Category Archives: Chess Engines

The most powerful chess engines of all time are all well-known to most chess players. If you are wondering which available engine is the strongest, then look no furtherStockfish is the king of chess engines.

Let's learn more about this mighty engine. Here is what you need to know about Stockfish:

Stockfish is the strongest chess engine available to the public and has been for a considerable amount of time. It is a free open-source engine that is currently developed by an entire community. Stockfish was based on a chess engine created by Tord Romstad in 2004 that was developed further by Marco Costalba in 2008. Joona Kiiski and Gary Linscott are also considered founders.

Stockfish is not only the most powerful available chess engine but is also extremely accessible. It is readily available on many platforms, including Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, iOS, and Android.

Stockfish's accomplishments are more impressive than those of any other chess engine. It has won eight Top Chess Engine Championships (TCEC) through 2020. Stockfish has also dominated Chess.com's Computer Chess Championship since 2018, winning the first six events and more.

Stockfish had firmly established itself as the strongest chess engine in the world before 2017, which is why the chess world was shaken to its core when it lost a one-sided match to a neural network computer program called AlphaZero. This loss to AlphaZero led to the development of other neural network projects (most notably Leela Chess Zero,Leelenstein, and Alliestein).

Although Stockfish has kept its spot atop the chess engine list, the neural network engines had been getting closer and closer to Stockfish's strength. In September 2020, Stockfish 12 was released, and it was announced that Stockfish had absorbed the Stockfish+NNUE project (NNUE stands for Efficiently Updatable Neural Network). What does this move mean? Well, now the raw power of the traditional brute-force Stockfish has been improved by the evaluation abilities of a neural network enginea mind-boggling combination!

As of October 2020, Stockfish is the highest-rated engine according to the computer chess rating list (CCRL) with a rating of 3514it is the only engine with a rating above 3500. According to the July 2020 Swedish Chess Computer Association (SSDF) rating list, Stockfish 9 is ranked #3, Stockfish 10 is ranked #2, and Stockfish 11 is ranked #1 with a rating of 3558. Taking the top three spots with three different versions is quite impressive.

According to this great video on the strongest chess engines of all time (based on the SSDF rating lists), Stockfish is the strongest engine of all timea sentiment that is widely shared in the chess community.

As mentioned, Stockfish has dominated the TCEC since it started participating. It has won eight TCEC championships and also has six second-place finishesit has placed first or second in every season it has participated since 2013 with only one exception. From 2018-2020 it won seven out of nine TCEC seasons ahead of Komodo, Leela Chess Zero, Shredder, Houdini, and other top-level engines.

Stockfish also won the 2014 TCEC Fischer Random tournament, the TCEC season 10 Rapid tournament, and three TCEC cups (in 2018, 2019, and 2020 respectively).

Chess.com's Computer Chess Championship has also been a common winning ground for Stockfish. It has won eight of the 13 events through 2020 and placed second in four others. Stockfish continues to defeat the neural network engines in most competitions.

The first game example is from the 2018 Stockfish-AlphaZero match. Stockfish wins quickly and easilycan you ask for more than defeating the strongest chess entity that the world has ever seen in a mere 22 moves?Stockfish sacrifices a pawn early in the opening and gains a large advantage after 13. Rd3. After 18. Rh4, all of Stockfish's pieces are active and developed, while all of AlphaZero's pieces are on the back rank (except for the queen):

The sacrifices with 19. Bc4! and 20. Nce4! are powerful and finish the game quickly.

In this second game example, we see Stockfish dispatch another famous chess engine that stood atop the chess engine world for years: Rybka. Stockfish gains a nice advantage out of the opening that it keeps throughout the game. The fireworks start with Stockfish's 28. Bxh6+!

Stockfish keeps up the pressure with an exchange sacrifice on move 31 and dominates the rest of the game after Rybka's 33...Kh7:

In this fantastic video by Chess.com's NM Sam Copeland, Stockfish+NNUE dismantles the neural network engine Stoofvlees:

Stockfish is the engine for analysis on Chess.com. It is very easy to use on this site in several ways. One is to go to Chess.com/analysis and load your PGN or FEN:

Another easy-to-use method of analyzing your games on Chess.com with Stockfish is to select "Analyze" after you complete a game in Live Chess.

Yet another way to analyze your games with Stockfish on Chess.com is with Chess.com's analysis board. Simply go to Live Chess and select the drop-down menu below the Tournaments tab:

After you select this menu, simply press "Analysis Board." Then you can analyze with Stockfish!

The Analysis Board is very easy to use and can help you with any phase of the game. This article explains how to use it.

In this video, Chess.com's IM Danny Rensch explains some of the Stockfish analysis features available on Chess.com:

You now know what Stockfish is, why it is important, how to analyze with Stockfish on Chess.com, and more. Head over to Chess.com/CCC to watch Stockfish and other top engines battling at any time on any day!

Read the original post:

Stockfish - Chess Engines - Chess.com

According to studies, chess has a total of 10120 possible moves. These are so many moves for the human mind to comprehend. Chess has been around for over 1400 years and continues to improve with the growth of technology and the passage of time.

Today, chess engines are used to analyze the millions of possible outcomes in a bid to come up with the most efficient moves. Chess engines have been around for several decades and they continue to get better with the growth of technology.

The engines are now more selective and have better understanding of different chess positions. In this article, we analyze the top 10 strongest chess engines in 2021.

Before diving into the top 10 list of the strongest chess engines in 2021, it is important to know how these engines are rated. Very many chess engines rating lists are available.

The rating lists are based on the number of moves they can make per minute and their margins of error.

The most famous rating lists include Computer Chess Rating Lists (CCRL) and Chess Engines Grand Tournament (CEGT). We use these rating lists to present to you the best chess engines that have surpassed and dominated humanity.

Xiphose has a CCRL rating of 3324 and CEGT rating of 3193. Distributed under General Public License (GNU), Xiphos is an open-source chess engine written in C. Under the watchful eye of PEXT bitboards or magic bitboards, this chess engine can run on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux operating systems.

