Unofficial World Computer Chess Championship
Top Chess Engine Championship, formerly known as Thoresen Chess Engines Competition (TCEC or nTCEC), 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.[1][2][3] The tournament has attracted nearly all the top engines compared to the World Computer Chess Championship.
After a short break in 2012,[4] TCEC was restarted in early 2013 (as nTCEC)[5] and is currently active (renamed as TCEC in early 2014) with 24/7 live broadcasts of chess matches on its website.
Since season 5, TCEC has been sponsored by Chessdom Arena.[6][7]
The TCEC competition is divided into seasons, where each season happens over a course of a few months, with matches played round-the-clock and broadcast live over the internet. Each season is divided into several tournaments, a Leagues Season, a Cup, a Swiss tournament, and a Fischer Random Chess tournament.
Prior to season 21, there was originally one tournament in each season. This tournament consisted of several qualifying stages and one "superfinal", and the winner of the superfinal is called the "TCEC Grand Champion" until the next season. Prior to season 11, the tournament used a cup format, while starting in Season 11, the tournament used a division system. Starting in season 13, there was also a cup tournament consisting of the top 32 engines in the main tournament, resulting in a 5-round single elimination tournament.[8]
Pondering is set to off. All engines run on mostly the same hardware[9] and use the same opening book, which is set by the organizers and changed in every stage. Large pages are disabled, but access to various endgame tablebases is permitted. Engines are allowed updates between stages; if there is a critical play-limiting bug, they are also allowed to be updated once during the stage. In previous seasons, if an engine crashes 3 times in one event, it is disqualified to avoid distorting the results for the other engines; however starting in TCEC Season 20, an engine is allowed to crash as many times as possible without being disqualified from the current event; however, the engine will still be disqualified from future events unless the crash is fixed.[10] TCEC generates an Elo rating list from the matches played during the tournament. An initial rating is given to any new participant based on its rating in other chess engine rating lists.
There is no definite criterion for entering into the competition, other than inviting the top participants under active development from various rating lists which can run on their Linux platform. Originally, TCEC used Windows instead of Linux. In addition, either XBoard or UCI protocol are required to participate.
Usually chess engines that support multiprocessor mode are preferred (8-cores or higher), and engines in active development are given preference. Since TCEC 12, engines like LCZero which use GPUs for neural processing were supported.
Initially, the list of participants was personally chosen by Thoresen before the start of a season. His stated goal was to include "every major engine that is not a direct clone".[11] In TCEC 13, DeusX was banned due to being a clone of Leela, and in TCEC 20, Houdini, Fire, Rybka (engine in Fritz up to TCEC 16), and Critter were banned due to allegations of plagiarism.
This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (September 2021)
Starting in season 21, each season has been expanded to include the Cup, a Fischer Random Chess tournament, and a Swiss tournament, and thus the original tournament has been renamed to the Leagues Season.[12]
The structure of the TCEC VSOB varies from event to event. Most of them have been in a round-robin format.
However, the latest VSOB event, VSOB 21, has a different format, where each opening gets tested to see how unbalanced the position is, and then assigned to a pair of engines depending on the strength differential between the pair of engines: equal positions were assigned to a pair of engines where one engine was vastly stronger than the other, while heavily unequal positions were assigned to a pair of engines about roughly equal strength.
This section needs to be updated. The reason given is: Houdini has been disqualified since TCEC season 20 and its results in previous seasons have been nullified.. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (March 2022)
The tables display the results of each TCEC Season that was a multi-stage tournament.
The tables display the results of each TCEC Season that was a league system.
After season 20, each season was expanded to include the Swiss, the Cup, and the FRC tournament, and so the original event is now called the Leagues Season.[13]
TCEC allows viewers to submit chess openings to TCEC, upon which the openings will be played by various engines in a series of exhibition games.
