Ares (Charles Roberson) Games

Ares seemed to be the wildcard program in the group with some critical results knocking programs out of playoffs. The first was in the World Computer Chess Software Championships. Ares had some losses due to me being very jet lagged the first day. The second day I was better but not recovered and helped Ares manage a draw with Raptor in the final round. Prior to that round Raptor was in a four way tie for first. The game ended with Raptor offering a draw with 4 min 58 seconds on its clock while Ares had 47 seconds on the clock. It was the last game to finish, thus drew a crowd of spectators. The move 2.c3 was due to insufficient book preparation, but worked out.

[Event “2024 World Computer Chess SW Championships”]
[Site “Santigo de Compostela, Spain”]
[Date “2024.10.20”]
[Round “9”]
[White “Ares 5.30avx512q w64adv”]
[Black “Raptor”]
[Result “1/2-1/2”]
[ECO “A40”]

1.d4 c6 2.c3 d5 3.Nf3 Bg4 4.Bf4 Bxf3 5.exf3 e6 6.Nd2 Bd6 7.Bxd6 Qxd6 8.g3 Nd7 9.Bg2 Ngf6 10.O-O O-O 11.a4 a5 12.Re1 b5 13.Nb3 Qc7 14.axb5 cxb5 15. Nc1 Ne8 16.Nd3 Nd6 17.Qe2 b4 18.cxb4 axb4 19.Rac1 Qa7 20.Nxb4 Qxd4 21.Nc6 Qb6 22.f4 Rfe8 23.b4 h5 24.Red1 Nf6 25.Rc2 Nc4 26.Ne5 Nxe5 27.fxe5 Nd7 28. Qxh5 Qxb4 29.Re2 g6 30.Qg5 Kg7 31.h4 Nf8 32.Qf6+ Kg8 33.Qg5 Rec8 34.Bh3 Rc4 35.Bg2 Qb3 36.Red2 Rc2 37.Rd3 Qb2 38.Rf3 Rc3 39.Rxc3 Qxc3 40.h5 Nh7 41.Qf4 g5 42.Qd4 Qc2 43.Bf3 Ra4 44.Qe3 Qf5 45.Rc1 Kg7 46.g4 Qf4 47.Rc7 Ra8 48.Rb7 Rd8 49.Rb6 Rc8 50.Rb7 Rd8 51.Rb6 Ra8 52.Rb7 Ra2 53.Rc7 Ra1+ 54.Kg2 Ra2 55.Kg1 Ra1+ 56.Kg2 Qb4 57.Qd3 Nf8 58.Qe3 Nh7 59.Qd3 Nf8 60.Qe3 1/2-1/2

This game was from round 2 of the World Computer Chess Championships. Ares drew GridChess with Fritz. Fritz was running on 704 CPUs. Ares was running  on an AMD Ryzen 9 7945hx, but using only 1 CPU. I coded MPI for distributed computing into Ares over a decade earlier in LINUX. However, the port to Microsoft wasn’t working limiting Ares to 1 CPU. However, I did use a Llano laptop cooler which gave Ares a speedup of 5.8% in NPS.

This game was especially neat for me, because it was a Grunfeld defense. I personally play the Grunfeld and play this line. There was a point where I thought Ares had a chance with a passer, but it tossed it then split white’s pawn structure and created a fortress position. After that the game lasted quite a while and Fritz went so far as to toss a pawn to reset the 50-move rule counter. Frank Schneider was operating Fritz until time got low for both programs and (Mr. fast hands) Wolfgang Zugrav took over. I told them “… breaking out the fast hands …”. They said that is fair and it is an advantage of having a team. I agreed and said that I am honored by the effort.

[Event “2024 World Computer Chess Championships”]
[Site “Santiago de Compostela, Spain”]
[Date “2024.10.21”]
[Round “2”]
[White “GridChess with Fritz”]
[Black “Ares 5.30avx512q w64adv”]
[Result “1/2-1/2”]
[Opening “D97 Grunfeld: Russian, Byrne Variation”]
[Time “8:12:30”]

