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International Conference on Computers and Games

CG 2000: Computers and Games pp 262–276Cite as

New Self-Play Results in Computer Chess

Part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (LNCS,volume 2063)

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a new self-play experiment in computer chess. It is the first such experiment ever to feature search depths beyond 9 plies and thousands of games for every single match. Overall, we executed 24,000 self-play games (3,000 per match) in one “calibration” match and seven “depth X+1⇔X” handicap matches at fixed iteration depths ranging from 5–12 plies. For the experiment to be realistic and independently repeatable, we relied on a state-of-the-art commercial contestant: Fritz 6, one of the strongest modern chess programs available. The main result of our new experiment is that it shows the existence of diminishing returns for additional search in computer chess selfplay by Fritz 6 with 95% statistical confidence. The average rating gain per search iteration shrinks by half from 169 ELO at 6 plies to 84 ELO at 12 plies. The diminishing returns manifest themselves by declining rates of won games and reversely increasing rates of drawn games for the deeper searching program versions. Their rates of lost games, however, remain quite steady for the whole depth range of 5–12 plies.

Keywords

  • diminishing returns
  • search vs. knowledge
  • self-play

Acknowledgements

ChessBase GmbH donated free copies of Fritz 6 to us after including handicap selfplay abilities in the standard retail version, a feature we had already suggested long ago. MatthiasWüllenweber of ChessBase GmbH proved to be an especially avid supporter of our new self-play experiment, providing various engine binaries for test purposes among other things.

The availability and exclusive usage of several fast x86-PC compatible machines for a period of some months starting in December 1999 was equally important for the overall success of the experiment. These PCs were kindly provided by the Supertechnologies Group of the Laboratory for Computer Science at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), headed by Prof. Leiserson.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. M.I.T. Laboratory for Computer Science (Room NE 43-228), Massachussetts Institute of Technology, 545 Technology Square, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA

    Ernst A. Heinz

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  1. Ernst A. Heinz
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

    Tony Marsland

  2. Future University - Hakodate, Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan

    Ian Frank

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Heinz, E.A. (2001). New Self-Play Results in Computer Chess. In: Marsland, T., Frank, I. (eds) Computers and Games. CG 2000. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2063. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45579-5_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45579-5_18

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-43080-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45579-0

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