Introducing a Smarter Bot System: Updated Ratings and New Bots!

We’ve been working hard to make our bots even more engaging and fun for players of all levels. Here’s a quick overview of what has changed.

Smarter Ratings

To accurately reflect each bot’s strength, we ran millions of self-play games between the bots, alongside games against players and bots with known ratings. This allowed us to recalibrate the ratings and ensure they more accurately mirror the bots’ abilities. We found that our lower-rated bots were too weak relative to the rest. As a result, many of these bots received a significant boost—sometimes up to 500 rating points—while higher-rated bots saw more minor adjustments, with some ratings even decreasing. These adjustments ensure the ratings now better reflect how our users play, which often involves faster and more casual games compared to the highly competitive nature of FIDE classical matches.

New Beginner Bots

We also added 20 brand-new beginner bots for those just starting out. These bots are designed to be beatable, even for complete beginners, making the experience less intimidating and more rewarding at the early stages.

Challenging High-End Bots

On the other end, we’ve added 20 high-level bots that should provide a real challenge, even for the most experienced players. These bots maintain the human-like behavior you love while pushing you to play your best.

Improved PersonaPlay Classifications

While running the calibration of ratings, we also took the time to extract more playstyle data and improved our PersonaPlay classification. Bots are now classified on things like temperament, tenacity, blunders, and more. Check out your favorite bot’s profile or read more at the PersonaPlay page.

A Brand-New Backend

In addition to adjusting ratings, we’ve completely rebuilt the chess engine backend—switching from Python to Node.js—and significantly improved our infrastructure. This means faster updates and improvements in the future! As always, if you encounter any bugs or odd behavior, please let us know!

Check Out the New Bots Today!

Try out the updated bots and let us know what you think. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned player, there’s a bot ready to match your level and help you improve your game. We can’t wait to hear your feedback!