Availability
Chess-playing computers are now accessible to the average consumer. From the mid-70's to the present day, dedicated chess computers have been available for purchase. There are many chess engines such as Crafty, Fruit and GNU Chess that can be downloaded from the Internet for free. These engines are able to play a game that, when run on an up-to-date personal computer, can defeat most master players under tournament conditions. Top programs such as the Proprietary software programs Shredder or Fritz or the open source program Stockfish have surpassed even world champion caliber players at blitz and short time controls. In October 2008 Rybka was rated top in the CCRL, CEGT, CSS, SSDF, and WBEC rating lists and has won many recent official computer chess tournaments such as CCT 8 and 9, the 2006 Dutch Open Computer Championship, the 16th IPCCC, and the 15th World Computer Chess Championship. As of October 17, 2012, Houdini is the top rated chess program on the IPON rating list with Rybka in fifth place.
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