Stockfish Wins Computer Chess Championship Blitz
The highest-rated chess engine of all time added another title to its resume this week as Stockfish decisively won the Chess.com Computer Chess Championship 2: Blitz Battle.
The victory comes six weeks after Stockfish won the first revamped CCC: Rapid Rumble in October. Stockfish also won the inaugural edition of the Chess.com computer championship one year ago, making it a perfect three-for-three in Chess.com engine events.
Follow the always-running Computer Chess Championship:
- Watch and chat on Chess.com/CCC—includes the all new Chess.com user interface
- Watch and chat on Twitch.tv/computerchess—includes AI-generated background music
Stockfish won the CCC 2: Blitz Battle in dominating fashion, scoring the highest in all three stages and defeating the three other top chess engines in the world in the finals of the event. Stockfish scored 178/300 with just eight losses in the final stage, easily topping Komodo, the machine-learning engine Lc0, and Houdini.
Stockfish finished atop a mammoth field that featured 33 of the world's strongest chess engines at the start of stage one.
Komodo made a strong resurgence to finish second in the blitz event after coming in fourth in the rapid tournament. Lc0 was able to hold off Houdini to finish third, the same spot it finished in CCC 1.
The crosstable for the CCC 2: Blitz Battle finals. Click on the image for a larger version.
CCC 2: Blitz Battle will conclude with some bonus games before Chess.com begins CCC 3: Rapid Redux, an all-new championship event with the 16 top engines in the world and a time control of 30 minutes per game plus five seconds increment per move.
Check back on Chess.com/news soon for more information on CCC 3, including the full rules, schedule, and list of participants.
Stockfish scored dozens of beautiful wins in the blitz championship, but perhaps most impressive was its achievement as Black in the finals. Of the 600 games played in the final stage, Black won just 31 times. The majority of those wins came from Stockfish, who contributed an astounding 18 wins as Black.
Stockfish demonstrated how not to panic when your opponent sacrifices a piece for a scorching kingside attack in the following game, where it coolly absorbed Houdini's knight sacrifice before securing its king and proving a decisive advantage in a two knights-vs-bishop endgame.
In the end, all that remained were those two black knights, the two kings, and a newly promoted queen. Stockfish, emotionless as always, declined to play the thematic Ne7# at the end, preferring to deliver mate with the queen.
Komodo showed off its winning quirks with one of the strangest rook dances ever on the queenside, kicked off by the baffling move Ra3. The waltzing rooks were good enough to gain a winning edge, and Komodo proved it could indeed convert the basic king-and-pawn vs king endgame.
The machine-learning chess engine Lc0 needed just 49 moves to put away Komodo in the following masterpiece, which in computer chess practically qualifies as a miniature.
Lc0's shocking 14. Nxh7! was not foreseen by Komodo (or, on analysis, by Stockfish) and showcases the creative, flexible, and intuitive style that has generated so much fan support for the neural-network engine.