This section needs to be updated. The reason given is: Houdini has been disqualified since TCEC season 20 and its results in previous seasons have been nullified.. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (March 2022)
This table includes Main/Leagues, Cup, FRC and Swiss results.[15]
Read the rest here:
Top Chess Engine Championship - Wikipedia
- At the Library: Come join Worldwide Knit in Public Day on Saturday in Wilcox Park - The Westerly Sun - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Detonation; Enthusiastic Racing - TruckTrend Network - June 7th, 2017 [June 7th, 2017]
- Rouhani should play chess where Trump is playing the fool - Trend News Agency - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- Carlsen-Nakamura Norway Clash Ends In Draw - Chess.com - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- Literature, Films on Chess Captivates Enthusiasts - High on Sports (blog) - June 14th, 2017 [June 14th, 2017]
- Ditmas Park's City Council Candidates Debate Major Issues - BKLYNER - June 16th, 2017 [June 16th, 2017]
- The Fourth Industrial Revolution Is About Empowering People, Not The Rise Of The Machines - Forbes - June 17th, 2017 [June 17th, 2017]
- ET Recommendations: Get Google Daydream View for Rs 6499 - Economic Times - June 17th, 2017 [June 17th, 2017]
- Worry about people, not jobs: Garry Kasparov - Economic Times - June 17th, 2017 [June 17th, 2017]
- Keeping Our Human Edge In A Machine-Dominated World - Forbes Middle East - June 18th, 2017 [June 18th, 2017]
- Free Chess Engine recommendation? - Chess Forums - Chess.com - June 26th, 2017 [June 26th, 2017]
- How Gotham Gave Us Trump - Politico - June 30th, 2017 [June 30th, 2017]
- Aart Bik's Website - August 25th, 2017 [August 25th, 2017]
- Garry Kasparov Returns, Briefly, to Chess - The New Yorker - August 25th, 2017 [August 25th, 2017]
- [App Fridays] Half Chess, a T-20 version of chess, wants to hook millennials with new pieces and fast gameplay - YourStory.com - August 25th, 2017 [August 25th, 2017]
- Chess Engines list @wiki - Computer-Chess Wiki - August 25th, 2017 [August 25th, 2017]
- Chess Engines Chess Tech - February 28th, 2018 [February 28th, 2018]
- Chess Engines list @wiki - Computer Chess Wiki - March 13th, 2018 [March 13th, 2018]
- computer_chess:engines:myrddin:index - Computer Chess Wiki - June 7th, 2018 [June 7th, 2018]
- computer_chess:wiki:lists:chess_engine_list - Computer ... - December 28th, 2018 [December 28th, 2018]
- Download free chess engines - Komodo 10, Houdini - March 20th, 2019 [March 20th, 2019]
- Top 10 strongest chess engines - Chesstutor | Learn how to ... - March 27th, 2019 [March 27th, 2019]
- Chess - Wikipedia - March 27th, 2019 [March 27th, 2019]
- Computer chess - Wikipedia - April 3rd, 2019 [April 3rd, 2019]
- Universal Chess Interface - Wikipedia - May 13th, 2019 [May 13th, 2019]
- Geek of the Week: If there's roadwork ahead, Kurt Stiles uses 3D modeling and more to drive project - GeekWire - November 20th, 2019 [November 20th, 2019]
- Alexander Grischuk wins the third leg of the Grand Prix in Hamburg - Chessbase News - November 20th, 2019 [November 20th, 2019]
- Hamburg Grand Prix Final Goes To Tiebreak - Chess.com - November 20th, 2019 [November 20th, 2019]
- Garry Kasparov on chess, tech, Trump and Putin - Chessbase News - November 20th, 2019 [November 20th, 2019]
- Top FritzTrainers of the year - Chessbase News - December 28th, 2019 [December 28th, 2019]
- Christmas puzzle: What were the previous moves? - Chessbase News - December 28th, 2019 [December 28th, 2019]
- Koneru Humpy: Back to the forefront - Deccan Herald - January 5th, 2020 [January 5th, 2020]
- The 7 Best Chess Moments Of 2019 - Chess.com - January 5th, 2020 [January 5th, 2020]
- 6 best software to analyze chess games in 2020 - WindowsReport.com - April 27th, 2020 [April 27th, 2020]
- Chess greats face off online, webcams, arbiters to watch moves - The Indian Express - April 27th, 2020 [April 27th, 2020]
- "Chess makes me happy": An interview with Boris Gelfand - Chessbase News - April 27th, 2020 [April 27th, 2020]
- China pips US in world chess at a time their ties are at a nadir - Economic Times - May 15th, 2020 [May 15th, 2020]
- With new rules and a new normal, NASCAR set to return this weekend - ESPN - May 15th, 2020 [May 15th, 2020]
- It is easier to succeed if you have failed 55 quotes from Indian startup journeys - YourStory - May 19th, 2020 [May 19th, 2020]
- Kerbal Space Program Gets A New Update With Real Space Missions - Bleeding Cool News - May 19th, 2020 [May 19th, 2020]
