Author: Majd Al-Ansari
Date: 01:44:52 01/01/06
I have just finished a 300 game tournament with the top programs at 5 min + 3sec and I have to say I am extremely impressed with Rybka. I will post highlights of the games as soon as I finish my analysis of all the games. Rybka came way out on top with Shredder and Fritz 9 comming way behind with Fruit at the bottom. This match might have been unfair for Fruit since book used was the Fritz 9 book. What is very impressive is that Rybka was able to win so easily even though it has HUGE gaps in some endgame knowledge. Mind you it can play some fantastic endings and beat the best of the best in some endgames. But in some endgame positions it plays less than a 1200 elo player. I am sure that this will be easily fixed especially since a superb source such as Fruit 2.1 is available. My first impressions about Rybka is that with a little more endgame knowledge, a specially tuned book and a little better time management, Rybka could be around 50 go 100 elo points even stronger. I will post why I think that as soon as I finish my analysis (I am checking all 300 games). The most notable thing I noticed is that Rybka plays so fast yet sooooo STRONG. The other engines are struggling to figure out the positions yet Rybka seems to play effortlessly and accurately. I remember Kramnik mentioning that computers are good at searching but are terrible at searching in the critical lines. I think Rybka is exploiting this somehow. The way it pushes pawns and plays unbalanced positions is truly something that will impress even the most seasoned super GM. It almost seems like a super GM is watching over and telling Rybka which critical lines it should search instead of wasting cpu cycles on the wrong path. If it doesn't find a quick finish through search or things are unclear, it just adds another move that intuitevely seems strong without really going through all the consequences of the move. Somehow it has the intuition to just load more pressure without really calculating till a huge plus. I would like to say that Fritz 9 seems to best the most mature engine. It immediately realizes a position is drawn while the other software programs think is won (Rybka is especially notorious for that). Shredder is also a very well rounded program and is extremely strong and I think with a better tuned evaluation will be even stronger. Fruit 2.2.1 my previous favourite is also a fantastic engine but seems to play really poorly in positions it does not like (it needs a tuned book to perform well). It is just that Rybka is playing a different type of chess that are just not understandable to the engines out there today. If you are impressed with Rybka now, let me warn you .... you ain't seen nothing yet!
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