Komodo (chess)

Last updated

Komodo
Original author(s)
Developer(s) Komodo Chess, Chess.com
Initial releaseJanuary 2010;14 years ago (2010-01)
Stable release
Komodo 14.1 / November 2, 2020;3 years ago (2020-11-02)
Written in C, C++
Operating system Linux, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Android
PredecessorKomodo
Type Chess engine
License Proprietary
Website komodochess.com
Dragon by Komodo Chess
Developer(s) Komodo Chess, Chess.com
Initial releaseNovember 9, 2020;3 years ago (2020-11-09)
Stable release
Dragon 3.3 / October 4, 2023;10 months ago (2023-10-04)
Written in C, C++
Operating system Linux, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Android
PredecessorDoch
SuccessorDragon
Type Chess engine
License Proprietary
Website komodochess.com

Komodo and Dragon by Komodo Chess (also known as Dragon or Komodo Dragon) are UCI chess engines developed by Komodo Chess, [1] which is a part of Chess.com. [2] The engines were originally authored by Don Dailey and GM Larry Kaufman. Dragon is a commercial chess engine, but Komodo is free for non-commercial use. [3] Dragon is consistently ranked near the top of most major chess engine rating lists, along with Stockfish and Leela Chess Zero. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

Contents

History

Komodo

Komodo logo Komodo Chess logo.svg
Komodo logo

Komodo was derived from Don Dailey's former engine Doch in January 2010. [9] The first multiprocessor version of Komodo was released in June 2013 as Komodo 5.1 MP. [10] This version was a major rewrite and a port of Komodo to C++11. A single-processor version of Komodo (which won the CCT15 tournament in February earlier that year) was released as a stand-alone product shortly before the 5.1 MP release. This version, named Komodo CCT, was still based on the older C code, and was approximately 30 Elo stronger than the 5.1 MP version, as the latter was still undergoing massive code-cleanup work. [11]

With the release of Komodo 6 on October 4, 2013, Don Dailey announced that he was suffering from an acute form of leukaemia, and would no longer contribute to the future development of Komodo. [12] On October 8, Don made an announcement on the Talkchess forum that Mark Lefler would be joining the Komodo team and would continue its development. [13]

Komodo TCEC was released on December 4, 2013. This was the same version that had won TCEC Season 5, and was the last with input from Don Dailey, to whom it was dedicated. [14] Komodo 7 was released on May 21, 2014, adding Syzygy tablebase support. [15]

On May 24, 2018, Chess.com announced that it has acquired Komodo and that the Komodo team have joined Chess.com. [2] The Komodo team is now called Komodo Chess. [1]

On December 17, 2018, Komodo Chess released Komodo 12.3 MCTS, a version of the Komodo 12.3 engine that uses Monte Carlo tree search instead of alpha–beta pruning/minimax. [16]

The latest version, Komodo 14.1, was released on November 2, 2020. [17]

Dragon

On November 9, 2020, Komodo Chess released Dragon by Komodo Chess 1.0, which features the use of efficiently updatable neural networks in its evaluation function. Dragon is derived from Komodo in the same way that Komodo was derived from Doch. [18] [19] Dragon is also called Komodo Dragon in certain tournaments such as the Top Chess Engine Championship and the World Computer Chess Championship (WCCC) but not in the Chess.com Computer Chess Championship (CCC). A Chess.com staff member named Dmitry Pervov joined the Dragon development team to write the NNUE code for Dragon, and Dietrich Kappe joined the Dragon development team to help Larry Kaufman and Mark Lefter train Dragon's neural networks. [20]

The latest version, Dragon 3.3, was released on October 4, 2023. [21] On March 17, 2023, Larry Kaufman announced that he and Mark Lefter have stepped down from Dragon development and from ownership of Komodo Chess, and that Chess.com have taken full control of Komodo Chess. As of March 17, 2023, Dietrich Kappe is the only person responsible for the development of Dragon, but Chess.com are looking for more programmers to help with Dragon development. [22]

Competition results

Komodo

Komodo has played in the ICT 2010 in Leiden, and further in the CCT12 and CCT14. Komodo had its first tournament success in 1999, when it won the CCT15 with a score of 6½/7. [23] Komodo won both the World Computer Chess Championship [24] and World Computer Software Championship [25] in 2016. Komodo once again won the World Computer Chess Championship [26] and World Blitz [27] in 2017.

