Difference between revisions of "Komodo"

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<span id="7"></span>
 
<span id="7"></span>
 
==Komodo TCEC and 7==
 
==Komodo TCEC and 7==
As winner of the TCEC 5 final, Komodo '''TCEC''' was released on December 04, 2013 <ref>[http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=50324 Komodo TCEC released] by [[Larry Kaufman]], [[CCC]], December 04, 2013</ref>, the further improved Komodo '''7''' on May 21, 2014, during the [[TCEC Season 6#Superfinal|TCEC Season 6 final]] versus [[Stockfish]] again, now supporting [[Syzygy Bases]] <ref>[http://komodochess.com/Komodo7-38a.htm Komodo chess engine - Komodo 7]</ref>, probing code interface implementation by [[Jeremy Bernstein]] <ref>[http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=52391&start=7 Re: Komodo Syzygy evals] by [[Larry Kaufman]], [[CCC]],  May 21, 2014</ref>.
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As winner of the TCEC 5 final, Komodo '''TCEC''' was released on December 04, 2013 <ref>[http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=50324 Komodo TCEC released] by [[Larry Kaufman]], [[CCC]], December 04, 2013</ref>, the further improved Komodo '''7''' on May 21, 2014, now supporting [[Syzygy Bases]] <ref>[http://komodochess.com/Komodo7-38a.htm Komodo chess engine - Komodo 7]</ref>, probing code interface implementation by [[Jeremy Bernstein]] <ref>[http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=52391&start=7 Re: Komodo Syzygy evals] by [[Larry Kaufman]], [[CCC]],  May 21, 2014</ref>.
 
<span id="8"></span>
 
<span id="8"></span>
 
==Komodo 8==
 
==Komodo 8==
Komodo '''8''', released on September 05, 2014, is a substantial improvement over Komodo 7a, which was already rated among the top three chess engines on almost all rating lists <ref>[http://komodochess.com/Komodo8-40a.htm Komodo chess engine - Komodo 8]</ref>. Komodo 8 supports [[Syzygy Bases]] and is available for [[Windows]], [[Linux]], [[Mac OS]] and [[Android]], the latter immediately available for import in [[Chess for Android]] and in [[Chess for Glass]] <ref>[http://aartbik.blogspot.de/2014/09/more-on-komodo-8.html More on Komodo 8] by [[Aart Bik]], September 9, 2014</ref>. Since mid September 2014, Komodo 8 for Windows is available as [[ChessBase]] engine, bundled with the [[Fritz#DeepFritz14|Deep Fritz interface]],  Syzygy bases not included <ref>[http://shop.chessbase.com/en/products/komodo_chess_8 Komodo 8] - [[ChessBase|ChessBase Shop]], September 10, 2014</ref>.
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Komodo '''8''', released on September 05, 2014, was a substantial improvement over Komodo 7a, which was already rated among the top three chess engines on almost all rating lists <ref>[http://komodochess.com/Komodo8-40a.htm Komodo chess engine - Komodo 8]</ref>. Komodo 8 supports [[Syzygy Bases]] and is available for [[Windows]], [[Linux]], [[Mac OS]] and [[Android]], the latter immediately available for import in [[Chess for Android]] and in [[Chess for Glass]] <ref>[http://aartbik.blogspot.de/2014/09/more-on-komodo-8.html More on Komodo 8] by [[Aart Bik]], September 9, 2014</ref>. Since mid September 2014, Komodo 8 for Windows is available as [[ChessBase]] engine, bundled with the [[Fritz#DeepFritz14|Deep Fritz interface]],  Syzygy bases not included <ref>[http://shop.chessbase.com/en/products/komodo_chess_8 Komodo 8] - [[ChessBase|ChessBase Shop]], September 10, 2014</ref>.
 