Developed in 1993, Shredder is a chess engine with a CCRL rating of 3324 and a CEGT rating of 3153. It has been able to withstand the test of time through its constant success and the ability to get the job done.

Since its inception, this search engine has won over 20 titles which include the World Microcomputer Chess Championship held in 1996 and 200. Shredder has also won double World Computer Chess Championships, a World Chess Software Championship and 5 times World Computer Speed Championships.

Shredder is supported by Mac OS, Windows and Linux operating systems. Its graphical interface is top-notch, which comes as a little surprise considering that it was developed by the legendary Millennium Chess System.

With CCRL rating of 3326 and CEGT rating of 3234, Boot chess engine is one of the strongest in the universe. Written in Delphi 6, this chess engine figures sliding piece attacks with rotated bitboards.

It comes with a lazy SMP and its evaluation function is fully redesigned. To rank amongst the best, this chess engine solves problems such as decreasing late moves, deepening internal iterative and prunes null moves.

It has multiple processors that can support computers with both 32 and 64 bit processors.

Chess Master Vasik Rajlich is responsible for designing this chess engine. From 2007 to 2012, Rybka was a force to reckon. It has single-handedly won many computer chess tournaments and continues to do so up to today.

In the period between 2007 and 2010, this search engine won four consecutive World Computer Chess Championships even though the titles were later stripped for plagiarism.

However, the International Computer Games Association (ICGA) ordered Rajlich to merge with ChessBases late in 2015.

Stockfish has a CCRL rating of 3390. It is an open source UCI chess engine and it is available for free for chess gamers. The software works perfectly for both mobile devices and desktops.

The chess engine has been dominant since 2014 and has won several world computer chess championships between then and now.

Even though it was developed in 2014, this chess engine quickly grew into a force to reckon. Its main stronghold is the ability to speed up the attack calculations and come up with perfect results. It uses the principal variation search with the aid of a transposition table inside an iterative framework.

To make Andscacs more powerful, chess researchers came up with 200 evaluation features that encompassed 750,000 positions.

With a CCRL rating of 3430 and CEGT rating of 3319, Fire is one of the best chess engines currently in the market. At first, Fire was an open source chess engine. However, that quickly changed into a closed Windows and is only available for brand new Intel processors.

When it was first developed, this chess engine was known as Firebird but was later changed to Fire because there was a conflict in the trademark name. Even with all these internal changes, Fire continues to scale new heights and it is definitely one of the best chess engines in 2021.

Developed by Don Dailey and Mark Lefler, Komodo is a chess engine with CCRL rating of 3508 and CEGT rating of 3424. Today, Komodo is a commercial chess engine but its older versions are available for free. Komodo ranks amongst the best because of its ability to find moves in situations where other chess engines struggle. Chess players claim that it sets them up to win.

Houdini has a CCRL rating of 3529 and CEGT rating of 3444. It is famous for its positional style and the ability to build strong defenses. To date, Houdini has won the Top Chess Engine Championship 3 times and continues to scale new heights.

Leela Chess Zero chess engine has a CCRL rating of 3463 and CEGT rating of 3467. It ranks amongst the best because of its ability to rely on self-taught neural networks to make superb chess moves. The chess engine learns from itself by playing against itself as many times as possible.

Coming up with a list of the top 10 strongest chess engines is not easy considering that they continue to evolve with the growth of technology. However, we have managed to come up with the above list after researching and analyzing the chess engines best features as it stands.

Chess engines are beneficial because they can analyze the many possible moves that chess presents and come up with the best options.

Read this article:

Top 10 Strongest Chess Engines In 2021 - Hercules Chess

The 2021 FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championship is coming up quickly. We covered the greatest rapid games ever several weeks ago. What about blitz?

How to watch the 2021 FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championship live

A great blitz game is often more than a matter of accuracy, but of stunning and unpredictable moves that keep the commentators and viewersand, for the players, their opponentson their toes. But the very best players can also win at blitz with high levels of accurate play. Both types of games, the dramatic and the accurate, can make for historically great blitz games.

From the invention of chess until at least the 1960s and up to even a few years ago, however, "historically great blitz" would have been considered an oxymoron. Now, almost in 2022, blitz chess has grown to be treated as an equally legitimate form of the game as the classical hours-long variety. It certainly has a reputation as friendlier to modern audiences, with our short attention spans and... What was I talking about again?

So, what are the best blitz games ever? There's almost too many to choose from, with literally billions having been played by now. But we tried to pick out 10 fascinating thrill rides.

When Chess.com held our Immortal Games contest in April 2021, this game came out on top, and for good reason. In just 18 moves, Brazil's GM Luis Paulo Supi defeated GM Magnus Carlsen (yes, that Magnus Carlsen) with a stunning sacrifice. It's one of those rare moves that speaks for itself.

Particularly amazing is that what looks like a slow buildup, Supi sacrificing a piece to double on the open a-file, becomes forced checkmate in what feels like an instant.

Don't discount the possibility that Supi had seen this pattern before. If you read our piece above on the best rapid games ever, you saw Kramnik-Anand 2008, which featured a mirror image of the same mating idea.

But if Supi had seen the idea, Carlsen may not have. He was caught totally by surprisejust see his expression in this thumbnail:

Blitz chess was a thing before 1970, but only casually. The Herceg Novi blitz tournament was the first major event of its kind, and would be the only one for nearly two decades. GM Bobby Fischer was at the height of his powers in 1970, and he proved it at Herceg Novi with an absurd 19/22 score,winning the tournament by 4.5 points.

There are several Fischer games from this event to choose from, but his game with Black against GM Viktor Korchnoi was perhaps his best of the event.

Fischer's notes say more than enough about the game. About his tournament performance, Chess Life & Review wrote in July 1970: "The Soviet blitz specialists... all expected that Bobby would absorb some good lessons [but] instead of taking lessons he gave them to his peerless opponents."

