World Computer Chess Championship

Last updated

World Computer Chess Championship (WCCC) is an event held periodically from 1974 to 2024 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.

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.

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 [a] 2022 Vienna 5 Komodo Dragon [4]
272023 Valencia 4Stoofvlees [5]
282024 Santiago de Compostela 9Jonny, Stoofvlees, Raptor
  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. [6] [7]

Event #YearLocationParticipantsWinnerHardware
12010 Kanazawa 9 Shredder Intel quad core Xeon 2.66 GHz, 8MB Hash [8]
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 [9]
52016 Leiden 7 Komodo Intel quad core i7, 3.4 GHz, 16MB Hash [10]
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 [b] 2022 Vienna 6 Ginkgo subnotebook [11]
102023 Valencia 4 Fritz AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, NVIDIA GT710 [12]
112024 Santiago de Compostela 9RofchadeIntel i5-14400 with 16GB RAM

World Microcomputer Chess Championship

From 1980 to 2001, the ICCA/ICGA organized a separate cycle of championships limited to programs running on microprocessors. [13] 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.

Related Research Articles

The Computer Olympiad is a multi-games event in which computer programs compete against each other. For many games, the Computer Olympiads are an opportunity to claim the "world's best computer player" title. First contested in 1989, the majority of the games are board games but other games such as bridge take place as well. In 2010, several puzzles were included in the competition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Computer chess</span> Computer hardware and software capable of playing chess

Computer chess includes both hardware and software capable of playing chess. Computer chess provides opportunities for players to practice even in the absence of human opponents, and also provides opportunities for analysis, entertainment and training. Computer chess applications that play at the level of a chess grandmaster or higher are available on hardware from supercomputers to smart phones. Standalone chess-playing machines are also available. Stockfish, Leela Chess Zero, GNU Chess, Fruit, and other free open source applications are available for various platforms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chess engine</span> Computer program for chess analysis and game

In computer chess, a chess engine is a computer program that analyzes chess or chess variant positions, and generates a move or list of moves that it regards as strongest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HIARCS</span>

HIARCS is a proprietary UCI chess engine developed by Mark Uniacke. Its name is an acronym standing for higher intelligence auto-response chess system. Because Hiarcs is written portable in C, it is available on multiple platforms such as Pocket PC, Palm OS, PDAs, iOS, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Levy (chess player)</span> Scottish chess player, writer, and entrepreneur

David Neil Laurence Levy is an International Master of chess who plays for Scotland, and a businessman. He is noted for his involvement with computer chess and artificial intelligence, and as the founder of the Computer Olympiads and the Mind Sports Olympiads. He has written more than 40 books on chess and computers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zappa (chess)</span> Chess software

Zappa, Zap!Chess or Zappa Mexico, is a UCI chess engine written by Anthony Cozzie, a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The program emphasizes sound search and a good use of multiple processors. Earlier versions of Zappa are free and the current version is available at Shredder Computer Chess.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rybka</span> Chess engine

Rybka is a computer chess engine designed by International Master Vasik Rajlich. Around 2011, Rybka was one of the top-rated engines on chess engine rating lists and won many computer chess tournaments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vasik Rajlich</span> Chess player (born 1971)

Vasik Rajlich is an International Master in chess and the author of Rybka, previously one of the strongest chess playing programs in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ikarus (chess)</span>

Ikarus is a computer chess program created by brothers Munjong and Muntsin Kolss.

World Computer Speed Chess Championship is an annual event organized by the International Computer Games Association where computer chess engines compete against each other at blitz chess time controls. It is held in conjunction with the World Computer Chess Championship. Up to 2001, it was held in conjunction with the World Microcomputer Chess Championship (WMCCC) and restricted to microcomputers.

Kaissa was a chess program developed in the Soviet Union in the 1960s. It was named so after Caissa, the goddess of chess. Kaissa became the first world computer chess champion in 1974 in Stockholm.

This article documents the progress of significant human–computer chess matches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chess tournament</span> Series of competitive chess games

A chess tournament is a series of chess games played competitively to determine a winning individual or team. Since the first international chess tournament in London, 1851, chess tournaments have become the standard form of chess competition among multiple serious players.

ChessGenius is the name of a chess-playing computer program written by Richard Lang who has in the past written programs that have won the World Computer Chess Championship on 10 occasions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MChess Pro</span>

MChess Pro is the name given to a chess playing computer program written by Marty Hirsch which won the World Microcomputer Chess Championship in 1995. The program is no longer under development and is no longer commercially available and therefore has largely historical significance only.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chess Tiger</span> Chess software

Chess Tiger is a strong chess program developed by Christophe Théron which achieved a number of tournament successes between 2000 and 2002. Although still commercially available, the Windows version has not been developed recently so has largely historical significance only. It is known for its high level of strength and as a trainer engine to help beginners improve their chess techniques.

Top Chess Engine Championship, formerly known as Thoresen Chess Engines Competition, is a computer chess tournament that has been run since 2010. It was organized, directed, and hosted by Martin Thoresen until the end of Season 6; from Season 7 onward it has been organized by Chessdom. It is often regarded as the Unofficial World Computer Chess Championship because of its strong participant line-up and long time-control matches on high-end hardware, giving rise to very high-class chess. The tournament has attracted nearly all the top engines compared to the World Computer Chess Championship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don Dailey</span> American researcher and game programmer

Don Dailey was an American researcher in computer chess and a game programmer. Along with collaborator Larry Kaufman, he was the author of the chess engine Komodo. Dailey started chess programming in the 1980s, and was the author and co-author of multiple commercial as well as academic chess programs. He has been an active poster in computer chess forums and computer Go newsgroups. He was raised as a Jehovah's Witness and served in recent years as an elder in the church of Roanoke.

Jonny is a computer chess program written by the German mathematician and programmer Johannes Zwanzger.

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. ↑ "WCCC 2023 Valencia".
  6. ↑ chessprogramming.wikispaces.com - WCCC Announcement at the Wayback Machine (archived June 15, 2014)
  7. ↑ HIARCS.net - announcement of new tournament
  8. ↑ ChessCentral report on 2010 World Chess Software Championship
  9. ↑ "ICGA - WCSC 2015".
  10. ↑ "ICGA - WCSC 2016".
  11. ↑ "ICGA - WCSC 2022".
  12. ↑ "Talkchess - WCCC 2023?".
  13. ↑ "ICGA - World Microcomputer Chess Championship 1980 - 2001". Archived from the original on June 22, 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.