♟️🇺🇸 Mega Chess SF Hackathon: Train AI Chess Bots on GPUs
Spend 2 days training AI Chess bots on GPUs in SF or Sydney.
📝 TLDR:
Join our Mega Chess Hackathon to get hands-on experience with rapid iteration cluster training using Strong Compute’s Instant SuperComputer (ISC). This event will focus on training deep neural networks to play chess.
Unlike traditional training environments, the ISC simplifies and accelerates job execution on shared GPU clusters, allowing training to start within seconds. Shared resources are efficiently managed, and large datasets are readily accessible. Experiment with different models, datasets, and hyperparameters to develop the best chess AI over two days.
The winner will receive a $10k-$100k compute grant for open-source AI research purposes*. 🏆💰
📋 Details:
We’re providing 2-day access to 48 GPU clusters. Twenty teams will compete, blending human intuition, tonnes of data, and innovative techniques to create the ultimate chess AI.
The full set of rules and gameplay will be shared with participants ahead of time on Discord.
🧩 Task:
Train a deep neural network to play chess. Inputs to the neural network during inference (game play) will be (1) the current game history in Portable Game Notation (PGN) using Standard Algebraic Notation (SAN) and (2) a possible move in SAN. Inference output from the model will be a numeric score representing your model’s strength of preference for that move.
📊 Dataset:
Datasets that will be made available include (1) board states evaluated by StockFish and (2) PGNs of historic games. Code for generating training data, as well as example data loading pipelines will be provided for reference. Participants can also use their own resources.
🧠 Models:
Participants are free to implement any model architecture that satisfies the input and output constraints described above. Example model architectures will be supplied, which demonstrate application of computer vision (e.g. Convolutional Neural Network & Transformer) and autoregressive language model (e.g. Transformer) architectures. Models must meet memory and inference time constraints to be determined. Models must be trained from scratch during the competition.
💻 Compute:
Access to multiple 48x 24GB Ampere clusters and dedicated GPU workstations on the Strong Compute Instant Super Computer platform. Compute credits will be provided during the competition.
🏅 Judging:
Each team’s model will play off in a tournament to determine the competition winner.
🎁 Prize:
The winning team will receive one of Strong Compute’s $10-100K grants for open-source AI research or further development of open chess models.
📜 Participant Requirements:
Experience with PyTorch and cluster training is preferred but not mandatory.
Skills in large-scale clusters (64+ GPUs) are highly valued.
Teams of 1 to 3 members are allowed. Include your team members’ names when registering. Approved participants will receive a link to our Discord competition channel.
📍 Locations:
San Francisco, USA: Venue details will be shared upon successful application. 🇺🇸
Sydney, Australia: Register here 🇦🇺
🗓️ Event Schedule:
San Francisco:
Friday:
6:00 pm: Drinks, snacks + networking
6:30 pm: Set-up, onboarding, test training run + inference
7:30 pm: Competition begins 🎉
8:30 pm: Dinner
Late: hacking
Saturday:
9:00 am: Day two start, breakfast
1:00 pm: Lunch
7:30 pm: Dinner
8:00 pm: Final submissions 📝
9:00 pm: Competition begins ♟️
11:00 pm: Winners announced 🏆
Strong Compute
Strong Compute provides infrastructure management capability for rapid artificial intelligence development.
P.S. We're hiring and this is a great way for us to get to know each other https://strongcompute.com/jobs
Supported by community partner:
Build Club: the home for top AI engineers in APAC
*Refer to our research grants for requirements.