Chess engine

A chess engine is a computer program that can play the game of chess.

Interface

Most chess engines do not have their own graphical user interface (GUI) but are rather console applications that communicate with a GUI such as XBoard (Linux),WinBoard (Windows) or Arena (Windows) via a standard protocol.

Protocols

The command line interface of GNU Chess became the initial de facto standard, called the Chess Engine Communication Protocol and first supported by XBoard. When XBoard was ported to the Windows operating system as WinBoard this protocol was popularly renamed to 'WinBoard Protocol'. The WinBoard Protocol was itself upgraded and the two versions of the protocols are referred to as: 'WinBoard Protocol 1' (original version) and 'WinBoard Protocol 2' (newer version). There is another protocol, the Universal Chess Interface. Some engines support both major protocols, and each protocol has its supporters. The Winboard Protocol is more popular but many chess engine developers feel that the Universal Chess Interface is easier to implement. Some interface programs, such as Arena, support both protocols whereas others, such as WinBoard, support only one and depend on subsidiary interpretors, such as Polyglot, to translate.

Increasing strength

Main article: Computer chess

Chess engines increase in playing strength each year. This is partly due to the increase in processing power that enables calculations to be made to ever greater depths in a given time. In addition, programming techniques have improved, enabling the engines to be more selective in the lines that they analyse and to acquire a better positional understanding.

Some chess engines use endgame tablebases to increase their playing strength during the endgame. An endgame tablebase is a database of all possible endgame positions with small groups of material. Each position is conclusively determined as a win, loss, or draw for the player whose turn it is to move, and the number of moves to the end with best play by both sides. Endgame tablebases in all cases identify the absolute best move in all positions included (identifying the move that wins fastest against perfect defense, or the move that loses slowest against optimal opposition). Such tablebases are available for all positions containing three to six pieces (counting the kings) and for some seven-piece combinations. When the maneuvering in an ending to achieve an irreversible improvement takes more moves than the horizon of calculation of a chess engine, an engine is not guaranteed to find the best move without the use of an endgame tablebase, and in many cases can fall foul of the fifty-move rule as a result.

Many engines use permanent brain as a method to increase their strength.

Comparisons

Tournaments

The results of computer tournaments give one view of the relative strengths of chess engines. However, tournaments do not play a statistically significant number of games for accurate strength determination. In fact, the number of games that need to be played between fairly evenly matched engines, in order to achieve significance, runs into the thousands and is, therefore, impractical within the framework of a tournament [2]. Most tournaments also allow any types of hardware, so only engine/hardware combinations are being compared.

Historically, commercial programs have been the strongest engines. To some extent, this is a self-fulfilling prophecy; if an amateur engine wins a tournament or otherwise performs well (for example, Zappa in 2005), then it is quickly commercialized. Titles gained in these tournaments garner much prestige for the winning programs, and are thus used for marketing purposes.

• World Computer Chess Championship
  • World Computer Speed Chess Championship
• Dutch open computer chess championship
• Internet Computer Chess Tournament (CCT)
• International Paderborn Computer Chess Championship
• North American Computer Chess Championship

Ratings

Chess engine rating lists aim to provide statistically significant measures of relative engine strength. These lists play multiple games between engines on standard hardware platforms, so that processor differences are factored out. Some also standardize the opening books, in an attempt to measure the strength differences of the engines only. These lists not only provide a ranking, but also margins of error on the given ratings. Also rating lists typically play games continuously, publishing many updates per year, compared to tournaments which only take place annually.

There are a number of factors that vary among the chess engine rating lists:

• Time control. Longer time controls, such as 40 moves in 120 minutes, are better suited for determining tournament play strength, but also make testing more time-consuming.
• Hardware used. Faster hardware with more memory leads to stronger play.
• 64-bit (vs. 32-bit) hardware and operating systems favor bitboard-based programs
• Multiprocessor vs. single processor hardware.
• Ponder settings (speculative analysis while the opponent is thinking) aka Permanent Brain.
• Transposition table sizes.
• Opening book settings.

These differences affect the results, and make direct comparisons between rating lists difficult.