<span id="9"></span>
 
<span id="9"></span>
 
==Komodo 9==
 
==Komodo 9==
Komodo '''9''', released on April 28, 2015, continues the progress with approximately +50 Elo over Komodo 8 due to improved [[Search|search]], [[Evaluation|evaluation]], and [[Time Management|time management]], as well as more efficient use of multiprocessing <ref>[http://komodochess.com/Komodo9-43a.htm Komodo chess engine - Komodo 9]</ref>. Most noticeable is the increase in [[Depth|search depth]] reached in a given amount of time, which is due to better [[Extensions|extension]], [[Reductions|reduction]], and [[Pruning|pruning]] rules <ref>[http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=56092 Komodo 9 Announcement] by [[Larry Kaufman]], [[CCC]], April 22, 2015</ref>. Further, Komodo 9 now features [[Chess960]] and a [[Persistent Hash Table|persistant hash]] to save and restore analysis.
+
Komodo '''9''', released on April 28, 2015, continued the progress with approximately +50 Elo over Komodo 8 due to improved [[Search|search]], [[Evaluation|evaluation]], and [[Time Management|time management]], as well as more efficient use of multiprocessing <ref>[http://komodochess.com/Komodo9-43a.htm Komodo chess engine - Komodo 9]</ref>. Most noticeable is the increase in [[Depth|search depth]] reached in a given amount of time, which is due to better [[Extensions|extension]], [[Reductions|reduction]], and [[Pruning|pruning]] rules <ref>[http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=56092 Komodo 9 Announcement] by [[Larry Kaufman]], [[CCC]], April 22, 2015</ref>. Further, Komodo 9 now features [[Chess960]] and a [[Persistent Hash Table|persistant hash]] to save and restore analysis.
 
<span id="10"></span>
 
<span id="10"></span>
 
==Komodo 10==
 
==Komodo 10==
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However, as confirmed by [[Mark Lefler]] <ref>[http://www.talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=67441&start=25 Re: Komodo 12 and MCTS] by [[Mark Lefler]], [[CCC]], May 14, 2018</ref>
 
However, as confirmed by [[Mark Lefler]] <ref>[http://www.talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=67441&start=25 Re: Komodo 12 and MCTS] by [[Mark Lefler]], [[CCC]], May 14, 2018</ref>
 
implementing MCTS was already an old idea of the Komodo team - also due to [[Don Dailey|Don Dailey's]] computer [[Go]] experience building an [[UCT]] player.
 
implementing MCTS was already an old idea of the Komodo team - also due to [[Don Dailey|Don Dailey's]] computer [[Go]] experience building an [[UCT]] player.
In Komodo's MCTS mode the [[Search Tree|search tree]] is expanded in [[Best-First|best-first]] manner based on [[Pawn Advantage, Win Percentage, and Elo|winning probabilities]]  
+
<span id="MCTS"></span>
determined not by random playouts nor a [[Neural Networks|neural network]], but a tiny [[Alpha-Beta|alpha-beta search]] plus [[Quiescence Search|quiescence]] and [[Evaluation|static evaluation]], also similar to [[UCT]], dealing with the crucial trade-off between [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Carlo_tree_search#Exploration_and_exploitation exploration and exploitation]. While [[Playing Strength|playing strength]] is lower with MCTS, positional play and judgement may well be better in many positions <ref>[http://www.talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=67441 Komodo 12 and MCTS] by [[Larry Kaufman]], [[CCC]], May 14, 2018</ref>, not to mention a more risky and entertaining playing style.
+
==Komodo MCTS==
 +
In Komodo's [[Monte-Carlo Tree Search|MCTS]] mode the [[Search Tree|search tree]] is expanded in [[Best-First|best-first]] manner based on [[Pawn Advantage, Win Percentage, and Elo|winning probabilities]]  
 +
determined neither by random playouts nor by a [[Neural Networks|neural network]], but a tiny [[Alpha-Beta|alpha-beta search]] plus [[Quiescence Search|quiescence]] and [[Evaluation|static evaluation]], also similar to [[UCT]], dealing with the crucial trade-off between [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Carlo_tree_search#Exploration_and_exploitation exploration and exploitation]. While [[Playing Strength|playing strength]] is lower with MCTS, positional play and judgement may well be better in many positions <ref>[http://www.talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=67441 Komodo 12 and MCTS] by [[Larry Kaufman]], [[CCC]], May 14, 2018</ref>, not to mention a more risky and entertaining playing style.
  
 
=Tournament Play=  
 
=Tournament Play=  
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=Publications=  
 
=Publications=  
 
* [[Arno Nickel]] ('''2012'''). ''[http://www.edition-marco-shop.de/epages/64079634.sf/de_DE/?ObjectPath=/Shops/64079634/Categories/Schachgeschehen/Computerschach Die schöne neue Welt der Schachengines]''. [http://www.zeitschriftschach.de/ SCHACH] 2,3,5,6 2012, [http://www.edition-marco-shop.de/WebRoot/Store14/Shops/64079634/5177/F0A3/C389/D0DD/3A71/C0A8/2935/25F6/Die_schoene_neue_Welt_der_Schachengines.pdf pdf] (German) <ref>Part 1 covers [[Houdini]], [[Rybka]], [[Komodo]], [[Stockfish]], [[Critter]], [[Naum]], [[Chiron]] and [[Spike]]</ref>
 