In TCEC competition, Komodo was historically one of the strongest engines. In Season 4, it lost only eight out of its 53 games and managed to reach Stage 4 (Quarterfinals), against very strong competition which were running on eight cores (Komodo was running on a single processor). [28] The next season, Komodo won the superfinal against Stockfish. The two engines jockeyed for the championship over the next few seasons: Stockfish won in Season 6, while Komodo won Seasons 7 and 8. Komodo failed to make the superfinal in Season 9, losing out to Houdini; but after Houdini was later disqualified for containing code plagiarized from Stockfish, [29] [30] [31] Komodo was promoted to the runner-up. Komodo retrospectively won Season 10 in the same way. Starting from Season 11 however, Stockfish improved at a rate that left its rivals behind, crushing Komodo in Season 12 and 13. The advent of the neural network engine Leela Chess Zero meant Komodo has largely failed to qualify for the superfinal since, with a single exception in Season 22, when it lost to Stockfish. Although Komodo has not qualified for the superfinal, it has cemented itself as the third-strongest engine in the competition, finishing in that position for five of the last six seasons.

Chess.com Computer Chess Championship

Main Events
EventYearTime ControlsResultRef
CCC 1201815+54th [32]
CCC 220185+22nd [33]
CCC 3201930+53rd [34]
CCC 420191+24th [35]
CCC 5201910+54th [36]
CCC 6201910+107th [37]
CCC 720195+26th [38]
CCC 8201915+56th [39]
CCC 920195+25th [40]
CCC 10201910+34th [41]
CCC 11201930+54th [42]
CCC 1220201+14th [43]
CCC 13202010+54th [44]
CCC 14202010+35th [45]
CCC Blitz 202020205+59th [46]
CCC Blitz 202120215+510th [47]
CCC Chess 960 Blitz20215+59th [48]

Dragon

Chess.com Computer Chess Championship

Main Events
EventYearTime ControlsResultRef
CCC Blitz 202020205+53rd [49]
CCC Rapid 2021202115+33rd [50]
CCC Blitz 202120215+53rd [51]
CCC Chess 960 Blitz20215+52nd [52]
CCC 16: Rapid202115+33rd [53]
CCC 16: Bullet20212+12nd [54]
CCC 16: Blitz20225+52nd [55]
CCC 17: Rapid202215+32nd [56]
CCC 17: Bullet20222+12nd [57]
CCC 17: Blitz20225+53rd [58]
CCC 18: Rapid202215+33rd [59]
CCC 19: Blitz20225+52nd [60]
CCC 19: Rapid202215+33rd [61]
CCC 19: Bullet20231+12nd [62]
CCC 20: Blitz20233+23rd [63]
CCC 20: Rapid202310+33rd [64]
CCC 20: Bullet20231+13rd [65]
CCC 21: Blitz20233+24th [66]
CCC 21: Rapid202310+34th [67]

Top Chess Engine Championship

Main Events
EventYearTime ControlsResultRef
Season 20202060+73rd [68]
Season 21202190+93rd [69]
Season 222022120+122nd [70]
Season 23202260+63rd [71]
Season 24202360+63rd [72]
Season 25202360+63rd [73]
Cup
EventYearTime ControlsResultRef
Cup 8202130+53rd [74]
Cup 9202130+53rd [75]
Cup 10202230+32nd [76]
Cup 11202330+33rd [77]
Fischer random chess (FRC)
EventYearTime ControlsResultRef
FRC 3202130+51st [78]
FRC 4202230+53rd [79]
Swiss
EventYearTime ControlsResultRef
Swiss 1202145+71st [80]
Swiss 2202245+71st [81]
Swiss 3202245+4.54th [82]
Swiss 4202330+32nd [83]

Notable games

Komodo vs Hannibal
abcdefgh
8
Chessboard480.svg
Chess rdt45.svg
Chess bdt45.svg
Chess rdt45.svg
Chess kdt45.svg
Chess pdt45.svg
Chess pdt45.svg
Chess pdt45.svg
Chess pdt45.svg
Chess pdt45.svg
Chess rlt45.svg
Chess pdt45.svg
Chess pdt45.svg
Chess plt45.svg
Chess plt45.svg
Chess plt45.svg
Chess plt45.svg
Chess plt45.svg
Chess plt45.svg
Chess plt45.svg
Chess blt45.svg
Chess rlt45.svg
Chess klt45.svg
8
77
66
55
44
33
22
11
abcdefgh
Komodo plays the exchange sacrifice 33. Rxc6 and goes on to win the game, proving the superiority of its pieces over Black's two rooks.

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