Computer Chess Championship Plays Blitz After Stockfish Defends Title
The Chess.com Computer Chess champion Stockfish defended its sixth straight title last weekend as it bested the machine-learning engine Lc0 in a heads-up match that went the distance to the maximum number of games.
Stockfish took the CCC 6: Winter Classic championship belt after a solid 101.5/200 showing in the final, which was played at a time control of 10 minutes plus a 10-second increment.
These two engines move on to CCC 7: Blitz Bonanza, heading a field of 24 engines in the first stage of the tournament.
CCC: 7 Blitz Bonanza is in progress now as the round-robin follows an escalating order, with the top seeds playing last.
You can vote on each game and follow the always-running Computer Chess Championship:
- Watch, vote and chat on Chess.com/CCC—includes the new Chess.com user interface
- Watch and chat on Twitch.tv/computerchess—includes AI-generated background music
The CCC 7 field includes the "big four" engines of Stockfish, Lc0, Houdini and Komodo, and adds three more neural-network engines that are expected to challenge for the finals in Antifish, Leelenstein and Allie.
Stage one of CCC 7 is a 24-player round-robin, where each engine will play every other engine three times as White and three times as Black. The top four engines from stage one will advance to a 100x round-robin final stage.
CCC 7: Blitz Bonanza Information:
- Engines: 24
- Time control: 5 minutes + 2-second increment
- Format: 6x round-robin escalation
- Games: 1,656
- Start date: March 19
- Expected duration: 17 days
- Opening book: None
- Endgame tablebases: On
- Top four engines advance to 100x round-robin finals
CCC 7: Blitz Bonanza Contestants:
1. Stockfish
2. Lc0
3. Houdini
4. Komodo
5. Antifish
6. Leelenstein
7. Fire
8. Ethereal
9. Komodo MC
10. Shredder
11. Xiphos
12. Andscacs
13. Laser
14. Rofchade
15. Arasan
16. Texel
17. Protector
18. Senpai
19. Wasp
20. BlackMamba
21. Fizbo
22. Bobcat
23. Schooner
24. Allie
CCC 6: Winter Classic Finals Crosstable:
CCC 6: Finals PGN Download and Selected Games:
Lc0 showed its unique, almost-human capacity to torment its opponent, taking nearly 300 moves to checkmate Stockfish while up a rook. Does Lc0 "enjoy" being in a winning position for as long as possible, or is it just playing it safe with every move?
Follow the always-running Computer Chess Championship:
- Watch and chat on Chess.com/CCC—includes the new Chess.com user interface
- Watch and chat on Twitch.tv/computerchess—includes AI-generated background music
Who do you think will win the Computer Chess Championship Blitz Bonanza? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to vote on the games at the CCC main site.
