Chess-System-Tal is a UCI chess engine written in C++ by Chris Whittington and Ed Schröder.
Rating Chess Engines Diary CEDR=3635
Chess System Tal 2.06 what's new?
Chess System Tal 2.06 — public release. Self-contained Windows x64 builds (NNUE net embedded; just run the .exe). Two playing styles, each in AVX2 and AVX-512.
Elo-optimised (net E1019) — strongest play:
CSTal-2.06-E1019-AVX2.zip — runs on all modern x64 CPUs (AVX2).
CSTal-2.06-E1019-AVX512.zip — faster on AVX-512 CPUs (recent AMD Zen4+ / Intel); will not run without AVX-512.
Tal-style / EAS (net E1162) — sacrificial, attacking play (Stefan Pohl EAS metric):
CSTal-2.06-E1162-EAS-AVX2.zip — AVX2.
CSTal-2.06-E1162-EAS-AVX512.zip — AVX-512 only.
Pick AVX2 if unsure. All four embed their net — no separate files needed.
Experimental nets — for wild, sacrificial and crazy play (AVX2 only):
CSTal-2.06-EP36-ABSURD-AVX2.zip — plays wild, materially-reckless chess. UCI name Chess System Tal 2.06 EP36-ABSURD.
CSTal-2.06-EP417-EXTREME-AVX2.zip — plays purposeful and determined chess. UCI name Chess System Tal 2.06 EP417-EXTREME.
These builds sacrifice strength for a great style of play.
Upgrading from 2.05 in ChessBase / Fritz: ChessBase stores each engine under its UCI name, and 2.05 reported the same name (Chess System Tal 2.05) for both builds. Before adding 2.06, remove the old 2.05 engine entry (Engine → Create UCI engine list, or delete it from the installed-engines list). The 2.06 builds report distinct names (Chess System Tal 2.06 E1019 and Chess System Tal 2.06 E1162-EAS) and will then install cleanly as two separate engines.
Changes in 2.06
Each build now announces its own distinct name and embedded net: the UCI id name (and the startup banner) is Chess System Tal 2.06 E1019 for the Elo-optimised build and Chess System Tal 2.06 E1162-EAS for the Tal-style/EAS build. Previously both reported only Chess System Tal 2.05, so GUIs like ChessBase saw two identically-named engines and the user had to rename one by hand. (Reported by Peter Berger.) Also fixed a cosmetic doubled id author line.
Fixes Polyglot opening-book handling so that capture moves are played from the book. Previously the engine would play any quiet book move correctly but, whenever the book's move was a capture, silently fall back to searching the position instead. The book move is decoded without a capture flag and was being run through the strict move validator (which rejects a move that lands on an enemy piece but is not flagged as a capture); it is now validated with the raw-move validator (which derives the capture/en-passant/promotion flags from the board) and then re-checked for full legality. Non-capture moves are unaffected. (Reported by Peter Berger.)
Earlier fixes (2.02–2.05): short-FEN crash; illegal king-move / king-capture crash; release builds hardened (debug assertions stripped); UCI eval king-bucket / BuildPinData; EPD-load buffer overflow; cores/threads handling.
Acknowledgements — with thanks for the reports and the exact test cases that pinned them down:
Peter Berger — Polyglot book captures not being played, and the duplicate engine name (both downloads reporting the same UCI name); both fixed in 2.06.
Steve Maughan — the short-FEN crash fixed in 2.05: 5n2/B3K3/2p2Np1/4k3/7P/3bN1P1/2Prn1P1/1q6 w - -
Peter Marfan — the illegal king-move / king-capture crash fixed in 2.04, from a study by O. Pervakov & A. Stavrietsky: 4k2r/3Rp1p1/1Kp1P3/Pp1P2b1/4R3/P4P2/1p4q1/1Q5r w k - 0 1
Chess System Tal 2 vs. other engines:
| Ethereal 14.25 | 162.5/359 | -34 | 359 Games |
| RubiChess 20240112 | 114/235 | -7 | 235 Games |
| Berserk 13 | 97/234 | -40 | 234 Games |
| Seer 2.8.0 | 99.5/197 | +2 | 197 Games |
| Koivisto 9.2 | 85.5/151 | +20 | 151 Games |