A big part of the drama in blitz isn't the moves themselves, but the time available in which to make them. Time is of the absolute essence, but in 1994, GM Viswanathan Anand showed that patience can pay off as well. With five minutes to play an armegeddon game, Anand spent 1:43 on move four.

Try not to tense up as commentators GM Daniel King and GM Maurice Ashley lose patience with Anand's forever-taking in the opening (uploaded here by an account unaffiliated with us).

As the announcers noted, Smirin's move order was unusual. Anand was trying to remember all the intricacies of this move order before committing. Here's the full game:

No one could have known in advance, but the time Vishy took ultimately paid off as he won the game. In his 2019 bookMind Master he reached this conclusion from the game: "It's a lesson that almost runs as a leitmotif through my career: It's not the worst idea to take a two-minute pause and get some clarity."

Once Smirin missed 18...Be4, as he must have when playing 17.Qxb7, and Anand saw it to keep his piece, the game was over. Even without a ton of time, Anand never lost the advantage afterwards, another display of his amazing speed as a younger player in the 90seven if he did take 103 seconds on one move early in the game.

If Magnus ever did play a world championship against GM Ding Lirena significant "if" at this pointhe could not necessarily get away with drawing every classical game, with Ding having already proven he can take Magnus in speed chess even when the stakes are high.

The 2019 Sinquefield Cup went to tiebreaks after and Ding and Carlsen both scored 6.5/11, which Magnus achieved by winning his last two games after nine draws. (In fact, in the main event, 54 of the 66 games were draws, and 10 of the 11 players played three decisive games or fewer. The only exception: GM Ian Nepomniachtchi with six, which he split 3-3.)

Entering the tiebreaker round, Carlsen had won all of his last 10 tiebreaks, going back 12 years. Not only did Ding end that streak, but he did it in style. Chess.com named the second blitz tiebreak game as the eighth-best game of 2019, and that's at any time control.

Titled Tuesday is played 52 times a year, by hundreds of titled players each week, and for 11 rounds every tournament. Naturally, it has produced many great games, but this one played on August 24, 2021 may take the cake for pure wildness. It's one of those games that gets far too complicated for even masters to play perfectly in three minutes. That's why a great blitz game is sometimes about more than accuracy.

Let's let NM James Canty III take it away in our modestly-titled video about the contestThe Craziest Blitz Game Ever Played:

Perhaps the earliest famous examples of GM Hikaru Nakamura's online brilliance were these troll jobs on older engines, played without increment at the Internet Chess Club.

Well, the endings were troll-like, but the opening and middlegames weren't. NM Sam Copeland explains the Rybka game here, so the game for our list is the one vs. Crafty. It was played earlier, in 2007. And, although it's a matter of taste, underpromoting to a bunch of knights and checkmating is probably more amusing than doing the same thing with bishops.

ChessGames.com had the perfect pun for this contest"Horsing Around":

It was also a purer effort than the one against Rybka; no exchange sac trickery this time. Just the closed-position destruction still possible for a top human against a mid-aughts engine. Now, of course, even the best humans would need to get odds to compete with a computer. And in three minutes without increment, it would take some pretty heavy odds.

From a four-player tournament in St. Louis starring the top three U.S. players and GM Garry Kasparov. Nakamura won the overall event, and by 2016 Kasparov was still capable of doing better than 2.5/18 in a high-level blitz tournament, but GM Wesley So's win over Kasparov was the game of the tournament. He didn't need any time to warm up, either, pulling it off in the first round of the tournament.

If you like pins and sacrifices, you won't want to miss it:

It was an instant classic, receiving raves from nearly every publication that covered the event.

Supi won the immortal game contest, so a different game was needed for the best queen sac. GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov earned it with this effort.

Watch Mamyedyarov pull it off here:

The computer prefers 11.Qe4, but the sac is a legitimate option, obviously scores the most style points, and Black has to give the queen back with 12...Qxc7 to stay competitive. Falling into a mate-in-one at the end isn't necessary either, but the only good move, 17...Kf6, sure doesn't feel like a good move, especially in blitz.

This game features the lowest-rated competitors on the list, but you'll see why it makes it by move 17. It was runner-up to Supi-Carlsen in the Immortal Games contest.

Yes, this game actually happened and is not a puzzle. Somehow Black's 16...a6 traps his entire queenside after White's 17.a5 response. The knight on b8 now has zero squares, with a6, c6, and d7 all occupied and blockaded. Because of that, the rook on a8 can't go anywhere besides a7 and back. And the same pawns blocking the knight also shut in the light-squared bishop. Now that's a bad bishop!

After trading everything else off, White begins trolling his pieces away. Amusingly, this actually blows the advantage, but White is never losing the game despite being down two pieces, and the computer actually needs a few seconds to decide that the position is equal, not losing, for White after 25.Re8+ (a move Smerdon admitted to as being a bit "cheeky"). It's always nice to trick a computer these days, even briefly.

When the dust settles, White's free bishop and rampant kingside pawns checkmate Black just as Black is finally trying to break back out. A silly ending fitting for a silly game.

Uncovered when we wrote and recorded about Nakamura's best moves on Chess.com was this dandy.

Nakamura played GM Hans Niemann 20 times on this date, won all but one, and was above 90% accuracy in nearly every game. Some of us have a hard enough time getting 90% once in 20 times, but you don't need me to tell you that's why Hikaru's Hikaru.

If you want all 10 of our games in a single PGN, here you go:

Not a single game from the World Rapid & Blitz made our list, nor did any Carlsen game. But there's a first time for everything, and maybe the next great blitz game is coming right up.

What other games would you have put on this list? Let us know in the comments!

The rest is here:

The 10 Greatest Blitz Chess Games Of All Time - Chess.com

The best economics textbook may soon be a video game. The next Warren Buffett is probably sitting on a couch somewhere in the world right now, holding not stocks, bonds, or crypto but a controller.

When I was a kid in the early 80s, back when the only global pandemic everyone seemed worried about was Pac-Man fever, they told us video games would rot our brains, that playing them would make us somehow both hyper-violent and hyper-lazy.

