World Computer Chess Championships

World Computer Chess Championship (WCCC) is an annual event where computer chess engines compete against each other. The event is organized by the International Computer Games Association. It is often held in conjunction with the Computer Olympiad, a collection of computer tournaments for other board games.

The WCCC is open to all types of computers including microprocessors, supercomputers, clusters, and dedicated chess hardware.

In 2007, the reigning champion Junior declined to defend its title.

For the 2009 edition, the rules were changed to limit platforms to commodity hardware supporting at most eight cores, thereby excluding supercomputers and large clusters. Thereafter, a parallel Software Championship was held instead, and unlimited hardware is still allowed in the championship proper.

From 2010 a new tournament was introduced and held at the same location and during the same period as the World Computer Chess Championship. The rules for the World Chess Software Championship state that competing programs must run on machines with identical hardware specifications. Time control is game in 45 minutes with 15 second increment.

Due to the requirement to be present on-site, play on a physical board, and strict rules of originality, many strong programs refrain from participating in the ICGA events. As the conditions of the software championship can easily be emulated by anyone with a high-end PC, there are now privately conducted tournaments, such as Top Chess Engine Championship, that have much broader attendance, as well as a larger number of games to reduce the influence of chance.

From 1980 to 2001, there was a separate cycle of championships limited to programs running on microprocessors. Up until 1991, the winners were dedicated units. Thereafter, winners were running on state-of-the-art personal computers. The event was also run by the ICGA.

At the 14th WMCCC in Jakarta, the Israeli team Junior was denied entry to Indonesia and some other teams dropped out in protest.

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