Your GM Coach at Home: How to Analyse your Chess Games with Chess King 4

Hello chess blog friends, not everyone has a chess GM coach living round the corner and available to help. Get your own most-affordable super-strong GM at home - Chess King! Here's a nice video to help you understand Game Analysis with Houdini in Chess King 4 for PC/Mac. This video (part of a playlist of 25 tutorial videos about the chess software Chess King 4 by chess guru Steve Lopez and chess queen and Grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk) shows us Game Analysis with Houdini in the chess software Chess King 4.




From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal chess blog
at www.chessqueen.com
Don't miss Chess Queen™
YouTube Channel
 

Komodo Chess Engine leads Chess Computers' Championship TCEC

Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,

The Komodo chess engine continues to lead the Superfinal of the world’s strongest computer chess championship TCEC. It has a 2 point advantage after round 41, seven rounds before the end. Komodo was off to an exciting start, but Stockfish quickly caught up. The balance of powers maintained until game 25, when Komodo got three consecutive wins. Until game 34 it maintained a four points lead, but them Stockfish started waking up. With two heavy blows in games 40 and 41, the distance was reduced to just two points, seven rounds before the end.

Who will be this year’s Superfinal champion of TCEC? Follow the games live daily on the official website.

Replay annotated Komodo – Stockfish by GM Jacob Aagard here

Read also:
Komodo Chess Engine creator Don Dailey is No More

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal chess blog
at www.chessqueen.com
Don't miss Chess Queen™
YouTube Channel

Komodo Leads Stage 4 of the Strongest Computer Chess Championship

Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,

The Komodo Chess Engine leads Stage 4 of the strongest computer chess championship TCEC. Komodo has collected 3,5/5, half a point ahead of Houdini and Stockfish. With two victories, three draws, and zero losses, Komodo continues its fantastic performance confirming his victory from Stage 2 of TCEC, and the dominance on the board at Stage 3.

This is just round 5 of 18, so anything can happen to the end. Stage 1 winner Boquet is sharing 4th-5th position with the updated Naum. They have 2,0/5, half a point more than the 6th placed Gull.

Stockfish and Bouquet played the amazing 227 moves thriller, you can replay the game with Chess King.

Stage 4 consists of the 6 engines that qualified from Stage 3 – Komodo, Bouquet, Houdini, Stockfish, Gull, and Naum 4.6. The competition is a hexa round robin and the top 2 engines will qualify to play the Superfinal. (Report via www.chessdom.com)

Standings
Engine ELO Points 
1 Komodo 3106 3.5
2 Houdini 3097 3
3 Stockfish 3090 3
4 Bouquet 3058 2
5 Naum 2987 2
6 Gull R 3055 1.5

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal chess blog 
at www.chessqueen.com
Don't miss Chess Queen™
YouTube Channel

Komodo Chess Engine wins TCEC Stage 2

Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,

Komodo chess engine has won the second stage of the world's strongest computer chess championship, the TCEC. The engine is rated 3084 and is by Don Dailey and Larry Kaufman. In second place is Stockfish 4, by M. Costalba, T. Romstad and J. Kiiski. Stockfish is rated 3098. Third place went to Gull 2.2 by Vadim Demichev. 

With the same points as Gull, but with lower tiebreak, at fourth and fifth positions are Hiarcs. It is the top placed engine under 3000 elo and fared through the event with good start and strong finish. Houdini 3, the absolute champion of the competition, remained at 5th position. The engine by Robert Houdart is rated 3145 elo.

A total of 10 engines qualify for Stage 3 (that starts October 19th at 12:00 CET). The remaining qualifiers are Bouquet with 11,5/19, Rybka with 11,5/19, Critter with 11,5/19, Naum with 10,0/19, and Junior with 8,5/19. (Final standings all engines here)

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal chess blog
at www.chessqueen.com
Don't miss Chess Queen™
YouTube Channel
 

Computer Chess Championships 2013: 3086-Rated Komodo Leads Stage 2

Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,

The 3086 elo rated engine Komodo is sole leader of Stage 2 the strongest computer event TCEC. Komodo has collected 11,5/16, a full point more than Stockfish and Gull. They are followed by Rybka and Hiarcs at 10,0/16 and Houdini and Critter at 9,5/16.

