What was the top Chess engine before it was Stockfish, Komodo or Houdini?

[Vinvin]

Just curious if anyone happens to know..

Here, top 3 engines year by hear from 1995 to 2010 : viewtopic.php?p=532801#p532801

[JohnW]

Just curious if anyone happens to know..

Rybka comes to mind.

Oh right, Rybka..Seems like Rybka 3 was on top for a long time if I remember right.

[MikeB]

Just curious if anyone happens to know..

It was Rybka, no question.

[MikeB]

Here's my recollection of the best PC engines:

1989 Rex 2.3
1990 M-Chess 1.0
1993 Genius 3.0
1997 HIARCS / Rebel
2000 Tiger
2001 Shredder
2005 Fruit 2.3
2006 Rybka
2009 Stockfish

Steve

Nice list, other honorable mentions and I'm not sure of their best year ...

Deep Junior
Fritz
Chessmaster
Gandalf
Zappa

[WinPooh]

1997 - Deep Blue
2005 - Hydra

[Graham Banks]

I posted this earlier, but the post seems to have disappeared.

CCRL update (31st March 2007)
Post by Graham Banks » Sat Mar 31, 2007 9:01 pm

Rybka 2.2 64 bit 4CPU therefore still heads the rating list at around 3100 ELO.

Zap!Chess Zanzibar 64 bit 4CPU is a clear second on around 3040 ELO.

Hiarcs 11.1 4CPU comes in third at around 2980 ELO.

At about 2960 ELO, Naum 2.1 64-bit 4CPU comes next, well ahead of Deep Shredder 10 64 bit 4CPU on 2928 ELO, Deep Fritz 10 4CPU on 2919 ELO and Deep Junior 10 4CPU on 2914 ELO.

[yurikvelo]

A nice list for sure, but where is Kaissa and where is Sargon

For full story, one must admit, that before ~2006 there were 2 chess engine universes:
1) supercomputers
2) home computers (before IBM PC - called "microcomputers")

Supercomputers were owned and operated by big companies, played a few games and were not available to public - neither software nor access to run hardware. And they dominated up to Hydra, up to 2006.

Advances both in software (Fruit, Junior, Shredder and Fritz) and hardware (dual-core Pentium arrived in May 2005, DDR2 memory arrived in 20003, 3 GHz broken late 2002 etc) enabled home computers to beat supercomputers.

In Feb 2005 Hydra humiliated any competitors (+7 =2 -0), including Shredder and easily won PAL/CSS both in June 2005 and April 2006.
Hydra still defeated Rybka in april 2006, but later in 2006 PC-rivals become stronger and stronger (mainly Rybka) so it was obvious that "supercomputer era is over". Playing strength of Rybka skyrocketed due to advances in algos.
Intel moved to 64 bit (2004), DDR3 (2007), Core 2 architecture (2006), first Quad-core for home (November 2006 - Kenstfield) - Rybka moved to x64 (2007) and to Deep (SMP).
Fast home computers enabled engine developers to run statistically meaningfull self-play for debug and fine tuning, which in turn sky-rocketed engine strength.

[mclane]

Chess Tiger was a top engine.
Mchess was a top engine.

[Guenther]

Just curious if anyone happens to know..

Here, top 3 engines year by hear from 1995 to 2010 : viewtopic.php?p=532801#p532801

IIRC Ruffian! was for a short time number one probably and should not be forgotten...
Gandalf probably also was top5 or better at one time, Crafty of course too, especially
if SMP was allowed.

I want to add that the plain SSDF rating list will not tell the truth, even for the top 3, since the point of time,
when strong non-CB newcomers appeared, because SSDF needed at least several years (or more)
to acknowledge non CB programs in their list.

[Uri Blass]

A nice list for sure, but where is Kaissa and where is Sargon

For full story, one must admit, that before ~2006 there were 2 chess engine universes:
1) supercomputers
2) home computers (before IBM PC - called "microcomputers")

Supercomputers were owned and operated by big companies, played a few games and were not available to public - neither software nor access to run hardware. And they dominated up to Hydra, up to 2006.

Advances both in software (Fruit, Junior, Shredder and Fritz) and hardware (dual-core Pentium arrived in May 2005, DDR2 memory arrived in 20003, 3 GHz broken late 2002 etc) enabled home computers to beat supercomputers.

In Feb 2005 Hydra humiliated any competitors (+7 =2 -0), including Shredder and easily won PAL/CSS both in June 2005 and April 2006.
Hydra still defeated Rybka in april 2006, but later in 2006 PC-rivals become stronger and stronger (mainly Rybka) so it was obvious that "supercomputer era is over". Playing strength of Rybka skyrocketed due to advances in algos.
Intel moved to 64 bit (2004), DDR3 (2007), Core 2 architecture (2006), first Quad-core for home (November 2006 - Kenstfield) - Rybka moved to x64 (2007) and to Deep (SMP).
Fast home computers enabled engine developers to run statistically meaningfull self-play for debug and fine tuning, which in turn sky-rocketed engine strength.

I think that super computers are not relevant for this discussion that is about engines and not about the best chess machine.