The TCEC19 Computer Chess Superfinal: A perspective

Abstract

Season 19’s Premier Division was a gathering of the usual suspects but one participant was not quite what it seemed! STOCKFISH – mighty in Season 18 – had become STOCKFISH NNUE and there was great anticipation of what the added self-learning component to STOCKFISH’s evaluation would mean for STOCKFISH’s strength. In my own engine matches (on much weaker hardware and faster time controls) played from many types of positions, STOCKFISH NNUE had looked extremely impressive against ‘old-fashioned’ STOCKFISH CLASSICAL. Most surprising to me was that STOCKFISH NNUE defended even better than STOCKFISH CLASSICAL which is not a particular strength of self-learning systems. I just wondered whether at long time controls making STOCKFISH ‘think like an NN’ would blunt the destructive power that makes it so formidable. I also had high hopes for ALLIESTEIN which had performed so impressively in the end-of-season-18 bonus competitions.