Time of the Book Masters     
6 months, 13 days ago

Only 12 decided games out of 208! That‘s even more alarming compared to previous tours. Ten wins by White and two by Black. In practice that means, you could win this tour with two victories, and only five other players managed to reach a +1 score.

White Wins Only 8 Percent     
10 months, 22 days ago

Forty players joined the 44th Engine Masters Tournament going over 13 rounds with the time control 12 minutes per game + 2 seconds increment per move. They created 251 games in total of which 19 games were won by White and 3 by Black. (We don‘t count those two “byes” due to disconnections and one draw agreed without playing, also due to technical issues.) This is what the graphic shows:

Darn Last Round     
1 year, 2 months ago

Wardog wins the 43rd Engine Masters Tournament. March 15, 2020. Three players fought an exciting fight til the very end: Thor, Mario Radocchia (Canada), TheForce, Mel Holm (Switzerland) and Wardog218, James Gipson (USA). The first two had already won prizes in previous tours. Thor was running Eman 5.01, TheForce LeelaZero (lc0) and Wardog218 Eman XXX2, so that means Stockfish and Leela were their

Brainfish's Comeback      
1 year, 4 months ago

November 24, 2019. Brainfish is back, means on top, winning the 41th Engine Masters Tournament after a losing streak of 10 EMT‘s. Rodolfo Isidro, resident of the USA, using the nickname Ugnatniama, had an excellent start with 2 points out of 2 games.

Showdown on a Sunday     
1 year, 4 months ago

January 19, 2020. Until round 8 it looked like MCDermont, Robert Söhnlein (Germany), with Eman XXX, a combination of Leela Zero for the first part of the game and Stockfish for the second half, would gain the trophy. He was the sole leader with +2 already after round 4. With 5 rounds to go Ugnatniama, Rodolfo Isidro (USA), with Brainfish („build the wall“) caught him up and the same did after roun

5 Years Engine Masters Tours     
1 year, 7 months ago

The most powerful rapid tournament series on the web celebrated its 40th jubilee on September 15th, 2019. Most powerful? Yes, surely, alltogether - machines, engines and book - I have no doubt, the Engine Masters Tournaments show the highest level with these time controls: 12 minutes + 2 seconds increments, and more than 95% of the games have been decided by chess moves and neither by time nor by

The Toughest Engine Masters Ever     
1 year, 10 months ago

The 39th Engine Masters, held on 28th July 2019, was an open race until the very end. It‘s true, that Ocirema (José Moreira/Portugal) was leading after his second win in round 6, but who could predict, that this was his last win and nobody would overtake him? Only Katzenmaier (Stefan Kleinert/Germany), who had a bad start in round 1, was able to catch him up after round 12, but as both players dra

Leela’s First Victory     
2 years ago

The 38th Engine Masters on Sunday, May 26, was a very tough one- Although Murx, Clemens Keck from Germany, took the lead with two wins out of the first three rounds, he could not be sure to win the tournament until the very end. It‘s true, he managed to win a third game in round 5, but that it was – his next 8 matches ended all up in a draw, while other players etablished half a point behind him:

Eman – the Hottest „Fish“ on InfinityChess     
2 years, 1 month ago

The 37th Engine Masters, 31st March 2019, was a one man show by Thor, Mario Radocchia from Canada, who for the first time won this really tough contest going over 13 rounds. Thor set his hopes on Eman, which lately became the most favoured engine deriving from Stockfish, yet offering some special features like self learning. As Thor managed to show, Eman‘s slightly more optimistic and aggressive s

Leela's Debut in the 36th Engine Masters Tour     
2 years, 3 months ago

The 36th Engine Masters Tournament, held on February 10th, 2019, brought back quite a lot excitement and enthusiasm. 36 players joined the 13 rounds event, and for the first time among them six Leela chess engines following in the big foot steps of Alpha Zero. Lc0 was expected to come up somewhere at top after it (some say: she) had qualified in the TCEC Championship for the superfinal against Sto