Surprising leader at the start of the Top Chess Engine Championship Div P

Top Chess Engine Championship aka TCEC, the most important event for chess software, has just started parallel to the Gukesh – Ding Liren match. The strongest 8 engines compete in the highest division of the event in quest for the title of Season 27 of the event. The defending champion Stockfish will take on Leela Chess Zero, Berserk, Ethereal, KomodoDragon, Seer and two newcomers – Obsidian and Caissa. Follow TCEC live: Official website / TCEC Chess TV / Lichess / Chessdom live More: Interview with Gabriele Lombardo from Obsidian

TCEC started with a bang – the newcomer Caissa has taken the sole lead in the event after round 2! Caissa won a Sicilian game against KomodoDragon and a King’s Indian against Seer to score 2,0/2 and jump into sole first. Caissa is closely followed by Stockfish with 1,5/2. The defending champion drew its game vs KomodoDragon and defeated Obisidian. The third position is shared by Ethereal, Berserk, and Lc0 with 1,0/2.

More about Caissa chess engine

Caissa is a strong chess engine written from scratch in C++ by Michał Witanowski (Witek902). It employs a custom efficiently-updated neural network trained with self-play games using a custom trainer. It supports (D)FRC and endgame tablebases. In development since early 2021. TCEC debut S25 Swiss5 & EL. Best score for the engine is 9th position (S26 L1) and this year it has a guaranteed 8th or more, improving on the standings. Official website: Github.com/Witek902/Caissa