Computer Chess History, a lot of links inside

[Vinvin]

During last weeks, I gleaned a lot of links about old time computer chess.
(I search a way to compile about all this informations in 3 or 4 html or text files at max.)
Sometimes other pages are very interesting on the same site.
(5% of links may be not accurate)

Here are the links :

http://adamsccpages.blogspot.be/p/also- ... -list.html
http://archive.computerhistory.org/proj ... 066.sm.pdf
http://archive.computerhistory.org/proj ... 303018.pdf
http://arno.uvt.nl/show.cgi?fid=106988
http://artblart.com/tag/history-of-computer-chess/
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1988-0 ... old-denker
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/keyword/grandmaster
http://awesome.commodore.me/downloads/c ... Manual.pdf
http://blog.stockfishchess.org/archive
http://books.google.be/books?id=J10kBdY ... 1Y&f=false
http://chesscomputeruk.com/html/chess_c ... chess.html
http://chesscomputeruk.com/html/leonardo.html
http://chesscomputeruk.com/html/mephist ... aschi.html
http://chesscomputeruk.com/html/timeline.html
http://chesscomputeruk.com/html/timelin ... round.html
http://chesscomputeruk.com/index.html
http://chessproblem.net/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=26
http://chessprogramming.wikispaces.com/ ... layer+2150
http://chessprogramming.wikispaces.com/ ... al%20Links
http://chessprogramming.wikispaces.com/ ... 27s+Gambit
http://chessprogramming.wikispaces.com/Kathe+Spracklen
http://chessprogramming.wikispaces.com/Tournaments
http://chessprogramming.wikispaces.com/Virtual+Chess
http://electronicchess.free.fr/JetS.html
http://electronicchess.free.fr/heros.html#yeno532xl
http://electronicchess.free.fr/index-UK.html
http://electronicchess.free.fr/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_(chess_machine)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChessMachine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_chess
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Levy_(chess_player)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human%E2%8 ... ss_matches
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_of_chess_articles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_Ch ... nd_leaders
http://eric.terrien.pagesperso-orange.f ... age12.html
http://eric.terrien.pagesperso-orange.f ... page8.html
http://glareanverlag.wordpress.com/2009 ... n_neghina/
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.game ... uter/about
http://hol.abime.net/3004
http://home.comcast.net/~wporter211/rea ... x.htm#gump
http://home.pacific.net.au/~tommyinoz/c ... uters.html
http://home.pacific.net.au/~tommyinoz/c ... uters.html
http://images.mitrasites.com/swedish-ch ... ation.html
http://lefouduroi.pagesperso-orange.fr/ ... s5t500.htm
http://members.aon.at/computerschach/re ... ercomp.htm
http://networkawesome.com/mag/article/m ... p-thought/
http://park.org/Cdrom/Pavilions/IBM/DeepBlue/wolf.html
http://people.csail.mit.edu/heinz/iccaj_db/node4.html
http://privat.bahnhof.se/wb432434/historik.htm#1990
http://talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=
http://tluif.home.xs4all.nl/chescom/EngTAN.html
http://tluif.home.xs4all.nl/chescom/EngTanCC.html
http://webpages.charter.net/tlikens/booklist.html
http://wn.com/chess_%27simul%27_game_ga ... rby=rating
http://wn.com/computer_chess?upload_tim ... rby=rating
http://www.aaai.org/ojs/index.php/aimag ... e/view/946
http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/11 ... challenge/
http://www.blitzchess.fr/fr/biblio/euro ... index.html
http://www.blitzchess.fr/fr/biblio/jeux ... index.html
http://www.blitzchess.fr/fr/histo/lesan ... index.html
http://www.blitzchess.fr/fr/index.php
http://www.chessbase.com/columns/column.asp?pid=102
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5695
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=8332
http://www.chesscomputers.org/
http://www.chesscomputeruk.com/html/pub ... chive.html
http://www.chessdevelopment.com/explori ... -game.html
http://www.chessdevelopment.com/the-bir ... chess.html
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscol ... id=1003844
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscol ... id=1005620
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscol ... id=1015382
