Top Chess Engine Championship (TCEC), the world’s premier championship for computer chess, is set to launch its new season with the highly anticipated TCEC Swiss 8 tournament on May 16, 2025, at 19:00 CEST. Featuring 44 of the world’s most advanced chess engines, this event is poised to surpass the record set by last season’s Swiss 7, cementing its status as the strongest chess championship ever. With a lineup of elite engines, cutting-edge hardware, and a global audience of chess enthusiasts, TCEC Swiss 8 promises to deliver a unique show 24/7 over the next months. Follow TCEC Swiss 8 live: Official website / TCEC Chess TV / Lichess / Chessdom live

Hardware boost for chess engines at TCEC aka Kittenware

With high confidence we can say that TCEC has the best hardware setup for chess ever, and you can enjoy it live during TCEC Season 28 and TCEC Swiss 8 thanks to the sponsorship of Kittenkaboodle.

Kanchess comments, “The brand new Kittenware truly belongs in TCEC as most serious top chess engine competition, and is an awesome donation! Can’t wait to see which engines will show how to use this monster hardware with two separate boxes more to their advantage and add some substantial elo” Aloril adds, “Best effort was truly done for both CPU and GPU engines by Kittenkaboodle.“

The GPU boost, benefiting NN engines is the following:

Current new hardware, sponsored by Kittenkaboodle: 8x RTX 5090 (32GB):

• Total memory: 256GB (32GB x 8).
• Total CUDA cores: ~174,080
• Total Tensor cores: ~5,440
• Total power consumption: ~3,600W (450W x 8)

Former hardware, sponsored by Noobpwnftw: 2x A100-PCIE-40GB:

• Total memory: 80GB (40GB x 2).
• Total CUDA cores: 13,824.
• Total Tensor cores: 864.
• Total power consumption: ~500W.

Traditional CPU engines will also enjoy a boost

Current new hardware, sponsored by Kittenkaboodle: AMD EPYC 9754 (2x):

• Type: Server-grade CPU, 4th Gen EPYC (Bergamo, Zen 4c, 5nm).
• Cores/Threads: 128 cores/256 threads per CPU, total 256 cores/512 threads.
• Clock Speed: 2.25 GHz base, 3.1 GHz boost (lower boost due to high core count).
• Cache: 256 MB L3 cache per CPU (512 MB total).
• Performance: ~180,000–200,000 PassMark score per CPU (estimated, ~360,000–400,000 total).

Former hardware, sponsored by Noobpwnftw: Intel Xeon 6230R (2x):

• Type: Server-grade CPU, 3rd Gen Scalable Xeon (Cascade Lake Refresh, 14nm).
• Cores/Threads: 26 cores/52 threads per CPU, total 52 cores/104 threads.
• Clock Speed: 2.1 GHz base, 4.0 GHz turbo.
• Cache: 35.75 MB L3 cache per CPU (71.5 MB total).
• Performance: ~40,000 PassMark score per CPU (estimated, ~80,000 total).

Participants and ELO records

In the three years period between Swiss 1 and Swiss 7, the average ELO of the top 10 participants has increased by 60 points. Now in under 12 months we see another increase of 60 points! In this TCEC Swiss 8 for the first time the chess world will see a 3700+ engine in action, in a top 10 field that exceeds 3621 average ELO!

Stockfish (Elo: 3728): The open-source juggernaut and reigning TCEC Grand Champion, Stockfish has dominated the last seasons, winning the Leagues, Fischer Random, and Cup events. It has just set an unseen rating record and is coming for the only title it lacked last season – the Swiss

LCZero (Elo: 3693): The neural network-based engine, built on the principles of AlphaZero, is coming to TCEC Swiss as defending champion, while aiming to cross the 3700 elo mark during the event

Berserk (Elo: 3646): A rising star in the computer chess world, Berserk has climbed the rankings with its aggressive play and robust performance, making one of the dark horses in Swiss 8.

Obsidian (Elo: 3637): Authored by Gabriele Lombardo who is still U18, Obsidian aims to get minimum a medal at Swiss 8

Ceres (Elo: 3624): A newcomer to the elite ranks in the past season, Ceres has impressed with its performance and is expected to challenge the established giants.

KomodoDragon (Elo: 3615): A veteran engine with TCEC titles in Seasons 5, 7, and 8, KomodoDragon remains a formidable competitor, despite not being actively updated. Once part of the big 3, now KomodoDragon is trying to stay among the best.

Ethereal (Elo: 3613): A consistent performer, Ethereal brings a balanced approach to the board, capable of upsetting higher-rated opponents, while gaining strength every season

Caissa (Elo: 3591): A newer engine that has shown promise in recent seasons, Caissa is poised to make waves in the computer chess world

RubiChess (Elo: 3591): With a solid track record, RubiChess is a reliable contender that can take valuable points from the favorites

Viridithas (Elo: 3570): A lesser-known but rapidly improving engine, Viridithas adds unpredictability to the mix with its unique playing style

Stay tuned for the full list of participants.