1. Nf3 Nf6 {0.00/0 0.0 } 2. c4 g6 {0.00/0 0.5 } 3. d4 Bg7 {0.00/0 0.0 } 4. Nc3 d5 {0.00/0 0.5 } 5. Qb3 dxc4 {0.00/0 0.0 } 6. Qxc4 O-O {0.00/0 0.0 } 7. e4 Nc6 {0.00/0 0.0 } 8. Be2 e5 {0.00/0 0.0 } 9. d5 Nd4 {0.00/0 0.0 } 10. Nxd4 exd4 {0.00/0 0.0 } 11. Qxd4 c6 {0.00/0 0.0 } 12. Qc4 b5 {0.00/0 0.0 } 13. Qxc6 Bd7 {0.00/0 0.0 } 14. Qd6 Re8 {0.00/0 0.0 } 15. e5 b4 {0.00/0 0.5 } 16. Qxb4 Rxe5 {0.00/0 0.0 } 17. O-O a5 {0.00/0 0.0 } 18. Qd4 Nxd5 {0.00/0 0.0 } 19. Bh6 Nxc3 {0.00/0 0.0 } 20. bxc3 Bf6 {0.00/0 0.0 } 21. Be3 Re8 {0.54/26 01:38.7 } 22. Qd2 Ba4 {0.00/34 01:07.3 } 23. Qxd8 {0.23/26 41.5 } Rexd8 {0.63/32 02:09.5 } 24. Rac1 Rab8 {0.07/28 42.3 } 25. Bf3 Rb2 {0.07/27 16.0 } 26. a3 Rbb8 {0.40/29 01:39.6 } 27. h3 Rb3 {0.00/31 50.0 } 28. c4 Rxa3 {0.00/33 55.6 } 29. c5 Bb5 {210.20/29 02:04.7 } 30. Rfe1 Bc3 {210.20/26 01:03.2 } 31. Bg5 Rc8 {1.32/30 37.1 } 32. Re3 Bb2 {210.20/30 01:03.4 } 33. Rb1 Rxc5 {2.42/35 34.5 } 34. Be7 Rxe3 {2.50/37 37.7 } 35. Bxc5 Rb3 {210.20/35 01:31.9 } 36. Bd4 Rxf3 {210.20/38 29.0 } 37. gxf3 Bxd4 {210.20/35 41.4 } 38. Rxb5 Bc3 {2.57/32 42.9 } 39. Rb8+ Kg7 {2.57/32 0.2 } 40. Rb7 Bd4 {2.81/35 28.3 } 41. Rc7 Kf6 {2.50/33 41.2 } 42. Kf1 h5 {2.50/34 23.2 } 43. Rb7 a4 {2.57/37 21.0 } 44. Rb4 Be5 {2.73/40 21.6 } 45. Rxa4 Kf5 {2.42/41 28.4 } 46. Ke2 g5 {2.57/38 19.0 } 47. Ke3 Bf4+ {2.65/41 26.0 } 48. Kd3 Be5 {2.50/36 9.9 } 49. Rc4 Bd6 {2.57/37 20.6 } 50. Rc6 Be5 {2.65/41 43.2 } 51. Ke3 Bf4+ {2.65/40 22.0 } 52. Ke2 Be5 {2.50/38 16.4 } 53. Rc5 Kf4 {2.50/37 27.1 } 54. Rc4+ Kf5 {2.65/39 23.1 } 55. Rb4 f6 {2.42/39 20.3 } 56. Ra4 Bd6 {2.42/39 14.2 } 57. Ra5+ Kf4 {2.26/40 25.3 } 58. Ra6 Be5 {2.50/41 15.3 } 59. Ra4+ Kf5 {2.42/41 25.3 } 60. Ke3 Bf4+ {2.65/38 12.4 } 61. Kd3 Be5 {2.57/36 5.3 } 62. Rb4 h4 {2.65/36 5.1 } 63. Ke3 Bf4+
