Stockfish 1.7.1 beats Rybka 4 in Norway

[Arshad Ali]

I picked this up in Kavalek's column in the Huffington Post, and reproduced at ChessBase.

http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6398

In a recent computer tournament, ran [sic] by Martin Thoresen in Norway, Rybka 4 lost to a program with another fish name, the Stockfish. The name suggests a dead fish, but in this game it came wonderfully alive. It was a typical Grunfeld Indian game, a classic confrontation between a strong pawn center and active piece play with a romantic aura that would have pleased players from 19th century. It is a chaotic masterpiece in which one king goes for a walk, the other is hunted and the sacrifices range from pawns to queens.

[Alex Holowczak]

Another victory for open source software!

[Arshad Ali]

Another victory for open source software!

Yes, though it was only one game and we'd need something like a 10-game match before we could be reasonably sure about the relative strengths. There's also a rumor that some of these freely available programs -- like Robbolito -- are just Rybka reverse engineered (the designers refuse to disclose the code).

[Gareth Harley-Yeo]

Another victory for open source software!

Yes, though it was only one game and we'd need something like a 10-game match before we could be reasonably sure about the relative strengths. There's also a rumor that some of these freely available programs -- like Robbolito -- are just Rybka reverse engineered (the designers refuse to disclose the code).

I read on another forum last night that the authors of FireBird have openly admitted hacking Rybka 3 and have even been sharing their developments with Vasik Rajlich over recent months.

[Joey Stewart]

If you took the codes out of a normal programme and messed them about a bit is there not some sort of risk that you will create a dangerous mutation which could threaten all of chesskind?

[Rob Thompson]

If you took the codes out of a normal programme and messed them about a bit is there not some sort of risk that you will create a dangerous mutation which could threaten all of chesskind?

A chance, yes, but a ridiculously small one. This seems similar to the old idea of shaking the components of a typewriter all together, and there's a chance that an actual typewriter will be formed, instead of a disordered heap of parts

[Gareth Harley-Yeo]

Download Stockfish here!

[TomChivers]

http://home.halden.net/mordor/match/broadcast.php - looks like Rybka is better.