Komodo and Stockfish have played a brilliant Stage 2 of the Top Chess Engine Championship, that finished today with an exciting final round. Both engines scored 22,5/30, leaving opposition four points behind. Komodo, with a slightly better SB tiebreak, has clinched the gold medal. However, the real race remains in the upcoming Stage 3, that starts this Saturday at 15:00 CEST at the official website.
The bronze medal was also decided on a tiebreak score. Jonny has played a great first and a solid second part to score 18,5/30. That was the same result as the traditionally strong Gull, but with better tiebreak.
The other four engines that go to Stage 3 are Fire 5, Andscacs, Houdini, and Rybka.
Stage 3 is going to be record breaking
Stage 3 of the Top Chess Engine Championship is going to be record breaking. The eight participating engines will have an average ELO of 3250+ according CCRL/IPON/TCEC ratings, but certainly the strength of the games will be even higher. Six of the engines come with an updated version, caring anywhere between 20 and 30 ELO points average more. Komodo will be upgraded to the newly released Komodo 10.1. Stockfish have submitted a new version. Andscacs found last minute improvements, while Fire has improved evaluation. Jonny is going to play with the new version 8.0. The biggest question mark will be Houdini, which after many years of inactivity has released the Houdini 5 dev for the TCEC Stage 3 competition.
Anton Mihailov, tournament director of TCEC, has shared, “Expect the unexpected in this Stage 3 of TCEC. It is a long race and anything is possible. Some engine authors have added special updates and we are all eager to see what will be the final result. Good luck to all the participants, it is an honor to host the strongest championship in computer chess history”.
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