HandicapMode

Not only the strongest engine, but also the most useful for improvement!

We subjected the 40 test positions mentioned in the fantastic book Think like a super-GM to the handicap mode of ShashChess.

These positions were presented to players with different Elo ratings.

We compared their solutions with those of our engine, set with the corresponding Elo and handicapped depth, as explained in our book.

The result was truly impressive: 74 matches out of 157, approximately 47%. Some positions, like the first one, were even completely solved for each of the players' Elo ratings.

This demonstrates how effective the idea of turning on or off elements in the linear combination of the classical evaluation function is, depending on the Elo range.

A truly educational handicap mode, unlike one based on random and increasingly frequent errors as the Elo score decreases!