* [[Arno Nickel]] ('''2012'''). ''[http://www.edition-marco-shop.de/epages/64079634.sf/de_DE/?ObjectPath=/Shops/64079634/Categories/Schachgeschehen/Computerschach Die schöne neue Welt der Schachengines]''. [http://www.zeitschriftschach.de/ SCHACH] 2,3,5,6 2012, [http://www.edition-marco-shop.de/WebRoot/Store14/Shops/64079634/5177/F0A3/C389/D0DD/3A71/C0A8/2935/25F6/Die_schoene_neue_Welt_der_Schachengines.pdf pdf] (German) <ref>Part 1 covers [[Houdini]], [[Rybka]], [[Komodo]], [[Stockfish]], [[Critter]], [[Naum]], [[Chiron]] and [[Spike]]</ref>
* [[Tamal T. Biswas]], [[Kenneth Wingate Regan|Kenneth W. Regan]] ('''2015'''). ''Measuring Level-K Reasoning, Satisficing, and Human Error in Game-Play Data''. [[IEEE]] [http://www.icmla-conference.org/icmla15/ ICMLA 2015], [http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~regan/papers/pdf/BiRe15_ICMLA2015.pdf pdf preprint]
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* [[Tamal T. Biswas]], [[Kenneth W. Regan]] ('''2015'''). ''Measuring Level-K Reasoning, Satisficing, and Human Error in Game-Play Data''. [[IEEE]] [http://www.icmla-conference.org/icmla15/ ICMLA 2015], [http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~regan/papers/pdf/BiRe15_ICMLA2015.pdf pdf preprint]
  
 
=Forum Posts=  
 
=Forum Posts=  
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: [http://www.talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=68626&start=3 Re: Komodo MCTS and Komodo (Standard?) in CCCC current Blitz battle] by [[Larry Kaufman]], [[CCC]], October 16, 2018
 
: [http://www.talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=68626&start=3 Re: Komodo MCTS and Komodo (Standard?) in CCCC current Blitz battle] by [[Larry Kaufman]], [[CCC]], October 16, 2018
 
* [http://www.talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=68718 What was the top Chess engine before it was Stockfish, Komodo or Houdini?] by JohnW, [[CCC]], October 23, 2018
 
* [http://www.talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=68718 What was the top Chess engine before it was Stockfish, Komodo or Houdini?] by JohnW, [[CCC]], October 23, 2018
 +
* [http://www.talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=68848 Komodo 12.2 Announcement] by [[Larry Kaufman]], [[CCC]], November 06, 2018
 +
* [http://www.talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=68887 Komodo 12.2.1] by [[Larry Kaufman]], [[CCC]], November 10, 2018
 +
* [http://www.talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=68912 Komodo 12.2.2 Release] by [[Mark Lefler]], [[CCC]], November 12, 2018
 +
* [http://www.talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=69298 Komodo 12.3 is out] by schack, [[CCC]], December 17, 2018
  
 
==Matches==
 
==Matches==
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* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komodo_%28chess%29 Komodo (chess) from Wikipedia]
 
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komodo_%28chess%29 Komodo (chess) from Wikipedia]
 
* [http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=125290 The chess games of Komodo] from [http://www.chessgames.com/index.html chessgames.com]
 
* [http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=125290 The chess games of Komodo] from [http://www.chessgames.com/index.html chessgames.com]
* [https://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2015/10/06/depth-of-satisficing/ Depth of Satisficing] by [[Kenneth Wingate Regan|Ken Regan]], [https://rjlipton.wordpress.com/ Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP], October 06, 2015  » [[Depth]], [[Match Statistics]], [[Pawn Advantage, Win Percentage, and Elo]], [[Stockfish]], [[Komodo]] <ref>[http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=57890 Regan's latest: Depth of Satisficing] by Carl Lumma, [[CCC]], October 09, 2015</ref>
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* [https://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2015/10/06/depth-of-satisficing/ Depth of Satisficing] by [[Kenneth W. Regan|Ken Regan]], [https://rjlipton.wordpress.com/ Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP], October 06, 2015  » [[Depth]], [[Match Statistics]], [[Pawn Advantage, Win Percentage, and Elo]], [[Stockfish]], [[Komodo]] <ref>[http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=57890 Regan's latest: Depth of Satisficing] by Carl Lumma, [[CCC]], October 09, 2015</ref>
* [https://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2016/01/21/a-chess-firewall-at-zero/ A Chess Firewall at Zero?] by [[Kenneth Wingate Regan|Ken Regan]], [https://rjlipton.wordpress.com/ Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP], January 21, 2016
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* [https://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2016/01/21/a-chess-firewall-at-zero/ A Chess Firewall at Zero?] by [[Kenneth W. Regan|Ken Regan]], [https://rjlipton.wordpress.com/ Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP], January 21, 2016
 
