Comparison of Top Chess Players Throughout History - Moves Played Compared With Computer Choices

Moves Played Compared With Computer Choices

A computer-based method of analyzing chess abilities across history came from Matej Guid and Ivan Bratko from the Department of Computer and Information Science of University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 2006. The basis for their evaluation was the difference between the position values resulting from the moves played by the human chess player and the moves chosen as best by the chess program Crafty. They also compared the average number of errors in the player's game. Opening moves were excluded, in an attempt to negate the progress in chess opening theory.

The method received a number of criticisms, including: the study used a modified version of Crafty rather than the standard version; even the standard version of Crafty was not strong enough to evaluate the world champions' play; one of the modifications restricted the search depth to 12 half-moves, which is often insufficient. As of 2006 Crafty's Elo rating was 2657, below many historical top human players and several other computer programs.

A similar project was conducted in 2007 using Rybka 2.3.2a and a modified version of Crafty 20.14. It arrived at the following results:

Position best year best 2-year period best 3-year period best 5-year period best 10-year period best 15-year period
1 Fischer Fischer Fischer Fischer; Kasparov Fischer; Capablanca Capablanca
2 Kramnik Kramnik; Capablanca; Kasparov Capablanca; Kasparov Karpov; Kramnik
3 Kasparov Capablanca Kramnik
4 Botvinnik Smyslov Kramnik; Botvinnik Kasparov Smyslov; Kasparov
5 Capablanca Karpov; Smyslov Botvinnik Karpov; Smyslov
6 Karpov Kramnik Smyslov Fischer
7 Smyslov; Tal Botvinnik; Alekhine Karpov Karpov; Lasker Botvinnik; Spassky Botvinnik; Spassky; Petrosian
8 Spassky; Lasker
9 Petrosian Anand Alekhine; Anand Anand
10 Euwe Tal; Spassky Anand Lasker; Petrosian Anand
11 Spassky Petrosian Petrosian; Spassky Tal
12 Alekhine; Anand Lasker; Euwe Tal; Alekhine Tal; Alekhine Alekhine; Lasker
13 Euwe; Tal
14 Lasker Petrosian Euwe Euwe Euwe
15 Morphy Morphy Morphy Steinitz Steinitz Steinitz
16 Steinitz Steinitz Steinitz

An analysis done with Rybka 3 and comparisons with modern ratings can be found at http://web.zone.ee/chessanalysis/summary450.pdf.

Read more about this topic:  Comparison Of Top Chess Players Throughout History

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