Monday, March 04, 2019

Game Changer: AlphaZero (Book Review)

Amazon link

I bought this book because I was interested in how the architecture of a deep-learning neural-net chess program differs from the tree-search paradigm of existing programs. From my point of view there are some rewarding sections: the introduction by Garry Kasparov, the autobiographical chapter by DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis, the overview essays by the authors (and chess experts) Matthew Sadler and Natasha Regan, and in particular chapter 4, a detailed analysis of 'How AlphaZero thinks'.

Most of the book, however, is devoted to detailed analysis of games between AlphaZero and the current computer world champion program Stockfish. It is a contest of attacking flair from DeepMind against inexorable nitpicking from Stockfish. Flair beats pedantry pretty much every time in this battle of the AIs. That is not, however, the human experience!

Although there are easy-to-read insights for the reader primarily interested in AI, these could be as easily obtained from the Wikipedia article on AlphaZero. This book will be of greatest interest to serious chess players who will want to do as recommended and play the many games analysed in detail on their own boards.

It is promised that they will learn a great deal.

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