===Purchase===
 
===Purchase===
 
* [https://komodochess.com/Komodo12.htm Komodo chess engine - Komodo 12]
 
* [https://komodochess.com/Komodo12.htm Komodo chess engine - Komodo 12]
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* [http://www.qualitychess.co.uk/blog/?p=2341 Quality Chess Blog » Q&A with Larry Kaufman], December 12, 2013
 
* [http://www.qualitychess.co.uk/blog/?p=2341 Quality Chess Blog » Q&A with Larry Kaufman], December 12, 2013
 
* [http://www.chessdom.com/interview-with-robert-houdart-mark-lefler-and-gm-larry-kaufman/ Interview with Robert Houdart, Mark Lefler and GM Larry Kaufman] by [[Nelson Hernandez]], [[Chessdom]], November 23, 2017 » [[TCEC Season 10]]
 
* [http://www.chessdom.com/interview-with-robert-houdart-mark-lefler-and-gm-larry-kaufman/ Interview with Robert Houdart, Mark Lefler and GM Larry Kaufman] by [[Nelson Hernandez]], [[Chessdom]], November 23, 2017 » [[TCEC Season 10]]
 +
* [http://www.chessdom.com/komodo-mcts-monte-carlo-tree-search-is-the-new-star-of-tcec/ Komodo MCTS (Monte Carlo Tree Search) is the new star of TCEC], [[Chessdom]], December 18, 2018
 
===Reports===
 
===Reports===
 
* [http://dentonchessclub.co.uk/wp/?p=287 Thoresen Chess Engine Competition | Denton Chess Club Blog] by [[Ivan Urwin]], October 5, 2013
 
* [http://dentonchessclub.co.uk/wp/?p=287 Thoresen Chess Engine Competition | Denton Chess Club Blog] by [[Ivan Urwin]], October 5, 2013
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* [https://en.chessbase.com/post/analyzing-games-with-komodo-part-two Analyzing games with Komodo (Part two)] by [[Albert Silver]], [[ChessBase|ChessBase News]], November 13, 2014
 
* [https://en.chessbase.com/post/analyzing-games-with-komodo-part-two Analyzing games with Komodo (Part two)] by [[Albert Silver]], [[ChessBase|ChessBase News]], November 13, 2014
 
* [https://en.chessbase.com/post/komodo-8-deep-blue-revisited-part-one Komodo 8: Deep Blue revisited (part one)] by [[Albert Silver]], [[ChessBase|ChessBase News]], December 26, 2014 » [[Deep Blue]], [[Kasparov versus Deep Blue 1997]] <ref>[http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=54759 Komodo 8: Deep Blue revisited (1/2)] by [[Graham Banks]], [[CCC]], December 27, 2014</ref>
 
* [https://en.chessbase.com/post/komodo-8-deep-blue-revisited-part-one Komodo 8: Deep Blue revisited (part one)] by [[Albert Silver]], [[ChessBase|ChessBase News]], December 26, 2014 » [[Deep Blue]], [[Kasparov versus Deep Blue 1997]] <ref>[http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=54759 Komodo 8: Deep Blue revisited (1/2)] by [[Graham Banks]], [[CCC]], December 27, 2014</ref>
* [https://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2014/12/28/the-new-chess-world-champion/ The New Chess World Champion] by [[Kenneth Wingate Regan|Ken Regan]], [http://rjlipton.wordpress.com/ Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP], December 28, 2014 » [[Larry Kaufman]], [[TCEC Season 7]]
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* [https://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2014/12/28/the-new-chess-world-champion/ The New Chess World Champion] by [[Kenneth W. Regan|Ken Regan]], [http://rjlipton.wordpress.com/ Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP], December 28, 2014 » [[Larry Kaufman]], [[TCEC Season 7]]
 
* [https://www.chess.com/article/view/the-best-chess-of-2014 The Best Chess Of 2014] - Chess Engine of the Year, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess.com Chess.com], December 29, 2014
 
* [https://www.chess.com/article/view/the-best-chess-of-2014 The Best Chess Of 2014] - Chess Engine of the Year, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess.com Chess.com], December 29, 2014
 
* [https://en.chessbase.com/post/komodo-8-deep-blue-revisited-part-two Komodo 8: Deep Blue revisited (part two)] by [[Albert Silver]], [[ChessBase|ChessBase News]], December 31, 2014
 
* [https://en.chessbase.com/post/komodo-8-deep-blue-revisited-part-two Komodo 8: Deep Blue revisited (part two)] by [[Albert Silver]], [[ChessBase|ChessBase News]], December 31, 2014
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'''[[Engines|Up one Level]]'''
 
'''[[Engines|Up one Level]]'''
 
