World Computer Chess Championship

World Computer Chess Championship (WCCC) is an event held periodically since 1974 where computer chess engines compete against each other. The event is organized by the International Computer Games Association. It is often held in conjunction with the Computer Olympiad, a collection of computer tournaments for other board games.

The WCCC is open to all types of computers including microprocessors, supercomputers, clusters, and dedicated chess hardware.

Championship results

In 2007, the reigning champion Junior declined to defend its title.

For the 2009 edition, the rules were changed to limit platforms to commodity hardware supporting at most eight cores,[1] thereby excluding supercomputers and large clusters. Thereafter, a parallel Software Championship was held instead; unlimited hardware is still allowed in the championship proper.

Event # Year Location Participants Winner
1 1974 Stockholm 13 Kaissa
2 1977 Toronto 16 Chess 4.6[2]
3 1980 Linz 18 Belle
4 1983 New York 22 Cray Blitz
5 1986 Cologne 22 Cray Blitz
6 1989 Edmonton 24 Deep Thought
7 1992 Madrid 22 ChessMachine (Gideon)
8 1995 Hong Kong 24 Fritz
9 1999 Paderborn 30 Shredder
10 2002 Maastricht 18 Deep Junior
11 2003 Graz 16 Shredder
12 2004 Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 14 Deep Junior
13 2005 Reykjavík 12 Zappa
14 2006 Torino 18 Junior
15 2007 Amsterdam 12 Zappa[wccc 1]
16 2008 Beijing 10 HIARCS[wccc 1]
17 2009 Pamplona 10 Junior, Shredder, Sjeng[wccc 1]
18 2010 Kanazawa 10 Rondo, Thinker[wccc 1]
19 2011 Tilburg 9 Junior
20 2013 Yokohama 6 Junior
21 2015 Leiden 9 Jonny
22 2016 Leiden 6 Komodo
23 2017 Leiden 4 Komodo
24 2018 Stockholm 8 Komodo
25 2019 Macau 6 Komodo
  1. Rybka originally won the WCCC in 2007 -2010, but was later disqualified for plagiarising code in a controversial decision.

World Chess Software Championship

From 2010 a new tournament was introduced and held at the same location and during the same period as the World Computer Chess Championship. The rules for the World Chess Software Championship state that competing programs must run on machines with identical hardware specifications. Time control is game in 45 minutes with 15 second increment.[3][4]

Event # Year Location Participants Winner Hardware
1 2010 Kanazawa 9 Shredder Intel quad core Xeon 2.66 GHz, 8MB Hash[5]
2 2011 Tilburg 5 HIARCS Intel Core2 Duo, 1.7 GHz, 2MB Hash
3 2013 Yokohama 6 HIARCS Intel quad core i7, 2.7 GHz, 16MB Hash
4 2015 Leiden 8 Shredder Intel quad core i7, 2.7 GHz, 16MB Hash[6]
5 2016 Leiden 7 Komodo Intel quad core i7, 3.4 GHz, 16MB Hash [7]
6 2017 Leiden 7 Shredder Intel quad core i7, 3.4 GHz, 16MB Hash
7 2018 Stockholm 9 Komodo Intel quad core i7, 1.8 GHz, 16MB Hash
8 2019 Macau 6 Komodo Intel Pentium Silver N5000 CPU at 1.1 GHz, 4 GB RAM

Due to the requirement to be present on-site, play on a physical board, and strict rules of originality, many strong programs refrain from participating in the ICGA events. As the conditions of the software championship can easily be emulated by anyone with a high-end PC, there are now privately conducted tournaments, such as Top Chess Engine Championship, that have much broader attendance, as well as a larger number of games to reduce the influence of chance.

World Microcomputer Chess Championship

From 1980 to 2001, the ICCA/ICGA organized a separate cycle of championships limited to programs running on microprocessors. In the first three championships, the winners were dedicated chess computers, and then in 1984, Richard Lang's Psion program shared first place, running on an IBM PC under MS-DOS.

At the 14th WMCCC in Jakarta, the Israeli team Junior was denied entry to Indonesia and some other teams dropped out in protest.

The 16th WMCCC was the same as the 9th WCCC above.

Event # Year Location Participants Winner
1 1980 London 12 Fidelity Chess Challenger
2 1981 Travemünde 8 Fidelity X
3 1983 Budapest 15 Fidelity Elite A/S
4 1984 Glasgow 12 Fidelity Elite X, Mephisto, Princhess X, Psion
5 1985 Amsterdam 6 / 5 Mephisto / Nona
6 1986 Dallas 6 Mephisto
7 1987 Rome 2 / 7 Mephisto / Psion
8 1988 Almería 2 / 7 Mephisto
9 1989 Portorož 9 Mephisto
10 1990 Lyon 12 Mephisto
11 1991 Vancouver, Canada 15 ChessMachine (Gideon)
12 1993 Munich 28 HIARCS
13 1995 Paderborn, Germany 33 MChess Pro 5.0
14 1996 Jakarta 27 Shredder
15 1997 Paris 34 Junior
16 1999 Paderborn, Germany 30 Shredder
17 2000 London 14 Shredder
18 2001 Maastricht 18 Deep Junior
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See also

References
  1. Clarification of the 8-cores rule for the WCCC
  2. Jennings, Peter (January 1978). "The Second World Computer Chess Championships". BYTE. p. 108. Retrieved 17 October 2013.
  3. Article on the World Chess Software Championship
  4. HIARCS announcement of new tournament
  5. ChessCentral report on 2010 World Chess Software Championship
  6. https://icga.leidenuniv.nl/?page_id=1413
  7. https://icga.leidenuniv.nl/?page_id=1679


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