The gap between white and black piece performance is massive in these top engines if I'm reading it right. LCZero won 0/ lost 4 as black and won 24 / lost zero as white (with lots of draws)? I had no idea the split was so big now. Do human tournaments look like this too these days?
(From https://tcec-chess.com/)
Not really---similar for sure, but not as bad for black. Consider that computer chess tournaments do not start with the pieces in their initial positions. The first 5-15 moves are predetermined by human master players to achieve positions that are imbalanced while not having a side with a clearer advantage. Otherwise it would be even more of a draw fest.
This makes things a bit worse for black, typically, because playing for the win as black means making some positional concession (that white can exploit after successfully defending) in exchange for the initiative and a chance for an attack.
In human play, black has a little more ability than white to steer the game towards their opening preparation[1]. If they want to win, they will try to get have a position that they know in and out from (computer-assisted) home preparation. But there are still a lot of draws in classical (many hours per game) chess.
[1] Chess openings that white chooses are typically called "attack" (King's Indian Attack) or "game" (Scotch Game), while those that black chooses are called "defense" (Sicilian defense). You'll find that there are a lot more "defenses" that black can choose from than "attacks".
> Consider that computer chess tournaments do not start with the pieces in their initial positions. The first 5-15 moves are predetermined by human master players to achieve positions that are imbalanced while not having a side with a clearer advantage.
I've never heard this before, and it seems strange! Do you have a link to tornament rules with this?
Computer chess is traditionally really strong in openings because their opening book is just database lookups. What is getting a human to play the same opening book supposed to achieve?
Search for the TCEC opening books or read the FAQ at https://wiki.chessdom.org/Openings_FAQ. Opening books haven't been used for a few years now. They were only needed because computers had issues evaluating opening positions.
Chess matches usually involve multiple games, so you don't need to win every game to win the match. It's not uncommon to play trying to avoid a loss (going for a draw), instead of playing riskier moves in an attempt to force a win.
Because they may be content with drawing as black and seek an (ever so slightly) easier win as white. It depends on many factors: relative player strength, duration of the match, how players are paired in tournament rounds, current standings in the tournament, and so on. A computer won't do this kind of reasoning.
Overwhelmingly the result is a draw. White can win sometimes, and wins for black are very rare. It's similar for top grandmasters, but not quite as stark.
Current divp uses very unbalanced openings for engines to be able to score. Using starting position/more optimal openings inevitably leads to draw. So it's actually exactly the opposite -- the advantage is so low and draw tendencies are so strong that we need to force position where white has advantage to be able to compare two strong engines
