Google's self-learning AI AlphaZero masters chess in 4 hours

you hi everyone it's Jerry 1997 marked an important time in chess history that was when IBM's deep blue became the first computer to win a match against a reigning world champion Garry Kasparov fast forward two decades computers nowadays are well beyond the play of humans today 2017 also marks an important time in chess history the deepmind division at Google headquarters has already tackled the game of Go and now it's looking to conquer chess and it appears that they have with the program alpha 0 alpha zero is equipped with two key components one deep neural networks which is a way to process information that are inspired by biological systems like the brain and to a general reinforcement learning algorithm that basically means alpha zero knows nothing beyond the rules of the game no opening Theory no endgame tablebases it simply plays from scratch and continually improves from every game it plays against itself well certainly learned by playing against itself it did this for just four hours and then went on to defeat the 2016 top chess engine champion stockfish eight in a 100 game match let that sink in for a moment chess is nearly 1500 years old and after all these years spent acquiring knowledge about the game were bested by alpha zero after it learned for just four hours the final tally the final result of this 100 game match alpha zero 128 games with 72 draws in every good math student knows how many losses the game I like to share with you alpha zero is playing with the black pieces this is one of three games alpha zero one with black there is an advantage playing with the white pieces having the first move of the game is an advantage so how did alpha zero managed to win when playing with black let's find out we have an e4 e5 game Ray Lopez Berlin defense I'm running stockfish eight on my system as I play through this game by the way not the same hardware as what was used for the match if you're interested in that information the hardware check out the link in the description for that and much more information there's a 19 page PDF about this match continuing d3 Bishop c5 chop chop that right there is the first capture and we're not gonna see another one for about 40 moves a lot of maneuvering goes on in this one there's only 10 games by the way that have been made available to the public ten of the 100 games I'm really interested in seeing these other 90 so let's get on that Google can we see these other 90 it's uh I'm interested and I'm sure many viewers are interested in seeing these other alpha0 games so Bishop d6 this guy here by the way does not budge for I believe the rest of the game he stays put there's some pressure applied to him and he is reinforced numerous times as we'll see with the Queen first a pawn next eventually a rook defends e5 a5 is there to expand on the Queen side I have some Queen side space Queen c2 Knight f8 and after this structural change c4 c5 we have d5 an interesting moment in the game a pretty static structure for sure it's a maneuvering game many instance is a fixed pawn a fixed a center d5 is one of just a few moves white makes in blacks position we have d5 we have much later on a simple capture on defy or really a recapture on d5 and once we're at a point where white is already lost we'll see a move from a4 and a5 but beyond that beyond these three simple moves in blacks position there's really no other action white isn't isn't even allowed to really step foot in blacks house so let's see how things progress a little stabilizing move with b6 this Knight is eyeing up f5 but alpha zero has you know that's just not going to happen Knight f3 Bishop d7 things are looking you know equal ish little actually stock fish ate right now is a plus point five and was even a little bit more just a moment ago but after h3 this is another point in the game that I'd like to touch on the one that I find interesting the ten games that have been released they were all all had their interesting points but what I liked about this is that alpha zero one with black of course and it apparently already understands that this is a position where white struggles to find a constructive pawn break where is there a a good pawn break for white that will let's say improve the quality of the pieces I don't see it unfortunately for white we're going to observe a lot of nothing moves non-committal shuffling King moves Bishop moves meanwhile black is able to slowly make some progress let's see how this is done these are very interesting a very very slick maneuver that black pulls off here Queen g7 we're not we're not quite at that point but it's it's it's it's nearby a three page six Bishop to h4 I'd like you to take note of these positions right here the bishop in the rook this is the first time we're seeing this position right here Bishop on g3 rook on e7 Bishop h4 is played route to f7 Bishop g3 is played the rook returns to e7 this is now the second time the second instance of this very position why am i drawing attention to this well light continues with Bishop to h4 wrote to f7 and white goes back to g3 what does this mean what is one way to maybe interpret this well if alpha zero wants a draw if alpha zero wants this game to be over it'll move this rook to e7 in the game becomes a draw due to threefold repetition it's one of the rules black with the next move says play ball no drum a form clamping down on these two pawns black wants more so apparently alpha zero recognizes that it's better here even though you know we're seeing on the screen stockfish is slightly better again not the same hardware but yeah apparently alpha zero thinks it's a it's better here otherwise it it would have gone for the repetition I would think what do I know what do we know let's see King - h1 this is what I mean by a bit of a nothing move you can't you don't know if the King is any better on g1 than h wonders it's just a passing non-committal move so rook to e7 this is another case where take note of these two positions currently bishop on g3 rook on f7 rookie seven bishop h4 rook f7 rook g3 this is now the second time we have this same position rook to e7 Bishop h4 if alpha zero moves this rook