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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