[[Category:UCI]]
 
[[Category:UCI]]
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[[Category:Commercial]]
 
[[Category:Dragon]]
 
[[Category:Dragon]]
 
[[Category:Reptile]]
 
[[Category:Reptile]]
 
[[Category:Chess960]]
 
[[Category:Chess960]]
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[[Category:Android]]

Revision as of 19:32, 20 January 2019

Home * Engines * Komodo

Komodo logo [1]

Komodo,
a chess engine by primary author Don Dailey (died at the age of 57 on November 22, 2013) and since October 2013, by Mark Lefler, supported by chess advisor and evaluation expert and Don's long time collaborator Larry Kaufman. Since 2015, opening book expert Erdogan Günes is responsible for Komodo's book moves. At the WCCC 2016 Komodo 10.x first time won the Shannon Trophy, defended by subsequent versions at the WCCC 2017 and WCCC 2018 so far.

Komodo appeared in January 2010 derived from Don's former engine Doch. It uses bitboards as internal board representation, and has a sophisticated search and a knowledge based, balanced evaluation. Komodo is a standalone chess engine supporting the UCI protocol and is available for multiple platforms and operating systems, and is therefore compatible with free and commercial UCI compliant chess graphical user interfaces and database front ends.

As of December 2011, Komodo became commercial with version 4 [2], earlier versions running under Windows, Linux, Mac OS and Android are available from the Komodo download site, free for non-commercial use [3] [4]. Next release date was May 2013, with CCT15 winner Komodo CCT [5].

Further Versions

Komodo 5

Komodo 5.1 MP, released in June 2013, was a major rewrite in C++11, able to perform a parallel search to run on multiple processors [6] .

Komodo 6

In October 2013, Don Dailey announced the release of Komodo 6 and also bad news concerning the future status of Komodo due to his fatal illness of a acute form of Leukemia [7] . He introduced Mark Lefler as new member of the Komodo team [8] [9] . Don Dailey died November 22, 2013 at age 57, just about the same time that Komodo pulled ahead of Stockfish by winning game 2 in the TCEC Season 5 final [10] [11] .

Komodo TCEC and 7

As winner of the TCEC 5 final, Komodo TCEC was released on December 04, 2013 [12], the further improved Komodo 7 on May 21, 2014, now supporting Syzygy Bases [13], probing code interface implementation by Jeremy Bernstein [14].

Komodo 8

Komodo 8, released on September 05, 2014, was a substantial improvement over Komodo 7a, which was already rated among the top three chess engines on almost all rating lists [15]. Komodo 8 supports Syzygy Bases and is available for Windows, Linux, Mac OS and Android, the latter immediately available for import in Chess for Android and in Chess for Glass [16]. Since mid September 2014, Komodo 8 for Windows is available as ChessBase engine, bundled with the Deep Fritz interface, Syzygy bases not included [17].

Komodo 9

Komodo 9, released on April 28, 2015, continued the progress with approximately +50 Elo over Komodo 8 due to improved search, evaluation, and time management, as well as more efficient use of multiprocessing [18]. Most noticeable is the increase in search depth reached in a given amount of time, which is due to better extension, reduction, and pruning rules [19]. Further, Komodo 9 now features Chess960 and a persistant hash to save and restore analysis.

Komodo 10

On May 23, 2016, Komodo 10 came with revised and improved king safety, pawn storm and passed pawn evaluation, as well with revised LMR, NMP, IID and history heuristic concerning search, and is about 60 Elo stronger than Komodo 9 [20]. In July 2016, Komodo 10.x won the Shannon Trophy.

Komodo 11

On May 23, 2017, Komodo 11.01 was released, which corrected some minor issues of Komodo 11, which was already released by ChessBase a few days before. It is estimated about 55 Elo stronger than Komodo 10 at intermediate time controls, gains related to evaluation [21], revised quiescence search, singular extensions, LMR , and parallel search [22] . Komodo 11.2, released on July 17, 2017, was the version which won the WCCC 2017 [23]. Komodo 11.3 was released on March 04, 2018 with subsequent improvements [24]. It also comes with a BMI2 compile for compatible x86-64 processors - so far not recommend for AMD Ryzen due to its slow PEXT implementation [25].

Komodo 12

Komodo 12 was released in May 2018. Beside the classical, slightly improved engine, Komodo 12 features an optional Monte-Carlo Tree Search (MCTS), the release likely influenced by the AlphaZero hype. However, as confirmed by Mark Lefler [26] implementing MCTS was already an old idea of the Komodo team - also due to Don Dailey's computer Go experience building an UCT player.

