Last Update: 18.03.2026 (the notes in dark red are latest)
Hello  Chess Friends,
1st of all, let me start please with these notes;Sometimes I compare the openings to airplanes; cars; animal-drawn carriages etc...And ultimately depending on conditions; they all have different strength; advantages,Disadvantages... and to give a specific example on this subject; Ferrari gets stuck in Beach sand, pulled out by Bullock cart (as shown in above tour logo) so when we're Going to compare the performance of openings, actually even if we will compare theLatest NNUE 3800+ engines...there are some similarities with the tour logo.. right?)
To be more clear, as players are created books, which prefer various opening lines...All books are BIN and their deep lines are untouched (it's meaning non hand-tuned).Almost all books are quite new, belonging to Top eng games, mainly of 2025 - 2026.Exception, SSDF, Oliprog and FGRL books, they are based on older period of time.Btw, CCC not created, due to latest Top eng games by Chess.com are not available.
Yes, and as usual, I am pleased to announce that,SCCT book is on Top again and again, with best performance! Tuned to prefer various Opening lines, which are played by Balsa and Perfect book series..sure as alternative,I realized to include Perfect X, and a newer Balsa ver. based on av. 3500+ Elo games.About other rest books: SSDF, Oliprog, Unique, CEDR etc are performed with so high Points too! even Depth4 performed surprisingly better, due in other 3700 - 3800 tours, It was at one of the last (worst) ranks...sure I can be wrong here, but it seems to me,If playing vs much critical and weak openings books; it's easier to gain better points !!Btw, there are many other stronger deep trend books, which are almost unbeatable! More precisely, the well-tuned books are just amazing, as beautiful dream, although For someones, they might be the complete opposite, rather as nightmare for sure !)But they are not included, due to theirs opening repertoire are quite limited in variety.
About CEGT, CCRL, FGRL; their opening performances are not great, but not so bad.Mwyoung = based on new eng games, shared by Mark. Btw, finely I found his games On Prodeo forum, anyhow I'm surprised that Mark's openings are not on Top. due toHe's since 1980s in chess, and 'Number One' when it comes to praising himself or in Belittling.others or he applies double standard via not sharing games on Openchess!
Continuing...
ETOC-G is a book which is based on latest tour games, organized by Frank Quisinsky.And as we see Frank's used openings suffer..likely they're not so strong or well-built!?Sure TCEC book's openings suffer a lot too...it's clear that they are not so strong too!About famous SPCC openings (UHO), no surprise that again in one of the last places!Therefore STS (by Ed Schroder, who uses UHO too.) performed with 'poor' points too..Actually IJCCRL (by Jorge Centalles tours games) points are bad, who uses UHO too.Plus 'poor' points comes by GBSelect, based on latest tour games by Graham Banks.
In summary about eng openings, one thing is certain too; you reap what you sow!Apparently, some are afraid of or hesitant about looking at 'beauty' and 'strength'!However, the good news is that, it's never too late to feel, to touch the real power!
On the other hand,Sure anyone is free..anyhow I disagree that all engines should be forced always viaUnusual, critical, weak human lines! What about in case of using better, stronger..?!  More draws ?) but sounds much logical to 'win' to 'draw' than being 'defeated' right?Focusing on 'quality' than 'quantity' is wiser too! and please correct me if I'm wrong...
Moreover, if the target is to determine the real chess engine's power and strength,With critical, terrible and weak lines.. it's required many many thousands of gamesPer player, while in case of quality, strong openings; about 1000+ games enough! What I can add more?Because we, as human beings, naturally tend to value our own work.. Moreover, notMany love to talk about own shortcomings..but non of us is perfect, and we all make Mistakes..the important thing is not to repeat the same mistake.. and to learn from it,If not, no way to achieve our BIG dreams..no matter what, we have to focus on smallImprovements than doing nothing or if nothing else, do not make it worse..,because  Since NNUE..there are plenty of strange news..just ask, and I will be glad to inform,Speaking...if handicapped tours, mostly latest NNUE 3800+ Elo ones are worse! orIn analyzing...or testing via strong opening etc. the improvements are almost dead!I wonder simply why? and what's going on? but not many can explain about all over..
