Hosted by the European Conference on Artificial Intelligence
Sponsored by Google DeepMind
In August 1970, six chess-playing programs and their developers gathered in New York to compete in the 1st United States Computer Chess Championship. This important event in the history of AI research began a series of annual competitions that continues to this day, longer than any other experiment in computer science history.
In 1974, the first World Computer Chess Championship (WCCC) was held in Stockholm. The competition brought together world-class academics, company researchers, and home hobbyists to demonstrate the latest research developments in AI algorithms. This event and its successors spurred on competitors to generate new ideas and hone their programs annually, in preparation for these tournaments. This activity culminated in the 1997 victory of Deep Blue in its exhibition match against Garry Kasparov. Deep Blue (and its predecessors Chip Test and Deep Thought) were frequent competitors in the annual computer chess tournaments and in two WCCCs.
The 1974 event was such a success that the World Computer Chess Championships continue to this day, with the most recent competition being held in Valencia, Spain in July 2023. Whereas in 1974, the best programs were competing at a relatively low level of chess strength (1600 on the ELO scale), today they are well beyond superhuman (3600 ELO). Chess continues to be an important application for AI research (as well as in other fields), as demonstrated by DeepMind’s breakthrough program MuZero (a successor of AlphaGo).
After 50 years, it’s time to close this important chapter. The top programs are unbeatable by humans; making them stronger has no real research value. These programs rarely make a mistake. Most games between the programs end in a draw, reinforcing the generally accepted notion that perfect play in chess will lead to a draw. The next challenge? Solving chess! With an estimated 1045 states, this is a daunting challenge for hardware and software technology.
Participants
- Ares — Charles Robertson
- Jonny — Johannes Zwanzger
- Gridchess using Fritz — Kai Himstedt, Robert Hyatt, Frank Schneider
- Raptor — Steve Webber
- rofChade — Ronald Friederich
- Shashchess — Andrea Manzo (*)
- Stoofvlees/Deep Sjeng — Gian-Carlo Pascutto
- Tech 4 — John Hamlen
- Tornado — Engin Üstün
(*) Shashchess is a derivative of the Stockfish engine. The authors of Stockfish,
the Stockfish team, do not endorse its participation.
World Computer Chess Championship results
Slide table to the right to see the rest of the columns.
| Pos | Program | Country | Gms | W | D | L | Score | SBgr |
| 1-3 | Stoofvlees | Belgium | 8 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 5,5 | N/A |
| 1-3 | Jonny | Germany | 8 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 5,5 | N/A |
| 1-3 | Raptor | United States | 8 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 5,5 | N/A |
| 4 | Rofchade | Netherlands | 8 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 5,0 | 16,25 |
| 5 | GridChess using Fritz | Germany | 8 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 4,5 | 15,75 |
| 6 | Shashchess | Italy | 8 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 4,5 | 13,75 |
| 7 | Tornado | Germany | 8 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 4,0 | 11,25 |
| 8 | Ares | United States | 8 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 1,5 | 2,25 |
| 9 | Tech 4 | United Kingdom | 8 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0,0 | 0,00 |
World Computer Chess Software Championship
Slide table to the right to see the rest of the columns.
| Pos | Program | Country | Gms | W | D | L | Score | SBgr |
| 1 | Rofchade | Netherlands | 8 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 5,5 | 17,75 |
| 2 | Fritz | Germany | 8 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 5,5 | 17,75 |
| 3 | Raptor | United States | 8 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 5,0 | 17,25 |
| 4 | Deep Sjeng | Belgium | 8 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 5,0 | 16,25 |
| 4 | Shashchess | Italy | 8 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 5,0 | 16,25 |
| 4 | Jonny | Germany | 8 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 5,0 | 16,25 |
| 7 | Tornado | Germany | 8 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3,5 | 9,00 |
| 8 | Ares | United States | 8 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 1,5 | 2,50 |
| 9 | Tech 4 | United Kingdom | 8 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0,0 | 0,00 |
World Computer Speed Chess Championship
Slide table to the right to see the rest of the columns.
| Pos | Program | Country | Gms | W | D | L | Score | SBgr |
| 1 | Raptor | United States | 8 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 6,0 | 18,25 |
| 2 | GridChess using Fritz | Germany | 8 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 6,0 | 18,25 |
| 3 | Stoofvlees | Belgium | 8 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 5,5 | 16,25 |
| 3 | Rofchade | Netherlands | 8 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 5,5 | 16,25 |
| 5 | Jonny | Germany | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 5,5 | 11,50 |
| 6 | Shashchess | Italy | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4,5 | 11,50 |
| 7 | Tornado | Germany | 8 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 1,5 | 1,00 |
| 8 | Ares | United States | 8 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 1,0 | 1,00 |
| 9 | Tech 4 | United Kingdom | 8 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 0,5 | 0,50 |
CHESS: Chess History, Experiments, and Search Symposium
For the 50th anniversary, we are bringing together many of the early pioneers of computer chess! You can join us in Santiago de Compostela, or join us online.
Wednesday October 23: 14:00-17:00
Master of Ceremonies: Jonathan Schaeffer
1. Welcoming Remarks
2. 1949-1974: Jonathan Schaeffer
3. History of the World Computer Chess Championship (Part 1)
- 1974 Stockholm: Vladimir Arlazarov (Kaissa)
- 1977 Toronto: Tom Truscott (Duchess)
- 1980 Linz: Don Beal (Beal, BCP, Delicate Brute, Cilkchess)
- 1983 New York: Monty Newborn (Ostrich)
- 1986 Cologne: Richard Lang (Chess Genius, Mephisto)
- 1989 Edmonton: Tony Marsland (Awit)
- 1992 Madrid: Johannes de Koning (RISC 2500) and Jonathan Schaeffer (Phoenix)
Coffee Break
4. The ICGA Journal in Pictures in the ICGA Journal. Slide show, Dap Hartmann (Dappet)
5. History of the World Computer Chess Championship (Part 2)
- 1995 Hong Kong: John Hamlen (Woodpusher)
- 1997 Deep Blue: Murray Campbell (Hitech; Deep Thought; Deep Blue prototype), Feng-hsiung Hsu (Deep Thought; Deep Blue prototype)
- 1998-present: Jaap van den Herik (Much; Pion; Dutch)
- 2017: Nenad Tomasev (AlphaZero)
5. My Fifty Years of Computer Chess: David Levy (Moby, Cyrus 68K, Philidor)
6. The Fifty-Year Computer Chess Experiment. What Are the Outcomes?
- Panel discussion: Jaap van den Herik (moderator)
- Vladimir Arlazarov, Don Beal, David Levy, Monty Newborn
7. Concluding Remarks
The video of the CHESS event can be found here. Please note that we had problems recording the video, and the result is not as good as it should have been.