World Computer Chess Championship

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World Computer Chess Championship (WCCC) is an event held periodically since 1974 where computer chess engines compete against each other. The event is organized by the International Computer Games Association (ICGA, until 2002 ICCA [1] ). It is often held in conjunction with the World Computer Speed Chess Championship and the Computer Olympiad, a collection of computer tournaments for other board games. Instead of using engine protocols, the games are played on physical boards by human operators.

Contents

The WCCC is open to all types of computers including microprocessors, supercomputers, clusters, and dedicated chess hardware.

Championship results

In 2007, the reigning champion Junior declined to defend its title.

For the 2009 edition, the rules were changed to limit platforms to commodity hardware supporting at most eight cores, [2] thereby excluding supercomputers and large clusters. However, this was reversed in the following year and a parallel Software Championship was held instead; unlimited hardware is once again allowed in the championship proper.

Event #YearLocationParticipantsWinner
11974 Stockholm 13 Kaissa
21977 Toronto 16 Chess 4.6 [3]
31980 Linz 18 Belle
41983 New York 22 Cray Blitz
51986 Cologne 22 Cray Blitz
61989 Edmonton 24 Deep Thought
71992 Madrid 22 ChessMachine (Gideon)
81995 Hong Kong 24 Fritz
91999 Paderborn 30 Shredder
102002 Maastricht 18 Deep Junior
112003 Graz 16 Shredder
122004 Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 14 Deep Junior
132005 Reykjavík 12 Zappa
142006 Torino 18 Junior
152007 Amsterdam 12 Zappa [wccc 1]
162008 Beijing 10 HIARCS [wccc 1]
172009 Pamplona 10 Junior, Shredder, Sjeng [wccc 1]
182010 Kanazawa 10 Rondo, Thinker [wccc 1]
192011 Tilburg 9 Junior
202013 Yokohama 6 Junior
212015 Leiden 9 Jonny
222016 Leiden 6 Komodo
232017 Leiden 4 Komodo
242018 Stockholm 8 Komodo
252019 Macau 6 Komodo
26 [lower-alpha 1] 2022 Vienna 5 Komodo Dragon [4]
272023 Valencia 4Stoofvlees
  1. 1 2 3 4 Rybka originally won the WCCC in 2007–2010, but was later disqualified for plagiarising code in a controversial decision.

World Chess Software Championship

From 2010 a new tournament was introduced and held at the same location and during the same period as the World Computer Chess Championship. The rules for the World Chess Software Championship (WCSC) state that competing programs must run on machines with identical hardware specifications. Time control is game in 45 minutes with 15 second increment. [5] [6]

Event #YearLocationParticipantsWinnerHardware
12010 Kanazawa 9 Shredder Intel quad core Xeon 2.66 GHz, 8MB Hash [7]
22011 Tilburg 5 HIARCS Intel Core2 Duo, 1.7 GHz, 2MB Hash
32013 Yokohama 6 HIARCS Intel quad core i7, 2.7 GHz, 16MB Hash
42015 Leiden 8 Shredder Intel quad core i7, 2.7 GHz, 16MB Hash [8]
52016 Leiden 7 Komodo Intel quad core i7, 3.4 GHz, 16MB Hash [9]
62017 Leiden 7 Shredder Intel quad core i7, 3.4 GHz, 16MB Hash
72018 Stockholm 9 Komodo Intel quad core i7, 1.8 GHz, 16MB Hash
82019 Macau 6 Komodo Intel Pentium Silver N5000, 4 GB RAM
9 [lower-alpha 2] 2022 Vienna 6 Ginkgo subnotebook [10]
102023 Valencia 4 Fritz AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, NVIDIA GT710 [11]

Due to the requirement to be present on-site, play on a physical board, and strict rules of originality, many strong programs refrain from participating in the ICGA events. As the conditions of the software championship can easily be emulated by anyone with a high-end PC, there are now privately conducted tournaments, such as Top Chess Engine Championship, that have much broader attendance, as well as a larger number of games to reduce the influence of chance.

World Microcomputer Chess Championship

From 1980 to 2001, the ICCA/ICGA organized a separate cycle of championships limited to programs running on microprocessors. [12] In the first three championships, the winners were dedicated chess computers, and then in 1984, Richard Lang's Psion program shared first place, running on an IBM PC under MS-DOS.

At the 14th WMCCC in Jakarta, the Israeli team Junior was denied entry to Indonesia and some other teams dropped out in protest.

The 16th WMCCC was the same as the 9th WCCC above.

Event #YearLocationParticipantsWinner
11980 London 12Fidelity Chess Challenger
21981 Travemünde 8Fidelity X
31983 Budapest 15Fidelity Elite A/S
41984 Glasgow 12Fidelity Elite X, Mephisto, Princhess X, Psion
51985 Amsterdam 6 / 5 Mephisto / Nona
61986 Dallas 6 Mephisto
71987 Rome 2 / 7 Mephisto / Psion
81988 Almería 2 / 7 Mephisto
91989 Portorož 9 Mephisto
101990 Lyon 12 Mephisto
111991 Vancouver, Canada 15 ChessMachine (Gideon)
121993 Munich 28 HIARCS
131995 Paderborn, Germany 33 MChess Pro 5.0
141996 Jakarta 27 Shredder
151997 Paris 34 Junior
161999 Paderborn, Germany 30 Shredder
172000 London 14 Shredder
182001 Maastricht 18 Deep Junior

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ In 2020 and 2021 there were no events due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  2. ↑ In 2020 and 2021 there were no events due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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References

  1. ↑ chessprogramming.wikispaces.com - Organizations: ICCA at the Wayback Machine (archived September 19, 2008)
  2. ↑ ICGA - Clarification of the 8-cores rule for the WCCC at the Wayback Machine (archived February 17, 2016)
  3. ↑ Jennings, Peter (January 1978). "The Second World Computer Chess Championships". BYTE. p. 108. Retrieved 17 October 2013.
  4. ↑ "ICGA - WCCC 2022".
  5. ↑ chessprogramming.wikispaces.com - WCCC Announcement at the Wayback Machine (archived June 15, 2014)
  6. ↑ HIARCS.net - announcement of new tournament
  7. ↑ ChessCentral report on 2010 World Chess Software Championship
  8. ↑ "ICGA - WCSC 2015".
  9. ↑ "ICGA - WCSC 2016".
  10. ↑ "ICGA - WCSC 2022".
  11. ↑ "Talkchess - WCCC 2023?".
  12. ↑ "ICGA - World Microcomputer Chess Championship 1980 - 2001". Archived from the original on June 22, 2021.
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