Rating list	Time control (moves/minutes)	Year started	Last updated	Engine/platform entries	Games played	Top three engines	Rating
CCRL[1]	40/40[2] Ponder OFF	2005	July 31, 2011	225	334,153	Houdini 1.5a x64 4CPU Rybka 4.1 x64 4CPU Stockfish 2.1.1 x64 4CPU	3308 3271 3245
CEGT[3]	40/20[4] Ponder OFF	2006	July 31, 2011	923	528,034	Houdini 1.5a x64 6CPU Deep Rybka 4.1 x64 4CPU Critter 1.2 x64 4CPU	3292 3245 3242
IPON[5]	5m+3s ~16min/game Ponder ON	2006	October 24th, 2011	93	156,400	Houdini 2.0 STD 1CPU Komodo64 3 1CPU Deep Rybka 4.1 1CPU	3022 2966 2956
SSDF[6]	40/120 Ponder ON	1984	May 11, 2011	311	120,010	Deep Rybka 4 x64 4CPU Naum 4.2 x64 4CPU Deep Shredder 12 x64 4CPU	3216 3155 3115
WBEC[7]	40/40 Ponder ON	2001	May 15, 2011	226 (Historically: 850+[8])	100,749	Rybka 4 x64 2CPU Stockfish 2.0.1 x64 2CPU Thinker 5.5.4A1 x64 2CPU	3124 3121 3114

• Note that the listings in the above table only count the best entry for a given engine.

These ratings, although calculated by using the Elo system (or similar rating methods), have no direct relation to FIDE Elo ratings or to other chess federation ratings of human players. Except for some man versus machine games which the SSDF had organized many years ago (which were far from today's level), there is no calibration between any of these rating lists and player pools. Hence, the results which matter are the ranks and the differences between the ratings, not the absolute level of the numbers. Also, each list calibrates their Elo via a different method. Therefore no Elo comparisons can be made between the lists. Nevertheless, in view of recent man versus machine matches, it is generally undisputed that top computer chess engines should be rated at least in the range of top human performances, and probably significantly higher.

Missing from many rating lists are IPPOLIT and its derivatives (e.g. Fire [3]). Although very strong and open source, there are allegations from commercial software interests that they were derived from disassembled binary of Rybka.^[9] Due to the controversy, all these engines have been blacklisted from many tournaments and rating lists. Although Rybka has been accused of being based on Fruit, it is not blacklisted from computer chess tournaments or rating lists.^[10] In June 2011, Rybka was found guilty of being derived from Fruit and Crafty and Rybka has been banned from the ICGA (International Computer Games Association) World Computer Chess Championship, and its previous victories (2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010) has been revoked.^[11] As a consequence of this some of the rating lists will stop including Rybka in their lists. On the other hand, the SWCR list was discontinued in September 2011. This was fallout from an open letter in which many top programs boycotted tournaments run by the CSVN, namely the Dutch Open Computer Chess Championship, for allowing Rybka to participate. ^[12]

Also missing from some rating lists is Houdini, a very strong free engine by Robert Houdart that appeared in the middle of 2010. Houdini 1.5a has taken the top spot in the rating lists that include it.

Test suites

Engines can be tested by measuring their performance on specific positions. Typical is the use of test suites, where for each given position there is one best move to find. These positions can be geared towards positional, tactical or endgame play. The Nolot test suite, for instance, focuses on deep sacrifices.^[13] Then there are the BT2450 and BT2630 test suites by Hubert Bednorz and Fred Toennissen. These suites measure the tactical capability of the engine^[14] and have been used at least by REBEL.^[15] There is also a general test suite called Brilliancy by Dana Turnmire. The suite has been compiled mostly from How to Reassess Your Chess Workbook.^[16]

Strategic Test Suite (STS) by Swaminathan and Dann Corbit, tests chess engine's strategical strength.^[17]

Categorizations

Freely available

There are hundreds of freely available chess engines which conform to one of the above communication protocols. Many run on Windows or are open source. The top 50 strongest, freely available engines are listed here.^[18] Others may be found by examining the rating lists or external links.

