Why Engines Are Unbeatable

How Human-like is Komodo 14 Human?

    In a recent post on my chess Blog I mentioned that Komodo 14 has a personality called Human which is “designed to play more like a human Grandmaster on a high level or like an amateur taught by a Grandmaster on lower levels.” The Komodo site explains that as a result “it may well perform better against most humans than the default engine on the same level.” 

    At the time of THIS game, Boris Baczynskyj was rated 2264 (Master) and I would expect that the Weighted Error Value scores would be lower when annotating with Komodo 14 Human, meaning that the closer to zero the score, the closer the player’s moves match the engine’s. 

    Analysis with Komodo Human showed Baczynskyj’s Weighted Error Value was 0.73 while Reshevsky’s was a precise 0.26, meaning that Reshevsky’s moves very nearly match those of the engine. Baczynskyj’s Weighted Error Value was 0.76 which is actually quite good. 

    One would expect the Weighted Error Value to increase when analyzing with Stockfish 16.1 simply because it is a stronger engine and humans would be less likely to select the same moves as the engine. 

    Using Stockfish 16.1 saw Reshevsky’s WEV to go up just a bit to 0.36, but Baczynskyj’s improved a bit to 0.69. I can’t explain it. 

    In a short match pitting Stockfish 16.1 against Komodo Human with a time limit of 5 minutes per game, Stockfish won 3-0. 

    In annotating one of the games (below) using Stockfish, it’s WEV of its own play was nearly perfect which is no surprise. What is interesting is that Komodo Human’s WEV was 0.72 which is pretty close to Reshevsky’s in his game against Baczynskyj.

    I am not sure what to make of all this except to sat that Komodo Human is clearly not close to Stockfish 16.1 in strength, but it appears that it does play at the Grandmaster level, but are the moves human-like? I can’t say. 

    To me this brings up the question, why pay for an engine when a stronger free program is available. Additionally, I do not see any benefit to the different Komodo personalities; they are, I think, sales hype. 

[Event "G5"] [Site "PC"] [Date "2024.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Komodo 14 Human"] [Black "Stockfish 16.1"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C54"] [Annotator "Stocjfish 16.1"] [PlyCount "80"] [EventDate "2024.??.??"] {C54: Giuoco Piano: 4 c3 Nf6, main lines with 5 d4 and 5 d3} 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. d3 Bc5 5. c3 a6 6. O-O d6 7. b4 Ba7 8. a4 O-O 9. Bg5 { [%mdl 32]} (9. Nbd2 Ne7 10. h3 c6 11. Re1 Ng6 12. d4 {is equal. Anand,V (2779) -Topalov,V (2740) Shamkir AZE 2019}) (9. Na3 h6 10. b5 Ne7 11. Be3 Ng6 12. Bxa7 Rxa7 13. a5 {Black is better. Tharushi,T (1581)-Crocker,P (2135) chess.com INT 2023}) 9... h6 10. Bh4 g5 {The position is equal.} 11. Bg3 Kg7 (11... Ne7 12. Nbd2 Ng6 13. Qc2 (13. d4 Nd7 14. Re1 Qf6 15. h3 exd4 16. cxd4 Bxd4 17. Nxd4 Qxd4 18. Rc1 Nde5 19. Bf1 Be6 20. Rb1 Rab8 {0-1 (20) Dvoirys,S (2595)-Kaidanov, G (2629) Moscow 2005}) 13... Kg7 14. h3 Nh5 15. Kh2 Nhf4 {Black is better. Jacimovic,S (1799)-Korban,K Herceg Novi 2008}) 12. Nbd2 Ne7 {[%mdl 32]} 13. d4 Nh5 14. dxe5 Nxg3 15. hxg3 dxe5 16. Nh2 {This is where white starts drifting into a bad position. 16.Nb3 keeps things nearly equal.} Ng8 17. Qe2 Nf6 18. Rfd1 Qe7 19. Nb3 Rh8 20. Nf3 a5 21. Nxa5 h5 22. Nxg5 $2 (22. Qd3 Ng4 23. Ra2 $19) 22... h4 $19 23. gxh4 (23. Nxf7 hxg3 24. Nxh8 Bg4 $18) 23... Rxh4 24. Rd3 Bg4 25. Nf3 Rh5 ({Weaker is} 25... Rah8 26. Nxh4 $1 Rxh4 27. Rg3 $16) 26. g3 Rah8 {[%mdl 32]} 27. Re1 Nh7 28. Kf1 Ng5 29. Nh4 Qf6 $1 30. b5 (30. Nb3 Rxh4) 30... Rxh4 31. gxh4 Rxh4 32. Rg3 Rh2 $1 33. b6 (33. f3 Nxf3 {[%eval -32751,44] [%wdl 0,0,1000] [%emt 0:00:02] Xxf3}) 33... Bxb6 34. f3 Nxf3 $1 35. Qxf3 (35. Rd1 Rf2+) 35... Rf2+ 36. Kg1 Rxf3+ 37. Kg2 Rxg3+ 38. Kxg3 (38. Kxg3 {[%eval -32761,245] [%wdl 0,0,1000] [%emt 0:00:00]}) 38... Qf4+ 39. Kg2 Qf2+ 40. Kh1 Bf3# {Weighted Error Value: White=0.72/Black=0.01 (flawless)} 0-1