And now as other good examples about 3800+ (similar as Ferrari suck in the beach);Nowadays to improve significant Elo via strong openings.. like there is HUGE barrier! Therefore many programmers are hopeless, and forced to worse, critical weak lines!But naturally, we (humans) must focus on stronger lines / moves..if not..just useless!
Imagine again...(if still not so clear, and I refer again over 3800+ Elo chess engines);There is improvement works in a megalopolis city, where the road general manager;Instead of main / popular roads..he pays attention on repairing those roads that notMany use/care..maybe due the tenders of non-important roads are more attractive ?)But what makes the city more 'valuable' are roads used most often, not rarely ones!
Btw, there's a great proverb that says; "The best way is the way you know" means; No doubt too that using methods one has experience with will yield less risky and More successful results, rather than venturing into unfamiliar paths in one's work. Because generally, getting lost on unknown paths carries a high risk...God forbid!In other words, sooner or later, their used 'path' they're taking leads to a dead end. Yes.. that's the current situation of 3800+ or with ones who always use the critical,Weak, terrible openings, and I hope it was so clear with my all enlighten examples..
As last words, Now I especially want to address it to the the younger eng programmer generation;3800+ Elo strong improvement is like Ferrari is stuck in beach sand (as in tour logo).Or many of the critical, weak openings are like stuck in the beach sand too, anyhowIn this difficult struggle, it might seem 'fun' to choose the easy way via using/testingWeak lines but in our serious chess world; it's definitely not! at least not for my side,Yes...everything is in your hands, don't give up on the good, just because it's hard! Besides, it is a high quality of having great worth to overcome the most difficulties!
     Leader of Unofficial VI: SCCT, which is based on various Balsa, Perfect books!
Rank Name        Elo    +    - games score oppo. draws    1 SCCT       3501   11   11  1020   53%  3479   69%    2 Balsa      3498   11   11  1020   53%  3480   69%    3 Perfect X  3497   11   11  1020   53%  3480   70%    4 SSDF       3496   11   11  1020   52%  3480   71%    5 Oliprog    3494   11   11  1020   52%  3480   69%    6 Unique     3493   11   11  1020   52%  3480   67%    7 CEDR       3491   11   11  1020   52%  3480   71%    8 Depth4     3483   11   11  1020   50%  3481   70%    9 CCRL       3475   11   11  1020   49%  3481   67%   10 CEGT       3475   11   11  1020   49%  3481   67%   11 FGRL       3475   11   11  1020   49%  3481   71%   12 Mwyoung    3474   11   11  1020   49%  3481   72%   13 ETOC-G     3473   11   11  1020   49%  3481   70%   14 TCEC       3473   11   11  1020   49%  3481   67%   15 STS        3470   11   11  1020   48%  3481   66%   16 SPCC       3467   11   11  1020   48%  3482   67%   17 GBSelect   3459   11   11  1020   47%  3482   68%   18 IJCCRL     3459   11   11  1020   47%  3482   67% 
    • Calculated by Bayeselo / CCRL Book is fixed to 3475 /  Blue Name = Last Update
More Details:• All of opening books participated by same NON-NNUE engine: Houdini 6.03   Note also that for any book player is installed another copy of Houdini engine• For maximum stability and performance: HT (SMT) plus Large Page disabled  • As usual, all tournament matches are played with physical cores (not threads) • Cutechess GUI Options - Concurrent Games: 68, meaning; 53% CPU usage• Main Settings (for all book entries): Book Depth: 40  / Best Move as Disabled • The current overall draw percentage (based on 9180 games) is not high: 69%• All the played tournament games are available (in PGN format): Unofficial VI      • For Previous Organized Unofficial Tournaments:  V   IV   III   II    I    XXXIV