Komodo MCTS

In Komodo's MCTS mode the search tree is expanded in best-first manner based on winning probabilities determined neither by random playouts nor by a neural network, but a tiny alpha-beta search plus quiescence and static evaluation, also similar to UCT, dealing with the crucial trade-off between exploration and exploitation. While playing strength is lower with MCTS, positional play and judgement may well be better in many positions [27], not to mention a more risky and entertaining playing style.

Tournament Play

Komodo played the ICT 2010 in Leiden over the board, and further the CCT12 and CCT14. It had its first tournament success in 2013, when it won the CCT15 with 6½/7, and further the CCT16 in 2014 with 5½/6.

TCEC

In 2013, Komodo started to play the TCEC, most often fighting with Stockfish for the title. Komodo won the TCEC Season 5, TCEC Season 7 in 2014, and the TCEC Season 8 in Fall 2015.

WCCC / WCSC / WCRCC

2015

At the WCCC 2015 in Leiden, Komodo 9.x won the Blitz tournament, and became runner-up behind and losing from the massively parallel and distributed Jonny which played on a cluster of 100x24 cores. After the revenge winning against Jonny at the equal hardware WCSC 2015 a few days later, Komodo was unlucky and made too many draws against apparently weaker opponents [28], to became third behind Shredder and Ginkgo. Two weeks later, Komodo won the WCRCC 2015 convincingly with 9/9!

KomodoTeamWCCC2015.JPG

Komodo team Erdogan Günes and Mark Lefler during the WCCC 2015 in Leiden [29]

2016

The 2016 ICGA tournaments in Leiden were a huge success for Komodo 10.x, which did not only won the Shannon Trophy in the open hardware World Computer Chess Championship after a nerve-racking six games play-off versus defending champion Jonny - Komodo with 48 threads on 60 core Intel i7 versus Jonny's cluster of 100x24 AMD cores, but also the equal hardware World Chess Software Championship with 5/6 - 1½ points ahead of runner-up Jonny and Shredder. Two weeks later Komodo defended its ACCA title in rapid chess at the WCRCC 2016 with 14 wins and one draw versus runner-up Andscacs, that is 14½ out of 15.

WCCC2016 TeamKomodoShannonTrophy.jpg

WCCC 2016, Komodo team Erdogan Günes and Mark Lefler with Shannon Trophy [30]

2017

In 2017, Komodo could defend it titles at the WCRCC 2017 online, and the soon later released Komodo 11.2 the ICGA WCCC 2017 over the board, again in a play-off versus Jonny. Komodo further became runner-up at the uniform hardware WCSC 2017 behind Shredder.

WCCC2017 Erdo ShannonTrophy.JPG

WCCC 2017, Komodo opening book author and operator Erdogan Günes with the Shannon Trophy [31]

2018

In 2018 Komodo 12 continued its success by winning the ICGA WCCC 2018, WCSC 2018 and Blitz tournaments in Stockholm, and later that year the WCRCC 2018 online.

Quotes

Promotions

Don Dailey on Minor Promotions [32] :

Komodo never looks at rook or bishop under promotions and only looks at knight under promotions when it gives check. But even for the knight case there are positions where my rule won't find the right move. 

Evaluation

Centered Point Values

In 2012, Don Dailey gave following point values in a kind of millipawn scale, tapered between opening and endgame phase with knight and bishop values constant - positional scores from mobility and piece square tables centered around zero [33] :

Pawn Knight Bishop Rook Queen
Opening 600 3100 3225 4350 9100
Ending 925 3100 3225 5475 9700

Quality of Knowledge

Don Dailey in a reply to Vincent Diepeveen [34] :

Don, Your program is kind of a beancounter that relies heavily positional upon piece square tables. 
You could not be more incorrect. We have piece square tables in Komodo that are a very minor part of Komodo and get very small weights but Komodo puts a huge emphasis on getting the evaluation right with hundreds of evaluation terms that are carefully balanced to produce a find positional chess program. I personally believe that Komodo has the best evaluation function of any chess program in the world.
...
Total amount of knowledge is not what is important, it's the QUALITY of the knowledge that is. Komodo tries to have the most balanced evaluation function possible, and probably much more knowledge than most programs. I don't believe in quantity but Komodo evolved to have a lot of knowledge anyway - probably because every piece of knowledge in Komodo is needed. I tried removing knowledge in Komodo to get speed and we were not able to remove ANYTHING without noticing that it weakened Komodo, at least slightly. 

Lazy Evaluation

Don Dailey on Selectivity and Lazy Evaluation [35] :

Komodo pushes the selectivity pretty hard and we DO get a decent nodes per second increase with Lazy evaluation but the problem is that we get a big increase in nodes. It is this way because we assume we will not make scout if the guesstimate is too low. So we miss some of the beta cutoffs, you cannot have your cake and eat it too. Komodo's positional component can vary enormously so we do take a lot of damage positionally when we use lazy margins. 

