The premier computer chess event TCEC Season 10 is starting this Saturday, 14th of October, at 14:00 CEST. Once the start is given, TCEC runs 24/7 until all games have been played. One game is played at a time – the next one starts automatically. Follow the games at the official site

About TCEC Season 10 – record breaking

The Top Chess Engine Championship (TCEC) Season 10 is the annual premier championship for chess software. It is a competition between 24 engines with ELO 3000+ and is divided into two stages and a Superfinal.

TCEC Season 10 is a record breaking event in several aspects:

ELO average record: The participants have the highest average ELO of any season so far. What’s more, the engines have provided custom versions for the event, adding a few extra ELO points to their total playing strength. See the list of participants further down in this article

44 core server: TCEC Season 10 will be played on a 44 cores server Xeon 2699 v4. This is a huge upgrade regarding previous seasons where a 16 cores or 20 cores machines were used and has become possible thanks to the support of the devoted audience of TCEC. While it will be challenging for some engines to utilize all cores, we will certainly see new levels of chess from the top participants, which is one of the main goals of TCEC. More about server specifications here

Special selection of openings: TCEC will have the finest selection of openings, guaranteeing combative chess and also eliminating the one more white game advantage in single round robins. The amazing openings are the work of the finest experts in the field – Nelson Hernandez and Jeroen Noomen. You can see Nelson Hernandez explaining the huge work behind the scenes in the video here

Join us for what projects to be the most exciting season of TCEC ever. Games start rolling at 14:00 CEST on Saturday and will be live on the official website. It is the same page that everyone loves from previous season, containing an inside look in the “brain of the engines” (depth, principal variation, speed, evaluation, tablebases use), complete statistics and standings, chat with the engine authors and computer chess experts, and much more.

Season 10 official website with live games

TCEC Season 10 participants

Andscacs
Arasan
Bobcat
Booot
Chiron
Fire
Fizbo
Fruit
Gaviota
Ginkgo
Gull
Hakkapeliitta
Hannibal
Houdini
Jonny
Komodo
Laser
Nemorino
Nirvana
Rybka
Stockfish
Texel
Vajolet2
Wasp

Stage structure

TCEC Season 10 will consist of a preliminary stage, a qualifiers stage, and a Superfinal. Each will have different time controls and structure

Stage 1: this is the preliminary stage, involving 24 engines, playing a single round robin (276 games). The time control of the games will be 60 mins + 10 sec/move. The top 8 engines qualify for the next stage

Stage 2: the second stage will be qualifier of 8 engines with 2x double round robin (112 games) with a slightly longer time control 90 min + 10 sec/move

Superfinal: two engines will participate in the Superfinal, playing a total of 100 games for the title of Grand Champion of TCEC

The season 10 puzzle

As tradition goes, Martin Thoresen has posted an interesting puzzle on the live page of TCEC. It is to celebrate Season 10 and the figures are distributed in a special way to form the number 10 on the board. The task for those of you who love puzzles, find a mate in exactly 10 moves!