Engine (strongest version)	Author (Country)	Elo
Alaric v707	Peter Fendrich (Sweden)	2763
Bison v9.11	Ivan Bonkin (Russia)	2825
Booot v5.1.0	Alex Morozov (Ukraine)	2951
Bright v0.4a	Allard Siemelink (Netherlands)	3003 (4CPU)
BugChess2 v1.7	Francois and Jean-Philippe Karr (France)	2800 (32-bit)
Chronos v1.9.9	Guillermo Filia (Argentina)	2849 (64-bit)
Colossus 2008b	Martin Bryant (England)	2745
Crafty v23.3	Robert Hyatt (US)	2950 (64-bit 4CPU)
Critter v1.2	Richard Vida (Slovakia)	3305 (64-bit 4CPU)
Cyclone v3.4	Fabien Letouzey (France), Thomas Gaksch, Norman Schmidt	2971 (2CPU)
Cyrano v0.6b17	Harald Johnsen (France)	2748
Daydreamer v1.75	Aaron Becker (USA)	2783 (32-bit)
Delfi v5.4	Fabio Cavicchio (Italy)	2825 (2CPU)
Deuterium 10.01.27.213	Ferdinand Mosca (Philippines)	2770
Doch v1.2	Don Dayley (USA)	2991 (64-bit)
E.T. Chess 13.01.08	Eric Triki (France)	2749
Fire v1.31	Norman Schmidt (USA)	3260
Frenzee Feb08	Sune Fischer (Denmark)	2799 (32-bit)
Fruit v2.3.1	Fabien Letouzey (France), Ryan Benitez (USA)	2887
Glaurung v2.2	Tord Romstad (Norway)	3003 (64-bit 4CPU)
Grapefruit v1.0	Fabien Letouzey (France), Thomas Gaksch (Germany), Vadim Demichev	2977 (32-bit 2CPU)
Gull v1.2	Vadim Demichev (Russia)	3038 (64-bit)
Hamsters v0.7.1	Alessandro Scotti (Italy)	2723
Hannibal v1.0a	Edsel Apostol (Philippines), Sam Hamilton (USA)	2941 (64-bit)
Houdini v1.5a	Robert Houdart (Belgium)	3309
IvanHoe v9.47b	Yakov Petrovich Golyadkin, Igor Igorovich Igoronov, Robert Pescatore, Yusuf Ralf Weisskopf, Ivan Skavinsky Skavar	3270
Jonny v4.00	Johannes Zwanzger (Germany)	2955 (4CPU)
Komodo v3.0	Don Dailey	3280 (64-bit)
List v5.12 (last free version)	Fritz Reul (Germany)	2720
Loop 13.6 (Loop 2007) (last free version)	Fritz Reul (Germany)	2943 (64-bit 4CPU)
Movei v00.8.438 (10 10 10)	Uri Blass (Israel)	2773
Naraku v1.4	Marco Meloni (Italy)	2820
Naum v2.0 (last free version)	Aleksandar Naumov (Serbia/Canada)	2802 (64-bit)
Pharaon v3.5.1	Franck Zibi (France)	2744 (2CPU)
Pro Deo v1.2 (freeware version of the commercial program Rebel)	Ed Schröder (Netherlands)	2720
Protector v1.3.6	Raimund Heid (Germany)	3070 (64-bit)
Rybka v.2.2n2 (last free version)	Vasik Rajlich (Czech Republic)	3126 (64-bit 4CPU)
Scorpio v2.7	Daniel Shawul (Ethiopia)	2851 (32-bit)
Slow Chess Blitz WV2.1	Jonathan Kreuzer (US)	2741
Spark v1.0	Allard Siemelink (Netherlands)	3097 (64-bit 4CPU)
Spike v1.4 Leiden	Volker Böhm and Ralf Schäfer (Germany)	3149
Stockfish v2.1.1	Tord Romstad (Norway), Marco Costalba (Italy) & Joona Kiiski (Finland)	3259 (64-bit 4CPU)
TheMadPrune v1.1.25	Fabien Letouzey (France), WH Lowery Jnr (USA)	2978 (2CPU)
Thinker v5.4C Inert	Lance Perkins (Canada)	3029 (64-bit)
Toga II v1.4.1SE	Derived from Fruit v2.1 by Fabien Letouzey (France), Thomas Gaksch (Germany)	3007 (4CPU)
Tornado v4.4	Engin Ustun (Germany)	2840 (32-bit)
Twisted Logic 20100131x	Edsel Apostol (Philippines)	2874 (64-bit)
Umko v1.0	Borko Boskovic (Slovenia)	2906 (32-bit)
Wildcat v8	Igor Korshunov (Belarus)	2731
Zappa v1.1 (latest free version)	Anthony Cozzie (US)	2712 (64-bit)

Pedagogical

These open source chess programs were expressly written to teach the craft of chess programming.

