Which Is The Best Chess Engine In The World

You can find chess engines everywhere, and serious players will almost certainly use chess computers in their studies.

When we ask who the greatest chess player is of all time, we've narrowed it down to three big heads: Garry Kasparov, Magnus Carlson, and Bobby Fischer. However, when it comes to electronic chess, Stockfish is almost unanimously regarded as the best chess engine in the world. 

In a world that seems to run on capitalism, open-source chess machines and tools have been a dominant force in the development of chess AI. And Stockfish is an example of that.

But the most competitive engines, according to the Top Chess Engine Championship, tend to be open source, too. So let's learn about the best chess engines and electronic chess tools in the world.

Neural Nets in Chess Machines

One thing you'll hear about throughout this blog post is a neural net. In short, a neural network, or neural net for short, is a type of AI that can train itself without human intervention. 

It dramatically changes the development of electronic chess. Neural Nets use interconnected nodes, or "neurons," to mimic the process of human thought. It also uses pattern recognition and decision-making, "learning" like a human would.

Over the decades, chess engines first relied on hard-coded versions of AI. This means actual humans had to input information to "teach" the computer. But today, almost all top chess engines use a neural network.

In particular, they use Efficiently Updatable Neural Networks, or NNUEs. This refers to neural networks whose inputs are pieces on boards. Shogi and Go, for instance, also use NNUEs.

Related: DGT Pegasus Chess Board

Using the Top Chess Engine Championship Results

Computer chess competitions pit chess engines against each other to determine which is strongest. They provide chess players with the opportunity to study highly accurate chess games. They also allow chess programmers to gather valuable insight to develop chess AI.

There are several computer chess competitions. But the Top Chess Engine Championship (TCEC) is the most popular. Chess machines are continually improving, and TCEC competitions are ongoing constantly. So we will rely on TCEC results to guide this blog post.

The Best Five Chess Engines (As of Cup 15 of TCEC)

We will refer to the most recent results from the TCEC, Cup 15, which concluded in June 2025, to gain insight into which chess engines are currently the best.

1. Stockfish

So Stockfish has ranked #1 in the most recently concluded TCEC. It has also won the most TCEC events overall. According to the July 25, 2025 Computer Chess Rating List (CCRL), Stockfish is the highest rated chess engine in the world, with an ELO of 3644.

Stockfish originated from an open-source chess engine called Glaurung, created by Tord Romstad. It was first released in 2004. Then, a different developer, Marco Costalba, took over in 2008 and renamed it Stockfish because it was "produced in Norway and cooked in Italy." Stockfish introduced its NNUE in 2020 and transitioned fully to NNUE in 2023.

Stockfish is also simply loved by many chess players. Any of the engines covered here would benefit any player, but "Stockfish" is almost interchangeable with the word "chess engine."

2. LCZero

Leela Chess Zero, or LCZero, is an open source neural network chess engine inspired by DeepMind's AlphaZero project. AlphaZero had its heyday in 2017 when it beat Stockfish. But AlphaZero is proprietary and has never been available for public use.

The creators of Leela boast its understanding of long-term strategy, pawn structures, and quiet moves. More than any other chess machine, LCZero is the runner-up most frequently behind Stockfish in the TCEC. It has also won two seasons of the competition.

With an ELO of 3443, it ranks 69th in the CCRL, which is still over 600 points higher than Magnus Carlsen.

3. Berserk

Berserk was created by Jay Honnold in February 2021 and was influenced by Stockfish, Ethereal, and Koivisto, to name a few. In March 2021, Berserk 6 was the first version to feature a NNUE evaluation.

ELO ranking-wise, it is currently tied for 8th place at 3615 points.

4. Obsidian

Obsidian has the third highest ELO of any engine at 3631 points. The open source engine was created by Gabriele Lomdardo, who first started developing it in 2023. He is currently 17 years old and is the youngest author to have ever participated in the TCEC, an incredible accomplishment that resulted in a competitive engine. The engine uses a neural network trained on LCZero data to evaluate positions.

5.Plentychess

Plentychess ranks in fifth place in ELO with 3623 points. It uses a NNUE and is trained on 4.8 billion self-generated chess positions.

Plentychess and Obsidian are both dramatically smaller undertakings than Stockfish or LCZero. However, it speaks to the ingenuity of chess developers that they're able to compete with the best engines when pitted against each other.

Other Big Names: Komodo Dragon and Ethereal

Komodo Dragon placed 6th in the most recent TCEC. Don Dailey first developed the engine in 2010, and Mark Lefler further developed it in 2013. Komodo was acquired by Chess.com in 2018, marking the release of the Monte Carlo version of the engine. This version selects moves based on win probabilities, similar to LCZero's methodology.

In 2020, Komodo released Dragon, which added NNUE, also inspired by LCZero.

Today, it ranks in 4th place for the highest ELO at 3625 points. It has also won TCEC on three different seasons.

Ethereal placed 7th in the most recent season of TCEC. It has the 18th highest ELO of 3598.'

Ethereal was first officially released in June 2016 by Andrew Grant, and a version with NNUE was released in 2020.

What About Torch?

For several reasons, not every serious electronic chess tool will qualify for the TCEC. Torch is one of those engines.

Torch is Chess.com's closed-source chess engine, first unveiled in 2023 after being the Mystery Engine at CCCC, ranking #2. The developers behind Torch have been involved in the development of other major chess machines. The development team includes:

• Ethereal author Andrew Grant
• Berserk author Jay Honnold
• Dragon authors Michael Whiteley & Dietrich Kappe
• Koivisto authors Finn Enggers and Kim Kahre

The developers used open-source resources to develop the engine, but claim the entire source code of Torch is original. 

With that said, Chess.com has never released Torch to the public as a standalone chess engine. It has, however, been available in the analysis mode on Chess.com and utilized neural networks.

Final Thoughts: The Best Chess Engine

It's no surprise, then, that Stockfish takes the cake as the best chess engine. However, as electronic chess and open-source tools continue to evolve, they will become even stronger and more valuable resources for us players.

Perhaps one day an engine will surpass Stockfish's top spot.

FAQ: The Best Chess Engines