The ongoing TCEC Stage 2 consists of 19 rounds and the top 10 engines move on to the next stage. Stage 3 will start immediately after. It consists of the 10 engines that qualified from Stage 2. The format for Stage 3 is a double round robin and the openings are chosen randomly per pair so that each engine will play both sides of the same opening against each other. The top 6 will move on to Stage 4 while the rest is out of TCEC for the current Season. 90 games are played in Stage 3.

So far close to mathematical qualification for Stage 3 have achieved nine engines – Komodo, Stockfish, Gull, Hiarcs, Houdini, Rybka, Critter, Bouquet, and Naum. One place is to be decided and it looks like a fierce fight between Jonny, Shredder, Junior, and Spike. Watch the live games here / Visit the official website

Standings after R16
Engine ELO Points
1 Komodo 3086 11.5
2 Gull 3063 10.5
3 Stockfish 3098 10.5
4 Rybka 3092 10
5 Hiarcs 2979 10
6 Houdini 3146 9.5
7 Critter 1.6a 3072 9.5
8 Bouquet 1.8a 3069 9
9 Naum 2978 9
10 Jonny 2789 7.5
11 Spike 2921 7
12 Shredder 2942 7
13 Junior 2913 7
14 Equinox 3051 6
15 Spark 2889 5.5
16 Onno 2834 4
17 Tornado 2830 4
18 Toga 2857 3
19 Exchess 2702 3

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal chess blog
at www.chessqueen.com
Don't miss Chess Queen™
YouTube Channel

TCEC Computer Chess Championship New Season starts August 26th

Alexandra Kosteniuk's Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) 2013

Hi everyone, 

TCEC, the most renowned computer chess championship, starts its new season in September 2013 with improvements and a new live page. The new season of TCEC joins forces with Chessdom Arena, and together they hope to bring you unprecedented coverage and insights of high level computer chess.

The first TCEC Season concluded in May this year with Houdini winning the Superfinal against Stockfish with a score of 25-23, after multiple engines engaged in battles in the divisions. This time the hardware that will be available to the engines will be a powerful 16-core server that will ensure a strong foundation for the engines. This is a guarantee that the second Season of TCEC will be full of excitement and very high quality chess.

When does it start?
The official start of the TCEC season is August 26th, 2013. The games will be played one after the other, without any pause between the rounds, guaranteeing 24/7 top fun for the chess fans.

What is new?Starting this season, TCEC will be part of the Chessdom pages. The live games are going to be shown exclusively at the http://tcec.chessdom.com address, while several innovations will allow synergy with the Chessdom Arena.

Anton Mihailov, CEO of Chessdom, comments, “We are proud to have TCEC on the Chessdom pages. The best computer chess is coming this month and we will make sure to present the efforts, achievements, and intellectual challenges behind each of the participants in the new Season. In combination with the European Club Cup 2013and the World Chess Championship 2013, an exciting second half of the year is ahead with strong chess 24/7″

The TCEC director Martin Thoresen shares, “I am very proud and excited about the cooperation with Chessdom. I think that together, we will bring a lot of excitement to any chess-loving person out there”.

The TCEC participants
As usual, the tournament director of TCEC, Martin Thoresen, will carefully select the participants of this second Season. He will include the known top engines from previous seasons like Houdini (current TCEC Grand Champion), Stockfish and Komodo, as well as new aspirants in the lower divisions.

Read more »

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Computer Chess Championship: Stockfish Leads Stage 2a

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,

The chess engine Stockfish is leader of TCEC Stage 2a. The 210213 version of Stockfish is at sole first position with 4,5/6 after 3 wins and 3 draws. It is half a point ahead of Rybka and Critter, and a full point ahead of Hiarcs.

TCEC Stage 2a is played now, with 8 engines in double round robin. The currently regarded as top engine, the rated 3193 ELO Houdini 3.0, is suffering in the early stages of the computer chess championship, according to the latest Chessdom news update.

