World Computer Chess Championship#World Microcomputer Chess Championship

World Computer Chess Championship (WCCC) was an event held periodically from 1974 to 2024 where computer chess engines compete against each other. The event is organized by the International Computer Games Association (ICGA, until 2002 ICCA{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080919144107/http://chessprogramming.wikispaces.com/ICCA |title=chessprogramming.wikispaces.com - Organizations: ICCA |date=September 19, 2008 }}). It was often held in conjunction with the World Computer Speed Chess Championship and the Computer Olympiad, a collection of computer tournaments for other board games. Instead of using engine protocols, the games are played on physical boards by human operators.

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

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.

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,{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160217144644/http://www.game-ai-forum.org/icga-tournaments/news_item.php?id=44 |title=ICGA - Clarification of the 8-cores rule for the WCCC |date=February 17, 2016 }} thereby excluding supercomputers and large clusters. However, this was reversed in the following year and a parallel Software Championship was held instead; unlimited hardware is once again allowed in the championship proper.

class="wikitable"

!Event #

!Year

!Location

!Participants

!Winner

|1974

|Stockholm

|13

|Kaissa

|1977

|Toronto

|16

|Chess 4.6{{cite news | url=https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1978-01/1978_01_BYTE_03-01_The_Brains_of_Men_and_Machines#page/n107/mode/2up | title=The Second World Computer Chess Championships | work=BYTE | date=January 1978 | access-date=17 October 2013 | author=Jennings, Peter | author-link=Peter R Jennings | pages=108}}

|1980

|18

|1983

|22

|1986

|22

|1989

|24

|1992

|22

|ChessMachine (Gideon)

|1995

|24

|1999

|30

|2002

|18

|2003

|16

|2004

|Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan

|14

|2005

|12

|2006

|18

|2007

|12

|ZappaRybka originally won the WCCC in 2007–2010, but was later disqualified for plagiarising code in a controversial decision.

|2008

|Beijing

|10

|HIARCS

|2009

|Pamplona

|10

|Junior, Shredder, Sjeng

|2010

|Kanazawa

|10

|Rondo, Thinker

|2011

|2013

|2015

|2016

|2017

|2018

|2019

26{{efn|In 2020 and 2021 there were no events due to the COVID-19 pandemic.}}

|2022

|Vienna

|Komodo Dragon, Leela Chess Zero{{Cite web|url=https://icga.org/?page_id=3542|title=ICGA - WCCC 2022}}

|2023

|Valencia

|Stoofvlees{{Cite web|url=https://webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/~jonathan/WCCC2023/WCCC/wccc.html|title=WCCC 2023 Valencia}}

|2024

|Santiago de Compostela

|Jonny, Stoofvlees, Raptor

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 (WCSC) state that competing programs must run on machines with identical hardware specifications. Time control is game in 45 minutes with 15 second increment.{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140615061042/http://chessprogramming.wikispaces.com/World+Chess+Software+Championship |title=chessprogramming.wikispaces.com - WCCC Announcement |date=June 15, 2014 }}[http://hiarcs.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2683&sid=bac3b22ee9b7cfff9f9f0a8d553d3b08 HIARCS.net - announcement of new tournament]

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!Event #

!Year

!Location

!Participants

!Winner

!Hardware

|2010

|Kanazawa

|Shredder

|Intel quad core Xeon 2.66 GHz, 8MB Hash[http://chesscentral.wordpress.com/2010/10/04/shredder-wins-2010-world-computer-chess-software-championship/ ChessCentral report on 2010 World Chess Software Championship]

|2011

|Tilburg

|HIARCS

|Intel Core2 Duo, 1.7 GHz, 2MB Hash

|2013

|Yokohama

|HIARCS

|Intel quad core i7, 2.7 GHz, 16MB Hash

|2015

|Leiden

|Shredder

|Intel quad core i7, 2.7 GHz, 16MB Hash{{Cite web|url=https://icga.org/?page_id=1413|title=ICGA - WCSC 2015}}

|2016

|Leiden

|Komodo

|Intel quad core i7, 3.4 GHz, 16MB Hash {{Cite web|url=https://icga.org/?page_id=1679|title=ICGA - WCSC 2016}}

|2017

|Leiden

|Shredder

|Intel quad core i7, 3.4 GHz, 16MB Hash

|2018

|Stockholm

|Komodo

|Intel quad core i7, 1.8 GHz, 16MB Hash

|2019

|Macau

|Komodo

|Intel Pentium Silver N5000, 4 GB RAM

9{{efn|In 2020 and 2021 there were no events due to the COVID-19 pandemic.}}

|2022

|Vienna

|Ginkgo

|subnotebook{{Cite web|url=https://icga.org/?page_id=3539|title=ICGA - WCSC 2022}}

|2023

|Valencia

|Fritz

|AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, NVIDIA GT710{{Cite web|url=https://talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=82293&start=30|title=Talkchess - WCCC 2023?}}

|2024

|Santiago de Compostela

|Rofchade

|Intel i5-14400 with 16GB RAM

World Microcomputer Chess Championship

From 1980 to 2001, the ICCA/ICGA organized a separate cycle of championships limited to programs running on microprocessors.{{cite web |url=https://www.game-ai-forum.org/icga-tournaments/competition.php?id=2 |title=ICGA - World Microcomputer Chess Championship 1980 - 2001 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210622104123/https://www.game-ai-forum.org/icga-tournaments/competition.php?id=2 |archive-date=June 22, 2021 }} 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.

class="wikitable"

!Event #

!Year

!Location

!Participants

!Winner

|1980

|London

|12

|Fidelity Chess Challenger

|1981

|Travemünde

|Fidelity X

|1983

|Budapest

|15

|Fidelity Elite A/S

|1984

|Glasgow

|12

|Fidelity Elite X, Mephisto, Princhess X, Psion

|1985

|Amsterdam

|6 / 5

|Mephisto / Nona

|1986

|Dallas

|Mephisto

|1987

|Rome

|2 / 7

|Mephisto / Psion

|1988

|2 / 7

|1989

|1990

|12

|1991

|15

|ChessMachine (Gideon)

|1993

|Munich

|28

|HIARCS

|1995

|Paderborn, Germany

|33

|MChess Pro 5.0

|1996

|27

|1997

|34

|1999

|30

|2000

|14

|2001

|18

Notes

References

External links

[https://icga.org/ Official website of the International Computer Games Association (ICGA)]
[https://www.game-ai-forum.org/icga-tournaments/tournament.php?id=209 ICGA - Kanazawa - 18th WCCC 2010]
[https://www.game-ai-forum.org/icga-tournaments/tournament.php?id=192 ICGA - Pamplona - 17th WCCC 2009]
[https://www.game-ai-forum.org/icga-tournaments/tournament.php?id=178 ICGA - Beijing - 16th WCCC 2008]
[https://www.game-ai-forum.org/icga-tournaments/tournament.php?id=173 ICGA - Amsterdam - 15th WCCC 2007]
[https://www.game-ai-forum.org/icga-tournaments/tournament.php?id=16 ICGA - Torino - 14th WCCC 2006]
[https://www.game-ai-forum.org/icga-tournaments/tournament.php?id=21 ICGA - Reykjavik - 13th WCCC 2005]
{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040406212336/http://www.chess.at/turniere/turniere2003/chess003/ |title=Austrian Chess Federation - WCCC 2003 at Graz |date=April 06, 2004 }}

Computer

Category:Computer chess competitions

Category:Recurring events established in 1974

World Computer Chess Championship#World Microcomputer Chess Championship

Championship results

World Chess Software Championship

World Microcomputer Chess Championship

See also

Notes

References

External links