{2.65/36 5.2 } 64. Ke2 Be5 {2.50/37 5.9 } 65. Rb5 Kf4 {2.73/40 12.5 } 66. Ra5 Bd6 {2.26/39 11.0 } 67. Ra4+ Kf5 {2.50/40 12.2 } 68. Ra6 Be5 {2.10/40 14.6 } 69. Ra5 Kf4 {2.18/39 11.8 } 70. Ra4+ Kf5 {210.20/40 15.5 } 71. Ke3 Bf4+ {2.42/39 10.9 } 72. Kd3 Be5 {2.50/37 5.2 } 73. Rc4 Bd6 {2.34/38 11.3 } 74. Rc6
Be5 {2.34/39 9.1 } 75. Ke3 Bf4+ {2.26/39 10.1 } 76. Ke2 Be5 {2.26/40 10.8 } 77. Rc5 Kf4 {2.26/44 14.4 } 78. Rc4+ Kf5 {2.10/44 10.0 } 79. Kf1 Bh2 {2.18/37 4.5 } 80. Rd4 Be5 {2.42/41 9.6 } 81. Re4 Bf4 {2.26/42 8.5 } 82. Ke2 Be5 {2.34/39 9.9 } 83. Rc4 Bd6 {2.26/39 9.5 } 84. Rd4 Be5 {2.26/40 7.5 } 85. Rd5
Kf4 {2.26/40 8.0 } 86. Rd7 Bc3 {2.26/38 5.7 } 87. Ra7 Be5 {2.26/38 3.2 } 88. Re7 Bd6 {2.26/40 7.6 } 89. Re4+ Kf5 {2.26/40 0.7 } 90. Re8 Kf4 {2.26/41 8.2 } 91. Re3 Be5 {2.03/40 13.0 } 92. Kf1 Kf5 {1.95/40 8.2 } 93. Rb3 Ba1 {1.87/37 4.8 } 94. Rb4 Be5 {210.20/37 12.4 } 95. Ra4 Bf4 {1.48/36 8.9 } 96. Ra5+ Be5
{1.32/36 3.5 } 97. Kg2 Kf4 {1.48/36 7.4 } 98. Ra4+ Kf5 {1.40/40 13.6 } 99. Rc4 Bd6 {1.40/40 7.8 } 100. Rc6 Bf4 {1.40/37 7.6 } 101. Rc5+ Be5 {1.56/36 10.9 } 102. Rd5 Kf4 {1.56/35 7.4 } 103. Rb5 Kf5 {1.32/36 10.7 } 104. Kf1 Kf4 {1.32/35 3.5 } 105. Rb3 Kf5 {1.32/37 9.6 } 106. Ke2 Kf4 {1.32/37 7.0 } 107. Rb6 Bc3 {0.85/25 7.4 } 108. Rb8 Be5 {0.85/35 7.4 } 109. Rc8 Bd6 {0.85/30 4.5 } 110. Rc6 Be5 {0.00/47 4.8 } 111. Rc4+ Kf5 {0.00/59 4.2 } 112. f4 Bxf4 {1.48/32 9.8 } 113. Kf3 Bd6 {0.00/1 2.0 } 114. Ra4 Bf4 {1.40/34 3.9 } 115. Ra5+ Be5 {1.40/34 3.9 } 116. Rb5 Kg6 {1.40/36 7.9 } 117. Rb6 Bf4 {1.40/32 4.3 } 118. Ke4 Bd2 {0.00/1 1.9 } 119. Rc6 Bf4 {1.56/30 6.6 } 120. Re6 Bh2 {1.32/34 7.5 } 121. Ra6 Bf4 {1.32/34 2.8 } 122. Ra5 Bb8 {1.32/35 5.7 } 123. Ra8 Bf4 {1.32/35 6.3 } 1/2-1/2