More about the Top Chess Engine Championship

TCEC seasons are divided into multiple events, including the traditional Leagues, a knockout Cup, a Fischer Random tournament, and the Swiss tournament.

Since its inception in 2010, TCEC has been the premier platform for pitting the world’s top chess engines against one another in long time-control matches on high-end hardware. Originally known as the Thoresen Chess Engines Competition, TCEC was founded by Martin Thoresen and has been organized by Chessdom since Season 7. The tournament’s reputation as the “Unofficial World Computer Chess Championship” stems from its rigorous format, elite participant lineup, and commitment to showcasing the highest level of computer chess.

TCEC Cup 10 pairings

FT: Chess’s icons are now Carlsen and Stockfish

TCEC Cup 10 participants

1. Stockfish (defending cupwinner)
2. KomodoDragon (sufi runner up)
3. LcZero (infi winner)
4. rofChade (infi runner up)
5. Stoofvlees
6. SlowChess
7. Scorpio
8. Igel
9. Koivisto
10.RubiChess
11.Ethereal
12.Revenge
13.Nemorino
14.Minic
15.Seer
16.Fritz
17.ClassicAra
18.Halogen
19.Winter
20.Vajolet2
21.Berserk
22.Tucano
23.Arasan
24.Wasp
25.Weiss
26.Bit-Genie
27.Drofa
28.Marvin
29.Topple
30.Pirarucu
31.Chiron
32.Zahak

Lc0’s victory reignited an old debate about whether the Premier Division was fair, as it had “failed” to select the two strongest engines for the Superfinal. Still, even Leela superfan mrbdzz agreed that the Komodo and Leela were quite close in strength, resulting in an exciting match. Furthermore, Stockfish was kibitzing the Subfinal and it pointed out several winning moves that both Leela and Komodo missed. Grandmaster Matthew Sadler agreed, pointing out that there was more of a difference between Komodo Dragon’s and Leela’s styles than Stockfish/Komodo. The Subfinal was also something of a success for GM Sadler, since he evened the “bookmaker’s score” with Jeroen – in this informal competition between the two bookmakers, Jeroen had “won” the Superfinal (there were more decisive openings selected by Jeroen in the Superfinal), but the reverse happened in the Subfinal. Read more: Matthew Sadler explains How to Maintain Your Chess Strength

With the conclusion of the Subfinal, next on the agenda is the 32-player TCEC Cup. In the last edition of the Cup, Stockfish had finished first, Leela second, and Komodo third. Although Stockfish is undoubtedly still the hot favorite to win the Cup, we’ll see several up-and-coming engines play against their higher-ranked peers. Koivisto and Berserk, who had just missed out on promotion from League 3 and League 1 respectively, will be especially keen to make an early statement on their Premier Division credentials next season. All games are available live at https://tcec-chess.com/.

Article by Low

TCEC S22 Premier Division standings

1. Stockfish 19,5/28; 2. Komodo 18,5; 3. Lc0 17,5; 4. RofChade 12,5; 5. SlowChess 12,0; 6. Stoofvlees 11,5; 7. ScorpioNN 11,0; 8. Igel 9,5 (full crosstable here)

The Premier Division of the Top Chess Engine Championship is a 4x DRR event and the top two engines advance to the Superfinal. Komodo showed superb improvement over previous seasons and dominated the first 20 rounds. It was only then when Stockfish managed to stop it. In a Ruy Lopez game of round 21, Stockfish defeated Komodo with white and later took over the standings (replay Stockfish – Komodo 1:0). In the return game it seemed to know the way to the draw (replay Komodo – Stockfish 1/2:1/2)

Curious: In each pair of games Stockfish won with white and achieved a draw with black against rofChade, Stoofvlees, SlowChess, ScorpioNN, and Igel. Stockfish continues to be the only undefeated engine in the Premier Division

Komodo and Lc0 in a fight for the second Superfinal spot, Stockfish not safe yet

We are used to seeing Lc0 in the Superfinal of TCEC. Actually, we are so used to seeing it, that we tend to forget that it missed the TCEC S16 Superfinal, where AllieStein qualified.

Lc0 has participated in the Season 14, Season 15, Season 17, Season 18, Season 19, Season 20, and Season 21 Superfinals. Now for the first time since S16 it has a real challenged for the qualification spot – Komodo.

Komodo started the Premier Division with very strong display, scoring win after win. The aggressive play and substantial playing strength increase made the audience question whether the actual fight for the qualification spot is Stockfish vs Lc0. The loss against Stockfish knocked out Komodo from the first position. However, if it manages to keep up the aggressive play in the second half of the Premier Division, we can see a three way fight for the Superfinal.

RofChade – the revelation of the season

Many expected the new version of Berserk to be the revelation of TCEC S22. Others predicted the new mighty Koivisto could be the one. But RofChade proved everyone wrong and is currently going steady 4th in the Premier Division. Those following TCEC closely know that 4th here feels like gold in the presence of the other three giants.

Follow TCEC: Official website / TCEC Twitch live