- Self-Supervised Learning The Third-Wave in Cybersecurity AI - Security Boulevard - June 1st, 2020 [June 1st, 2020]
- Artificial Intelligence: The Promises of An Avatar in 2020 - Universal News - July 12th, 2020 [July 12th, 2020]
- When The Facts Change, We Change Our Minds (Anatomy Of A Sale) - Seeking Alpha - July 12th, 2020 [July 12th, 2020]
- Here's Why NASCAR Racing Is Harder Than Everyone Thinks | HotCars - HotCars - July 13th, 2020 [July 13th, 2020]
- An (Infinite) Game Theory strategy for India to be a global power - The Sunday Guardian - July 15th, 2020 [July 15th, 2020]
- Personal Insights: From Kinsale to Iran and the human kindness I will never forget - Irish Examiner - July 18th, 2020 [July 18th, 2020]
- Exploring 10 Hindi films based on books - The Indian Express - July 21st, 2020 [July 21st, 2020]
- Are You Ready For The Future Of Chess? - Chess.com - July 21st, 2020 [July 21st, 2020]
- Welcome to the Status Quo of the Streaming Wars - The Ringer - July 23rd, 2020 [July 23rd, 2020]
- The Cockroach's Carapace (and other opening disasters) - Chessbase News - July 26th, 2020 [July 26th, 2020]
- Sports Snippets - The Shillong Times - July 26th, 2020 [July 26th, 2020]
- These are the best Chess games you can play on Android phone - The Indian Express - July 26th, 2020 [July 26th, 2020]
- Macomb Center for the Performing Arts to host drive-in concert - C&G Newspapers - August 2nd, 2020 [August 2nd, 2020]
- Letter to out-of-school youth of blended learning - Philstar.com - August 2nd, 2020 [August 2nd, 2020]
- Who Are The 8 Best U.S. Chess Players Ever? - Chess.com - August 4th, 2020 [August 4th, 2020]
- In Honor of August and Art - Yakima Herald-Republic - August 8th, 2020 [August 8th, 2020]
- 35 ways to keep your kids entertained and stimulated while learning remotely - New York Post - August 10th, 2020 [August 10th, 2020]
- 2021 Genesis GV80 Preview: Hands On With the New Luxury SUV - AutoGuide.com - August 20th, 2020 [August 20th, 2020]
- We Can Sue, Too: An Interview with Brooke Goldstein, Founder of The Lawfare Project - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - August 20th, 2020 [August 20th, 2020]
- FIDE declares India and Russia joint winners of the Online Olympiad - Chessbase News - September 5th, 2020 [September 5th, 2020]
- Development in a cube. 20 new digital education centers opened in the country - Pledge Times - September 5th, 2020 [September 5th, 2020]
- Space Crew Will Officially Launch On October 15th - Bleeding Cool News - September 8th, 2020 [September 8th, 2020]
- Winning with the King's Indian and our summer special! - Chessbase News - September 8th, 2020 [September 8th, 2020]
- Google searches help infectious disease experts track the spread of coronavirus - My London - October 19th, 2020 [October 19th, 2020]
- COVID-19 Is Driving The Uptake Of Chess -- And Of Surveillance Tools To Stop Online Players Cheating - Techdirt - October 19th, 2020 [October 19th, 2020]
- Chess's cheating crisis: 'paranoia has become the culture' - The Guardian - October 19th, 2020 [October 19th, 2020]
- When 3 is greater than 5 - Chessbase News - October 19th, 2020 [October 19th, 2020]
- Fat Fritz 2.0 - The new number 1 - Chessbase News - February 15th, 2021 [February 15th, 2021]
- Fat Fritz 2: The Best of Both Worlds - Chessbase News - February 15th, 2021 [February 15th, 2021]
- The 25th anniversary of Deep Blue beating Garry Kasparov in a chess game. - Slate - February 15th, 2021 [February 15th, 2021]
- Gravwell 2nd Edition Will Be Coming Out Later This Year - Bleeding Cool News - February 20th, 2021 [February 20th, 2021]
- Five Issues Washington Should Consider In Reviewing A Lockheed-Aerojet Merger - Forbes - February 20th, 2021 [February 20th, 2021]
- A hearty chess gesture from the Czech Republic to the Indian state of Kerala - Chessbase News - July 12th, 2021 [July 12th, 2021]
- Who is the greatest of all time? - Stabroek News - July 12th, 2021 [July 12th, 2021]
- The DeanBeat: The week in the console and game engine wars - VentureBeat - July 12th, 2021 [July 12th, 2021]
- The 10 Greatest Blitz Chess Games Of All Time - Chess.com - December 27th, 2021 [December 27th, 2021]
- 10 Strongest Free Chess Engines [all above 3000 ELO] at ... - December 27th, 2021 [December 27th, 2021]
- Top 10 Strongest Chess Engines In 2021 - Hercules Chess - December 27th, 2021 [December 27th, 2021]
- 18 Best Chess Engines of 2021 | Based On Their Ratings ... - December 27th, 2021 [December 27th, 2021]
- Tilting Point partners with Polygon on Web3 games - VentureBeat - May 12th, 2022 [May 12th, 2022]