Junior 10

Back

Junior 10 is the new 2006 Computer Chess World Champion. The program, written by the Israeli programmers Amir Ban and Shy Bushinsky, narrowly defeated its main rival, the many times world champion program Shredder, at the Computer Chess World Championship which was held during the Chess Olympiad in Turin, Italy. Junior impressed experts with its extraordinary dynamic play, and remained undefeated in this event. Junior 10 has its own special search techniques and evaluation functions, which makes it different to any other chess program. In the latest version we see the rigorous continuation of a development that started with Junior 7 and has led to a unique and creative playing style. It started with the famous bishop sacrifice on h2 in a match against Garry Kasparov and now has been honed to perfection in Version 10. In spite of their success in computer chess tournaments the programmers of Junior are not primarily concerned with beating other chess programs. Instead they have developed Junior into an instrument that enables human beings to gain new insights and understanding in the game of chess. A good example is the very pronounced understanding of compensation, which allows its users to explore new possibilities of sacrifice attacks and sharp dynamic play.