Hannibal is a state-of-the-art chess engine with a distinct playing style. It is especially good at quick time control chess such as blitz and bullet. Strelka is a Russian designed chess engine which is now one of the strongest in the world. After a multiple updates from the publisher, Fire scores high on many of the top computer rating lists.
Fire is another awfully strong chess engine, rated almost points higher than the highest rated human chess player. The first version was created in Critter does not have a distinct playing style yet and relies more on tactics. Critter is one of the youngest and strongest chess engines in the world. Stockfish plays better and faster than humans. Rated only 20 ELO points below the top commercial chess engine Houdini 4, Stockfish is definitely a great alternative for most chess players. Stockfish is the most powerful, free, open source chess engine in the world. Here is the list of 10 strongest free chess engines in the world. Ability to have a precise analysis of any given position changed the way players are preparing for the competition. Mostly due to their presence we now see 15, 14, 13 and even 12 year old grandmasters, something that was unthinkable just 20 years ago. Chess engines play a huge role in 21st century chess.