now to this square that gives white an opportunity to return to g3 and claim a threefold repetition once more alpha zero says no I want more g5 is played bishop g3 Knight g6 this is a beautiful square for the knight possible jumping points on f4 and h4 but now black is preparing to simply negate the knight Knight e3 is met with Knight to e7 fighting for the f5 square clean to d3 and now black as mentioned earlier is going to make some steady progress kicking out first with an expansion on the kingside h5 h4 and now Knight to c8 the beginning of a very nice maneuver a habit pointed this out yet but this Bishop has been suffering from tall pond syndrome uh he does not belong there the most efficient piece to blockade the d5 pawn is a knight why well he's not completely defensive like the bishop for one he's actually a very good attacking piece putting pressure on the e 4 and C 4 points so this is what we're gonna have G for the queen is getting out of the way so the bishop can go to a much more active diagonal and the knight can simply drop into d6 this is a wonderful a way to reposition the pieces very very instructive King to g1 again a lot of nothing moves by white the Knights looking for a c3 Knight d6 Bishop to h6 rip to f1 that move is very difficult I just do not know what in the world is going on with rikta aah I guess maybe anticipating some break over here or some pressure against a four I cannot really say what's going on with that move so we see a shift in the evaluation by the way it's already it's in the negatives now stockfish is not liking its position and it's just going to get worse so we have the king coming over towards the center with still all this traffic on board it may seem a little bit crazy to do this but there is some security with the king being on the e6 square so bishop for Knight exchange not sure how good the bishops are in these locked positions really the the key pieces in this position are the Knights and let's take it take these posts into account night comparison who's doing better it's definitely the Black Knight he's putting pressure on the white pieces that require the defense of white pieces meanwhile this knight is staring at his own pawns and squares that he's never going to be able to successfully jump into these forward moves by the white knight are all no good either illegal or just yeah he's negated very easily white is on the defensive white also if we compare the King positions is much better off the white King stands on a half-open file for black meanwhile the black King is on a closed file black has a much more secure King and will find it much easier to shift pieces now over towards the King side of the board what will the White King do let's find out Bishop - eh Queen h7 that's just anticipating rook g3 so we're going to have some major pieces coming off one rook and now a second rook the Queen's and in minor pieces Queen is looking to invade Knight to d2 prevents this a growing advantage as we can see from the stockfish eight engine I'm running King h2 King to d7 is probably the better square staying on a light square so he's not going to ever move and give check so white tries to make some progress over here on the Queen side with a pawn move this is not helping this pawn you know he's still both of these guys here still gonna remain weak so Queen to g6 you have to defend efore so night there and that that is blocking the the Queen site of d1 so blacks able to now sneak the bishop in well beyond well behind enemy lines here looking for some maneuver Bishop to a form at any point if white is not careful this bishop can get into position to maybe hunt down the c-4 pond so the white pieces constantly have to keep a watchful eye over these points it's all because of this knight on d6 that great reposition that we saw getting into the d6 square so a lot of things progress here we're eventually going to have a queen exchange and now this King is way out of play and without the Queen around these guys easily fall to both the bishop and night they can be attacked twice and there could only ever be one defender and he's it meanwhile wherever this bishop goes he's just biting on rocks what do you do techie five tech f5 does nothing so what is tried is this little breaking up type thing softening up the c5 square White's trying to get at this point but the knight is there prepared to meet a five with Knight takes pawn keeping the structure as is in other words eventually we're gonna have these pawns drop there isn't a good way to defend c6 break is in this is what I meant by one of the moves in blacks position a simple recapture which is really not like a move in blacks position a recapturing move like that but black is now up one pawn this King is finally getting involved he was way out of play and we're gonna have the Knights off an opposite colored Bishop bending an outside past pawn which is very valuable and eventually the black King is able to make some progress where is he headed the bishop controls this pawn advance the King is headed for this square here where he simply Forks those two pawns and is gonna win one so that's exactly what happens nothing much that black can do about that it's a second pawn one for alphago or excuse me alpha zero and after we get to this point here King to e6 move 87 stockfish has had enough this is where the game ends stockfish throws in the towel if the game continued how it might play out this is just one of many ways it could have finished right down to let's say check me on just throw all the moves out there that's one fancy way the game could have ended but in this one it only got to move 87 right here after King to e6 stockfish resigns so this is really I don't know mind-blowing is one of the terms that comes to mind here what are your thoughts of this alpha 0 be sure to leave a comment below and I'm looking forward to your replies this is just some fascinating stuff that we're being made aware of it's really it's a really exciting time to be involved with chess and I'm looking forward to any comments you have in the comment section below so as usual feel free to leave any feedback and I hope you got something out of this video that's all for now take care bye you

