Nakamura To Play Komodo 24CPU In Odds Match

Nakamura To Play Komodo 24CPU In Odds Match
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The strongest computer chess engine in history will face one of the strongest humans on earth next week in an odds chess match on Chess.com.

Komodo will play GM Hikaru Nakamura in a four-game match, January 6 and 7, live on Chess.com/TV and Twitch.tv/chess. Two games will be played each day, starting at 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. Pacific time. The time control for each game is 45 minutes plus a 15-second increment.

Komodo, the reigning computer world champion, is rated 3366 on the CCRL "pure" list, and is unquestionably the strongest chess-playing entity ever created.

Nakamura, a world championship candidate currently ranked number five in the world, will face the machine as the strongest human chess player to battle a computer in a formal match since Garry Kasparov lost to Deep Blue in 1997.

Nakamura has previous experience playing computers, most notably in last year's Chess.com event pairing Nakamura and Rybka against Stockfish. Stockfish won that match by a score of 3-1.

Komodo is even stronger than Stockfish, winning a 100-game match between the two, 53.5-46.5, in the recent TCEC engine superfinal to claim the title of computer world champion.

In September, the Chess.com journalist Peter Doggers wrote a news preview of Komodo-Nakamura, which takes a look at the history of man vs. machine chess matches.

The four-game match will use the following odds positions:

1. Pawn-and-move odds: Nakamura as White, Komodo as Black, f7 pawn removed, White to move -- January 6 at 8 a.m. Pacific on Chess.com/TV.

[fen]rnbqkbnr/ppppp1pp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR[/fen]

2. Pawn odds: Komodo as White, Nakamura as Black, f2 pawn removed, White to move -- January 6 at 1 p.m. Pacific on Chess.com/TV.

[fen]rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPP1PP/RNBQKBNR[/fen]

3. Exchange odds: Komodo as White, Nakamura as Black, a1 rook removed, b8 knight removed, Black rook on b8, White to move -- January 7 at 8 a.m. Pacific on Chess.com/TV.

[fen]1rbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/1NBQKBNR[/fen]

4. Four-move odds: Nakamura as White, Komodo as Black, White pawns on e4 and d4, White knight on f3, White to move -- January 7 at 1 p.m. Pacific on Chess.com/TV.

[fen]rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/3PP3/5N2/PPP2PPP/RNBQKB1R[/fen]