We have no evidence that top humans have a chance to beat GM's with 2 pawns handicap.chessico wrote:I may be wrong, but it looks like the final result, correctly including the conceded game, was not even posted "officially". When I looked for it, all I could find is some remarks from Larry, and the very important fact that Komodo had actually won a game, that was not even on the schedule. The GM had no chance to prepare for it, just saying. So no result, but some random success that has nothing to do with the announced event. That's what made me a little uneasy ...Jesse Gersenson wrote: Yes, we conceded the 6th f2/c2 game. Neuman demonstrated, very methodically, how to win against f2/c2 odds.
People may buy this "for fun and in order to learn something"-stuff, but let's be honest and admit it is a marketing event, of course. It did not go as expected, and I would find it much better style to give this fact some room to be processed by the potential customers.
The basic "problem" (of course, there is not really one) is that Komodo cannot develop a strategy to deal with any kind of handicap situation. That's because it never does develop a strategy. The stupid humans like Carlsen, Kasparov etc. would have much better chances to beat an opponent like Neuman under the given circumstances, because they can develop a strategy. So the whole event actually highlights the general problems of computer chess instead of showing how much engines have improved. While a player whose Elo is only 200 Elo higher can potentially win in such a situation, the engine needs an absurd rating advantage because of its inflexibility to adapt to the situation.
Kasparov played against clearly weaker player and did not win easily.
Computers may be weaker than top humans with a big handicap but I think that you need queen handicap to show it and it may be interesting to have a tournament when both GM's and machines play against relatively weak players with queen handicap to see who does better.
I would like to see both Komodo and some GM in a competition like the world championship for boys under 8 when both start every game without Queen d1.
I am sure that it is possible to beat part of the players in this competition with a queen handicap but not all of them.