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World Computer Chess Championship

World Computer Chess Championship (WCCC) is an annual event 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.

Championship results

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

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, thereby excluding supercomputers and large clusters. Thereafter, a parallel Software Championship was held instead, and 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
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
16 2008 Beijing 10 HIARCS
17 2009 Pamplona 10 Junior, Shredder, Sjeng
18 2010 Kanazawa 10 Rondo, Thinker
19 2011 Tilburg 9 Junior
20 2013 Yokohama 6 Junior
21 2015 Leiden 9 Jonny

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.

Event # Year Location Participants Winner Hardware
1 2010 Kanazawa 9 Shredder Intel quad core Xeon 2.66 GHz, 8MB Hash
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

Due to the requirement to be present on-site, 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 Thoresen Chess Engines Competition, 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, there was a separate cycle of championships limited to programs running on microprocessors. Up until 1991, the winners were dedicated units. Thereafter, winners were running on state-of-the-art personal computers. The event was also run by the ICGA.

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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