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Stockfish Outlasts "Rybkamura"
In yesterday's four-game match between GM Hikaru Nakamura and the computer Stockfish,
the world's top chess engine won 3-1. The world's fifth-best human
managed two draws in the four games but lost twice, both times pressing
instead of acquiescing to a draw.The match in Burlingame, California opened with two games of computer assistance for Nakamura. This lead to one spectator dubbing him "Rybkamura", a portmanteau of his surname and the computer helper.
In the latter two games he received white with pawn odds but no assistance. Stockfish took both portions 1.5-0.5.
The total time for the match was more than 10 hours - doubtless the computer's lack of fatigue was a benefit. The two decisive games lasted 147 and 97 moves. Stockfish was also playing on its "home turf" (Burlingame is in Silicon Valley).
GM Hikaru Nakamura checks with Rybka before moving. All photos courtesy Tyson Mao and Athur Levinson.
According to match conditions, Stockfish was not allowed to access
either an openings book or an endgame tablebase. What it did have was
brute power -- match co-organizer Jesse Levinson said it was "the latest
development build compiled for OS X and running on a 3Ghz 8-core Mac
Pro."In comparision, Nakamura had the assistance of an older version of Rybka (about 200 points less than Stockfish's 3200+ rating) and it ran on a 2008 MacBook. Of course, he also had his 20+ years of chess knowledge in play.
"The inspiration for this match was me opening my mouth too much," said co-organizer Tyson Mao. "I was wondering out loud how my [2008] MacBook could compete against today's chess engines.
"The main question is, 'Do humans add any value to chess engines today?' It's a very polarizing question. That's why we're having the match."
