This is intended to be a complete list of all PC-based chess engines that are not freely available for download. Such lists can get outdated quickly as new authors introduce new engines and older authors lose interest, drop out of the computer chess scene, and notify no one. Luckily most authors no longer prefer private versions because public versions get more attention and testing.
The rules for inclusion into this list
Recent Modifications (older modifications at bottom):
Engine | Author | Country | Last year of activity |
---|---|---|---|
Achilles / Axon | Vladan Vuckovic | Serbia | 2007 |
Alcatraz | Jacobus Opperman | - | 2015 |
Almond | Richard Hall | USA | 2010 |
Amaia | Mark Pearce | UK | 2012 |
Anaconda | Frank Schneider & Kai Skibbe | Germany | 2011 |
Ancalagon | Eelco de Groot | - | 2017 |
Anubis | José C. Martínez Galán | Spain | 2012 |
ApiChess | Max Himam | France | 2009 |
ARChess | Arash Panahi Rad | Iran | 2007 |
Argonaut | Ralf Dorr | Germany | 2006 |
Azraël | Christopher Conkie | United Kingdom | 2009 |
Balor | Roberto Munter & Matteo D'Annibale | - | 2014 |
Berta | Felix Schmenger | Germany | 2006 |
Bird | Greg McGlynn | USA | 2007 |
Blackmail | Chris Florin | USA | 2011 |
Bliep | ??? | ??? | 2015 |
Bolt | Alex Brunetti | Italy | 2010 |
Bunny | Yue Tao Hsu | China | 2011 |
Bursche | Dieter Bürßner | Germany | 2010 |
Canalla | Martin Schreiber | Germany | 2007 |
Cheetah | Ralf Schäfer | Germany | 2009 |
Chepla | Mikael Bäckman | Sweden | 2009 |
ChessPartner UCI Engine | Lex Loep | Netherlands | 2014 |
ChessTraining | Francisco Gambero | Spain | 2010 |
Chess Wizard | Frederic Louguet | France | 2004 |
Chexa | Mauro Riccardi | Italy | 2007 |
Chimp | Andy Duplain | United Kingdom | 2009 |
Chompster | Scott Farrell | Australia | 2006 |
Ciao | Stefano Gemma | Italy | 2015 |
Climber | Vlad Stamate | USA | 2013 |
Cogito | Joerg Schaefer | Germany | 2009 |
Control (Stockfish/IvanHoe derivative) | Eren Yavuz | Turkey | 2013 |
Cowrie Chess | Chan Rasjid | Singapore | 2010 |
CrazyChips (Stockfish derivative) | Nolan Denson | ??? | 2011 |
Cryptic | Abdul Mateen Khan | ??? | 2012 |
CWU Chess | Ashur Odah, Pushpinder Heer, Joe Lemley, Razvan Andonie, et al | Romania | 2013 |
CyberNezh | ? | ? | 2019 |
Czolgista | Tomasz Kazimierski | Poland | 2009 |
Dark Horse | Daniel Billett | USA | 2015 |
DCP | Daniel Anulliero | France | 2011 |
Decapod / K9 | Tor Lattimore | Australia | 2007 |
Desperado | David Blackman | Australia | 2006 |
Diep | Vincent Diepeveen | Netherlands | 2011 |
Ditw | Dustin L Espinosa | Cuba | 2010 |
Dr. Theopolis | Corby Nichols | USA | 2009 |
EdlChess | Stephan Edlich | Germany | 2009 |
EGM | Pawel Kobylarz | Poland | 2009 |
Eichhörnchen | Wieland Belka | Germany | 2009 |
ELVIS | Björn Nacke | Germany | 2016 |
Equilibrium | Simone Innocenti | Italy | 2007 |
Erendal | Eric Devar | Canada | 2007 |
Ermintrude | Vince Bickers | United Kingdom | 2007 |
EtaBeta | Antonia Jeanrenaud | Italy | 2006 |
Eva | 'ppyvabw' | ??? | 2015 |
Fantod | Ivan Bacigal | USA | 2010 |
Fencer | Shaun Press | Australia | 2006 |
FIBChess | Guillermo Baches García | Spain | 2006 |
Flywheel | Don Cross | USA | 2009 |
Gadget | Hans van der Zijden | ? | 2019 |
Geisterauge | Matthias Pfaff | Germany | 2007 |
Ginkgo | Frank Schneider | Germany | 2019 |
Giordano Bruno | Gyovai Tamás | Hungary | 2013 |
Goldbar | Bart Goldhoorn | Netherlands | 2014 |
Hal | André Taffarello | Brazil | 2008 |
HansDamf | Gerd Isenberg | Germany | 2009 |
Hector for Chess (HfC) | Csaba Jergler | Hungary | 2010 |
Hustle Motor | Ben Lau | - | 2014 |
Hypernova | Kupriyan Golubev | ? | 2019 |
Ikarus | Munjong Kolss & Muntsin Kolss | Germany | 2009 |
Imp | Aivaras Juzvikas | Lithuania | 2004 |
IsiChess | Gerd Isenberg | Germany | 2007 |
