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.

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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

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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.

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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.


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