Top Chess Engine Championship formerly known as Thoresen Chess Engines Competition (TCEC or nTCEC) is a computer chess tournament that 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]
The first TCEC was in 2010. After a short break in 2012,[3] TCEC was restarted in early 2013 (as nTCEC)[4] and is currently active (renamed as TCEC in early 2014) with all-day live broadcasts of chess matches on its website. Supported by original engine authors and based on voluntarism and donation, it caused a furor in February 2011, when the free version of Houdini defeated reigning computer chess champion Rybka in a 40-game match.[5][6]
The current season of TCEC is sponsored by Chessdom Arena.[7][8]. The current TCEC champion is Stockfish 8, which defeated Houdini 5 in the TCEC Season 9 Superfinal 100-game match held in November - December 2016.[9]
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 4 qualifying stages and 1 Superfinal, where the top two chess engines battle it out over a series of 64 games to win the title of TCEC Grand Champion.
The time control in all events is 120+30 (120 minutes + 30 seconds added per move for the whole game) and pondering is set to off. The Opening Book is taken from recent strong human Grandmaster tournaments, is truncated to the first 6 or 8 moves, and is changed in every Stage. Engines are allowed updates between stages, unless there is a critical play-limiting bug, in which case the engine are allowed to be updated once during the stage. TCEC generates its own 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 criterium for entering into the competition, other than inviting the top participants from various rating lists. The list of participants is personally chosen by Thoresen before the start of any new season. His stated goal is to include "every major engine that is not a direct clone".[10] Usually chess engines that support multiprocessor mode are preferred (8-cores or higher). Both Winboard and UCI engines are supported. Large pages are disabled but access to various endgame tablebases is permitted.
A game can be drawn by threefold repetition or fifty-move rule. However, a game can also be drawn at move 40 or later if the eval from both playing engines are within +0.05 to -0.05 pawns for the last five moves, or ten plies. If there is a pawn advance or a capture, this special draw rule resets and starts over. On the website, this rule shows as "Distance in plies to TCEC draw rule". It adjudicates as won for one side if both playing engines have an evaluation of at least 6.50 pawns (or -6.50 in case of a black win) for four consecutive moves, or eight plies - this rule is in effect as soon as the game starts. The GUI also adjudicates tablebase endgame positions (with 5-men or less) automatically.
N.B.: tablebases were disabled for all engines for the whole of Season 7.[10]
Shredder vs Gull, TCEC S4
Pre-TCEC:
Season 1-3:
Season 4:
Season 5:
Season 6:
Season 9:
Continue reading here:
Top Chess Engine Championship - Wikipedia
- Cheating in Online Chess (Part 1): Suspicions of Engine Assistance - Chess.com - May 11th, 2024 [May 11th, 2024]
- Cheating in Online Chess (Part II): The Analysis of Engine Use - Chess.com - May 11th, 2024 [May 11th, 2024]
- The Silicon Gambit: How AI is Reshaping the World's Oldest Game - Chess.com - April 24th, 2024 [April 24th, 2024]
- Gukesh wins Candidates: The boy raised without chess engines wholl challenge Ding Liren at World Championships - The Indian Express - April 24th, 2024 [April 24th, 2024]
- Stars of the future shine in chess's ancestral homeland - Washington Times - September 19th, 2023 [September 19th, 2023]
- The 15 Best Episodes of Cowboy Bebop - MovieWeb - September 19th, 2023 [September 19th, 2023]
- Charge of the knight brigade: Indian teens storm global chess - IndiaTimes - August 20th, 2023 [August 20th, 2023]
- Knowing when to insist - ChessBase - August 20th, 2023 [August 20th, 2023]
- World Cup: Pragg and Salimova win tiebreakers - ChessBase - August 20th, 2023 [August 20th, 2023]