• GNU Chess The goal of GNU Chess is to serve as a basis for research.
• ChessBin.com C# Chess Engine.
• Chess Program in C#.
• FirstChess (in C).
• Gerbil
• Gray Matter (in C++).
• MSCP (in C)
• Mizar (in C).
• Viper (in C++).
• Xadreco Chess Engine (in C).
• ChEngine (in C#).
• Stockfish (in C++).

There is also source-available proprietary software.

• TSCP (in C).

These small programs are written for hobby or to win programming contests, currently able to play all legal chess moves although with limited text interface.

• Micro-Max (chess engine), by H.G.Muller, a 133-line chess program in C (1433 characters)
• Toledo Nanochess, by Óscar Toledo G., an obfuscated chess program written in 1326 bytes of C.

Commercial

These chess programs are sold commercially. Most of these also include their own user interface.

• Chess Genius, by Richard Lang of Mephisto fame
• Chessmaster
• Chess Tiger
• Fritz (single processor), Deep Fritz (multi processor)
• Gandalf
• HIARCS
• Junior - (single- and multi-processor versions)
• The King - the engine of the commercial Chessmaster program
• Ktulu
• Loop (also the engine for Wii Chess)
• Naum versions 2.1 and later
• Onno
• Rebel - (see also ProDeo)
• Ruffian 2
• Rybka
• Shredder
• Deep Sjeng
• Smarthink
• SparkChess
• Zappa

Private

Name	Author	Country
ApiChess	Max Himam	France
Azraël	Christopher Conkie	United Kingdom
Carnivor	Michael Sherwin	USA
Cheetah	Ralf Schäfer	Germany
Chepla	Mikael Bäckman	Sweden
Chimp	Andy Duplain	United Kingdom
Chiron	Ubaldo Andrea Farina	Italy
Cipollino	Giancarlo delli Colli	Italy
Cogito	Joerg Schaefer	Germany
Cowrie Chess	Chan Rasjid	Singapore
Czolgista	Tomasz Kazimierski	Poland
Diep	Vincent Diepeveen	The Netherlands
Dr. Theopolis	Corby Nichols	USA
EdlChess	Stephan Edlich	Germany
EGM	Pawel Kobylarz	Poland
Eichhörnchen	Wieland Belka	Germany
Ferret past winner of the World Computer Speed Chess Championship	Bruce Moreland	USA
Flywheel	Don Cross	USA
Freccia	Stefano Gemma	Italy
Grok	Peter Kappler	USA
HansDamf	Gerd Isenberg	Germany
Hector for Chess	Csaba Jergler	Hungary
Ikarus past winner of the World Computer Speed Chess Championship
Kallisto	Bart Weststrate	Netherlands
LearningLemming	Sam Hamilton	USA
MeneChess	Shaun Howe	United Kingdom
Moneypenny	Matt Shoemaker	USA
NaltaP312	Yves Catineau	France
Nightmare	Joost Buijs	Netherlands
Now	Mark Lefler	USA
Nullmover	Michael Langeveld	Netherlands
Olympus	Joshua Shriver	USA
Pandix	Gyula Horváth	Hungary
Pebble	Adam Goodwin	USA
Philidor	Christian Barreteau and Bruno Lucas	France
Purple Haze	Vincent Ollivier	France
Sibyl	Milikas Anastasios	Greece
Sillycon	Lasse Hansen	Norway
Spandrel	Robert Purves	New Zealand
Symbolic	Steven Edwards	USA
Telepath	Charles Roberson	USA
Tinker	Brian Richardson	USA
TwilightChess	Tony Paletta	France
Tzunami	Ivo Tops	Netherlands
Vlad Tepes	Henk Fennema	Netherlands
WaDuuttie	Maarten Claessens	Netherlands
Waster	Geoff Westwood	United Kingdom
Weid	Jaap Weidemann	South Africa
XiniX	Tony van Roon-Werten	Netherlands
Z	Manuel Díaz	Spain
Zeta	Srdja Matovic	Montenegro
Ziggurat	David Norris	United States
Zilch	Mike Leany	USA

Dedicated hardware

These chess playing systems include custom hardware or run on supercomputers. All are historical; chess supercomputers have not competed in computer tournaments since Hydra played in 2006.

