +499
score for Alpha Zero giving a performance rating of 3099…review
of the games show Stockfish winning or better at some point in the games…then having difficulty holding/defending tough positions..Opening choice is also a question..How come so many Queens Indian defences and Ruy Lopez lines? What other openings were played? Any time losses? Where are the other games? These and many other questions need answers…We still remember Kasparov claiming the Deep Blue match was “Rigged” then later the Chess “Program” was dismantled…lets hope that a repeat of the Deep Blue fiasco is not in the cards this time..


Alpha Zero-Stockfish 8 pgn games http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=01240875543751416073

Deep Mind Unsanctioned Testing 12-2017


1 AlphaZero *2600 (+499) +28/-0/=72 64.00% 64.0/100
2 Stockfish 8 3000 (-499) +0/-28/=72 36.00% 36.0/100

(100 Games)




*note: AlphaZero had no actual rating at time of Match…2600 (estimated rating of new program)