Channel: ChessNetwork

Views: 1,461,833

Rating: 4.8631191 out of 5

Keywords: alphazero, alpha zero, alpha zero vs stockfish, alpha zero chess, alphazero vs stockfish, alpha zero vs stockfish 8, chess, chessnetwork, chess network, chess ai, google's deepmind, deep neural networks, general reinforcement learning algorithm, best chess player ever, alphazero masters chess, google's alphazero masters chess, google's deepmind ai

Id: 0g9SlVdv1PY

Length: 18min 10sec (1090 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 07 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/ayyeeeeeelmao]

Interesting to see that in some games it won with ambitious and aggressive sacrifices, and in some games like this it just wore stockfish down positionally until it ended up in a winning position. I know it's basically a meme at this point but this thing really does play like a human.

[u/teh_force]

I've never really liked looking at engine games but these games have seem pretty instructional to me. I liked Jerry's analysis here, especially noting about having the knight block the pawn instead of the bishop.

[u/ddssassdd]

I can't wait to see the Starcraft iteration.

[u/urjah]

It almost looks like it doesn’t have a style at all. It’s like - chess evolution has always been about some people showing that the current understanding of chess is insufficient - People grew out of romantic era of throwing all out attacks from move 1, capablanca introduced harmony and positional maneuvering, Tal showed that level of defense of the time was too low and so on.

For me it seems that AlphaZero doesn’t discriminate any aspect of chess. For it, material, piece activity and pawn structures etc are just another aspects of positional chess that sometimes are important and sometimes not. It’s a dynamic game after all. Reviewing the white games reminded me of Jacob Aagaard quote from one of his books that goes something like: "To be a strong positional player, it is required to have somewhat liberal approach to material. Material is just another factor of positional chess. What good is a material lead of a Bishop and a pawn versus a lone king, if it’s the classic wrong corner situation, and the defending king gets to the corner? Clearly the king position compensates for the material disadvantage.”

Of course no human can ever have the tactical vision to prevent stockfish from untangling itself from the positions it got in the French/queen’s indian games, but clearly AlphaZero assessed the piece activity and space advantage to be more important than material, and it certainly seems like it was right. From what I know, it might not need point counts for pieces or any other defined factor for assessing positions, it maybe simply assesses the positions as they are as a whole and goes for the most promising variation. Material, space advantage and piece activity are, after all, human concepts that help in making sense of chess, the AI might not need them at all.

[u/itstomis]

I love Jerry but I found this analysis kinda lacking. There are some good points, like the rerouting of the bishop/knight, but for the most part it felt like he was just telling us the moves that were played.

Maybe I'm the stupid one for expecting a deep analysis when the video is only like 15 minutes long, but it's totally unclear to me which moves by Stockfish were slightly inaccurate and where it went wrong. Then again, the Danny Rensch analysis of game 3 is around the same length but much more thorough.

[u/darksideofearth]

What kind of timing was used in these games? Standard 2 hours for 40 moves?

[u/__redruM]

Stockfish has deficiencies that no human player can find. But they had to be there.

[u/[deleted]]

I want to see Alpha zero try it's hand with law. What would its policies be?

[u/[deleted]]

I'm off on a wild tangent but I wonder if they'll eventually use deepmind to decipher the language for other species. Will we eventually be able to communicate efficiently with whales, dolphins, elephants?