Editing Chess engine (section)

==History==
{{main|History of chess engines}}
The meaning of the term "chess engine" has evolved over time.  In 1986, Linda and Tony Scherzer entered their program Bebe into the 4th [[World Computer Chess Championship]], running it on "Chess Engine," their brand name for the chess computer hardware<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.game-ai-forum.org/icga-tournaments/tournament.php?id=65|title=4th World Computer Chess Championship - New York 1983 (ICGA Tournaments)|website=Game-ai-forum.org|access-date=2018-12-02|archive-date=2018-12-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181202155211/https://www.game-ai-forum.org/icga-tournaments/tournament.php?id=65|url-status=dead}}</ref> made, and marketed by their company Sys-10, Inc.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sys-10.com/|title=New SYS-10|website=Sys-10.com|access-date=26 June 2022|archive-date=1 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220701051917/http://sys-10.com/|url-status=live}}</ref>  By 1990 the developers of [[Deep Blue (chess computer)|Deep Blue]], [[Feng-hsiung Hsu]] and [[Murray Campbell]], were writing of giving their program a 'searching engine,' apparently referring to the software rather than the hardware.<ref>Feng-hsiung Hsu, Thomas Anantharaman, Murray Campbell and Andreas Nowatzyk. "A Grandmaster Chess Machine." ''Scientific American.'' October 1990.</ref>  In December 1991, ''Computer-schach & Spiele'' referred to [[Chessbase]]'s recently released [[Fritz (chess)|Fritz]] as a 'Schach-motor,' the German translation for 'chess engine.'<ref>Computer-schach & Spiele would later start using the English word 'engine,' eg. 1997#6 when describing Fritz or [[Hiarcs]].</ref>  By early 1993, Marty Hirsch was drawing a distinction between commercial chess programs such as ''[[Chessmaster]] 3000'' or ''[[Battle Chess]]'' on the one hand, and 'chess engines' such as ''[[ChessGenius]]'' or his own ''[[MChess Pro]]'' on the other.  In his characterization, commercial chess programs were low in price, had fancy graphics, but did not place high on the SSDF ([[Swedish Chess Computer Association]]) rating lists while engines were more expensive, and did have high ratings.<ref>"The True Value of Chess Software." ''Computer Chess Reports.'' 1992-3. vol. 3 no. 2 p. 22</ref>

In 1994, Shay Bushinsky was working on an early version of his ''[[Junior (chess program)|Junior]]'' program.  He wanted to focus on the chess playing part rather than the graphics, and so asked Tim Mann how he could get ''Junior'' to communicate with ''[[Winboard]].''  Tim's answer formed the basis for what became known as the Chess Engine Communication Protocol or Winboard engines, originally a subset of the [[GNU Chess]] command line interface.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://tim-mann.org/history.html|title=XBoard Project History|website=Tim-mann.org|access-date=2018-11-29|archive-date=2018-11-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181130071440/http://tim-mann.org/history.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Also in 1994, Stephen J. Edwards released the [[Portable Game Notation]] (PGN) specification.  It mentions PGN reading programs not needing to have a "full chess engine."  It also mentions three "graphical user interfaces" (GUI): [[XBoard]], pgnRead and Slappy the database.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thechessdrum.net/PGN_Reference.txt|format=TXT|title=Standard: Portable Game Notation Specification and Implementation Guide|website=Thechessdrum.net|access-date=2022-06-26|archive-date=2007-08-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070822185456/http://www.thechessdrum.net/PGN_Reference.txt|url-status=live}}</ref>

By the mid-2000s, engines had become so strong that they were able to beat even the best human players. Except for entertainment purposes, especially using engines with limited strength, matches between humans and engines are now rare; engines are increasingly regarded as tools for analysis rather than as opponents.