Komodo Chess 8

Price: €67.50
Price without VAT for non EU residents : €55.33}

Komodo is a chess program that is different from the rest. Its search makes greater use of extensions than any other top engine, which allows Komodo to often see deeper than any other engine, even if it is displaying a slightly lower search depth. The evaluation differs from its main rivals because it represents a blend of both automated tuning and the judgment of a grandmaster and computer expert (Larry Kaufman). Fully automated evaluations are subject to rather large sample error, and applying some chess judgment appears to be beneficial, both in results and in the reasonableness of reported evaluations.

Komodo is primarily known for superb positional play. Of course it also one of the the top few engines in tactical strength, but the programmers have not been willing to sacrifice positional play just to score better on tactical problem sets. All good engines are far stronger tactically than any human player, but that when positional judgment is involved, top grandmasters are still superior. Therefore it makes sense to emphasize positional play rather than tactical skill; it is better to improve one's weakest point rather than just to further improve the strongest feature.

Komodo is especially useful for opening analysis, because its grandmaster programmer has always made sure that the program's evaluations agree in general with accepted theory. Komodo also excels in the evaluation of positions with material imbalance, which it handles more correctly than other top engines. The endgame of Komodo has been improved by the use of Syzygy tablebases (not included), which provide only the most essential information to save time and memory.

Another unique feature of Komodo is its superior performance when using eight or more cores. There is little doubt that Komodo 8 will be the top rated commercial chess engine on most rating lists.

Komodo 8 engine can support up to 64 processor cores and 16 GB of hash memory The new Deep Fritz 64-bit program interface (+ 32 bit program interface) Online access to the world’s largest analysis database “Let’s Check”, with over 200 million extensively analyzed positions** Access to ChessBase engine cloud Premium membership to Playchess.com (6 months) Database with over 1.5 million games etc. System requirements:

Minimum:

Pentium III 1 GHz
2 GB RAM
Windows Vista, XP (Service Pack 3), 7/8
DirectX9
256 MB graphics card
DVD-ROM drive
Windows Media Player 9 and Internet access for program activation, access to Playchess.com, Let’s Check and program updates.

Recommended:

PC Intel i7 (Quadcore)
4 GB RAM
Windows 8.1
DirectX10
512 MB graphics card
100% DirectX10-compatible sound card
Windows Media Player 11
DVD-ROM drive
and Internet access for program activation, access to Playchess.com, Let's Check and program updates