- What do F-16 and MiG-29 fighter jets do? - Times of Oman - August 20th, 2023 [August 20th, 2023]
- Xbox game releases August 21 to 27 - TrueAchievements - August 20th, 2023 [August 20th, 2023]
- Go! Guide Aug. 17 - The Republic - August 20th, 2023 [August 20th, 2023]
- MinStrength: An Alternative to Performance Rating - ChessBase - June 2nd, 2023 [June 2nd, 2023]
- Mittens (chess engine) - Wikipedia - January 31st, 2023 [January 31st, 2023]
- AlphaZero - Chess Engines - Chess.com - December 28th, 2022 [December 28th, 2022]
- 2022 U.S. Chess Championships, Round 3: Earning Respect! | US Chess.org - uschess.org - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Go! Guide Oct. 13 - The Republic - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Events, sales and more things happening Downriver The News Herald - Southgate News Herald - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Chess cheating drama: What are the different ways to cheat in chess? - The Indian Express - September 11th, 2022 [September 11th, 2022]
- Formula 1 2022: How to Watch the Italian Grand Prix Today - CNET - September 11th, 2022 [September 11th, 2022]
- The Machines That Made 500 Years of Circumnavigation Possible - Popular Mechanics - September 11th, 2022 [September 11th, 2022]
- Formula 1 2022: How to Watch the Belgian Grand Prix Today - CNET - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]
- Kids want to grow, learn; are we planting seeds of knowledge? - Las Cruces Sun-News - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]
- New: 3.h4 against the Kings Indian and Grnfeld - ChessBase India - August 25th, 2022 [August 25th, 2022]
- A bright chess champ emerges from Thiruvallur - The New Indian Express - August 25th, 2022 [August 25th, 2022]
- Interviewing The Coach Of Olympiad Sensation Gukesh - Chess.com - August 25th, 2022 [August 25th, 2022]
- Virtual Psychiatry is Here to Stay - Psychiatric Times - August 25th, 2022 [August 25th, 2022]
- Whatever Happened to the Transhumanists? - Gizmodo - August 2nd, 2022 [August 2nd, 2022]
- Beyond Carlsen: the devaluation of the World Chess Championship - TheArticle - July 31st, 2022 [July 31st, 2022]
- Go! Guide July 21 - The Republic - July 27th, 2022 [July 27th, 2022]
- Chennai Chess Olympiad and AI - Analytics India Magazine - June 24th, 2022 [June 24th, 2022]
- Go! Guide July 23 - The Republic - June 24th, 2022 [June 24th, 2022]
- Was Basman right? Iconoclasm, ridicule and chess - TheArticle - June 20th, 2022 [June 20th, 2022]
- Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix Is Today: How to Watch the Race Live - CNET - June 20th, 2022 [June 20th, 2022]
- Sentience is the wrong discussion to have on AI right now - TechTalks - June 20th, 2022 [June 20th, 2022]
- Headlines at 10:30 am on 20th June 2022 - The Indian Express - June 20th, 2022 [June 20th, 2022]
- 5 Chess Brilliancies That Stockfish Hates - Chess.com - June 11th, 2022 [June 11th, 2022]
- Carlsen Wins, Leads, Hits A 2870 Live Rating - Chess.com - June 11th, 2022 [June 11th, 2022]
- 21 things to do with kids in San Diego County in June - The San Diego Union-Tribune - June 11th, 2022 [June 11th, 2022]
- Is This Cooling Technology Company Ready To Heat Up? - Benzinga - Benzinga - June 3rd, 2022 [June 3rd, 2022]
- Calendar of events and activities throughout Downriver - Southgate News Herald - June 3rd, 2022 [June 3rd, 2022]
- Tilting Point partners with Polygon on Web3 games - VentureBeat - May 11th, 2022 [May 11th, 2022]
- Online booking agents have been behaving like kings - it's time to topple them - City A.M. - April 17th, 2022 [April 17th, 2022]
- Chess Games - Play Chess Games on CrazyGames - March 29th, 2022 [March 29th, 2022]
- A tale of two universities and two engines - Chess News - March 26th, 2022 [March 26th, 2022]
- Charity Cup: Anton wins three in a row to reach knockout - Chess News - March 26th, 2022 [March 26th, 2022]