Kallisto | Bart Weststrate | Netherlands | 2009 |
Kirby | Louis Zulli | USA | 2012 |
LearningLemming | Sam Hamilton | USA | 2010 |
LRChess | Langó Róbert | Hungary | 2013 |
Maestro | Omid David Tabibi | Israel | 2007 |
Moneypenny | Matt Shoemaker | USA | 2009 |
NaltaP312 | Yves Catineau | France | 2013 |
Nightmare | Joost Buijs | Netherlands | 2014 |
Now | Mark Lefler | USA | 2009 |
NPMchess | Mridul Muralidharan | India | 2007 |
Nullmover | Michael Langeveld | Netherlands | 2009 |
Pandix | Gyula Horváth | Hungary | 2011 |
Olympus | Joshua Shriver | USA | 2009 |
Pebble | Adam Goodwin | USA | 2009 |
Permabrain | Kalyankumar Ramaseshan | - | 2016 |
Philidor | Christian Barreteau and Bruno Lucas | France | 2009 |
Piccolino | Luca Naddei | Italy | 2017 |
Puca | Shaun Howe | United Kingdom | 2010 |
PuppetMaster | Folkert van Heusden (POS, CPP1 & DeepBrutePos) | - | 2014 |
Raptor | Steve Webber | Luxembourg | 2013 |
Rascal | Derek Mauro | USA | 2007 |
Rinko | Marco Grella | Italy | 2005 |
Rondo | Zach Wegner & Anthony Cozzie | USA | 2011 |
Rookie | Marcel van Kervinck | Netherlands | 2007 |
RookieMonster | Erin Dame | - | 2017 |
Ribozyme | Jack Crawford | USA? | 2013 |
Rubric | Rob Williamson | - | 2016 |
Rustic | ? | - | 2020 |
Sibyl | Milikas Anastasios | Greece | 2010 |
Sidonia | Ivan Urwin | UK | 2011 |
Sillycon | Lasse Hansen | Norway | 2009 |
Singularity | Mahmoud Uthman | - | 2017 |
Skipper | Henk van den Belt | - | 2014 |
Spandrel | Robert Purves | New Zealand | 2010 |
Spin Chess | Phokham Nonava | Switzerland | 2013 |
Squirrel | Shawn Chidester | - | 2016 |
StoofVlees | Gian-Carlo Pascutto | - | 2019 |
Sweetleaf | Anton | UK | 2011 |
Tang | Gabriel Leperlier | France | 2012 |
Telepath | Charles Roberson | USA | 2011 |
The Machine | Jonathan Rosenthal | - | 2015 |
Thorgal | Ben Tennison | - | 2014 |
Thresher | Patrik Karlsson | Sweden | 2014 |
Tinker | Brian Richardson | USA | 2011 |
TrojanKnight | Ronald de Man | ??? | 2013 |
TuttiFruity | J Donald | ??? | 2009 |
Tzunami | Ivo Tops | Netherlands | 2009 |
Vlad Tepes | Henk Fennema | Netherlands | 2009 |
WaDuuttie | Maarten Claessens | Netherlands | 2009 |
Warp | Peter McKenzie | New Zealand | 2007 |
Waster | Geoff Westwood | United Kingdom | 2009 |
Weid | Jaap Weidemann | South Africa | 2007 |
Weini | Vivien Clauzon | ??? | 2018 |
WESP | Eric Spek | Netherlands | 2007 |
WhiskySoda | Balint Pfliegel | ??? | 2012 |
Wombat | Thomas McBurney | Australia | 2010 |
Wraith | Patrik Karlsson | Sweden | 2016 |
XiniX | Tony van Roon-Werten | Netherlands | 2009 |
Z | Manuel Díaz | Spain | 2011 |
Zadrexsaurus | José Fragoso | Portugal | 2010 |
These are the engines with no activity in the last 5 years. These engines are probably dead.
Engine | Author | Country | Last year of activity |
---|---|---|---|
Arthur | Walter Ravenek | Netherlands | 1999 |
Chester | Steve Timson | USA | 2002 |
Djenghis | J.E.F. Kaan | Netherlands | 2002 |
Falcon | Omid David Tabibi | Israel | 2008 |
Ferret | Bruce Moreland | USA | 2001 |
Grok | Peter Kappler | USA | 2003 |
Hossa | Steffen Jakob | Germany | 2003 |
Insomniac | James Robertson | USA | 2002 |
Jake | Mark Netjes | Netherlands | 2003 |
Neurologic | Jochen Peussner | Germany | 2005 |
Phark | Tim Smith | Australia | 2003 |
Qalat | Carlos Andrade | Spain | 2003 |
Ruy Lopez | Álvaro Begué and José Manuel Morán | Spain | 1999 |
Searcher | Frank Philips | United Kingdom | 2002 |
Shrike | Dan Newman | USA | 2001 |
Stobor | Tom Kerrigan | USA | 1995 |
Symbolic | Steven Edwards | USA | 2011 |
Older Modifications:
publicly released as AdaChess; added link for Satana
Assistance in creating this list: Tony Thomas, Guenther Simon, Olivier Deville, Robert Allgeuer, Dr. Wael Deeb, Zach Wegner, Norbert Raimund Leisner, and Gerhard Schwager. Thanks guys!