Ben 11.25     

                                                                          By Lorand Dali

Ben is a free and open source bridge AI engine released by Lorand Dali 2022-06-04.

Lorand Dali about Ben.

Ben is now integrated into the Online IntoBridge service!  

As it's open source it's possible to access the the code, which make it possible to understand how it works and change it if it does not. It's also possible to modify it, extend it and build different products and ideas on top of it. 

The engine is built using machine learning (neural networks) and double dummy solvers through the python wrapper python-dds. 

How the engine works in details.

The engine is far from being perfect and there are still a lot of work to do, but it has reached a state where it could be useful. It's not superior over human experts or even over other bots, but it really plays a decent game, 

There is a demo available where it's possible to click through a few deals the engine has played and it will shows  how it works and what is in the bot's "mind" when it makes a certain bids/plays.

It's also possible to run the engine and play against other the bots.

The engine can also be used to do analysis, study the game or build another AI. It can be used in an app which needs a bot. An illustration of what is possible are available in the tutorials. One example is, giving the engine a hand  that has been played on BBO and it will analyze each bid and each card played.

How to train a neural network. 

Deep Neural Networks for Double Dummy at Bridge - Lorand Dali

How Neural Networks Learn to Bid. Article on Bridgewinners with comments.  

Peter Hollands tests Ben on InfoBridge.   NEW

For more details please take a look at the github repo. The  author looking forward for feedbacks and all comments will be read.

Instruction how to install the bridge engine.

Additional Installation Instructions missing in the Miniconda3 installation Instruction:

Setup of Ben for Table Manager

Other Installation Problems

If there are other Installations problems, go to this article on Bridgewinners:https://bridgewinners.com/article/view/page-with-bridge-engine-ben/?cj=1317535#c1317535

A solution to problem maybe can be found there or question(s) can be asked about the problem...

You may also found a solution on the Blog on this Site https://www.computerbridge.se/guest-post/

Eamon Galligan has created a new training model with 3.2 million hands and 1 millions lessons, which  improves Ben's bidding. There are three files in each package. Installation: Two subdir to be created in the models subdir for the files, 1272_model and 1272_info. The file model.py in src directory to be edited to point at the new subdirs.  

A test has been made to evalute the strength of Ben 11.25 compared with other bots, WBridge 5.12 and Q-Plus 15.3. Only bidding is included as Ben's card play is to flawed to include in the competition.. 

Eamon Galligan has setup three matches in Bridge Moniteur, where Ben 11.25 plays against WBridge 5.2.                  Ben1125 vs WBridge5 is with the orginal model. The third match is with the improved model. 

The LIN-files can be viewed with BridgeVu, NetBridgeVu and Handviewer.

                                  Ben 11.25 vs  WBridge 5.2 

                        Ben 11.25 vs WBridge 5.2 - 240 Boards

           Ben 11.25 vs WBridge 5.2 - Kitkat Kirwan League match