Developer:
Zappa was designed by Anthony Cozzie, an American computer chess programmer. He is a graduate from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Features:
Zappa is best known for its sound search engine and multiple processors that enable good parallel speed up. Zappa was named after Austin Powers 2 as the author of the software says “I got the name from Austin Powers 2, which has a scene where Dr. Evil talks about how he has divided his moon base into "Moon Unit Alpha" and "Moon Unit Zappa", a pun on Frank's quixotically named daughter Moon Unit”. Zappa is available commercially. The latest version can be bought from shredderchess.com. The older versions of the software can be downloaded for free.
Zappa is best used in Linux and Windows computers. However, it cannot be used in together on two computers using an ethernet cable. It also supports Nalimov tablebases and multiPV analysis.
Performance:
Zappa was the winner of the World Computer Chess Championship in the year 2005, held in Reykjavík, Iceland. Zappa played against programs like Junior and Shredder and won the championship with a score of 10.5. Zappa has won many tournaments like Internet Computer Chess Tournament 7 by defeating Jaan Ehlvest with a score of 3 to 1. Its most fascinating victory has been against the powerful chess machine Rybka in the year 2007 in Mexico. It won with a score of 5.5 to 4.5. Zappa was completed in the year 2008 as claimed by Anthony Cozzie that “the Zappa project is 100% finished”. It is believed that Zappa was one of the strongest chess engines, which was available commercially.
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