- Formula 1: How to Watch the Bahrain Grand Prix and F1 Racing in 2022 - CNET - March 26th, 2022 [March 26th, 2022]
- Praggnanandhaa, 16, becomes only third Indian to beat Magnus Carlsen in stunning upset - ESPN - February 21st, 2022 [February 21st, 2022]
- Is Artificial Intelligence as Intelligent as We Think it is? - Analytics Insight - February 17th, 2022 [February 17th, 2022]
- Didnt Become a Hostage- Former World Chess Champion Calls Magnus Carlsen the Bridge Between Traditional and Modern Chess - EssentiallySports - February 17th, 2022 [February 17th, 2022]
- Can the academy rein in Big Tech? - Times Higher Education - February 17th, 2022 [February 17th, 2022]
- FIDE World Women's Team Championship Final: Russia Wins Gold In Victory Over India - Chess.com - February 17th, 2022 [February 17th, 2022]
- Researchers warn that social media may be fundamentally at odds with science - TechCrunch - February 15th, 2022 [February 15th, 2022]
- Battle of the Sexes: Men triumph! - Chessbase News - February 9th, 2022 [February 9th, 2022]
- Battle of the Sexes: Men increase lead - Chessbase News - February 5th, 2022 [February 5th, 2022]
- Chairman of the board | Boris Starling - The Critic - February 5th, 2022 [February 5th, 2022]
- Using AI in Recruiting - Onrec - February 5th, 2022 [February 5th, 2022]
- Arena Download - Complete GUI for chess engines that will ... - January 24th, 2022 [January 24th, 2022]
- A hundred years of exactitude: Jos Ral Capablanca - TheArticle - January 24th, 2022 [January 24th, 2022]
- Intel Core i5-12400 vs AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Face-Off: The Gaming Value Showdown - Tom's Hardware - January 24th, 2022 [January 24th, 2022]
- software - Why dont chess engines use Node.js? - Chess ... - December 29th, 2021 [December 29th, 2021]
- Stockfish - Chess Engines - Chess.com - December 27th, 2021 [December 27th, 2021]
- Top 10 Strongest Chess Engines In 2021 - Hercules Chess - December 23rd, 2021 [December 23rd, 2021]
- The 10 Greatest Blitz Chess Games Of All Time - Chess.com - December 23rd, 2021 [December 23rd, 2021]
- Ninja, the worlds top streamer, on how video games can make you smarter about money and investing - MarketWatch - December 17th, 2021 [December 17th, 2021]
- 8 Reasons To Play In The 2022 Daily Chess Championship - Chess.com - December 15th, 2021 [December 15th, 2021]
- World Chess Championship - the Arena - Chessbase News - December 7th, 2021 [December 7th, 2021]
- The World Chess Championship Opens With An Endless Knight-Rook Dance - FiveThirtyEight - November 27th, 2021 [November 27th, 2021]
- Play chess: online and computer chess on real boards in the test - Market Research Telecast - November 27th, 2021 [November 27th, 2021]
- The 5 Best Computer Chess Engines - Chess.com - November 15th, 2021 [November 15th, 2021]
- 10 Strongest Free Chess Engines [all above 3000 ELO] at ... - November 15th, 2021 [November 15th, 2021]
- Chessprogramming wiki - November 3rd, 2021 [November 3rd, 2021]
- Stockfish can crush you at chess even more efficiently in the 14.1 update - Neowin - November 3rd, 2021 [November 3rd, 2021]
- Grand Swiss: Shirov and Najer join Firouzja in the lead - Chessbase News - November 3rd, 2021 [November 3rd, 2021]
- Deadmau5's 'Oberhasli' is what it looks like when the metaverse comes for music fans - Mashable South East Asia - October 26th, 2021 [October 26th, 2021]
- Deadmau5's 'Oberhasli' is what it looks like when the metaverse comes for music fans - Mashable - October 24th, 2021 [October 24th, 2021]
- Deep Blue - Chess.com - October 17th, 2021 [October 17th, 2021]
- AlphaZero Crushes Stockfish In New 1,000-Game Match - Chess.com - October 17th, 2021 [October 17th, 2021]
- Free UCI-Compatible Chess Programs for the Stockfish Engine - HobbyLark - October 17th, 2021 [October 17th, 2021]
- CORRECTING and REPLACING RazerCon Is Back for Round II: Tune in for a Keynote By CEO Min-Liang Tan Filled With Exclusive New Announcements and Guest... - September 29th, 2021 [September 29th, 2021]