Leela vs Stockfish is the classic rivalry of computer chess: a neural network that taught itself chess against the fastest searcher in the world. Here you can see every game they played in the TCEC and Chess.com CCC finals from 2023 to 2026, counted from the official files: by event, by speed and by colour. Then replay four of their sharpest games, two won by each side.
Leela Chess Zero (Lc0) is a free, open-source engine (GPL v3). Its project page calls it "a direct open-source implementation inspired by DeepMind's AlphaZero project", with "a neural network that learned chess through self-play". It looks at fewer positions and trusts a big network to judge them, so it runs best on a graphics card (GPU). The latest full release is v0.32.1 (23 November 2025). In TCEC it plays under the name LCZero.
Stockfish is also free and open source (GPL v3). It searches millions of positions per second and judges them with a small, fast network called NNUE (see what is NNUE). The two projects help each other: the Stockfish 18 notes say its network was trained on more than 100 billion positions of Lc0 evaluation data, and Stockfish 19 was trained on positions "rescored with a strong Leela net".
For ratings, the all-time Superfinal list and a side-by-side profile, see our Stockfish vs Leela Chess Zero comparison and the Leela Chess Zero profile. This page is about the games.
On our channel we explain Stockfish vs Leela games move by move. Another one: LeelaZero and Stockfish 19 keep gifting each other bishops.
We counted every game of every TCEC and CCC final between the two engines from January 2023 to January 2026: 22 finals, 5,396 games. Bonus events, test games, odds matches and Fischer Random events are left out. A draw counts as half a point.
5,396 games in 11 TCEC and 11 CCC finals, January 2023 - January 2026.
TCEC is the slowest, deepest engine event: a Superfinal is 100 games at two hours per side. The Cup is a knockout with faster games. Read TCEC explained for how it works.
| Event | Date | Time control | Games | Stockfish wins | Draws | Lc0 wins | Score (Stockfish - Lc0) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cup 11 final | Jan 2023 | 30 min + 3 s | 16 | 1 | 13 | 2 | 7.5 - 8.5 |
| Season 24 Superfinal | Apr 2023 | 2 h + 12 s | 100 | 20 | 64 | 16 | 52 - 48 |
| Cup 12 final | Jul 2023 | 30 min + 3 s | 28 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 14.5 - 13.5 |
| Season 25 Superfinal | Oct 2023 | 2 h + 12 s | 100 | 27 | 50 | 23 | 52 - 48 |
| Cup 13 final | Mar 2024 | 30 min + 3 s | 22 | 4 | 17 | 1 | 12.5 - 9.5 |
| Season 26 Superfinal | May - Jun 2024 | 2 h + 12 s | 100 | 31 | 52 | 17 | 57 - 43 |
| Cup 14 final | Oct 2024 | 30 min + 3 s | 36 | 12 | 13 | 11 | 18.5 - 17.5 |
| Season 27 Superfinal | Dec 2024 - Jan 2025 | 2 h + 12 s | 100 | 35 | 47 | 18 | 58.5 - 41.5 |
| Cup 15 final | Jun 2025 | 30 min + 3 s | 22 | 6 | 13 | 3 | 12.5 - 9.5 |
| Season 28 Superfinal | Aug - Sep 2025 | 2 h + 12 s | 100 | 36 | 43 | 21 | 57.5 - 42.5 |
| Cup 16 final | Jan 2026 | 30 min + 3 s | 22 | 7 | 12 | 3 | 13 - 9 |
| All 11 TCEC finals | 646 | 189 | 333 | 124 | 355.5 - 290.5 |
Counted from the official TCEC game files. Cup finals include their tiebreak games. In TCEC, Lc0 plays as "LCZero" on a GPU, Stockfish as a development build.
From Season 29 the Superfinal was Stockfish against Reckless, not Lc0; the full Superfinal history back to 2019 is on our comparison page.
The Chess.com Computer Chess Championship plays many more, faster games: 250-game rapid finals, 500-game blitz finals and a 1,000-game bullet final.
