BOTW: 2016.11.18
World Chess Championship (second half)
November 11-30, 2016
New York City
World Champion Magnus Carlsen continues to defend his title against GM Sergey Karjakin in a 12-game match in New York City at the Fulton Market building in the seaport district of Manhattan, just south of the Brooklyn Bridge.
After 6 games the score is level: +0 =6 -0.
Schedule of Remaining Games:
Nov. 20, 21, 23, 24, 26, 28, and tie-breaks (if necessary) Nov 30.
Format:
- First player to score 6.5 in a 12 game match.
- No draw offers before move 30.
- Unusual Time Control: 40 moves/100 min + 20 moves/50 min + game/15 min + 30s/move from move 1.
Tie-breaks:
- 4 games at 25 min +10s
- 2 game blitz matches of 5min + 3s. Maximum 5 such blitz matches (10 games).
- Armageddon game: Black has draw odd with White 5 min vs Black 4 min, + 3 sec as of move 61.
Live Commentary (games start at 1pm EST)
The official site charges $15 US for their live feed for the match. This includes: live video with choice of angle and even a close up 3D video of the players and board, game analysis by GMs (Judit Polgar and Sam Shankland) and guests (economist and IM Ken Rogoff has been on twice), as well as post-game player interivews and the post-game press conference, a board showing the current position, and a chat option.
Free analysis can be found on chess24, where Canadian GM Eric Hansen did live commentary on the first six games. His work with Peter Svidler for games 3-5 were, IMHO, the best live online chess analysis produced by chess24, and more hard-core chess analysis than that on the official site. The final six games will feature commentary by GMs Peter Svidler & Jan Gustafsson. Viewers should prepare themselves for less analysis and more references to Game of Thrones. :(
Official Site
https://worldchess.com/nyc2016/
chess24
https://chess24.com/en/wcc2016
Stockfish 8 Released
Version 8 of the world's strongest open-source freeware chess engine was released November 1.
There are always multiple versions of Stockfish available for download from the Stockfish homepage. If you want the latest-and-possibly-greatest version, go to the "development builds" page and get the latest development build.
Download Stockfish:
https://stockfishchess.org/download/
Houdini Returns from the Dead!
Unlike the original Houdini -- whose fans held seances on the anniversary of his death (Halloween!) hoping to hear from his ghost -- the chess program has actually returned from the dead!
A few years ago, the developer of the world's top chess engine was accused of copying the code of other programs and using it without credit to win various computer chess tournaments. As a result, his engine was stripped of its titles and Robert Houdart went into retirement, leaving his program -- Houdini 4 -- in limbo.
I read a lot about this case at the time. I found the evidence offered gave reason for suspicion, but was far short of convincing, and I thought the decision agianst Houdini was unfair.
Now it seems that the top computer tournament organization in the world (TCEC) has agreed, and allowed Houdini to compete. The fact that the other top engines -- including Stockfish and Komodo -- are also competing suggests they agree.
Even better: the version of Houdini competing in the TCEC preliminary rounds has qualified for the final, and it has been released as Houdini 5. Houdart claims it is about 200 points stronger than Houdini 4, and that claim is supported by its results so far:
- Houdini 5beta finished 2nd overall in the qualifier (behind Stockfish 7+, but ahead of Komodo 10+): Stockfish 39/56, Houdini 35.5, Komodo 34.5. For comparison, at the bottom of the table was the once-phenomenal Rybka 4.1 with only 20.5/56.
- Before the final match, TCEC ran a 32-player double-RR Rapid event: 25' + 10": Houdini won with 56/62, ahead of Komodo (53) and Stockfish (52).
OTOH, the final is not going so well for Houdini, so reports of its non-death may be exaggerated... (see below)...
Given that Stockfish is free, and is (currently) beating Houdini 5 in a match, is there any reason to buy Houdini?
Budget tells entirely for Stockfish: it's free, while Houdini costs about $57 CAN. Here are three non-budget reasons to consider buying Houdini:
- It plays differently from Stockfish, and some positions it plays better.
- As many titled players have noticed, Houdini's moves seem more "human" -- less reliant on strange tactical nuances and more guided by intelligible positional considerations -- and this makes its analysis both easier to understand and better at predicting what a normal human opponent might play.
- It might be a good thing to financially support a programmer who has created such a useful analytic tool.
Houdini Homepage
http://www.cruxis.com/chess/houdini.htm
Interview with Robert Hourdart (short)
http://www.chessdom.com/robert-houdart-on-houdini-5-dev-in-tcec/
TCEC Superfinal
Nov. 9-??, 2016.
32 chess engines have been battling since May, and the top two -- Houdini and Stockfish -- play for the championship.
You can find computer-vs-computer matches in many places online, but the only event that matters is the TCEC. With the engines playing on identical hardware and using identical opening books, it is the best test of playing strength. It's also the event that the engine developers take seriously, with the top ones submitting development builds of their best programs.
Stockfish and Houdini qualified for the super-final by finishing 1 and 2 at the end of the 8-engine octuple-round semi-final: Stockfish 39/56, Houdini 35.5, Komodo 34.5. For comparison, at the bottom of the table was Rybka 4.1 with 20.5/56.
Format:
- 100 games between Houdini 5 and Stockfish 8.
- time control: Game/180 minutes + 15 seconds per move.
- They play both White and Black from 50 standard opening positions chosen by the organizers.
- both programs will run on the same 44-core computer.
After 30 games the score is: + 7 = 21 - 2 for Stockfish.
Live Games
http://tcec.chessdom.com/live.php