The search for the best chess engine

Today i have decided to begin my search for the best chess engines that are currently out.

The format will start with two free engines. They will play each other twice - once as white, and once as black. The games will be under times conditions with each engine having 40 minutes for the first 40 moves, and then 20 minutes plus a 10 second time increment per move to finish the match. The winner from these first two engines will then face the next challenger with the same time rules, and the winner from that game will then face another challenger. In the event of a 1-1 tie, a blitz game of 5 minutes for all moves will be played with a coin determining black / white.

The winner will be the first chess engine to face 8 others without losing wins.

The games will be shown in other blog posts - so keep checking for updates! 

Please do not hesitate to ask questions. Either message me directly or leave a comment on this post.

*Note: For clarification I have only used one Toga engine. People have asked me whether 'Toga II' and 'Toga 2' are different engines. This is not the case, I have only written 'Toga 2' in blog titles and match summaries as an easier way to write 'Toga II'. To confuse matters further, there are more engines that begin 'Toga II'. The version I have used in games 3-8 is Toga II 1.1a. Due to the extreme difficulties of editing my posts, I will not edit every post mentioning 'Toga 2' to 'Toga II 1.1a'.

TO FIND THE BEST ENGINE I NEED PEOPLE TO TELL ME WHO THE NEXT CHALLENGER SHOULD BE. PLEASE COMMENT ON THIS POST YOUR SUGGESTIONS FOR THE NEXT CHALLENGER.

Results:

Spike 1.0 (2690) vs. SOS 5.1 (2596)   -   2-0

Spike 1.0 (2690) vs. Zappa 1.1 (2687)   -   2-1

Toga II (2791)  vs. Spike 1.0 (2690)   -   1.5-0.5

Toga II (2791) vs. Rybka 1.0 (2809)   -   2-0

Toga II (2791) vs. Crafty 21.5 (2625)   -   2-0

Toga II (2791) vs. Spike 1.2 (2820)   -   2-1   

Toga II (2791) vs. Gambit Fruit 1.0 (2813)   -   2-1

Rybka 2.2 (2990) vs. Toga II (2791)   -   2-1

Statistics

Most popular computer openings:

Queens pawn: Veresov x 7

Vienna x 2

Nimzo-Indian: Rubinstein x 2

Queens Indian: Capablanca

French: Steinitz

Queens Pawn

Old Benoni: Schmidt

Alekhine: Modern

Nimzowitsch Defence

Four Knights: Svenonius Variation

Four Knights: Symmetrical

Spanish: Open Berlin

Sicilian: Maroczy Bind

Sicilian: Scheveningen, Modern

Average game length:

Biggest upset:

Toga II (2791) beating Spike 1.2 (2820)