Chess has long been a field to check the capabilities of AI. Today, the best engines like Stockfish are analyzing millions of positions per second, and ordinary players are almost impossible to compete with them. People also complain that such bots play “not humanly”-their moves are strange and incomprehensible. Soon everything will be different.
This problem solved the graduate student of Carnegie-Mellon Yimin Zhang, creating a chess bot Allie. Unlike classic engines, Allie did not study on the miscalculations of positions, but at 91 million parties played by people. Therefore, his style is as close as possible to the human: he attacks, defends, and even “thinks” in critical moments.
Researchers note that Allie demonstrates the level of Grossmaster’s game, especially in parties against strong rivals. But the main thing is that playing against him is useful: his moves are understandable, and training becomes “natural”.
Since the launch on the Lichess Allie platform has already played over 11,500 batches, of which it won more than 6,500. The bot is available to everyone, and absolutely free and open source. You can only try it in the blitz mode, as well as observe his parties in real time.