Houdini has collected just 2,5/6 and is trailing at 6th position. From the six games Houdini has only one victory against Spike 1.4 at the start. That was followed by draws with Hiarcs 14, Gaviota, and Stockfish. A heavy loss from Critter 1.6a in round 3 and a sweet revenge by Rybka in round 6 sent Houdini in the bottom half of the table.

Houdini will have the difficult task to come back to the first positions in the remaining eight rounds. The engine already made such a comeback at the Stage 1 eliminations, where it started with mediocre performance, but finished in style to claim shared first. As the renowned developed Miguel Ballicora noted in a recent interview, “The favorite is clearly Houdini, but I expect others to be ready to surprise it. However, in the superfinal, with so many games, it will be hard to beat. There are more chances to be knocked out in stage 3, when fewer games are played.”

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal blog at
www.chessqueen.com
Don't miss Chess Queen™
YouTube Channel

Houdini and Vitruvius win TCEC stage 1

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,

TCEC computer chess championship stage 1 has come to an end. Houdini and Vitruvius are the winners, with 5,5/7, half a point more than Gull II and Stockfish.

Houdini had a rough start, with two draws in the first 3 games. However, it quickly recovered, to beat both Stockfish and Rybka in the next rounds. Vitruvius followed a similar pattern, starting with a victory and two draws. Later wins vs Chiron and Hiarcs gave the engine equal points in the final stage 1 standings, according to a Chessdom report.

A total of 16 engines qualified to the second stage of TCEC. All but one 3000+ ELO engines qualified, the short straw was for Equinox which remained 17th on tiebreak. The lowest rated engine to qualify was Gaviota (ELO 2720).

Houdini and Vitruvius did not meet during the first stage of TCEC. They will not meet in stage 2 either, as they are in different groups – Houdini in 2a and Vitruvius in 2b.

List of participants for Stage 2a:Houdini, Stockfish, Hiarcs, Rybka, Critter, Junior, Gaviota, Spike

List of participants for Stage 2b:Vitruvius, Gull, Chiron, Komodo, Shredder, Scorpio, Quazar, Hannibal

Read more »

Computer Chess Championship: Gull II Takes Sole Lead

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hi everyone,

Gull II, the chess engine by Vadim Demichev, is the sole leader of TCEC computer championship. After four rounds Gull has collected 3,5/4 and is half a point ahead of competition. So far Gull has three victories – against Dirty, Critter, and Spike and a draw with Chiron, according to a Chessdom report.

Gull is closely followed by five engines with 3,0/4. Among them is Houdini 3 with two victories and two draws. After a shaky start, Houdini recovered in the best possible way after beating Stockfish with black in a 101 moves thriller. Other engines sharing second position are the second seeded Komodo, Hiarcs 14.0b, Chiron 1,5, Rybka 4.1, and Vitruvius. In the group with 2,5/4 points, we find some of the top competitors as the third seeded Critter, by Richard Vida, rated 3104 ELO, as well as a well performing Scorpio 2.75 rated only at 2794 ELO.

The lowest scoring 3000+ engine so far – Equinox, started recovering with a victory against Crafty, and now stands at 2,0/4.

Read more »

Computer Chess Championship: Tough Battle!

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012


Hi everyone,

After round 3 of the TCEC computer chess championship, reports Chessdom, there is not a single engine with perfect score in the 32 players field. Critter – Stockfish and Chiron 1.5 – Gull II made draws at the top tables to join Hiarcs 14.0b at the top of the table with 2,5/3.

Houdini was held to yet another draw. After failing to defeat Hiarcs in round 2, Houdini was effectively held by Komodo. The highest rated engine in the field is now sharing 6th-14th with Rybka, Komodo, Vitruvius, Shredder 12, Protector 1.5b, Junior 13, Texel, and Hannibal.

Equinox 1.65 is the underachiever of the high rated competitors. Having a rating of 3077, Equinox is in the bottom half with 1,0/3, after loss versus Protector and draws with Gaviota and Rybka.