Node Counting

Don Dailey on counting nodes in Komodo 4 [36] :

 As Larry mentioned we are counting nodes differently. More specifically, both versions have always counted a node when a move is made, but Komodo 3 would count nodes that were forward pruned (if the move was actually executed) and Komodo 4 does not. In Komodo 3 I figured that if any work was done (such as attack testing after making the move) it should count as a node. But in Komodo 4 we changed this because the move is technically being pruned (even if we had to check it out a bit first.) Of course if a move is searched or reduced it is counted in both versions.
It's mostly semantics, but we get more stable node counts and this works better for fixed node testing which we sometimes do.
I have several things in mind for getting serious speedups in future versions of Komodo which will bring the speed of Komodo back up to that of other programs, or at least not as far away. I believe Komodo is one of the slower programs in terms of raw search speed as we have put a really heavy focus on having a smart program and little on heavy optimization. The reasoning is the same for delaying the MP stuff too, we want to start with a really strong program before we play the optimization games. 

Parallel Search

Don Dailey about aspects of parallel search in Komodo 5.1 MP [37]

How you approach a problem is strongly related to how you DEFINE a problem or task. The goal of MP is to make the program play as well as possible using more cores, to take advantage of the hardware as fully as possible and the only measure that really matters (at least to us) is playing strength. We ALL wish that our program played as if it they were 4x faster when playing on 4 cores - but nobody gets that kind of efficiency.
Some have implied that we search wider because we don't get quite the same increase in depth and that this is a horrible thing. The intuition is that if that if it works you could do it on 1 thread too. However I do not think that follows. The problem is that 4 threads is just not 4x better than 1 thread no matter how good your MP implementation, so it always comes down to how to best utilize what you have. Anything goes in my opinion if it gets more out of extra cores in terms of ELO.
It is well known that programs do not scale well beyond a few processors. Going from 128 to 256 processors gives you very little. One of the things Larry and I want to do is to explore how to better exploit more and more cores and hopefully what we learn will translate to better performance on few cores. It is unlikely to be minor refinements to what we already do.
I'm not breaking new ground as this has been studied for decades and lots of ideas have been tried - I'm not pretending otherwise. But we will look at new original ideas we come up with and revisit old-fashioned ideas that have been tried in the past. A lot of the old ideas which have been rejected have later come back to life, so there is no idea that is off-limits.
As far as whether searching "wider" is a bad thing and isn't real parallelism, I disagree with that. If 4 cores were 4 times better than one I probably would agree but since it isn't, we have to determine where the effort is best spent. If you have 11 people in the room and 10 are doctors and the one who isn't has a heart attack, what is the best use of the doctors time? Not all 10 doctors can give CPR even though normally that would be very best use of their talent, but surely one of them will be calling for an ambulance while another will be doing CPR and the rest will be doing whatever they can to assist, even in little ways.
So if you are getting very little benefit out of additional processors you need to figure out if there is something else they can do to be more useful. Perhaps one thing is to deal with the lines that are severely reduced in the single core program? 

Larry Kaufman in October 2018 [38]:

Komodo (regular, not MCTS) has had a problem for many years now when running on many cores with large hash tables, as in TCEC. It takes several minutes to reach full speed. In three or four hour games this is not a big deal, but in a blitz event it is absolutely fatal, as you can see. I'm glad to report that Mark has finally solved the problem (as far as we can test, up to 36 cores), and this fix should be in time for the next TCEC and for our next release. Hopefully the next CCC event should show a huge difference. 

See also

Publications

Forum Posts

2010

2011

2012

Re: The scaling of Houdini 3 and Komodo 5 by Don Dailey, CCC, November 16, 2012

2013

Re: Komodo TCEC: Serious castling bug ! by Mark Lefler, CCC, December 11, 2013

2014

Komodo 8

2015

Komodo 9

Re: Komodo 9 Announcement by Mark Lefler, CCC, April 28, 2015

2016

Komodo 10

2017

Komodo 11

2018

Re: Komodo 11.3 by Mark Lefler, CCC, March 04, 2018 » AMD, BMI2 PEXT

Komodo 12

Re: Komodo 12 and MCTS by Mark Lefler, CCC, May 14, 2018
Re: Komodo MCTS and Komodo (Standard?) in CCCC current Blitz battle by Larry Kaufman, CCC, October 16, 2018

