I have just posted my comments on the last game of my 10 game match between TheKing’s Normal personality using the Master (HIARCS) book at average 30seconds per move. I knew the result would be one-sided but this match was about seeing Maia’s playing ability against a very strong opponent.

The final result of 8 ½ - 1 ½ to TheKing puts the latter at around 300 ELO points stronger in Active Chess for this match. In my match with Maia L9 against MCGPro 2024, Maia achieved an approximate ELO of 2269 so this make’s TheKing’s rating to be roughly around 2560 in this match.

I think the games show that Maia on Level 9 with 6 ply search (the current maximum setting) is a good opponent for many. The occasional blunder could be seen as an advantage making it a less robotic opponent and giving us more of a fighting chance!

I have said before if we use Chessnut Evo’s Maia with anymore than 0 ply search then it should be called Hybrid Maia as this is moving away from the concept behind this Neuronal engine which is to not always make the best move – which is actually still the case – but the more human move (this is debatable in my opinion when it makes too many severe blunders) with zero search. In my testing, Maia with zero search is very poor and whereas it may sometimes make the more human-move, it’s multiple severe blunders ultimately make it a play like a complete beginner. Now that it can search to 6 ply it at least avoids many blunders but this limited search still somewhat hampers it especially in endgame scenarios. Overall though, I think the updated Maia bot on the Evo is an interesting opponent for human play.

Regards
Ray