Arsan, Gaviota, and Rodent, all rated under 2700 elo, are now with 1,5/3. Scroll down for the full standings.

TCEC director Martin Thoresen commented for Chessdom on the events from round 3, “The blunder Stockfish made in the endgame (122… c2??) against Critter cost it the full point. It proves that no programs are perfect… yet!” Thoresen also commented on Houdini’s poor start, “Anything can happen with so few games, people may expect Houdini to win everything but the truth is that even Carlsen draws many games even though he is rated 50-150 elo more than his opponents.


From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal blog at
www.chessqueen.com
Don't miss Chess Queen™
YouTube Channel

Top Chess Prep: Anand Explains How he Prepared for Boris

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hi everyone,

World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand, speaking to Indian media on Monday, said, "World championship doesn't start the day you start playing, it starts the moment you know who your opponent is going to be."

Anand said, "This year I brought a change to my game. Instead of opening with one white weapon, which I usually do, I started off with two white weapons."

"I knew that my decision to open with one white weapon was no longer a surprise," he added.

Praising Boris Gelfand, Anand said that, "He is a very experienced player. He was very complicated and had some completely new stuffs."

He said Borris Gelfand is someone who had good understanding of the game. "He is someone who embodies the best traditions of Soviet Union chess. I knew he would come up with some of the best preparation and he did," he said.

Anand further said that the key of playing is how much of your preparation you get into, which determines the game.

In case you are wondering how you could prepare to take on the world chess champion, 'speak' to the Chess King and Houdini!

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal blog at
www.chessqueen.com

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continue to scroll below for our regular chess news updates

Weekend Chess King Quiz - What's your score?

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011


Hello everyone,

We have a small chess quiz for you this weekend from Chess King!

• When GM Peter Svidler was asked which one player he would choose to represent Earth in a hypothetical match against aliens, he answered what?
• Who or what is GigaKing?
• What three things you need to help you with your computer-based chess studies?

1. computer-based analysis
2. game storage
3. training tool
4. all of these plus database

And, where do you find all this at one place? Look here.

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal blog at
www.chessqueen.com

361-move chess game between Shredder and Houdini

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011

Hi everyone,

They're titans in their own right. They fight till the bitter end and this was a pretty long end huh! We bring to you a 361-move chess game played between Shredder and Houdini as part of the TCEC Super computer chess championship Premier Division that is currently on. You can keep track of the live games at this link.

(Before we forget, Oh, yes, it ended in a draw.)

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's

www.chessblog.com

Also see her personal blog at

www.chessqueen.com

Houdini elbows past Rybka to win computer chess challenge

Chess blog for latest news and trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011

Hi everybody,

Have you ever sat across an opponent before a chess game and wondered what machine he used at home to prepare against you? When someone mentions chips you think not of coffee and tea-time but a computer chess program?

Speak to any chess player and they would name top chess players like Vishy Anand, Magnus Carlsen, Vassily Ivanchuk, Rybka and Houdini in the same breath. Human or machine? It's the strong chess that counts in the end. No wonder then, we kept track of the recent-ly concluded Thoresen Computer Engines Competition. Houdini, a free program, managed to elbow past Rybka - the winner of four computer world chess championships.

The competition was a double round-robin, and it used the Bilbao Scoring System in which each win counts as 3 points and each draw as 1. Houdini finished with 24 points and Rybka with 23.

Stockfish, another free program, finished third, with 20 points, while Ivanhoe and Critter, yet another free program, tied for fourth and fifth, with 17 points each, though Ivanhoe was fourth on a tie-breaker. Rounding out the field were Shredder and Naum, which each scored 12 points, and Hiarcs, which ended with 11.

What makes the contest even more interesting for us flesh-and-blood chess players is that the chips-and-circuits players had different playing styles as well - depending upon how they have been designed and programmed. Definitely these 'guys' are better than humans but not perfect at chess. Chess has not been 'solved' yet. What a relief and we feel smug about it somewhat. You can find some interesting articles and comments at this link of the website that organized the tournament.

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal blog at
www.chessqueen.com