[throwpoaster]

Do the engines have a similar edge in Fischer Random and regular chess?

[Marsymars]

I'd expect them to have a larger edge in chess960 because humans can't prep openings like in regular chess.

[josephg]

Do modern chess AIs do any form of opening prep? Like, do they bake any opening analysis into their engines? Or is it all pure search?

[umanwizard]

But machines also can’t use opening prep like they do in normal chess.

[adgjlsfhk1]

Engines have a significantly bigger edge in frc. Humans generally know enough about openings to minimize mistakes for the first 10 or so moves (such that computers playing humans generally are trained to make a couple highly dubious moves to get far away from theory in the opening). engines on the other hand don't go based on theory and are just as capable in 960 as they are in regular chess.

[umanwizard]

That's hard to answer because the advantage is essentially infinitely large. Engines never lose or draw against unassisted humans. Any modern chess engine, if it plays 100 games against any human (even magnus), will have a record of 100 wins, 0 draws, and 0 losses. This is true both in standard chess and Chess960.

[nilslindemann]

This is most definitely wrong. There will be some draws and even a few wins, though that's very rare indeed.