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscol ... id=1016538
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1070710
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1472159
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=13728
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=63091
http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter89.html
http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter90.html
http://www.chessmaniac.com/index.php/20 ... computers/
http://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/Y ... 1345969376
http://www.computer-chess.org/doku.php? ... ngine_list
http://www.computer-chess.org/doku.php? ... ngine_list
http://www.computer-chess.org/doku.php? ... #releases8
http://www.computerchess.tk/
http://www.computerhistory.org/chess/
http://www.computerhistory.org/chess/ma ... 86c7bdbaf1#
http://www.computerhistory.org/chess/ma ... 15c52333a3#
http://www.computerhistory.org/chess/ma ... 15c9b2be73
http://www.computerhistory.org/core/bac ... re_5_1.pdf
http://www.echesspedia.com/?page_id=6548&source=11406
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10261668@N05/page6/
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/ ... 8/levy.htm
http://www.google.be/imgres?imgurl=http ... AQ&dur=862
http://www.google.be/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=& ... nOgeCa9I8g
http://www.grappa.univ-lille3.fr/icga/program.php?id=13
http://www.grappa.univ-lille3.fr/icga/t ... php?id=122
http://www.hiarcs.com/hiarcs_pedigree.htm
http://www.hiarcs.net/forums/viewtopic. ... 1aa46e54cc
http://www.iechecs.com/liens.htm#programmation
http://www.intelfreepress.com/news/man- ... ted-moves/
http://www.ismenio.com/chess_collection.html
http://www.ismenio.com/chess_commodore_chessmate.html
http://www.ismenio.com/chess_computers.html
http://www.ismenio.com/mephisto.html
http://www.ismenio.com/ruud.html
http://www.jakob.at/steffen/hossa/index.html
http://www.meca-web.es/museo.htm
http://www.mobygames.com/game/chess-pla ... creenshots
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/26/nyreg ... ament.html
http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/14/magaz ... all&src=pm
http://www.onlinechesslessons.net/2012/ ... prix-1994/
http://www.oocities.org/marochess/ssdf/ssdf.htm
http://www.open-aurec.com/chesswar/download.html
http://www.pi.infn.it/%7Ecarosi/chess/shannon.txt
http://www.rebel.nl/rebel10c.htm#ANTI-GM
http://www.reocities.com/capecanaveral/ ... f/ssdf.htm
http://www.retrogamesshop.com/product_i ... modul.html&
http://www.schach-computer.info/wiki/in ... CompuChess
http://www.schach-computer.info/wiki/in ... ptseite_Fr
http://www.schachcomputer.info/html/akt ... liste.html
http://www.spacious-mind.com/html/atari_1040_stf.html
http://www.spacious-mind.com/html/c64_e ... s_4_0.html
http://www.spacious-mind.com/html/collection.html
http://www.spacious-mind.com/html/commo ... sus_4.html
http://www.spacious-mind.com/html/saber_iii.html
http://www.stmintz.com/ccc/index.php?id=95291
http://www.stmintz.com/ccc/index.php?id=99064
http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewtopi ... =&start=30
http://www.team-oh.de/Computerschach/dj13.htm
http://www.top-5000.nl/dedicated.htm
http://www.torrewachters.be/YS/albillo/comp.htm
http://www.usaprojects.org/project/computer_chess
http://www.wired.com/science/discoverie ... ampbell_qa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=379wRyIf90o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYUQkQfuXmM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coW-PvCI ... r_embedded#!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvibGuRe ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNwiMBGoJ90
http://www.zanchetta.net/default.aspx?C ... mentations
https://www.google.be/search?q=Arnold+D ... 33&bih=647
https://www.google.be/search?q=Formanek ... =firefox-a
https://www.youtube.com/results?q=Intel ... a=N&tab=w1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EQA679DFRg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dgsndbtEJ0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c65KkVmR16I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eglgq3aHt_s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF6qFROA-Mw

