Stockfish dominates TCEC Superfinal, wins the title for the 18th time

Stockfish prolonged its dominance in computer chess by winning Season 28 of the premier computer chess event Top Chess Engine Championship. In the final Stockfish scored 57,5/100 against the runner-up Leela Chess Zero.

This is the 18th TCEC title for Stockfish, extending its unprecedented streak of consecutive titles to eleven. The open source engine is in the TCEC competition since season 4 and has won Seasons 6, 9, 11-14, 16, and 18-28.

Each season of the Top Chess Engine Championship comprises four main tournaments: TCEC Leagues Season, TCEC Cup, TCEC Swiss, and TCEC FRC (Fischer Random Chess). So far Stockfish has won the first three events of the season, with the TCEC FRC/Chess960/Freesyle starting soon.

The TCEC season is live 24/7 the official website of TCEC, in video format on TCEC Twitch TV, a broadcast on our favorite game server Lichess, and news reports on Chessdom. Upcoming: a computer chess calendar in The Chess Calendar

Important observations of TCEC Season 28:

• The trend of elo gains in computer chess continues. Stockfish of this season (and of each season) is palpably stronger than the previous season’s version
• The playing strength gaps in the Premier Division is closing. While in previous seasons we were used to seeing three engines – Stockfish, Lc0, and KomodoDragon – to dominate the field, now there are 6+ engines that will compete for a Superfinal spot next season
• The new TCEC hardware is a monster. Let us try to be more precise – the new TCEC hardware is a MONSTER. Colloquially known as kittenware and donated and maintained by Kittenkaboodle, the hardware of the TCEC seasons is levels above any other setup available publicly. As a result, the playing strength, capabilities, and options for all engines have exploded, producing amazing chess on the board
• Formats matter. Just like in human chess the FIDE Grand Swiss, FIDE World Cup, and FIDE Candidates require different approach and produce different results, in TCEC the same is valid for engines. While Stockfish continues to dominate, the results in the TCEC Swiss, TCEC Cup, and TCEC Leagues vary significantly. Next up in TCEC is the Chess960/Freestyle competition, that has been already going on for years and producing surprising outcomes.
• Evaluation volatility at its highest Season 8 Superfinal was the match with the highest eval volatility.
• The number of the newcomers in the past several seasons is large – reflecting the development of computer chess. The newcomers are both numerous and stronger than ever, putting pressure on higher divisions.
• Computer chess gets younger. Just like classical chess players, computer chess programmers are younger than ever. We see teenage developers successfully competing for the TCEC top positions. It might be a good time to make a junior rating list in computer chess!
• The popularity of computer chess grows. More elo, more participants, active developers, stronger hardware, better chess and a clear TCEC season structure – in the past years this has contributed to a stable growth of interest. TCEC now has a minimum of 1 million unique/session viewers per season, with the number growing at a steady pace.