Swedish Chess Computer Association

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Swedish Chess Computers Association
(SSDF)
founding 1984
main emphasis Computer chess
Action space SwedenSweden Sweden
Chair Lars Sandin
Website ssdf.bosjo.net

The Swedish Chess Computer Association (Swedish: Svenska schackdatorföreningen , abbreviation: SSDF ) is an independent non-commercial association that deals with computer chess and software related to chess . It was founded in August 1984. The aim of the association is to determine the playing strength of computer chess programs in a comparative way. For this purpose, many volunteers conduct chess games between different chess programs on computers and determine Elo numbers on the basis of the results . As a rule of thumb , the usual 120 minutes for the first 40 moves in tournament chess apply.

SSDF ranking

The ranking list (SSDF list) determined in this way reflects the relative playing strength of the programs and is published at irregular intervals. Lars Sandin is the coordinator and contact person . The SSDF ranking list is a common world ranking list for the skill level of chess computers and computer chess programs. It became known to German readers primarily through the specialist magazine Computerschach und Spiele (CSS) , in which it has been published in the current version since 1986.

In addition to the overview list (see web links ), which shows the " rating " (German: the performance) of the best ten programs as an Elo number, there is also a more detailed table (English: full list ) that lists significantly more programs and other statistical ones Provides information. This includes first of all the specification of the uncertainty ( tolerance ), the possible range of fluctuation of the Elo specification (for example +34 and −32 Elo points), whereby these limits describe the range of double the standard deviation (2-σ range), with which a Confidence range of a little more than 95 percent results. Furthermore, the number of completed games (English: Games ), the percentage of winning games (English: Won ) and the average of the Elo numbers of the opponents (English: Average opponents ) are given for each program . Furthermore, there is the "long version" of the SSDF list that as ASCII - text file is available for download and the hundreds of current and historical programs lists (see links ).

After the Stockfish program (version Stockfish 6 MP x64 2GB Q6600 2.4 GHz) with an Elo rating of 3334 was at the top in 2015, and Komodo (Version 9.1 MP x64 2GB Q6600 2.4 GHz) with an Elo rating in 2016 -Number of 3361 points, Stockfish (8 MP x64 16GB 1800X 3.6 GHz) is currently (February 2018) again leading the list with 3436 points.

Historical leaders

The following list illustrates the increase in the skill level of artificial intelligence in chess since 1984 based on the best Elo in the SSDF ranking at the beginning of each year. It should be noted that the reference of this list, i.e. the absolute benchmark for playing strength, has not remained constant over the years. This is due to the difficult comparison between the skill level of computers and the skill level of human chess players , since computers rarely compete against humans under official tournament conditions. "Conversely, since people rarely compete against the computers under official tournament conditions," the chess computers would say if they could speak. In fact, chess programmers, the developers of the chess computer programs, expressed themselves accordingly. They regretted that their chess programs were seldom admitted to official (human) tournaments. One could also say that human chess players less and less had the courage to compete against chess computers in official tournaments. The scaling of the machine skill level on the basis of the human level was only possible incompletely. In the meantime, however, this has practically been done and the desire to measure the playing strength of chess computers using people has become obsolete. The reason is that the machine skill is now far superior to the human. In other words: no one can hold a candle to artificial chess intelligence. It would be like lifting weights against a forklift truck . Even the best human chess players, such as the world chess champion , are assigned Elo ratings of less than 2900 , while the strongest chess computer programs have ratings above 3400 .

In an attempt to achieve the comparability of the level of play as well as possible, the rating number was repeatedly adjusted and the list “ renormalized ”. Details on renormalization can be found in the document “PLY / SSDF - the story” given below. Such a renormalization also resulted, for example, in the alleged drop in the playing strength of the front runner in 1991. The figures obtained are therefore not easily comparable with one another. Nor can they be directly equated with those of human chess players, since they were determined exclusively through games between computers.

Year rating program

1984 1822 Fidelity Prestige 4 MHz
1985 1917 Elegance 3.68 MHz
1986 2066    Mephisto Amsterdam 68000 12 MHz
1987 2083    Mephisto Dallas 68000 12 MHz
1988 2125    Mephisto Roma 68020 14 MHz
1989 2136    Mephisto Almeria 68020 12 MHz
1990 2332    Mephisto Portoroz 68030 36 MHz
1991 2246    Mephisto Lyon 68030 36 MHz
1992 2274    Mephisto Vancouver 68030 36 MHz
1993 2402 Chess Machine The King 2.0 30 MHz aggr
1994 2346 Mephisto Genius 2.0 486 / 50–66 MHz
1995 2440 Mephisto Genius 3.0 Pentium 90 MHz
1996 2440 M-Chess Pro 5.0 Pentium 90 MHz
1997 2462    Rebel  8.0 Pentium 90 MHz
1998 2589    Fritz  5.0 Pentium 200 MHz MMX
1999 2576    Hiarcs 7.0 64 MB Pentium 200 MHz MMX
2000 2630    Junior 6.0 128 MB K6-2 450 MHz
2001 2709 Chess Tiger 14.0 CB 256 MB Athlon 1200 MHz
2002 2759 Deep Fritz 7.0 256 MB Athlon 1200 MHz
2003 2791    Shredder 7.04 UCI 256 MB Athlon 1200 MHz
2004 2800 Shredder 8.0 CB 256 MB Athlon 1200 MHz
2005 2808 Shredder 9.0 UCI 256 MB Athlon 1200 MHz
200 6 2902    Rybka 1.2 256 MB Athlon 1200 MHz
2007 2935 Rybka 2.3.1 Arena 256 MB Athlon 1200 MHz
2008 3238    Deep Rybka 3 2 GB Q6600 2.4 GHz
2009 3232 Deep Rybka 3 2 GB Q6600 2.4 GHz
2010 3213 Deep Rybka 3 2 GB Q6600 2.4 GHz
2011 3216 Deep Rybka 4 2 GB Q6600 2.4 GHz
2012 3221 Deep Rybka 4 2 GB Q6600 2.4 GHz
2013 3259    Komodo 5.1 MP x64 2 GB Q6600 2.4 GHz
2014 3295 Komodo 7 MP x64 2 GB Q6600 2.4 GHz
2015 3334    Stockfish 6 MP x64 2 GB Q6600 2.4 GHz
2016 3366 Komodo 9.1 MP x64 2 GB Q6600 2.4 GHz
2017 3406 Komodo 11.01 MP x64 16 GB 1800X 3.6 GHz
2018 3436 Stockfish 8 MP x64 16 GB 1800X 3.6 GHz

(As of January 20, 2018)

literature

  • Göran Grottling: How good are chess computers? Computer chess and games, volume 3/1987, p. 30f.
  • Dieter Steinwender , Frederic Friedel : Chess on the PC . Markt & Technik, Buch- und Software-Verlag GmbH, Haar near Munich, 1995, p. 227 ff. ISBN 3-87791-522-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b PLY / SSDF - the story (English). Retrieved January 5, 2013.
  2. ↑ Chess Computer Ranking List of the SSDF (English). Retrieved February 2, 2018