That was all mostly nonsense, it seems. Instead, as the gaming industry has overtaken movies and sports in America as games themselves are the site of the sort of artistic explosion and innovation we saw in modern art, music, and movies in the 20th century theres also a strong case to make that rather than rot our brains, video games can enrich them. Games can help us get better at managing money and life.

Thats just a theory a game theory, as Matthew Patrick, one of my sons favorite Youtubers tells his 14 million subscribers at the end of each video. But I decided to put it to the test.

The game of life

Theres a quote sometimes attributed to Ted Turner, that life is just a game. Money is how we keep score. Ive always found this to be an obnoxious sentiment, but Edward Castronova, an economist and professor of media at Indiana University, who has studied the virtual economies of video games, says people have been comparing life to games for thousands of years and theres some truth to it.

The phrase life is a game does not mean that life is silly, he writes in Life is a game: What game design says about the human condition, his fascinating and delightfully weird book on the subject. It means that life presents all people with choices, and those choices combined with the inevitable randomness produced by the choices of others as well as Nature herself come back in terms of gains and losses.

Money is at least one way we keep score. In 2020, when the game Animal Crossing became a huge hit, many marveled at how suddenly kids and adults across the world were inadvertently learning about how prices and arbitrage work.

This should come as no surprise, Castronova, who has run experiments on prices in games, told me. I have never seen anything in a video game that violates any known or accepted economic theory. Economic behavior in games is exactly like economic behavior in life, he said.

Ninja, star

What do gamers make of the idea that games teach players about economics and managing money? I asked Tyler Blevins, better known as Ninja, one of the worlds most successful pro gamers, who has earned millions streaming his play on Twitch and YouTube.

I mean, V-Bucks, dude, he said, referring to the virtual currency in the game that made him famous, Fortnite. So they just added this thing called gold. And basically, the more things that you break down and, opponents, you eliminate, the more you build gold over time, and then you can use that gold to upgrade your weapons.

In role-playing games you learn how to trade, and even how to deal with inflation, Ninja told me. The sophisticated economic engines of todays games force players to reckon with scarcity, supply-chain issues, and trade wars.

But even in a first-person shooter like Fortnite, there is a lot of strategy in how to manage your gold and resources, Ninja said. It is basically like budgeting. I guarantee you, there are younger players that are thinking the exact same thing, even though they dont know it like, I only have enough to upgrade my shotgun once theyre literally budgeting.

Ninja spent years honing his games skills, coordinating movement of mouse, eyes, and fingers to move and aim faster and more accurately than his competition. He attributed his success to talent and hard work. When I asked him about the role luck played in his own rise to gaming stardom or how much luck matters in games in general, he sounded like so many CEOs or other stars I have interviewed over the years.

Theres almost no luck in competitive gameplay at the high level, really, he said.

Pay to win

Luck may not be a factor, but in the economies of games, players care a great deal about fairness. There are games that allow players to buy an edge by spending more money, sort of the equivalent of a one-percenter buying their kid into USC.

Those games are what we call pay-to-win games and that no one really likes, Ninja said. I mean, any true gamer is going to cringe when they hear that a game is like that. While there are V-Bucks in the game, its free to play. Fortnite is not a pay-to-win game.

Gamers prefer their virtual worlds to be meritocracies, Castronova said. Designers have to strike a balance between equality of opportunity and equality of outcome. Everyone should start with the same amount. They care about the wage rate, the amount of stuff you can get per hour. What doesnt bother them is equality of outcome. That is, players with more skill or those who put in more time should be able to accumulate more advantages.

Game developers have been putting economists on staff to get these virtual economies right. I spoke to Justin T.H. Smith, a data scientist and economist at Electronic Arts.

Games that do that well communicate to the player we appreciate the time and effort you are putting into the game, he said. Showing players they are valued is a tough thing to do. And its why we need to get the currencies and economics right. People make tradeoffs between time and money and risk, just as they do in real life.

There are lessons for policymakers here about what makes a fair and equitable society, and also what could spark the next revolution, Castronova said. Social science uses game-like models to analyze real situations. More generally, we can say that all games are models. Every game tries to model some aspect of reality. Chess is a model of war. Poker is a model of bargaining. Hockey is a model of a Canadian saloon brawl.

For much more on how professors and high school teachers are using games to teach economic ideas in the classroom, listen to the new episode of our podcast, The Best New Ideas in Money.

Play what you know

Ninja does not have any pretensions of becoming the next Warren Buffett. He says that his approach to video games is not unlike his approach to his money: Hes methodical, he does his homework, and he practices a lot. He trusts the running of his business to his wife, Jess, and to the professionals. Games have definitely helped him evaluate money decisions though.

When approached with an investment opportunity recently in NFTs and crypto, he was interested, but ultimately balked. They explained the entire thing to me, man. And I know thats potentially the future, but the whole thing was too confusing to me.

Instead he made an investment in something he does know and understand. My investment in Pokemon cards lately has been just out of this world. Theyve been skyrocketing.

Warren Buffett would approve of that game play.

See the rest here:

Ninja, the worlds top streamer, on how video games can make you smarter about money and investing - MarketWatch

Chess.com is happy to announce the 2022 Daily Chess Championship is starting on December 31, 2021! This traditional daily chess event is open to all Chess.com members and has a prize fund of $5,000 and a special Daily Chess Champion trophy. Don't miss the chance to participate in this massive event by clicking the button below and joining the tournament.

If you're still wondering if this event is right for you, here are eight reasons why you should play:

It's always nice to feel like you're a part of something big. Playing in the 2022 Daily Chess Championship will give you the chance to participate in one of the biggest events of the year! The last edition of this event saw more than 16,000 players enjoying the competitionand that was before The Queen's Gambit helped chess reach new heights.

With chess being at the pinnacle of its popularity and major events like the World Chess Championship and PogChamps propelling the game even further, there's no telling how massive this event will be. Make sure you join it now and become a part of Chess.com's history!