Enjoy the reading !
Vincent

[Ajedrecista]

Hello:

It is incredible that nobody replied to this topic or even thanked for all the info. Thank you very much Vincent!

I have found more PDFs thanks to a thread at Chess2U Forum:

Chesscomputers History - PDFs

Have a nice day!

Regards from Spain.

Ajedrecista.

[reflectionofpower]

Thanks for the hard effort Vincent. I made a PDF document (hyperlinking of all links) of it acknowledging your effort into it. It makes it easier just to dl the doc and then you can just click on whatever tickles your fancy. It can be downloaded here:

http://is.gd/sRYlaI

[Vinvin]

Hello:
It is incredible that nobody replied to this topic or even thanked for all the info. Thank you very much Vincent!
...

There's probably too much to read and see before responding

[IanO]

Thanks, Vincent!

I've been trying to piece together the historical record of when the world's strongest chess software was introduced, from about 1993 or so (the end of the dedicated computer era). The WCCC and WMCCC gives an increasingly inaccurate picture of this over time. The SSDF helps fill in some of the gaps, but has high latency. From 2005 or so there are better, more inclusive rating lists which pick up the slack. Here is what I've gathered so far:

1993 Mephisto Genius 2.0
1994 HIARCS (WMCCC)
1995 MChess Pro 5.0 (WMCCC)
1995 Fritz (WCCC)
1996 Rebel 8.0
1996 Shredder (WMCCC)
1997 HIARCS 6.0
1997 Junior (WMCCC)
1998 HIARCS 7.0, Fritz 5.0
1999 Chess Tiger 12.0
1999 Shredder (WCCC)
2000 Fritz 6.0
2000 Shredder (WMCCC)
2001 Chess Tiger 14.0
2001 Junior (WMCCC)
2002 Fritz 7.0
2002 Junior (WCCC)
2003 Shredder 7/8/9 (and WCCC)
2004 Junior (WCCC)

2005 Zappa, Fruit (WCCC)
2006 Rybka 1.2, 2.3.1, 3, 4

2011 Houdini 1.5, 2, 3

(I should probably nail down exact release dates for many of these program versions.)

There was a lot of jostling for top position since 1993 (Genius, Hiarcs, MChess, Fritz, Rebel). The supercomputer era waned with Deep Thought's dying victory against Kasparov, heralding the eternal rivalry between Shredder and Junior, with Tiger and Fritz making their own bids at the new millennium. In 2005 the two amateurs Zappa and Fruit upset the WCCC, and faster rating lists lead to a quantum leap in program strength and the dynasties of Rybka and Houdini. And in just the last couple of years Stockfish, Critter, and Komodo have leapfrogged Rybka to aim at Houdini's top spot.

[Vinvin]

The very good Chess Wikispace from Gerd Isenberg have probably the answer to all this questions :

http://chessprogramming.wikispaces.com/SSDF
Especially this 2 links :
http://home.scarlet.be/vincentlejeune/SSDF/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_Ch ... nd_leaders

And about all the CC tournaments of history here :
http://chessprogramming.wikispaces.com/Tournaments


I suggest to create a list with the top 3 for each year (or top 5 if followers are close).

My best,
Vincent

[Vinvin]

I reread your post and the lists and I understand better the problem ... for the "Rybka" years (2006-2010). I found some info here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rybka#History .
As I remember the first Rybka 1.0 beta was 100 elo stronger than close opponents and there was a new release about each year, each about 100 elo stronger than the previous one.

In those years appeared on the top too :
Naum
Zappa
Fruit
You'll find all of them on the SSDF lists and their history in Wiki's.

The followers still the same : Shredder, Hiarcs, Junior, Fritz.

Vincent

[IanO]

I reread your post and the lists and I understand better the problem ... for the "Rybka" years (2006-2010). I found some info here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rybka#History .
As I remember the first Rybka 1.0 beta was 100 elo stronger than close opponents and there was a new release about each year, each about 100 elo stronger than the previous one.

In those years appeared on the top too :
Naum
Zappa
Fruit
You'll find all of them on the SSDF lists and their history in Wiki's.

The followers still the same : Shredder, Hiarcs, Junior, Fritz.

Vincent

Yes, thanks. The links from the wonderful chess programming wiki to archived SSDF lists is a good record of progress from 1995-2009. The main problem is that the long time controls, infrequent publication, and partial hand operation meant that there was often a year or more of latency between an engine release and appearance on an SSDF list. And recently, the SSDF still hasn't caught up to the explosion of strong engines in the post Fruit world, to the point where it really isn't suitable for a historical record after 2010. Fortunately, there are other rating lists that pick up the slack from 2006 onwards.

And although Rybka eclipsed everything, I don't want to forget Naum! At one point it was Rybka 100 elo above Naum and Naum 60 elo above everybody else! I think it is a shame that Naum never got the wider acclaim it deserved. Even after years of stagnation, it still would have been the favorite if it had entered either of the last two WCCCs!

Although the SSDF list has most of the strongest engines, there are still some notable ones missing, such as the ChessMaster series. Other engines worth a mention were Chess Tiger, Nimzo and Gandalf. Were there any other engines of the nineties that were that caliber but didn't make the SSDF list? Perhaps WChess and Ferret?

