TCEC Competition Winding Down
Saturday, November 30, 2013 at 6:31PM
Dennis Monokroussos in computer chess

Martin Thoresen has been running computer-computer events for some years now, and the super-final of the eponymous Thoresen Chess Engines Competition (TCEC) is nearly at an end. After four elimination stages the programs Komodo and Stockfish (not Houdini!) made the final, and after 44 of 48 games Komodo leads 22.5-21.5. Game 45 is nearly over now and headed for a certain draw, leaving Stockfish just three games to catch up.

There is a bit of a "human interest" aspect to the story. (Granted, that's an incredibly stupid phrase, as all stories are presumably of some interest to humans - why else report them?) Komodo's main programmer, Don Dailey, passed away from leukemia on November 22*, early in the super-final. While programming surely wasn't his highest priority at the very end of his life, it still must have afforded him some satisfaction to have reached the final, ahead of Houdini, the previously recognized top program.

* This November 22 marked the 50th anniversary of the deaths of not only John F. Kennedy, but authors Aldous Huxley (best known for Brave New World) and C. S. Lewis (the Narnia books, Mere Christianity) as well.

Article originally appeared on The Chess Mind (http://www.thechessmind.net/).
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