Beat the Masters

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As a fun way to test the new opening suite feature, I conducted a fast match between the very strong Komodo 3.0 chess engine and the built-in Java engine of Chess for Android using the "beat the masters suite" (a version with 251 test positions). Komodo is clearly much too strong for my own humble engine and the suite was meant to test the quality of moves found by chess engines, not as an opening suite. Nevertheless, since some positions give one side a very strong advantage, it seemed like a fun way to test the new opening suite feature.

The outcome was as expected: Komodo won most games and only a few draws occurred. However, Chess for Android had one victory.

1 Komodo32 3 AB    +491/  -1/=10 98.80%  496.0/502
2 Chess for Android  +1/-491/=10  1.20%    6.0/502

In the position below, with black to move and only half a second thinking time per move, Komodo played 1... Rxe2, which yields a lost position (black should have played 1...hxg6).


Chess for Android did not find the shortest way to win, but finished the game as follows: 2. gxh7+ Kg7 3. Bh4+ Kh6 4. Nxf7+ Kh5 5. Bxe2+ Qf3 6. Bxf3+ Ng4 7.Bxe7 Bxf3 8. Rxf3 Kg6 9. h8=Q Rxh8 10. Nxh8+ Kf5 11. Bc5 Ne3 12. Bxd4 Nxg2 13.Kxg2 b4 14. Rb1 Ke4 15. Rxb4 Kd5 16. Nf7 Ke4 17. Bg7+ Kf5 18. Rg3 e5 19. fxe5 Ke6 20. Ng5+ Kd5 21. e6 Kd6 22. Bf8+ Ke5 23. e7 Kd5 24. Rb5+ Kd4 25. e8=Q Kc4 26. Qe2+ Kd4 27. Bg7#

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