You can download PGN for all of the Computer Chess Championship blitz games at the following links:
- https://cccfiles.chess.com/archive/ccc2/stage1/games.pgn
- https://cccfiles.chess.com/archive/ccc2/stage2/games.pgn
- https://cccfiles.chess.com/archive/ccc2/stage3/games.pgn
Complete Standings:
| STAGE 1 | |||||
| # | ENGINE | RATING | POINTS | PLAYED | (%) |
| 1 | Stockfish 18092721 | 3437.8 | 115 | 128 | 89.84 |
| 2 | Houdini 6.03 | 3370.8 | 110 | 128 | 85.94 |
| 3 | Lc0 0.18.1 | 3271.6 | 100.5 | 128 | 78.52 |
| 4 | Fire 7.1 | 3240.5 | 97 | 128 | 75.78 |
| 5 | Ethereal 11.00 | 3231.1 | 95 | 127 | 74.8 |
| 6 | Komodo 2142 | 3226.7 | 94.5 | 127 | 74.41 |
| 7 | Andscacs 0.9403 | 3139.1 | 84 | 128 | 65.62 |
| 8 | Laser 250918 | 3124.8 | 82 | 128 | 64.06 |
| 9 | Shredder 13 | 3121.3 | 81.5 | 128 | 63.67 |
| 10 | Xiphos 0.4.3 | 3114.3 | 80.5 | 128 | 62.89 |
| 11 | Booot 6.3.1 | 3097 | 78 | 128 | 60.94 |
| 12 | Chiron 20180913 | 3079.9 | 75.5 | 128 | 58.98 |
| 13 | Komodo MC | 3026.6 | 67.5 | 128 | 52.73 |
| 14 | Texel 1.08 | 3010.1 | 65 | 128 | 50.78 |
| 15 | Fritz 16.10 | 3006.8 | 64.5 | 128 | 50.39 |
| 16 | Pedone 1.8 | 3006.8 | 64.5 | 128 | 50.39 |
| 17 | Gull 3.syz | 2991.4 | 61.5 | 127 | 48.43 |
| 18 | Arasan 21.1 | 2980.6 | 60.5 | 128 | 47.27 |
| 19 | Vajolet 2.6.1 | 2970.7 | 59 | 128 | 46.09 |
| 20 | Nemorino 5.05 | 2967.4 | 58.5 | 128 | 45.7 |
| 21 | Nirvana 2.4 | 2924 | 52 | 128 | 40.62 |
| 22 | Equinox 3.30 | 2920.6 | 51.5 | 128 | 40.23 |
| 23 | Fizbo 1.9 | 2913.8 | 50.5 | 128 | 39.45 |
| 24 | Critter 1.6 | 2894 | 47.5 | 127 | 37.4 |
| 25 | Wasp 3.30 | 2889.6 | 47 | 128 | 36.72 |
| 26 | Hannibal 1.7 | 2881.5 | 45.5 | 127 | 35.83 |
| 27 | Senpai 2.0 | 2879 | 45.5 | 128 | 35.55 |
| 28 | Ivanhoe 999946h | 2861.9 | 43 | 127 | 33.86 |
| 29 | Protector | 2853.8 | 42 | 128 | 32.81 |
| 30 | Bobcat 8.0 | 2816 | 37 | 128 | 28.91 |
| 31 | Black Mamba | 2757.9 | 30 | 128 | 23.44 |
| 32 | Crafty 25.2 | 2644.9 | 19 | 128 | 14.84 |
| 33 | Alfilx64 | 2347.9 | 4 | 128 | 3.12 |
| STAGE 2 | |||||
| # | ENGINE | RATING | POINTS | PLAYED | (%) |
| 1 | Stockfish 18092721 | 3436.4 | 135.5 | 180 | 75.28 |
| 2 | Houdini 6.03 | 3365.4 | 119.5 | 180 | 66.39 |
| 3 | Komodo 2142 | 3351 | 116 | 180 | 64.44 |
| 4 | Lc0 0.18.1 | 3316.3 | 104.5 | 176 | 59.38 |
| 5 | Ethereal 11.00 | 3262.5 | 93.5 | 180 | 51.94 |
| 6 | Fire 7.1 | 3214.9 | 80.5 | 179 | 44.97 |
| 7 | Andscacs 0.9403 | 3151.8 | 63.5 | 175 | 36.29 |
| 8 | Laser 250918 | 3143.6 | 63 | 180 | 35 |
| 9 | Xiphos 0.4.3 | 3139.5 | 62 | 180 | 34.44 |
| 10 | Shredder 13 | 3118.6 | 57 | 180 | 31.67 |
| STAGE 3 | |||||
| # | ENGINE | RATING | POINTS | PLAYED | (%) |
| 1 | Stockfish 18111122 | 3449.7 | 177.5 | 300 | 59.33 |
| 2 | Komodo 12.2.2 | 3390.2 | 145 | 300 | 48.17 |
| 3 | Lc0 0.19 | 3381.4 | 139.5 | 300 | 46.5 |
| 4 | Houdini 6.03 | 3378.7 | 138 | 300 | 46 |
Follow the always-running Computer Chess Championship:
- Watch and chat on Chess.com/CCC—includes the all new Chess.com user interface
- Watch and chat on Twitch.tv/computerchess—includes AI-generated background music
Which chess engine did you like the best in the Computer Chess Championship? Let us know in the comments.
