| Zappa | |
|---|---|
| Developers | Anthony Cozzie, Zach Wegner (since 2010) |
| Initial release | February 2, 2005; 21 years ago (2005-02-02) |
| Stable release | Zappa Mexico II / 2009; 17 years ago (2009) |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows,Linux |
| Type | Chess engine |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | www |
| This article is part of the series on |
| Chess programming |
|---|
 |
Tuning and training algorithms |
Zappa,Zap!Chess orZappa Mexico, is aUCIchess engine written by Anthony Cozzie, a graduate student at theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The program emphasizes sound search and a good use of multipleprocessors. Earlier versions of Zappa are free (though notopen-source software) and the current version (Zappa Mexico) is available atShredder Computer Chess.[1]
Zappa scored an upset victory at theWorld Computer Chess Championship in August, 2005, inReykjavík,Iceland where it won with a score of 101⁄2 out of 11,[2][3][4] and beat bothJunior andShredder, programs that had won the championship many times.[5][6] In the speed chess portion of the tournament Zappa placed second, after Shredder.[7] Zappa's other tournament successes include winningCCT7 on theInternet Chess Club[8] (ICC) and defeatingGrandmasterJaan Ehlvest 3-1.[9]
In Mexico in September 2007 Zappa won a match againstRybka by a score of 51⁄2 - 41⁄2.[10] Many commentators had predicted a slew ofdraws based on the strength of the engines, but the differences in style provided an interesting match with several decisive games and many fighting draws. For some time, Zappa was considered one of the two strongest commercially available chess programs; see engine rating lists likeCCRL[11] for current rankings. Some speculate that Zappa's more efficientSMP parallel search could make it stronger on enough processors.
In March 2008 Anthony Cozzie announced that "the Zappa project is 100% finished", which includes both tournaments and future releases.[12]
In June 2010, Zach Wegner announced that he had acquired the rights to maintain and improve the Zappa engine. The improved engine competed in the 2010WCCC under the nameRondo, achieving second place behindRybka before the latter's disqualification.[13][14][15]
Immediately after the successful WCCC 2005, there were plans to commercialize Zappa, but the first attempts with Vincent Diepeveen failed.[16] In April 2006,[17] a commercial version dubbedZap!Chess running under theFritz GUI was released byChessBase.[18]
The version of Zappa that won the Zappa-Rybka match,Zappa Mexico, is sold byShredder Computer Chess,[1] is compatible withWindows andLinux computers with up to 512 CPU cores and supports multipv analysis and Nalimovtablebases.
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