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Original author(s)
Gian-Carlo Pascutto, Gary Linscott
Developer(s)
Gary Linscott, Alexander Lyashuk, Folkert Huizinga, others
Initial release
9 January 2018; 6 years ago (2018-01-09)
Stable release
v0.30
/ 21 July 2023; 9 months ago (2023-07-21)
Repository
github.com/LeelaChessZero/lc0
Written in
C++
Operating system
Windows, Mac, Linux, Ubuntu, Android
Type
Chess engine
License
GPL-3.0-or-later
Website
lczero.org
This article is part of the series on
Chess programming
Board representations
0x88
Bitboards
Evaluation functions
Deep neural networks (Transformers)
Attention
Efficiently updatable neural networks
Handcrafted evaluation functions
Piece-square tables
Reinforcement learning
Stochastic gradient descent
Supervised learning
Texel tuning
Unsupervised learning
Graph and tree search algorithms
Minimax
Alpha-beta pruning
Principal variation search
Quiescence search
Monte Carlo tree search
Chess computers
Belle
ChessMachine
ChipTest
Cray Blitz
Deep Blue
Deep Thought
HiTech
Hydra
Mephisto
Saitek
Chess engines
AlphaZero
Chess Tiger
Crafty
CuckooChess
Deep Fritz
Dragon by Komodo Chess
Fairy-Max
Fritz
Fruit
GNU Chess
HIARCS
Houdini
Ikarus
Junior
KnightCap
Komodo
Leela Chess Zero
MChess Pro
Mittens
MuZero
Naum
REBEL
Rybka
Shredder
Sjeng
SmarThink
Stockfish
Torch
Turochamp
Zappa
v
t
e
Leela Chess Zero (abbreviated as LCZero, lc0) is a free, open-source, and deep neural network–based chess engine and volunteer computing project. Development has been spearheaded by programmer Gary Linscott, who is also a developer for the Stockfish chess engine. Leela Chess Zero was adapted from the Leela Zero Go engine,[1] which in turn was based on Google's AlphaGo Zero project.[2] One of the purposes of Leela Chess Zero was to verify the methods in the AlphaZero paper as applied to the game of chess.
Like Leela Zero and AlphaGo Zero, Leela Chess Zero starts with no intrinsic chess-specific knowledge other than the basic rules of the game.[1] Leela Chess Zero then learns how to play chess by reinforcement learning from repeated self-play, using a distributed computing network coordinated at the Leela Chess Zero website.
As of April 2024[update], Leela Chess Zero has played over 2.5 billion games against itself, playing around 1 million games every day,[3] and is capable of play at a level that is comparable with Stockfish, the leading conventional chess program.[4][5]
^ ab"Leela Chess Zero: Full Elo Graph". Lczero.org. 7 March 2019. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
^"leela-zero". GitHub. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
^"LCZero". lczero.org. Retrieved 2022-01-13.
^"Lc0 Wins Computer Chess Championship, Makes History". Chess.com. Retrieved 2019-05-29.
^Pete (pete) (24 May 2019). "Stockfish Strikes Back, Tops Lc0 In Computer Chess Championship". Chess.com. Retrieved 2019-05-29.
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