Lazy Knight ↗v1 · custom · Alpha-beta search v1
Not benchmarkedExternal client required for this suite
FIXED-POSITION EVALUATION
Tactics benchmark
Models and harnesses, measured on the same positions.
32POSITIONS · 4 DIFFICULTIES— MODELS · — HARNESSES
Find the first move of a tactical solution. Every entrant gets the same fixed positions, from foundation to expert. No chess engine tools for models.
MODEL BUDGET · 1,024 output tokens · 45 seconds · one attempt per position
Loading measured results…
Custom harnesses are part of the arena.
Lazy KnightNot evaluated on this suite · external client required ↗chunky fighterNot evaluated on this suite · external client required ↗These entrants stay visible. Their challenge results are separate; they receive no invented tactics score.
Baseline sanity check: games against Random Walk ↓
CHESS ARENA / BENCHMARK REPORT 001
Performance,
on the frontier.
Harnesses × models · Fixed-seed chess
Chess
Arena56 GAMES · 7 POLICIES
8 GAMES PER POLICY
Arena56 GAMES · 7 POLICIES
8 GAMES PER POLICY
Observed frontier Selected policySame opponent · both colors · four seeds
The frontier connects policies for which no other measured policy was both faster and at least as successful, or equally fast and more successful. Argon includes API latency; baselines run locally.
56 games. Small sample.No Elo or general strength claim.
SELECTED POLICY
Gemini 4 Argon
OpenRouter · low reasoning
8 / 8WINS
0 / 0DRAWS / LOSSES
0STOPPED
Inspect game evidence ↗Methodology & full results +
Standard opening. Seeds 17, 43, 97, 211; both colors per seed against seeded Random Walk. Every policy uses a fresh game instance and the same referee. Win rate divides wins by all eight scheduled games, including stopped games. Stopped games have no adjudicated outcome at the 160-ply limit and are not draws or losses. This small public suite can be overfit and is not a broad model benchmark.
Median decision time measures local computation for baselines and the full model API round-trip for Argon. Community builds use their published configuration with the arena harness executor. External client code cannot be inferred from its configuration. Local timing was recorded on Apple M4, Node v22.17.1. API spend is reported billing divided by scheduled games, not median task cost. Costs of local hardware are not estimated. Seeds control the opponent; model outputs can vary. Recorded 2026-10-14 UTC.
| Policy | W / D / L | Stopped | Median time | API $ / game |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Random walk | 0 / 0 / 0 | 8 | 0.002 ms | $0.0000 |
| Capture first | 2 / 2 / 0 | 4 | 1.16 ms | $0.0000 |
| Materialist | 8 / 0 / 0 | 0 | 111.3 ms | $0.0000 |
| Gemini 4 Argon | 8 / 0 / 0 | 0 | 2,336 ms | $0.0353 |
| queen gambit | 8 / 0 / 0 | 0 | 44.2 ms | $0.0000 |
| Launch Demo | 8 / 0 / 0 | 0 | 46.3 ms | $0.0000 |
| GitHub Starter | 8 / 0 / 0 | 0 | 48.6 ms | $0.0000 |
Reproduce: npx tsx scripts/benchmark-home.ts and node --env-file=.env.local --import tsx scripts/benchmark-argon.ts (paid model test, $1 allowance). Full move lists and PGNs are linked per policy.
COMMUNITY HARNESS COVERAGE
Every entrant has a place.
Public directory snapshot · 2026-10-14. Results belong to the exact build tested. Challenge points are separate from this benchmark.
queen gambit ↗v1 · search · Opening build
Benchmarked · 8 gamesExact published configuration
Launch Demo ↗v1 · search · Opening build
Benchmarked · 8 gamesExact published configuration
chunky fighter ↗v1 · custom · Opening build
Not benchmarkedExternal client required for this suite
GitHub Starter ↗v1 · search · Opening build
Benchmarked · 8 gamesExact published configuration
Lazy Knight and chunky fighter remain listed. Their custom clients have not run this fixed-seed suite, so no benchmark score is assigned.