Here is the list of all the top engines as the SSDF evolved, restricted to the those that were clustered significantly higher than the rest:

1995 Genius3, Rebel6, Hiarcs3
1996 MChess5, Genius4, Rebel7
1997 Rebel8, MChess6, Hiarcs5, Genius5
1998 Hiarcs6, Rebel9, Nimzo98
1998 Fritz5, Junior5
1999 Hiarcs7, Fritz5, Junior5,
1999 CM6000, Hiarcs7, Fritz5, Nimzo99, Junior5
2000 Junior6, Tiger12, Nimzo7, Fritz5, Hiarcs7
2000 Fritz6, Junior6, Tiger12
2001 DeepFritz, GambitTiger, Shredder5, Junior7
2002 Shredder6, Tiger14, DeepFritz, Junior7, Rebel10
2003 Shredder7, Fritz7
2004 Shredder7, Fritz8, Junior8
2005 Shredder8, Junior9, Fritz8
2006 Fruit2.2.1, Hiarcs10
2006 Rybka 1.2
2007 Rybka 2.3.1, Hiarcs11, Junior10.1
2008 Rybka 3, ZappaMexico, Shredder11, Hiarcs12
2009 Rybka 3, Naum4, (Fritz11, ZappaMexico)
2010 Rybka 3, Naum4.2, Hiarcs13, Shredder12, Fritz12

Thereafter other rating lists are better to look at, since the SSDF doesn't yet include Houdini, Stockfish, or Komodo.

[Vinvin]

...
Although the SSDF list has most of the strongest engines, there are still some notable ones missing, such as the ChessMaster series. Other engines worth a mention were Chess Tiger, Nimzo and Gandalf. Were there any other engines of the nineties that were that caliber but didn't make the SSDF list? Perhaps WChess and Ferret?

ChessMaster serie is on the SSDF list.

Kallisto were quite strong too ...

As far as I know, Ferret was never release for customers.

[Vinvin]

Here is the list of all the top engines as the SSDF evolved, restricted to the those that were clustered significantly higher than the rest:

Latest SSDF rating added with CPU (until 2001, I'll continue later) :

1995 Genius3 (2311-Pentium90), Rebel6(2306-Pentium90), Hiarcs3(2273-Pentium90)
1996 MChess5(2305-Pentium90), Genius4(2304-Pentium90), Rebel7(2297-Pentium90)
1997 Rebel8(2412-P200MMX/2339-Pentium90), MChess6(2409-P200MMX/2315-Pentium90), Hiarcs5(2328-Pentium90), Genius5(2394-P200MMX/2332-Pentium90)
1998 Hiarcs6(2412-P200MMX/2336-Pentium90), Rebel9(2422-P200MMX/2339-Pentium90), Nimzo98(2433-P200MMX)
1998 Fritz5(2462-P200MMX), Junior5(2436-P200MMX/2541-K6.450)
1999 Hiarcs7.x(2537-K6.450/2472-P200MMX), Fritz5.32(2556-K6.450/2499-P200MMX), Junior5(2541-K6.450/2436-P200MMX),
1999 CM6000(2477-P200MMX), Hiarcs7.x(2537-K6.450/2472-P200MMX), Fritz5.32(2556-K6.450/2499-P200MMX), Junior5(2541-K6.450/2436-P200MMX), Nimzo99(2485-K6.450/2451-P200MMX)
2000 Junior6(2595-K6.450), Tiger12(2599-K6.450), Nimzo7(2558-K6.450), Hiarcs7.x(2537-K6.450), Fritz5.32(2556-K6.450)
2000 Fritz6(2612-K6.450), Junior6(2595-K6.450), Tiger12(2599-K6.450)
2001 DeepFritz(2645-K6.450), GambitTiger(2642-K6.450), Shredder5(2582-K6.450), Junior7(2630-K6.450)
2002 Shredder6, Tiger14, DeepFritz, Junior7, Rebel10
2003 Shredder7, Fritz7
2004 Shredder7, Fritz8, Junior8
2005 Shredder8, Junior9, Fritz8
2006 Fruit2.2.1, Hiarcs10
2006 Rybka 1.2
2007 Rybka 2.3.1, Hiarcs11, Junior10.1
2008 Rybka 3, ZappaMexico, Shredder11, Hiarcs12
2009 Rybka 3, Naum4, (Fritz11, ZappaMexico)
2010 Rybka 3, Naum4.2, Hiarcs13, Shredder12, Fritz12