| Alexandria 7.0.0 | 60/143 | -23 | 143 Games |
| RofChade 3.1 | 71.5/140 | +3 | 140 Games |
| Obsidian 13.0 | 52.5/121 | -16 | 121 Games |
| PlentyChess 3.0.0 | 52/121 | -17 | 121 Games |
| Uralochka 3.41a JA | 57.5/116 | -1 | 116 Games |
| Caissa 1.18 | 49/105 | -7 | 105 Games |
| Titan 1.1.0 | 52/104 | +0 | 104 Games |
| Rebel 16.3 | 51/99 | +3 | 99 Games |
| Dragon 3.3 | 38/97 | -21 | 97 Games |
| Berserk 12.1 | 37.5/96 | -21 | 96 Games |
| Obsidian 12.0 | 38/88 | -12 | 88 Games |
| RubiChess 20230918 | 40.5/86 | -5 | 86 Games |
| Clover 6.1 | 45/85 | +5 | 85 Games |
| PlentyChess 1.0.0 | 37/84 | -10 | 84 Games |
| Revenge 3.0 | 42.5/78 | +7 | 78 Games |
| Igel 3.5.0 | 42/78 | +6 | 78 Games |
| Caissa 1.20 | 31/77 | -15 | 77 Games |
| Titan 1.0.0 | 35/68 | +2 | 68 Games |
| RubiChess 20240817 | 28.5/68 | -11 | 68 Games |
| Alexandria 6.1.0 | 31/67 | -5 | 67 Games |
| Uralochka 3.40a | 32/64 | +0 | 64 Games |
| Peacekeeper 3.01 | 31/59 | +3 | 59 Games |
| Lizard 10.5 | 27.5/59 | -4 | 59 Games |
| Stormphrax 4.0.0 | 37.5/56 | +19 | 56 Games |
| Rebel EAS | 28/56 | +0 | 56 Games |
| Motor 0.7.0 | 25.5/53 | -2 | 53 Games |
| Clover 6.1.19 | 27/52 | +2 | 52 Games |
| Caissa 1.19 | 23/52 | -6 | 52 Games |
| Uralochka 3.41 dev3 | 26/51 | +1 | 51 Games |
| Clover 6.2 | 26/50 | +2 | 50 Games |
| Starzix 6.0 | 24.5/50 | -1 | 50 Games |
| Viridithas 12.0.0 | 26/47 | +5 | 47 Games |
| Arasan 24.0 | 27/46 | +8 | 46 Games |
| Uralochka 3.41 dev1 | 26/46 | +6 | 46 Games |
| Caissa 1.21 | 19.5/46 | -7 | 46 Games |
| Stormphrax 6.0.0 | 18/46 | -10 | 46 Games |
| Lizard 10.4 | 22/44 | +0 | 44 Games |
| Velvet 7.3.0 | 25/42 | +8 | 42 Games |
| Viridithas 13.0.0 | 22.5/42 | +3 | 42 Games |
| Obsidian 10.0 | 21/42 | +0 | 42 Games |
| Caissa 1.16 | 21/42 | +0 | 42 Games |
| Viridithas 14.0.0 | 21.5/41 | +2 | 41 Games |
| Booot 7.2 | 25.5/40 | +11 | 40 Games |
| Viridithas 11.0.0 | 24.5/40 | +9 | 40 Games |
| Clover 6.0 | 23.5/40 | +7 | 40 Games |
| Alexander 1.3 | 23.5/38 | +9 | 38 Games |
| Slowchess 2.9 | 22.5/38 | +7 | 38 Games |
| Clover 6.1.2.4 JA | 21.5/38 | +5 | 38 Games |
| Velvet 8.1.1 JA | 19/38 | +0 | 38 Games |
| Velvet 8.0.0 | 18.5/38 | -1 | 38 Games |
| Motor 0.8.0 JA | 18/38 | -2 | 38 Games |
| Seer 2.7.0 | 19.5/36 | +3 | 36 Games |
| Obsidian 9.0 | 19/36 | +2 | 36 Games |
| Vafra 14.12.1 Stockfish | 18/36 | +0 | 36 Games |
| Clover 7.0 JA | 16/36 | -4 | 36 Games |
| Stormphrax 1.0.0 | 21.5/35 | +8 | 35 Games |
| Rebel 16.2 | 18.5/34 | +3 | 34 Games |
| Alexandria 5.1.0 | 17/32 | +2 | 32 Games |
| Caissa 1.17 | 12.5/32 | -7 | 32 Games |
| Fritz 19 | 21/30 | +12 | 30 Games |
| Akimbo 1.0.0 | 19/30 | +8 | 30 Games |
| Minic 3.41 | 19/30 | +8 | 30 Games |
| Black Marlin 9.0 | 18/30 | +6 | 30 Games |
| Caissa 1.13.1 | 17.5/30 | +5 | 30 Games |
| Viridithas 15.0.0 | 14/30 | -2 | 30 Games |
| Obsidian 12.29 | 11/30 | -8 | 30 Games |
| Clover 7.1 JA | 15/29 | +1 | 29 Games |
| Carp 3.0.1 | 19.5/28 | +11 | 28 Games |
| Starzix 5.0 | 13.5/28 | -1 | 28 Games |
| Clover 8.1 JA | 12/28 | -4 | 28 Games |
| Booot 7.3 | 16.5/26 | +7 | 26 Games |
| Caissa 1.15 | 12.5/26 | -1 | 26 Games |
| Clover 8.0.1 | 12.5/26 | -1 | 26 Games |
| Alexandria 7.1.0 | 10/26 | -6 | 26 Games |
| Peacekeeper 3.00 | 14/24 | +4 | 24 Games |
| Lizard 11.2 | 9.5/24 | -5 | 24 Games |
| Patricia 3.1 | 21/23 | +19 | 23 Games |
| Altair 7.0.3 | 15/23 | +7 | 23 Games |
| Texel 1.11 | 15.5/22 | +9 | 22 Games |
| Alexandria 5.0.0 | 11.5/22 | +1 | 22 Games |
| Obsidian 11.0 | 10.5/22 | -1 | 22 Games |
| Lizard 11.1 | 9.5/22 | -3 | 22 Games |
| Integral v6 | 9/22 | -4 | 22 Games |
| SugaR AI SE | 7.5/22 | -7 | 22 Games |
| Willow 4.0 | 15.5/20 | +11 | 20 Games |
Chess System Tal 2.06 download
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