Playing chess is fun, and many will gladly play it for free. But what if someone paid you to do it? By participating in the 2022 Daily Chess Championship, you'll get the chance to claim one of the many prizes we're offering. Join the tournament now to compete for a piece of the $5,000 prize fund! We will award players in many categories, including best video analysis, best social media post, and moreso you don't even need to be among the best chess players to win them!

Daily chess is the perfect way for you to get to know some of the most dedicated and friendly members of Chess.com. It's much easier to strike up a conversation when you're playing a longer game against someone. In daily chess, you'll be playing the same person for a more extended period, so it's easier to start a conversation and make new friends!

Daily chess is not only fun, but it also helps you to improve your chess. Although you can't use engines, you do have permission to reference our opening explorer or opening books. You also get the chance to improve your calculation skills since you can spend a long time on each move calculating multiple lines.

Daily chess allows you to think deeply about every move and calculate all the different available lines. Without feeling time pressure or scrambling to keep your flag from falling, you have the chance to play your most precise game yet. Join the tournament and give yourself a chance to play your own immortal game!

If your New Year's resolutions include having more fun and doing exciting things, the 2022 Daily Chess Championship is a great opportunity for you to start the year on the right track. As you celebrate the beginning of 2022, you can also enjoy the thrill of playing in a worldwide competition that will keep you entertained for a long time!

Many titled players and notable Chess.com staff members play in the Daily Chess Championship. Join the tournament for a chance to play against players such as IM Danny Rensch, NM Sam Copeland, and others!

At the end of the tournament, three lucky (or rather, skilled) players will receive the exclusive Daily Chess Championship trophy. The top three players of the event will be able to display the coveted award on their profiles forever!

Excerpt from:

8 Reasons To Play In The 2022 Daily Chess Championship - Chess.com

The ongoing World Chess Championship between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi is held as part of the Dubai Expo 2020, postponed exactly by a year due to the global pandemic and held between Oct 2021 - Mar 2022 at Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The World Championship along with the DP World Tour Golf Championship and the Cricket Twenty20 World Cup are the other sporting events conducted in the country coinciding with Expo 2020.

Master Class Vol. 12: Viswanathan Anand

This DVD allows you to learn from the example of one of the best players in the history of chess and from the explanations of the authors how to successfully organise your games strategically, consequently how to keep your opponent permanently under press

The Expo, a suggested six-month,US Dollars 7 billion event which has been about nine years in the making with the participation of 182 countries, is a global extravaganza targeting about 25 million visitors where the World Chess Championship is a peripheral sporting attraction. The venue is situated within a 45-minutedrive from the major transport hubs of Dubai through a dedicated metro station, built specifically for the purpose.

The match is held at the south hall of the gigantic Dubai Exhibition Centre, a 45,000 square metre space with an auditorium, multi-purpose halls, suites and meeting rooms.

Entrance to the south hall of the Dubai Exhibition centre | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The south hall is a large high-roofed plaza, where the World Championship arena comes up after a walk of about 50 metres, beyond the coffee shop.

Inside the South Hall | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The chess arena in the South Hall | Photo: Amruta Mokal

To the right of the foyer are the giant chess board, the entrance to the auditorium, the FIDE room, room for Team Nepo etc., while the left side has the VIP room, commentary area and the press room. As can be seen, the rooms are actually temporary cubicles, markedly small in size, built exclusively for the event. They have good detailing and branding, with the theme of the event printed all over and eyes of the protagonists staring down on the onlookers.One enters the playing hall through a short queue next to the ticket counters, placed just behind the giant chess board of about 12 feet length and breadth.

The giant chess board and pieces in front of the ticket counter | Photo: Anastasiya Karlovich

Spectators have to deposit mobile phones, laptops and other electronic devices at the lockers available near the entrance, and are thoroughly checked before entering the hall | Photo: Anastasiya Karlovich

The tickets are priced at 95 UAE Dirhams (23 Euros / 26 US Dollars approx) for the general and accessible category, whereas the VIP tickets are priced at a whopping 1900 Dirhams (457.50 Euros / 517 US Dollars). The ticket prices also include a complimentary audio system with earphones to hear the official commentary which can be carried inside the auditorium, and access to standing room inside the commentatorsarea. The VIP tickets also givethe additional access to 8 reserved seats in front row of the commentators area, and to VIP Area in the Foyer, with complimentary VIP-level catering.

The audio devices for spectators | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The actual match venue is the stage of the spacious auditorium of about 3000 square metres arena, with a seating capacity of about 800, but only 500 spectators allowed to watch the match due to Covid restrictions. The comfortably cushioned single sofas for four rows on the floor just below the stage are reserved for those with VIP passes / tickets. The chairs in the auditorium for the general ticket holders are of a typical arena design, comfortable with a good view of the stage. Among them too, the first two rows have been reserved for media persons. The VIP area also serves as the place for the accessible ticket holders, thoughtfully offered to people of disability on wheelchairs.

The spacious auditorium, with clearly defined VIP and general areas for spectators | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Sitting inside the auditorium is an enjoyable experience for the spectators. The lights on spectators get completely switched off, and watching the players battling it out on the stage is an enjoyable experience. The soundproof Fish-tank on the stage has been built for the occasion where Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi are battling out, in total view whenever they are in the playing arena.

The darkened auditorium, when the game is in progress. There are two giant screens on the top of either side, depicting the close up videos of the players which are related to the official broadcast, and the current position on the screen, both clearly visible even from the back rows |Photos: Eric Rosen / FIDE

The actual playing area is spacious enough for the players, watched over by about five remote-controlled Panasonic AW-UE150W cameras watching their every move and gesture, producing a brilliant live video-feed merged with live commentary at the official website.

