Komodo (chess)

Komodo is a UCI chess engine developed by Don Dailey and Mark Lefler, and supported by chess author and evaluation expert GM Larry Kaufman. Komodo is a commercial chess engine but older versions (12 and older) are free for non-commercial use. It is consistently ranked near the top of most major chess engine rating lists, along with Stockfish and Leela Chess Zero.[1][2][3][4][5]

Komodo
Developer(s)
Initial releaseJanuary 2010 (2010-01)
Stable release
Dragon / November 9, 2020 (2020-11-09)
Written inC, C++
Operating systemLinux, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Android
TypeChess engine
LicenseProprietary
Websitekomodochess.com

History

Komodo was derived from Don Dailey's former engine Doch in January 2010.[6] The first multiprocessor version of Komodo was released in June 2013 as Komodo 5.1 MP.[7] This version was a major rewrite and a port of Komodo to C++11. A single-processor version of Komodo (which won the CCT15 tournament in February earlier that year) was released as a stand-alone product shortly before the 5.1 MP release. This version, named Komodo CCT, was still based on the older C code, and was approximately 30 Elo stronger than the 5.1 MP version, as the latter was still undergoing massive code-cleanup work.[8]

With the release of Komodo 6 on 4 October 2013, Don Dailey announced that he was suffering from an acute form of leukaemia, and would no longer contribute to the future development of Komodo.[9] On October 8, Don made an announcement on the Talkchess forum that Mark Lefler would be joining the Komodo team and would continue its development.[10]

On December 17, 2018, Larry Kaufman announced the release of Komodo 12.3 MCTS, a version of the Komodo 12.3 engine that uses Monte Carlo tree search instead of alpha–beta pruning/minimax.[11]

The latest version, Komodo Dragon, was released on November 9, 2020. It features support for NNUE.[12]

Playing strength and style

Komodo heavily relies on evaluation rather than depth, and thus has a distinctive positional style. Its forte is to play when there is nothing to play.[13] Komodo author Don Dailey described it as such: "In positions that most engines would likely struggle or find it impossible to make progress, Komodo quietly prepares a break and ends up with the victory."[14]

Competition results

Komodo has played in the ICT 2010 in Leiden, and further in the CCT12 and CCT14. Komodo had its first tournament success in 2013, when it won the CCT15 with a score of 6½/7.[15] Komodo also fared very well in the TCEC competition, where in Season 4, it lost only eight out of its 53 games and managed to reach Stage 4 (Quarterfinals), against very strong competition which were running on eight cores (Komodo was running on a single processor).[16] In TCEC Season 5, it won the superfinal against Stockfish. It managed to reach the Superfinal in TCEC Season 6 again, but this time, it lost to Stockfish. Komodo regained the title in TCEC Season 7, defeating Stockfish in the superfinal. In TCEC Season 8, Komodo defeated Stockfish again in the superfinal.[17] Komodo won both the World Computer Chess Championship[18] and World Computer Software Championship[19] in 2016. Komodo once again won the World Computer Chess Championship[20] and World Blitz[21] in 2017. Komodo came third in TCEC Season 11 losing to Stockfish and Houdini, and came second in Season 12 losing to Stockfish.[22][23][24]

Notable games

Komodo vs Hannibal
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8
8
77
66
55
44
33
22
11
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Komodo plays the exchange sacrifice 33. Rxc6 and goes on to win the game, proving the superiority of its pieces over Black's two rooks.

References

  1. "CCRL 40/40 Rating List — All engines (best versions only)". computerchess.org.uk. Archived from the original on October 2, 2011. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
  2. "IPON Rating List". inwoba.de. Archived from the original on May 29, 2014. Retrieved April 28, 2015.
  3. "SWCR chess engine ratings list". amateurschach.de. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
  4. "CEGT Best Versions". husvankempen.de. Archived from the original on December 24, 2007. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
  5. "CCRL 40/4 Rating List". CCRL. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
  6. Dailey, Don. "Komodo 1.0 JA by Don Dailey available". Retrieved 25 October 2013.
  7. Dailey, Don. "Komodo 5.1 MP has been released". Retrieved 25 October 2013.
  8. Dailey, Don. "Komodo CCT". Retrieved 25 October 2013.
  9. Dailey, Don. "Komodo release". Retrieved 25 October 2013.
  10. Dailey, Don. "Who is Don/Larry's new partner!?". Retrieved 25 October 2013.
  11. https://komodochess.com/Komodo12.htm
  12. https://komodochess.com/dragon.htm
  13. Prakash, Om. "Hope for the new Komodo!". Retrieved 25 October 2013.
  14. Dailey, Don. "Quiet game". Retrieved 25 October 2013.
  15. Skinner, Peter. "CCT15 - Results". Retrieved 25 October 2013.
  16. "Komodo - Performance". Archived from the original on 23 October 2013. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
  17. "TCEC - Top Chess Engine Championship - Archive Mode". Archived from the original on 2015-05-03. Retrieved 2015-01-01.
  18. "WCCC2016".
  19. "WCSC 2016".
  20. "WCSC 2017".
  21. "World Bltz 2017".
  22. http://www.chessdom.com/tcec-season-11-final-standings/
  23. http://www.chessdom.com/stockfish-convincingly-wins-tcec-season-11/
  24. https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments/tcec-2018-season-12-superfinal
  25. "Interesting Games from Season 2". Archived from the original on 25 October 2013. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
  26. Chen, Franklin. "The computer plays the exchange sacrifice". Retrieved 26 October 2013.
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