It's no surprise that Stockfish continued its dominance in the Computer Chess Championship format as the champion engine picked up another tournament first place. Perhaps the bigger story from the Rapid Redux, however, is the emergence of an updated Lc0 as the clear runner-up and most serious threat to the reign of the fish.

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Lc0, a machine-learning chess engine, was updated with its latest neural networks, and the improvement showed in the finals of the Rapid Redux.

While Stockfish was in its customary first place (it has never lost a Chess.com computer event) with 82.5 points out of 144 in the finals, Lc0 was 9.5 points back in second.

Komodo won the bronze medal with 70 points, and Houdini was left behind in fourth place on 62.5.

Standings:

Full PGN:

Sample games:

This endgame from Lc0 might be beyond the comprehension of both humans and traditional chess engines. The machine-learning engine Lc0 squeezes a win out of the depths of its neural network.

The tournament winner Stockfish dismantled Komodo in an open Sicilian by quickly winning a bishop via a nifty fork.

Next up—bonus games and bullet:

As a treat for fans of the top two engines, the bonus games of CCC 3 pit the "Antifish" version of Lc0 vs the champion Stockfish. The Antifish neural network has been trained "with the sole purpose of beating Stockfish," according to the development forum.

"In theory, it should be possible to produce a neural network that beats Stockfish by a considerable amount as the network will attempt to specifically target holes and weaknesses within Stockfish's evaluation," wrote the Lc0 developer "Csuile."

Can this targeted version of Lc0 catch Stockfish? Watch the bonus games to find out.

The bonus games are already in progress at www.Chess.com/CCC and the format is as follows:

32 games of 20 + 2 rapid

64 games of 10 + 2 blitz

116 games of 5 + 2 blitz

300 games of 1 + 1 bullet

After the conclusion of the Stockfish vs Lc0 (Antifish) grudge match, the Computer Chess Championship will move on to its first all-bullet format.

CCC 4: Bullet Brawl participants:

The top eight engines from CCC 3 stage one will play the CCC 4: Bullet Brawl:

1. Stockfish

2. Houdini

3. Komodo

4. Lc0

5. Ethereal

6. Fire

7. Komodo MC

8. Andscacs

CCC 4: Bullet Brawl format:

Time control: one minute + two-second increment bullet

One stage only

20x round-robin

560 games

Endgame tablebases on, including 7-man TB where supported

Adjudication: 50-move rule, repetition, and insufficient material draws. TB draws after move 100. No eval adjudication, "speed up" one-sided games

Expected duration: 3 days at 80 moves/game

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Are you ready for some bullet chess in CCC 4? Let us know in the comments.