As photographers swarm the stage in the allotted initial five minutes, they are watched silently by the remote-controlled cameras - you can count about three of them on one side in the above picture. | Photo: Eric Rosen / FIDE

Thesilent capturers, watching over every move and gesture, producing brilliant feeds in synchrony | Photo: Eric Rosen / FIDE

Talking of the first five minutes, it does occasionally get a little too full, when there are dignitaries present to inaugurate the first move, and the posse of photographers to capture the occasion. At the beginning of the sixth round, Chief Arbiter Mahdi Abdul Rahim - the first non-European arbiter to preside over at a world championship makes the first move watched over by the mayor of Moscow Sergey Sobyanin, the host GM Maurice Ashley, president of FIDE Arkady Dvorkovich, and Governor of Khanty-Mansisk Natalya Komarova.

Away from the stage and out of the spectators gaze, both players have private areas for rest, contemplation, nutrition and even a small nap, with the inevitable monitor relaying the position on the board.

Rest area for players at the playing arena away from the stage | Photo: Anastasiya Karlovich

Talking of private areas, both the teams of Carlsen and Nepo have their own individual rooms in the vicinity. Nepos team has a cubicle on the ground floor next to the FIDE office, while Carlsens team occupies a spacious room on the first floor dubbed as the Chess24 suite:

The chess24 suite, where one can spot Magnus Carlsens father Henrik, and sister Ingrid | Photo: Niki Riga /FIDE

And somewhere beyond those areas is the place where the live relay is produced, from a complicated conundrum of video feeds, monitors, audio-video mixers, laptops, production machines and more complicated men.

The production room, where one can spot Lennart Ootes if one struggles a bit. Clue: blue | Photo: Eric Rosen / FIDE

There are two curious points to be considered about the entry for the match: 1) It is prohibited for children under 8 years of age and 2) The ticket prices are only for the world championship part of the entry, not including the tickets of the Expo 2020, which should be bought separately at the actual outer entrance to the expo.

Such reality of clubbing the world championship with a global event of a gigantic magnitude has also resulted in an inconvenience for the media centre, as the cubicle could not accommodate all the 78 journalists who had accredited themselves in advance for the event. Thus, entry to the media centre has been restricted only to the photo / videographers for the event, whereas the writing press journalists have been forced to take their spots at the Expo Media Centre, a further 300 metres away.

The somewhat congested Press Centre, which could accommodate only accredited photographers | Photo: Amruta Mokal

It isnt much of a distance, but considering that one had to walk multiple times between the venue and the working arena, and all the way from the entrance of the Expo to the Media Centre - about 500 metres - and back occasionally, I did get my average of 5 kms of walk a day!

But, it is also a thrilling experience to be in such a mega extravaganza, for the sights as well as the mind. Once in a while, your eyes come across events of such global importance in the south hall that it opens your eyes and intellect to the place and importance of the occasion.

A symposium on Space collaboration at the south hall | Photo: Expo 2020

Or when you realize that it is the John Kerry (American Presidential candidate in 2004, Secretary of State from 2013 to 2017, and the current special presidential envoy for climate) attending the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit (GMIS 2021) at the Expo.

Understanding Middlegame Strategies Vol.1 and 2

These DVDs are about Understanding Middlegame Strategies. In the first DVD dynamic decisions involving pawns are discussed. The second DVD deals with decision making process concerning practical play.

John Kerry, the special presidential envoy for climate for the United States of America in a discussion | Photo: Expo 2020

The foyer is also the place where you encounter one of the depths to which the expo organisation has planned to make it a unique event, when you encounter one of these little fellas aptly named Opti, roaming around the place just being pleasant and creative:

Opti, the robot with artificial intelligence, designed to improve visitors experience of the expo, the sole aim of his existence being to charm | Photo: Expo 2020

Unable to resist the temptation of talking to the fella, I approach him - he stops as he senses me to be on his pathway - and pose a random question:

Where can I find some food around here?!

After about five seconds of reception and processing, he comes up with:

I can offer a lot of electricity myself, but for other stuff you have to consult the guides!

Opti is just one of the 50 robots of its kind roaming around the expo among a grand total of 152, developed by the Terminus group, a Chinese digital transformation company. According to the organisers, this is the first international event where AI-powered machines perform different kinds of daily functions. There are robots involved in security, being concierge-style attendants, for delivery of maps, drinks and free ice (!) as well as being kiosks. Obviously, they are a great attraction for the children, but even for grown-ups when no ones looking...

And the foyer of the south hall is also the place very popular in the whole event: the commentary booth where ex-world champion Vishy Anand and Anna Muzychuk hold court, providing commentary. (Almira Skripchenko was the initial choice of host for Anand, but unfortunately couldnt make it to Dubai as FIDE stated). This is the second assignment on a trot for Anand after Tata Steel Rapid & Blitz 2021 engaging in a commentating role, and the former world champion seems to be relishing it, ably hosted by Anna Muzychuk.

Two most important aspects of Anands commentary stand out: 1) not using chess engines, Anand brings enormous human common sense and depth into the position, and 2) often questioned aptly by Muzychuk about his own world championship matches, Anands perspectives of decisions of either players throughout the game adds special weight to the commentary.

Vishy Anand enjoying himself in the company of Anna Muzychuk | Photo: Anastasiya Karlovich

The audience in rapt attention for Anand / Muzychuk commentary, enjoying the relaxed, humorous and nuanced commentary | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The end of the games are a bit of a comic run every day for the journalists, photographers and organizing staff, as the press conferences are once again held in 15 minutes after the end of every game at the 300-metres-long (remember?!) Media Centre. They are regularly 10-15 minutes affairs held in a large hall, with a beginning session by Maurice Ashley, followed by questions from the chess media present at the event. These sessions themselves have a lot to talk about, but let us keep them for another day 🙂

The inaugural press conference in progress, showing the vastness of the room| Photo: Niki Riga / FIDE

One of the press conferences after the game in progress, in typical formation, with the challenger and champion flanked by Maurice Ashley | Photo: Niki Riga /FIDE

Thus, at the end of the day, what makes the World Chess Championship being held at Dubai during the Expo 2020 makes it uniquely special?

