Shredder is a commercial chess program developed in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 by Stefan Meyer-Kahlen

Stefan Meyer-Kahlen

Stefan Meyer-Kahlen is a German programmer of the computer chess program Shredder. , his program had won 12 titles as World Computer Chess Champion. Four of the titles were blitz championships, and one was a Chess960 championship. Shredder 10 has a rating of 2824 on the November 3, 2007 SSDF...

 in 1993. Shredder won the World Microcomputer Chess Championship in 1996 and 2000, the World Computer Chess Championship

World Computer Chess Championship

World Computer Chess Championship is an annual event where computer chess engines compete against each other. The event is organized by the International Computer Games Association...

 in 1999 and 2003, the World Computer Speed Chess Championship

World Computer Speed Chess Championship

World Computer Speed Chess Championship is an annual event where computer chess engines compete against each other at blitz chess time controls. It is held in conjunction with the World Computer Chess Championship...

 in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2007, and the World Chess Software Championship in 2010.

On the January 24, 2007 CEGT rating list, Deep Shredder 10.0 placed fifth, with a rating

Elo rating system

The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in two-player games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-born American physics professor....

 of 2855 — 5 points below LoopMp, 22 points below Deep Fritz 10, and 160 points below #1 ranked Rybka

Rybka

Rybka is a computer chess engine designed by International Master Vasik Rajlich. , Rybka is one of the top-rated engines on chess engine rating lists and has won many computer chess tournaments...

 2.1, which had a rating of 3015.

Version 10.0 was released in June 2006. Version 11.0 was released in October 2007. Version 12 was released in January 2010. The "Deep" version takes advantage of multiple CPUs or multiple core CPUs.

Awards

Shredder has won a number of computer chess tournaments since its inception:

Year	Location	Title
1996	Jakarta Jakarta Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...	Micro Computer World Champion
1999	Paderborn Paderborn Paderborn is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pader, which originates in more than 200 springs near Paderborn Cathedral, where St. Liborius is buried.-History:...	Micro Computer World Champion
		Computer Chess World Champion
2000	London London London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...	Micro Computer World Champion
2001	Maastricht Maastricht Maastricht is situated on both sides of the Meuse river in the south-eastern part of the Netherlands, on the Belgian border and near the German border...	Micro Computer World Champion Single CPU
2002		Blitz World Champion
2003	Graz Graz The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...	Computer Chess World Champion
		Blitz World Champion
2004	Tel Aviv Tel Aviv Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...	Blitz World Champion
2005	Reykjavík Reykjavík Reykjavík is the capital and largest city in Iceland.Its latitude at 64°08' N makes it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói Bay...	Blitz World Champion
2006	Mainz Mainz Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...	Chess960 World Champion
2007	Amsterdam Amsterdam Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...	Blitz World Champion
2010	Kanazawa Kanazawa, Ishikawa is the capital city of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan.-Geography, climate, and population:Kanazawa sits on the Sea of Japan, bordered by the Japan Alps, Hakusan National Park and Noto Peninsula National Park. The city sits between the Sai and Asano rivers. Its total area is 467.77 km².Kanazawa's...	Chess Software World Champion

Platforms

Shredder is one of the few commercial chess programs which is available not only for Windows and Mac OS, but also for Linux. Shredder is also available on the iPhone, the iPad and Android.

Sample game

The following game was played between Shredder (playing as Black) and List at the 2003 World Computer Chess Championship

World Computer Chess Championship

World Computer Chess Championship is an annual event where computer chess engines compete against each other. The event is organized by the International Computer Games Association...

. Shredder sacrifices

Sacrifice (chess)

In chess, a sacrifice is a move giving up a piece in the hopes of gaining tactical or positional compensation in other forms. A sacrifice could also be a deliberate exchange of a chess piece of higher value for an opponent's piece of lower value....

 a piece

Chess piece

Chess pieces or chessmen are the pieces deployed on a chessboard to play the game of chess. The pieces vary in abilities, giving them different values in the game...

 in exchange for a strong initiative

Initiative (chess)

Initiative in a chess position belongs to the player who can make threats that cannot be ignored. He thus puts his opponent in the position of having to use his turns responding to threats rather than making his own. A player with the initiative will often seek to maneuver his pieces into more and...

in a position too complex for the computer to calculate to the end.

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4 Nc6 5.Qa4 Bc5 6.Nb5 Nf6 7.e5 Nxe5 8.Bf4 Nfg4 9.Nh3 f6 10.Be2 h5 11.Bxg4 hxg4 12.Bxe5 fxe5 13.Qxg4 O-O 14.O-O-O d5 15.Rhf1 Bd7 16.Nc3 Rc8 17.Kb1 Bd4 18.Ne2 Bxb2 19.Kxb2 Qb6+ 20.Kc1 Qa6 21.Rd2 Rc4 22.Qg6 Be8 23.Qd3 Qxa2 24.Kd1 Qa1+ 25.Nc1 Ba4 26.Qg6 Rf6 27.Qg5 Rf5 28.Qe3 Qb2 29.Qe2 e4 30.f4 e3 31.Qxe3 Bxc2+ 32.Ke2 Re4 0-1

External links

• Shredder home page
• Review of Shredder for Linux