• Bebe, a strong bit-slice processor in the 1980s
• Belle
• Chess (Northwestern University)
• ChipTest
• Cray Blitz
• Deep Blue
• Deep Thought
• HiTech
• Hydra, predecessor was called Brutus

Commercial dedicated computers

In the 1980s and early 1990s, there was a competitive market for strong dedicated chess computers. Many form-factors were sold, from handheld peg-board computers to wooden auto-sensory boards with state-of-the-art processors. This market changed in the mid-90s when the economical embedded processors in dedicated chess computers could no longer compete with the fast processors in personal computers. Nowadays, most dedicated units sold are of beginner and intermediate strength.

• Chess Challenger, a line of chess computers sold by Fidelity Electronics from 1977 [4] to 1992. These models won the first four World Microcomputer Chess Championships.
• ChessMachine, an ARM-based dedicated computer, which could run two engines:
  • The King, which later became the Chessmaster engine, was also used in the TASC R30 dedicated computer
  • Gideon, a version of Rebel, in 1992 became the first microcomputer to win the World Computer Chess Championship
• Mephisto, a line of chess computers sold by Hegener & Glaser. The units programmed by Richard Lang won six consecutive World Microcomputer Chess Championships. They bought out Fidelity in 1989.
• Novag sells a line of tactically strong computers, including the Constellation, Sapphire, and Star Diamond brands.
• Saitek sells mid-range units of intermediate strength. They bought out Hegener & Glaser and its Mephisto brand in 1994.
• Excalibur Electronics sells a line of intermediate strength units. Excalibur was started in 1992 by the son of the founder of Fidelity Electronics.
• Phoenix Chess Systems makes limited edition units based around StrongARM and XScale processors running modern engines and emulating classic engines

Historical

These chess programs run on obsolete hardware.

• 1K ZX Chess
• Colossus Chess
• Kaissa
• Kotok-McCarthy
• Mac Hack
• Microchess was the first commercial game for a personal computer, developed first for the KIM-1 and later Commodore PET, Apple II, TRS-80 and others. Bobby Fischer played against MicroChess. [5]
• Sargon
• Socrates II

See also

• List of chess software
• Chess Engines Grand Tournament
• Computer chess
• Internet chess server
• Chess Engine Communication Protocol
• Universal Chess Interface

Notes and references

1. ^ "CCRL 40/40 - Complete list". July 31, 2011. http://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/4040/rating_list_all.html. Retrieved August 3, 2011. 
2. ^ Also available: 40 moves in 4 minutes
3. ^ "CEGT 40/20". Chess Engines Grand Tournament. July 31, 2011. http://www.husvankempen.de/nunn/rating.htm. Retrieved August 3, 2011. 
4. ^ Also available: 40 moves in 4 minutes, 40 moves in 120 minutes
5. ^ "IPON". IPON. July 9, 2011. http://www.inwoba.de/index.html. Retrieved August 3, 2011. 
6. ^ "The SSDF Rating List". Swedish Chess Computer Association. May 11, 2011. http://ssdf.bosjo.net/list.htm. Retrieved August 3, 2011. 
7. ^ "BayesianElo Ratinglist of WBEC Ridderkerk". May 15, 2011. http://wbec-ridderkerk.nl/html/BayesianElo_ed18.htm. Retrieved August 3, 2011. 
8. ^ http://home.scarlet.be/vincentlejeune/Ratings-WBEC-Ed-11-to-16.txt
9. ^ Chess engine controversy at www.chessvibes, retrieved 28/May/2010
10. ^ https://webspace.utexas.edu/zzw57/rtc/eval/eval.html
11. ^ http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/rybka-disqualified-and-banned-from-world-computer-chess-championships/
12. ^ "SWCR". SWCR. September 29, 2011. http://www.amateurschach.de/. Retrieved September 29, 2011. 
13. ^ Nolot test suite
14. ^ BT2450 test suite
15. ^ Rebel
16. ^ Brilliancy suite TalkChess forum
17. ^ [1] Strategic Test Suite
18. ^ Elo ratings taken from "CCRL 40/40, full list". Computer Chess Rating List. 05 May 2010. http://computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/4040/rating_list_all.html. Retrieved 05 May 2011. 

External links

• Chess Engine's Polyglot Opening Book for WinBoard GUI. - A general (learning) purpose Chess Engine's Polyglot Opening Book for WinBoard GUI.