As I reflect on the curious question, it suddenly hits me - it lies at the fag end of the day. As the games get over and all the journalists and photographers go on a rushed run to the press centre, one encounters a unique spectacle on the way:

Learn from the Classics

Sagar Shah shows you on this DVD how you can use typical patterns used by the Master of the past in your own games. From opening play to middlegame themes.

Between the expo exhibition centre and the media centre lies the brilliant Al Wasl Plaza, a 130-metre diameter, 67 metres tall dome consisting of a 360-degree translucent projection surface - viewed both from the inside and outside - designed to symbolically bring people of all backgrounds together to Connect Minds, a key ambition of the event, strategically placed between the three thematic districts of the expo Opportunity, Sustainability, and Mobility | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Apart from its symbolism, the dome has multiple connotations, its shape resembling the logo of the expo and its name of Al Wasl being the ancient name for Dubai. Understandably, the plaza is dubbed as the beating heart of expo 2020 by the organizers, with colourful events and shows throughout the day, the onset of the darkness bringing in exceptional colour to the place:

A graphics show projected on the insides of the dome, a permanent spectacle in the evenings | A symposium on Space collaboration at the south hall | Photo: Expo 2020

It is simply impossible to bring out the grandeur of the structure with just still photographs, and even the following video only brings reasonable justification for the creation:

It is spectacles such as this and a lot more which bring out the inspiration of the place, serving as a justified background to the world chess championship at Dubai.

See the original post here:

World Chess Championship - the Arena - Chessbase News

With a tense draw lasting four hours and 45 moves, Magnus Carlsen on Friday began the latest defense of his World Chess Championship title. The Norwegian grandmaster has been No. 1 in the world for a decade and has held the sports top title since 2013. His challenger, Russian grandmaster and world No. 5 Ian Nepomniachtchi, won the right to challenge for the title by winning the elite Candidates Tournament in April.

The match sits level at 0.5-0.5 in a race to 7.5 points. The best-of-14-game contest could stretch over the next three weeks.

The two players met in a glowing, glass-encased stage in Dubai, which struck at least one reporter as vaguely reminiscent of the VIP area in Squid Game though no blood has yet been drawn here. Nepomniachtchi marshalled the white pieces determined by a procedure at an opening gala involving confetti-filled balloons and the two began in the main line of the Ruy Lopez opening, well-trod territory named for a 16th-century Spanish priest.

The mind games had started days earlier. Last week, on the Norwegian-language Lperekka podcast, Carlsen called Nepomniachtchi a very moody player and a wild card, according to a translation on chess24. He also suggested that Nepomniachtchi might not be able to handle the pressures of a world championship and that other players would have made stronger challengers. Carlsen also said he would try to strike early.

The two grandmasters quickly blitzed out the first dozen or so moves of the game, but it soon became subtle and complex, emblematic of modern chess, where computer engines mine the game for every last edge and grandmasters internalize the lessons like gospel. Even after 17 moves, and the universe of possibility those moves might contain, both players appeared to be comfortably within the scope of their prematch preparation.

By this point, the position in Dubai had never before appeared in the vast databases of accumulated human chess history.

Carlsen did try to strike, sacrificing a pawn earlier to kindle a nascent attack, led by his pair of bishops. Nepomniachtchi, constantly sipping from his mug, clung to his small material advantage, while Carlsen nursed his positional advantage, trying to break through.

Ideas come more naturally from blacks side, said Robert Hess, a grandmaster commentating for Chess.com.

Its much harder to make progress with white, said Viswanathan Anand, a former world champion working the official match live stream.

Carlsen even removed his blazer.

But Nepomniachtchi, blazer already off, handled the pressure just fine, and the Norwegian attack never quite ignited. A flurry of midgame trades saw both of Carlsens bishops exit the scene, leaving each side with two rooks and a knight to maneuver among a thicket of pawns as they entered an intricate endgame. Even still, it seemed briefly that Carlsen had earned the sort of slight advantage that he is famous for chasing to the bitter end.

This, too, evaporated. The players agreed to a draw in the position below, as whites knight and blacks rook were caught in an endless, repetitious dance.

You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization.

The postgame press conference was something of a draw, too, with both players deflecting questions about their winning chances and their feelings on the outcome.

I wouldnt say I was ever optimistic, in terms of winning the game, Carlsen said.

A draw is also somewhat a result, Nepomniachtchi said. I dont feel anything specific.

Heres how things went move by move in Game 1, per the evaluations of the superhuman chess engine Stockfish. (Well update the chart below throughout the match.)

Game 2 begins Saturday at 7:30 a.m. Eastern. Well be covering the entire match here and on Twitter, and hoping to feel many specific things.

For even more writing on chess and other games, check out Roeders new book, Seven Games: A Human History, available in January.

Read more from the original source:

The World Chess Championship Opens With An Endless Knight-Rook Dance - FiveThirtyEight

Play chess: online and computer chess on real boards in the test

DGT: PC and mobile

Millenium: PC and mobile

One-on-one meetings

Conclusion

Test tables

Read article in ct 25/2021

Regardless of whether you are just learning chess, return to it after a long time or play tournaments as a professional: online chess has changed the image of the sport of thought in recent years. At lichess.org and chess.com you will find tens of thousands of chess friends at any time of the day or night to play a blitz game in five minutes against an equal opponent at the push of a button. And since computers have dominated the royal game, chess engines like Stockfish have been indispensable tools for analyzing games and correcting your own weaknesses.

However, computerization robs chess of its charm. Staring at screens and pushing mice isnt half as fun as moving real wooden pieces on a real chessboard. Appearance of DGT and Millennium: With the e-Board series and the Supreme Tournament 55, the two manufacturers offer high-quality chess pieces and boards at prices between 280 and almost 900 euros, which can be connected to a computer or smartphone via USB or Bluetooth.

Sensors under the board surface recognize the positions of the figures equipped with passive electronic components and transmit them to the computer. Thanks to electrical oscillating circuits (DGT) and an RFID system (Millennium), the figures are individually recognized and can be moved naturally without having to press any fields.

