Ethereal is an engine by Andrew Grant which was first released officially in 2016. In the beginning of of 2018 it entered Season 11 of TCEC and just a few months later won TCEC Div 4. While that looked at a minor success at the time, those who read the interview of Andrew Grant knew something big is coming from this 21 year ambitious University of Maryland, Baltimore county college student.
Now just three months later, Ethereal is showing muscles in Division 3 of TCEC, where in the company of two neural networks and a couple of established engines Ethereal is the clear leader with 5,5/6, well ahead of opposition. It looks certain that the engine is going to storm through Division 3 and will dare to aspire going all the way to the Premier Division
The prestigious CCRL rating list by Graham Banks puts Ethereal as the second best open source engine, right after Stockfish. In an interview with TCEC’s openings expert Nelson Hernandez, Andrew Grant believes his engine is currently 4th or 5th in the world. Here is the full interview with Ethereal’s author.
Interview with Andrew Grant, author of Ethereal
