Komodo chess

Houdini Komodo

It's a Computer Chess World Championship, in all but name. Two preliminary tournaments (stage 1 and stage 2) establish the current crean of the crop in computer chess, and the top two then play an epic game final match. This final is played with special rules to level the field as far as possible.

It seems as if Stockfish, Komodo and Houdini are currently playing with almost equal strength. But this time it was the Belgian program Houdini (named after the American stage magician and illusionist) and the US program Komodo that made it to the finals. Houdini needed no "great escape", it won decisively.

During the match Robert Houdart, Mark Leffler and Larry Kaufman, the developers of Houdini and Komodo gave an interview in which they talked about the current situation of computer chess, developing methods and speculated about the future of computer chess. 

A short time after this interview they were caught up by the developments of the AlphaZero