| Event | Date | Time control | Games | Stockfish wins | Draws | Lc0 wins | Score (Stockfish - Lc0) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CCC 20 Blitz final | Mar 2023 | 3 min + 2 s | 500 | 137 | 312 | 51 | 293 - 207 |
| CCC 20 Rapid final | May - Jun 2023 | 10 min + 3 s | 250 | 59 | 168 | 23 | 143 - 107 |
| CCC 21 Blitz Alt final | Aug 2023 | 3 min + 2 s | 500 | 131 | 320 | 49 | 291 - 209 |
| CCC 21 Rapid final | Oct 2023 | 10 min + 3 s | 250 | 58 | 162 | 30 | 139 - 111 |
| CCC 22 Blitz Alt final | Jan 2024 | 3 min + 2 s | 500 | 126 | 337 | 37 | 294.5 - 205.5 |
| CCC 22 Rapid final | Mar 2024 | 10 min + 3 s | 250 | 59 | 169 | 22 | 143.5 - 106.5 |
| CCC 23 Blitz Alt final | Jul 2024 | 3 min + 2 s | 500 | 196 | 207 | 97 | 299.5 - 200.5 |
| CCC 23 Rapid final | Sep 2024 | 10 min + 3 s | 250 | 82 | 113 | 55 | 138.5 - 111.5 |
| CCC 23 Bullet Alt final | Dec 2024 | 1 min + 1 s | 1000 | 407 | 462 | 131 | 638 - 362 |
| CCC 24 Blitz Alt final | Jan 2025 | 3 min + 2 s | 500 | 183 | 247 | 70 | 306.5 - 193.5 |
| CCC 24 Rapid final | Mar 2025 | 10 min + 3 s | 250 | 94 | 109 | 47 | 148.5 - 101.5 |
| All 11 CCC finals | 4,750 | 1,532 | 2,606 | 612 | 2835 - 1915 |
Counted from the official Chess.com CCC game files. "Alt final" = the extra Stockfish vs Lc0 match CCC played when the main final was Stockfish vs Torch.
Faster games give more decisive results. In the slow TCEC Superfinals about half the games were draws; in the CCC 23 Bullet final less than half were.
This is the most surprising table. In all 22 finals, the side with White won almost every decisive game: 2,441 of 2,457. The reason is the opening books. The organisers pick openings that give White an edge, so the games are not all draws, and each opening is played twice with colours swapped. So the real fight is: who wins with White, and who holds with Black?
| Games | Stockfish wins | Draws | Lc0 wins | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stockfish has White | 2,698 | 1,711 | 981 | 6 |
| Lc0 has White | 2,698 | 10 | 1,958 | 730 |
| All 22 finals | 5,396 | 1,721 | 2,939 | 736 |
Same 5,396 games as the two tables above.
Stockfish turned its White games into wins more often, and held its Black games to a draw more often. Both engines lost with Black far more often than they won.
All four games are real, from the official CCC and TCEC files, and all four end in checkmate. Two are Stockfish wins, two are Lc0 wins. Comments are ours; evaluations are from Stockfish at depth 18.
What to learn: When the enemy king has no pawns around it, time matters more than material. Stockfish gave a bishop and won the race to the king.
Key idea: Remove the best defender. The e5 knight guarded the black king; once it was gone, every white piece could join the attack.
What to learn: Long-term pressure is Leela's style. Its edge stayed small for 30 moves, then one passed pawn decided the game.
Key idea: Lc0 took four pawns for the knight, three of them on the kingside. That left its own g- and h-pawns with nothing in front of them, and 60 moves later they became two new queens.
In these 22 finals Stockfish scored 3,190.5 points to Lc0's 2,205.5, and it won 21 of the 22 matches. Lc0 scored more in one final, the TCEC Cup 11 final (8.5 - 7.5), and two other Cup finals were decided by a single game (Cup 12: 14.5 - 13.5, Cup 14: 18.5 - 17.5). In the five TCEC Superfinals Lc0 scored between 41.5 and 48 points out of 100, and it won 16 to 23 games in each of them.
You cannot play Lc0 on Rama Chess. If you want to face a real top engine, play Stockfish 19 online or Stockfish 18 at full strength, and check your own games with Stockfish 19 in the Analyser. More engine duels: Torch vs Stockfish and neural network chess engines.
Not in recent events. In 22 TCEC and CCC finals from 2023 to 2026, Stockfish won 1,721 games, Lc0 736, with 2,939 draws, and Stockfish won 21 of the 22 matches.
Yes. Lc0 won the TCEC Season 15 and 17 Superfinals (2019 and 2020), and it scored 8.5 - 7.5 against Stockfish in the TCEC Cup 11 final in January 2023.
Yes. Lc0 is the short name of Leela Chess Zero. In TCEC it plays as LCZero. It is free and open source under GPL v3.
Because the organisers use opening books that give White an edge, and each opening is played twice with colours swapped. Of 2,457 decisive games in these finals, White won 2,441.
Lc0 judges every position with a large neural network. Graphics cards do that kind of maths much faster than a normal processor.
No. Our bots do not include Lc0. You can play Stockfish 19 or Stockfish 18 at full strength, free in your browser.
Lc0 is not one of our bots, but Stockfish 19 and Stockfish 18 are: free, full strength, in your browser.