Matches

What will the match score be for Komodo against FM Bolzoni? by Larry Kaufman, CCC, July 22, 2015
  1. Komodo vs Bolzoni, 1st game Broadcast by Vincent Lejeune, CCC, July 26, 2015
  2. Komodo vs Bolzoni, 2nd game Broadcast by Vincent Lejeune, CCC, July 26, 2015
  3. Komodo vs Bolzoni, 3rd game Broadcast by Vincent Lejeune, CCC, July 26, 2015
  4. Komodo vs Bolzoni, 4th game Broadcast by Vincent Lejeune, CCC, August 02, 2015
  5. Komodo vs Bolzoni, 5th game Broadcast by Vincent Lejeune, CCC, August 02, 2015
  6. Komodo vs Bolzoni, 6th (and last) game Broadcast by Vincent Lejeune, CCC, August 02, 2015

External Links

Chess Engine

Purchase

Available Versions of Komodo

Interviews

Reports

Komodo 8

Android

Komodo 9

Komodo 10

Komodo 11

Komodo 12

Rating Lists

Misc

References

  1. Komodo Chess Engine - World Champion Chess Computer
  2. Komodo 4 UCI chess engine download
  3. Available Versions of Komodo
  4. Komodo chess engine by Don Dailey and Larry Kaufman - Downloads
  5. Komodo CCT release by Don Dailey, CCC, May 03, 2013
  6. Komodo 5.1 MP has been released by Don Dailey, CCC, June 17, 2013
  7. Komodo release by Don Dailey, CCC, October 01, 2013
  8. Re: Who is Don/Larry's new partner!? by Don Dailey, CCC, October 08, 2013
  9. Official announcement - New Komodo Author by Don Dailey, CCC, October 14, 2013
  10. Komodo chess engine - Don Daily (1956 - 2013)
  11. Don Dailey, 1956-2013 by Larry Kaufman, CCC, November 23, 2013
  12. Komodo TCEC released by Larry Kaufman, CCC, December 04, 2013
  13. Komodo chess engine - Komodo 7
  14. Re: Komodo Syzygy evals by Larry Kaufman, CCC, May 21, 2014
  15. Komodo chess engine - Komodo 8
  16. More on Komodo 8 by Aart Bik, September 9, 2014
  17. Komodo 8 - ChessBase Shop, September 10, 2014
  18. Komodo chess engine - Komodo 9
  19. Komodo 9 Announcement by Larry Kaufman, CCC, April 22, 2015
  20. Komodo chess engine - Komodo 10
  21. Komodo 11.01 by Larry Kaufman, CCC, May 23, 2017
  22. Komodo 11 - Change Log
  23. Komodo 11.2 by Larry Kaufman, CCC, July 17, 2017
  24. Komodo 11.3 released by Larry Kaufman, CCC, March 04, 2018
  25. Re: Komodo 11.3 by Mark Lefler, CCC, March 04, 2018 » AMD, BMI2 PEXT
  26. Re: Komodo 12 and MCTS by Mark Lefler, CCC, May 14, 2018
  27. Komodo 12 and MCTS by Larry Kaufman, CCC, May 14, 2018
  28. THE upset of the WC: Maverick-Komodo drawn! by Jeroen Noomen, CCC, July 05, 2015
  29. Photo by Gerd Isenberg
  30. ICGA Events 2016: Photos Day 7 by Jan Krabbenbos
  31. Photo by Gerd Isenberg, July 07, 2017
  32. Re: Botvinnik Markov revisited by Don Dailey, CCC, June 27, 2010
  33. Re: What is the correct value of the pieces? by Don Dailey, CCC, October 10, 2012
  34. Re: How effective is move ordering from TT? by Don Dailey, CCC, August 10, 2012
  35. Re: Lazy eval by Don Dailey, CCC, December 02, 2011
  36. Re: Don- Don't understand Komodo 4?? A bug?? by Don Dailey, CCC, December 26, 2011
  37. Re: Peculiarity of Komodo 5.1MP by Don Dailey, CCC, June 19, 2013
  38. Re: Komodo MCTS and Komodo (Standard?) in CCCC current Blitz battle by Larry Kaufman, CCC, October 16, 2018
  39. Part 1 covers Houdini, Rybka, Komodo, Stockfish, Critter, Naum, Chiron and Spike
  40. Victor Angel Bolzoni - Wikipedia.br (Breton)
  41. Victor Mikhalevski from Wikipedia
  42. Hikaru Nakamura from Wikipedia
  43. Regan's latest: Depth of Satisficing by Carl Lumma, CCC, October 09, 2015
  44. Roanoke Star from Wikipedia
  45. Komodo 8: Deep Blue revisited (1/2) by Graham Banks, CCC, December 27, 2014
  46. Komodo Android Experiment by Ted Summers, CCC, September 24, 2014

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