The First Ever Databricks Claude Sonnet vs. Stockfish Tournament

In the post Databricks Agent - a chess story, I introduced a way for stockfish to play Databricks Foundation Model API (FMAPI). Databricks has recently released the Claude Sonnet model as one of their native LLMs. To celebrate the new addition, we invited Sonnet to have a tournament with Stockfish again. The games can be found below.

Correspondence Chess * stockfish vs databricks-claude-3-7-sonnet, stockfish played databricks-claude-3-7-sonnet in a casual imported game of chess. stockfish won after 12 moves. Click here

Correspondence Chess * databricks-claude-3-7-sonnet vs stockfish databricks-claude-3-7-sonnet played stockfish in a casual imported game of chess. stockfish won after 14 moves. Click here

Let's see what's the feedback from Sonnet's final move vs stockfish:

Prompt:

You are a chess grandmaster. Given the current state of the chess board:
4rbkr/pppb1npp/5q2/8/8/8/PPPP1PPP/R1B3K1 w - - 0 14
Legal moves: Kh1, Kf1, Rb1, h3, g3, f3, d3, c3, b3, a3, h4, g4, f4, d4, c4, b4, a4
History of moves so far: e4, e7e5, Nf3, b8c6, Bc4, g8f6, O-O, f6e4, Bxf7+, e8f7, Nxe5+, c6e5, Qh5+, f7g8, Qf7#, e5f7, Nc3, d7d5, Nxe4, d5e4, Re1, d8f6, Rxe4, c8d7, Re8+, a8e8
Feedback on the previous move: Failed to parse move 'Bf4': illegal san: 'Bf4' in 4rbkr/pppb1npp/5q2/8/8/8/PPPP1PPP/R1B3K1 w - - 0 14
Generate the next move and explain your reasoning concisely.
The move should be in a <move> tag, but don’t include this tag anywhere in the thinking.
Your response should contain extract one <move>move</move> tag, which contains a valid chess move.

LLM Response:

Looking at the current position, I need to assess my options carefully.

The board shows I'm playing as White, and I'm down significant material (a queen and multiple pieces). My king is on g1, and I have a rook on a1 and a bishop on c1.

Black's pieces are well-positioned with a rook on e8, a bishop on d7, a knight on f7, and a queen on f6. Black's king is on g8.

My priority should be to develop my pieces and try to establish some counterplay, though the position looks quite difficult.

Looking at the legal moves, developing my bishop with Bc1-b2 would be logical, but it's not in the list of legal moves. I should develop my rook to connect my pieces.

<move>Rb1</move>

This move develops the rook, preparing to use the b-file and potentially support a queenside advance. It keeps my rook protected while improving its position from the corner. While my position remains challenging, this is a constructive move that improves my piece coordination.

What do you think about Sonnet's chess skills. Do let me know!

AUTHOR - FOLLOW
Jason Yip
Director of Data and AI, Tredence Inc.