Computer Chess Championship Back For Rapid Redux
After two successful tournaments in the Chess.com Computer Chess Championship, we're ready to power up the world's best chess engines again in CCC 3: Rapid Redux.
Based on fan feedback, the new championship will feature a smaller field of 16 strong engines and a slightly longer rapid time control of 30 minutes plus a five-second increment.
Stockfish, the world's strongest chess engine, will try to defend its undefeated CCC record against its best rivals including Komodo, Lc0, and Houdini.
CCC 3: Rapid Redux is scheduled to begin on Friday, Nov. 23 at 2 p.m. PST (5 p.m. EST):
- Watch and chat on Chess.com/CCC—features the all-new Chess.com user interface
- Watch and chat on Twitch.tv/computerchess—includes AI-generated background music
Stockfish easily won the last Computer Chess Championship rapid event, and it will now take on a smaller field of 16 top chess engines. All chess engines have been updated to their latest stable versions, including the newest neural networks for the machine-learning chess engine Lc0 ("Leela").
The Computer Chess Championship Rapid Redux will consist of three stages, all held at the rapid time control of 30+5.
Stage one will begin with 16 competitors before the field is narrowed down to eight engines for stage two and a final four engines for stage three, the championship.
The following engines will play in CCC 3: Rapid Redux. You can visit the Chess.com CCC tournament page to find the latest engine version numbers as they are updated before each stage of the event.
- Andscacs
- Arasan
- Booot
- Ethereal
- Fire
- Houdini
- Komodo
- Komodo Monte Carlo
- Laser
- Lc0
- Nemorino
- Pedone
- Stockfish
- Texel
- Wasp
- Xiphos
Rules:
- Time control: rapid (30+5)
- 6-man Syzygy and 5-man Gaviota TBs
- All other UCI options set to default
- Games will be played to completion (mate or draw) with no adjudication except for threefold repetition and the 50-move rule
- Tiebreaks will be determined utilizing the Sonneborn-Berger score
- For crashes and unfinished games, see the official adjudication rules here
- Engine versions may be updated between stages
Stage 1:
- Start date: Nov. 23
- Round robin
- 16 engines
- 4xRR: Each engine plays every other engine four times (twice as White, twice as Black)
- 480 games
- Ponder: off
- No opening book
- Expected duration: 24 days
Stage 2:
- Starts after stage one
- Round robin
- Top eight engines from stage one
- 12xRR: Each engine plays every other engine 12 times (six as White, six as Black)
- 336 games
- Ponder: off
- Opening book: six-ply book selected from top master and popular Chess.com games; all openings chosen by Chess.com tournament staff
- Openings reversed the second time each engine plays each other.
- Expected duration: 17 days
- Starts after stage two
- Round robin
- Top four engines from stage two
- 48xRR: Each engine plays every other engine 48 times (24 as White, 24 as Black)
- 288 games
- Ponder: off
- Opening book: six-ply book selected from top master and popular Chess.com games; all openings chosen by Chess.com tournament staff
- Openings reversed the second time each engine plays each other.
- Expected duration: 14 days
The CCC will run on cutting-edge technology.
CPU engines:
- CPUs: 2 x Intel Xeon Platinum 8168 @ 2.70 GHz 33 MB L3
- Threads: 90 threads with HT on
- 8192 MB hash
- RAM: 256GB DDR4-2666 ECC Registered RDIMM
- SSD: 2x Crucial MX300 (1TB) in RAID1
- OS: Windows Server 2016
GPU engines:
- GPU: 4x Tesla V100 (64 GB GPU memory)
- CPU: Intel Xeon CPU E5-2686 v4 @ 2.30 GHz
- Cores: 16 physical (32 virtual)
- RAM: 256 GB
Who are you rooting for in the Computer Championship Rapid Redux?
Let us know in the comments and watch at www.Chess.com/ccc.