Tartakower's Best Games

    Despite the glut of chess material that's available today and the use of computer chess programs, for me it’s still a delight to set up the pieces and pull out a book of somebody’s best games or a tournament book and play over the games.

    One collection, actually a two volume set, is the best games of Tartakower. You can’t buy them any more, but you can purchase My Best Games of Chess 1905-1954, the 21st century edition, in paperback on Amazon for $31.80 or the Kindle edition for $11.49. One caveat – the Kindle edition gobbles up a lot of space...45 mb. 

    Savielly Tartakower was a unique player and writer and you will love playing over all 2167games. But, if you don’t want to spend any money you can player over all the games or download them and make your own notes using a chess program at chessgames.com HERE.

What's the Best Chess Software?

`I received an e-mail the other day from a reader asking what chess program I recommended. The answer, I suppose, depends on what you want to use it for and how much you want to spend. I have several programs on my laptop: Chess Aquarium 2014, Ches Aquarium 2020, Chess Assistant 18, Fritz 12 and Fritz 17 and SCID vs. PC. 

    For my chess Blog I originally did all of my analysis using Fritz 12 and posted the games using various online sites, most of which are now defunct and so the games on the Blog posts are no longer visible..

    The next way to post games was to analyze with Fritz 12 and post them with Aquarium 2014. When I got Aquarium 2020 there were problems posting the games, so it was back to the 2014 version. 

    Then Fitz 17 came along and all the problems associated with analysis and publishing game on the Blog disappeared. Today Fritz 17 is all I ever use. Personally I think Fritz is more user friendly than Aquarium. Both have pleasing and customizable layouts. The latest version of Aquarium is 2024 and it can be download for around $50.00. 

    While the functions overlap, Fritz is basically a program you can play against and use for analysis. ChessBase is a database management program. 

    Both programs let you access a database in either ChessBase or PGN, format. The ChessBase format is designed to save a huge amount of game related data.

    When playing against Fritz you can adjust the level, it will give you hints and talk to you. You can also do a full analysis (including adding alternate opening lines with the game’s final results) plus you can add your own notes. 

    The current Fritz 19 comes in three versions. The Basic version has some specialized opponents: Attacker, coward, swindler and an endgame wizard. Cost: about $98. 

    Fritz with Fritz Powerboo which contains 25 millions opening positions. Cost: about $150 

    Fritz with Opening Encyclopedia which is more sophisticated and offers a number of other features. Cost: about $217. 

    ChessBase performs searches of games based on players, exact positions, tournaments or material. It also will create Opening trees of variations, tell you how successful particular lines have been and it will enable you to do training exercises. Unless you are a professional or just wants a top of the line program this one may be overkill. Cost: about $272 

    Chess Assistant 24 is a program for managing games and databases, playing on the Internet, analyzing games, or playing against the computer. To be honest, it’s my least favorite program and I have never used it. Also, I am not crazy about the appearance of the interface. 

    Chess Assistant includes several databases: the HugeBase with over 5 million games. a Guru database which includes games of top players and a Correspondence database of games between notable correspondence players. There is also an Openings database in particular is the Openings database. Chess Assistant 24 (download version) costs about $95, but at the time of writing it’ on sale for about $75. 

    For those looking for something free then Shane's Chess Information Database is unquestionably the best free program available. It can can create databases, run just about all engines and you can play against it or online.