Vorlage:Infobox software Komodo is a UCI chess engine developed by Don Dailey, Mark Lefler, and supported by chess author and evaluation expert, Larry Kaufman. Komodo is a commercial chess engine but older versions (5.0 and older) are free for non-commercial use. It is consistently rated in the top three on most major chess engine rating lists.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Komodo was derived from Don Dailey's former engine Doch in January 2010.^[6] The first multiprocessor version of Komodo was released in June 2013 as Komodo 5.1 MP.^[7] This version was a major rewrite and a port of Komodo to C++11. A single-processor version of Komodo (which won the CCT15 tournament in February earlier that year) was released as a stand-alone product shortly before the 5.1 MP release. This version, named Komodo CCT, was still based on the older C code, and was approximately 30 Elo stronger than the 5.1 MP version, as the latter was still undergoing massive code-cleanup work.^[8]

With the release of Komodo 6 on 4 October 2013, Don Dailey announced that he is suffering from an acute form of leukemia, and will no longer contribute to the future development of Komodo.^[9] On October 8, Don made an announcement on the Talkchess forum that Mark Lefler would be joining the Komodo team and would continue its development.^[10]

Komodo is a very strong chess engine that is consistently rated in the top three on most major chess engine rating lists. It heavily relies on search and evaluation rather than depth and scaling, and thus has a distinctive positional style. Its forte is to play when there is nothing to play.^[11] Komodo author Don Dailey described it as such: "In positions that most engines would likely struggle or find it impossible to make progress, Komodo quietly prepares a break and ends up with the victory."^[12]

Komodo has played in the ICT 2010 in Leiden, and further in the CCT12 and CCT14. Komodo had its first tournament success in 2013, when it won the CCT15 with a score of 6½/7.^[13] Komodo also fared very well in the nTCEC competition, where in Season 1, it lost only eight out of its 53 games and managed to reach Stage 4 (Quarterfinals), against very strong competition which were running on eight cores (Komodo was running on a single processor).^[14] In nTCEC Season 2, it won the superfinal against Stockfish.

Vorlage:Chess diagram small

• Komodo vs Hannibal, nTCEC - Stage 2b - Season 1, Round 4.1, ECO: A10, 1–0 Komodo sacrifices an exchange for positional gain.^[15]
• Gull vs Komodo, nTCEC - Stage 3 - Season 2, Round 2.2, ECO: E10, 0–1^[15][16]

Vorlage:Reflist

• Official website

1. ↑ CCRL 40/40 Rating List — All engines (best versions only). computerchess.org.uk, abgerufen am 25. Oktober 2013. 
2. ↑ IPON Rating List. inwoba.de, abgerufen am 25. Oktober 2013. 
3. ↑ SWCR chess engine ratings list. amateurschach.de, abgerufen am 25. Oktober 2013. 
4. ↑ CEGT Best Versions. husvankempen.de, abgerufen am 25. Oktober 2013. 
5. ↑ CCRL 40/4 Rating List. CCRL, abgerufen am 25. Oktober 2013. 
6. ↑ Don Dailey: Komodo 1.0 JA by Don Dailey available. Abgerufen am 25. Oktober 2013. 
7. ↑ Don Dailey: Komodo 5.1 MP has been released. Abgerufen am 25. Oktober 2013. 
8. ↑ Don Dailey: Komodo CCT. Abgerufen am 25. Oktober 2013. 
9. ↑ Don Dailey: Komodo release. Abgerufen am 25. Oktober 2013. 
10. ↑ Don Dailey: Who is Don/Larry's new partner!? Abgerufen am 25. Oktober 2013. 
11. ↑ Om Prakash: Hope for the new Komodo! Abgerufen am 25. Oktober 2013. 
12. ↑ Don Dailey: Quiet game. Abgerufen am 25. Oktober 2013. 
13. ↑ Peter Skinner: CCT15 - Results. Abgerufen am 25. Oktober 2013. 
14. ↑ Komodo - Performance. Abgerufen am 25. Oktober 2013. 
15. ↑ ^{a b} Interesting Games from Season 2. Archiviert vom Original am 25. Oktober 2013; abgerufen am 25. Oktober 2013. 
16. ↑ Franklin Chen: The computer plays the exchange sacrifice. Abgerufen am 26. Oktober 2013.