Saturday, May 31, 2014

10 Strongest Free Chess Engines [all above 3000 ELO]


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Written by Yury Markushin   
Wednesday, 12 March 2014 00:00
logo-stickfishChess engines play a huge role in 21st century chess. Mostly due to their presence we now see 15, 14, 13 and even 12 year old grandmasters, something that was unthinkable just 20 years ago.
Ability to have a precise analysis of any given position changed the way players are preparing for the competition.  Here is the list of 10 strongest free chess engines in the world.

Note: the engines were tested on identical 64-bit 4 CPUs machines.  

1. Stockfish DD, ELO 3247

Stockfish is the most powerful, free, open source chess engine in the world. Rated only 20 ELO points below the top commercial chess engine Houdini 4, Stockfish is definitely a great alternative for most chess players.
Stockfish plays better and faster than humans. And it's one of the strongest chess engines in the world, appearing near or at the top of most chess engine rating lists. 

2. Critter 1.6a, ELO 3173

Critter is one of the youngest and strongest chess engines in the world. The first version was created in 2008. Critter does not have a distinct playing style (yet) and relies more on tactics. All I can say, it's doing it pretty well.

3. Fire 3.0, ELO 3159

Fire is another awfully strong chess engine, rated almost 300 points higher than the highest rated human chess player. After a multiple updates from the publisher, Fire scores high on many of  the top computer rating lists.

4. Gull 2.3, ELO 3155

Gull is a free, fast and very strong open source chess engine.

5. Strelka 5.5, ELO 3118

Strelka is a Russian designed chess engine which is now one of the strongest in the world. It is especially good at quick time control chess such as blitz and bullet.

6. Hannibal 1.4b, ELO 3092

Hannibal is a state-of-the-art chess engine with a distinct playing style. Hannibal is a strategic player and relies on its very selective search, good endgame knowledge and an understanding of material imbalances.

7. Protector 1.5.0 , ELO 3071

Protector is yet another very strong chess engine, rated above 3000 ELO.

8. BlackMamba 2.0, ELO 3068

BlackMamba  build to imitate strengths of human players (such as piece sacrifices) but not the mistakes.

9. Spike 1.4, ELO 3035

Spike  was developed from the scratch but uses many ideas already tested on our two other engines: Cheetah and IceSpell. It has an aggressive playing style and "spiking" its opponents.

10. Spark 1.0, ELO ~3000

Spark is a new chess engine with a unique playing style. 
What is your favorite chess engine?

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