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Play chess: online and computer chess on real boards in the test - Market Research Telecast

Computers are the future of chess. Almost everyone agrees on that.

But the statement doesnt go far enough. By and large, computers are also the present of chess.

With the question of man vs. machine long-ago settled over the chessboard, the field of computer chess is now a collaboration between some of the most dedicated chess teachers in the world (the developers), and the best students in the history of chess: the engines themselves.

Gobbling up every bit of chess knowledge given to them, computer chess engines are getting better at a faster rate. The machines have left humans to play among themselves as the computers probe further into the chess unknown.

Best Chess Computer Engines

They are playing higher levels of chess than anyone imagined, and sometimes even the best humans can scarcely understand the insanely nuanced maneuvers the computers play seemingly without effort. Behind the scenes, of course, the engines are busy calculating millions of variations, which -- added to their superior ability to judge resulting positions -- allows them to play chess more accurately than ever before.

Nowadays, there is no human player that can beat one of the top chess engines...

While any decent chess program could easily beat the world's top humans, there are vast differences in strength among the ranks of the engines.

Just as Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Vishy Anand, Veselin Topalov, andHikaru Nakamura (et al.) rule the world of human chess, so too do the elite engines dominate computer chess.

Here are the top five strongest computer chess engines. The rating of each of them has been obtained from the Computer Chess Website.

The article was originally published on May 15 but it has been updated to show latest changes on the 5th of March 2018.

5. Gull 2.8b (Rating= 3214)

Gull is a relative newcomer on the elite computer chess scene. This free and open-source engine is helmed by Vadim Demichev and was inspired by two older chess programs, Ivanhoe and Strelka.

A gull is the symbol of the Gull Chess Engine, the 5th best chess engine in the world by rating.

Gull gained 11 rating points in the new CCRL 40/40 pure rating list(a method that allows only one version per engine family, removing distortion), earning it the number-five slot in the ranks of the known universes best chess players.

Fire is a free engine that used to be (but no longer is) open source.

With 3329 rating points, Fire is considered the 4th best chess engine.| Photo via Fire

In development since 2010, Fire is another fast riser in the world of computer chess. It gained 16 rating points in the CCRL pure list compared to its normal database rating, the most of any engine in the top 15.

Komodo, the leading commercial program, was the undisputed champ of 2014 before being briefly eclipsed by the new version of Stockfish this year. Its developers then released Komodo 9, which is about 50 rating points better than its predecessor.

The Komodo is the official symbol of the Komodo Chess Engine.

Heres what the popular Chess.com video author GM Roman Dzindzichashvili has to say about Komodo:

I am extremely impressed by Komodo's play. I watched and analyzed every game and it was absolutely flawless positional chess, the likes of which has never been seen before by an engine or human.

Houdini, a commercial engine, used to be the strongest in the world, and remains a very formidable chess program.

Official logo of the Houdini Chess Engine.| Photo via Houdini

According to its creators, the name Houdini was chosen because of the engine's positional style, its tenacity in difficult positions and its ability to defend stubbornly and escape with a draw sometimes by the narrowest of margins.

This article is about the top five computer engines, but really it's the top two and everything else. Thats how far Stockfish and Komodo are ahead of the rest of the field. The computer king title regularly changes hands between these two engines, easily the two strongest in chess history.The best thing about Stockfish is that it is completely free, open source, and cross-platform.

Official logo of the Stockfish Chess Engine. | Photovia Stockfish

Stockfish even won Chess.coms craziest game of 2014 award, earning the engine a nice mention in the Wall Street Journal.

Stockfish also emerged victorious in one of the most entertainingChess.com events ever, beating a "cyborg" Hikaru Nakamura, who played against Stockfish with the help of an older, weaker chess engine.

What do you think about computer chess? Let us know in the comments. Below, you will be able to find all the download repositories where you can get these chess engines.

Download Repositories:

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The 5 Best Computer Chess Engines - Chess.com

Chess engines play a huge role in 21st century chess. Mostly due to their presence we now see 15, 14, 13 and even 12 year old grandmasters, something that was unthinkable just 20 years ago.

Ability to have a precise analysis of any given position changed the way players are preparing for the competition. Here is the list of 10 strongest free chess engines in the world.

Note: the engines were tested on identical 64-bit 4 CPUs machines.

Stockfish is the most powerful, free, open source chess engine in the world. Rated only 20 ELO points below the top commercial chess engine Houdini 4, Stockfish is definitely a great alternative for most chess players.

Stockfish plays better and faster than humans. And its one of the strongest chess engines in the world, appearing near or at the top of most chess engine rating lists.

Official Website

Critter is one of the youngest and strongest chess engines in the world. The first version was created in 2008. Critter does not have a distinct playing style (yet) and relies more on tactics. All I can say, its doing it pretty well.

Official Website

Fire is another awfully strong chess engine, rated almost 300 points higher than the highest rated human chess player. After a multiple updates from the publisher, Fire scores high on many of the top computer rating lists.

Official Website

Gull is a free, fast and very strong open source chess engine.

Official Website

Strelka is a Russian designed chess engine which is now one of the strongest in the world. It is especially good at quick time control chess such as blitz and bullet.

Official Website

Hannibal is a state-of-the-art chess engine with a distinct playing style. Hannibal is a strategic player and relies on its very selective search, good endgame knowledge and an understanding of material imbalances.

Official Website

Protector is yet another very strong chess engine, rated above 3000 ELO.

Official Website

BlackMamba build to imitate strengths of human players (such as piece sacrifices) but not the mistakes.

Official Website

Spike was developed from the scratch but uses many ideas already tested on our two other engines: Cheetah and IceSpell. It has an aggressive playing style and spiking its opponents.

Official Website

Spark is a new chess engine with a unique playing style.

Official Website

What is your favorite chess engine?

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Credits:

The ratings used in the article are from CCRL as of March 1, 2014.

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10 Strongest Free Chess Engines [all above 3000 ELO] at ...