This game was a win against Tech 4 and interestingly enough another Grunfeld defense. Due to some issues, we started the game later than the others but  we progressed faster. Ares and Tech 4 were in book for 24 moves.

At move 29.Ra1, I commented to John Hamlen that I thought it was strategically weak. Black should want to move the bishop on a6 to a better square like b7 and Ra1 forces it to do so. On move 34, we see that Ares is thinking king position is going to be important and it does become critical later. At move 39, Ares starts a series of knight and king moves to achieve a considerable positional advantage. 

Around move 44, Dr. Schaeffer, who had been observing for several moves, commented that despite Ares score of 2.x in Ares favor the score had been constant for several moves. He noted that he’d seen many programs do that which ultimately meant it couldn’t see a way to convert the advantage and would draw. Despite my confidence in Ares endgame prowess, this made me concerned even though Tech 4 is clearly in a long term defensive position. But, there was nothing I could do other than watch. Move 49 looks like a strategic trade of bishop for knight. Black’s knight should be better than white’s  bishop given more attacking opportunities and maneuverability. By move 65, black’s knight is well placed and black’s king is moving into position. 

At move 68, black has a superior position, white’s game is practically zugwang and  white’s c3 pawn has been an obvious target for a while. White resigns on move 76.

[Event “2024 World Computer Chess Championships”]
[Site “Santiago de Compostela, Spain]
[Date “2024.10.22”]
[Time “2:36:36”]
[Round “4”]
[White “Tech 4”]
[Black “Ares 5.30avx512q w64adv”]
[Result “0-1”]
[Opening “D85 Grunfeld: Exchange Variation”]

1. d4 Nf6 {0.00/0 0.0 } 2. c4 g6 {0.00/0 0.0 } 3. Nc3 d5 {0.00/0 0.0 } 4. cxd5 Nxd5 {0.00/0 0.5 } 5. e4 Nxc3 {0.00/0 0.0 } 6. bxc3 Bg7 {0.00/0 0.0 } 7. Bb5+ c6 {0.00/0 0.0 } 8. Ba4 O-O {0.00/0 0.0 } 9. Ne2 b5 {0.00/0 0.0 } 10. Bb3 Bb7 {0.00/0 0.0 } 11. O-O c5 {0.00/0 0.0 } 12. d5 Nd7 {0.00/0 0.5 } 13. Rb1 a6 {0.00/0
0.0 } 14. Be3 Rc8 {0.00/0 0.0 } 15. Qd2 c4 {0.00/0 0.0 } 16. Bc2 e6 {0.00/0 0.0 } 17. dxe6 fxe6 {0.00/0 0.0 } 18. Qd6 Re8 {0.00/0 0.0 } 19. Rfd1 Ne5 {0.00/0 0.0 } 20. Qxd8 Rcxd8 {0.00/0 0.0 } 21. Rxd8 Rxd8 {0.00/0 0.0 } 22. a4 Ng4 {0.00/0 0.0 } 23. Bg5 Bf6 {0.00/0 0.0 } 24. Bxf6 Nxf6 {0.00/0 0.6 } 25. axb5 Rd2 {210.20/30 01:17.9 } 26. bxa6 Bxa6 {-0.62/28 14.6 } 27. Bd1 Nxe4 {-0.46/31 11.5 } 28. f3 Nf6 {-0.70/30 01:30.8 } 29. Ra1 Bb7 {-0.54/32 01:06.4 } 30. Ng3 Nd5 {-0.78/31 02:45.3 } 31. Be2 Nf4 {-0.85/34 5.7 } 32. Re1 Rc2 {210.20/34 02:46.1 } 33. Bf1 Bd5 {210.20/36 1.5 } 34. Ne4 Kf7 {-1.32/29 47.3 } 35. Re3 Ke7 {-1.09/35 2.3 } 36. g3 Nh5 {-1.01/38 16.3 } 37. Be2 h6 {-1.01/36 9.2 } 38. Kf1 g5 {210.20/30 01:08.5 } 39. Ke1 Ng7 {-2.42/32 01:01.5 } 40. g4 Ne8 {210.20/32 13.0 } 41. Kd1 Ra2 {-2.57/32 33.2 } 42. Ke1 Ra3 {210.20/30 3.0 } 43. Kf2 Nc7 {-2.10/27 3.1 } 44. Nd2 Ra2 {-2.89/35 39.7 } 45. Ke1 Ra4 {210.20/37 6.1 } 46. Kf2 Nb5 {210.20/36 19.8 } 47. Kg3 Nd6 {210.20/30 32.6 } 48. h4 Ra2 {-3.04/35 38.1 } 49. Ne4 Bxe4 {-2.89/36 4.4 } 50. fxe4 e5 {-2.89/34 01:13.8 } 51. hxg5 hxg5 {210.20/33 1.6 } 52. Kf2 Rb2 {-2.96/34 26.5 } 53. Ke1 Rb1+ {-2.81/30 17.7 } 54. Kd2 Rh1 {210.20/38 49.7 } 55. Kc2 Kd7 {210.20/40 59.7 } 56. Rf3 Rh2 {-2.96/39 40.8 } 57. Kd1 Rh4 {210.20/34 4.4 } 58. Re3 Kc6 {210.20/37 21.0 } 59. Kc1 Kb5 {210.20/37 47.2 } 60. Kb2 Nb7 {-3.12/35 23.6 } 61. Kb1 Nc5 {-3.90/33 25.6 } 62. Kc1 Ne6 {-4.76/33 26.8 } 63. Bd1 Nf4 {210.20/32 0.6 } 64. Rg3 Rh2 {210.20/37 13.6 } 65. Kb1 Rh1 {-5.31/32 11.4 } 66. Kc2 Ka4 {210.20/36 12.5 } 67. Re3 Ka3 {-6.01/33 32.9 } 68. Kc1 Rh2 {210.20/32 58.6 } 69. Bc2 Ne2+ {-7.34/27 18.7 } 70. Kb1 Rh1+ {210.20/25 21.6 } 71. Bd1 Rxd1+ {210.20/26 1.4 } 72. Kc2 Rc1+ {210.20/27 18.6 } 73. Kd2 Kb3 {-13.35/24 6.6 } 74. Rh3 Rxc3 {210.20/24 5.8 } 75. Rh8 Rc2+ {210.20/26 11.2 } {White resigns}0-1

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