It is that time of year.....again!

[Roger Brown]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Roger Brown at 19 December 2003 05:39:03:

Hello all,
It is coming to the end of the year when the awards are handed out to all sorts of persons who help make this WB community a special place to be.
With that in mind, please gather your thoughts and be prepared to praise, curse or just plain laugh at the standout elements for 2003.
WB engine of the year, WB author of the year, most interesting competition, an open letter of appreciation, a list of rants, a wish list of desired features or releases for 2004, biggest disappointment, an appeal to all the cloners to stop now (I could not help that!) - it is all good.
No Fritz gui rules posts please.
The awards are not returnable, may not be exchanged for cash and are of course, given entirely at the discretion of the giver. No awards committees here!
Later.

[Swaminathan]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Swaminathan at 19 December 2003 07:32:56:
Als Antwort auf: / In reply to: It is that time of year.....again! geschrieben von: / posted by: Roger Brown at 19 December 2003 05:39:03:

Hello all,
It is coming to the end of the year when the awards are handed out to all sorts of persons who help make this WB community a special place to be.
With that in mind, please gather your thoughts and be prepared to praise, curse or just plain laugh at the standout elements for 2003.
WB engine of the year, WB author of the year, most interesting competition, an open letter of appreciation, a list of rants, a wish list of desired features or releases for 2004, biggest disappointment, an appeal to all the cloners to stop now (I could not help that!) - it is all good.
No Fritz gui rules posts please.
The awards are not returnable, may not be exchanged for cash and are of course, given entirely at the discretion of the giver. No awards committees here!
Later.

Hi Roger,
do you have any idea what freeware would we get this christmas and newyear?
i've heard of SCID and JOSE
and i wanted to know any surprise engine that would be soon release
Have a nice day!

[Stefan Helders]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Stefan Helders at 19 December 2003 09:03:34:
Als Antwort auf: / In reply to: It is that time of year.....again! geschrieben von: / posted by: Roger Brown at 19 December 2003 05:39:03:

WB engine of the year, WB author of the year, most interesting competition, an open letter of appreciation, a list of rants, a wish list of desired features or releases for 2004, biggest disappointment, an appeal to all the cloners to stop now (I could not help that!) - it is all good.

I would suggest a new category: best newcomer of the year.
I ran a tournament between the newcomers and it turned out that Ktulu was the winner. There was a hard fight for the second place between Postmodernist, ElChinito and Slowchess. So this award goes to Ktulu.
Stefan

[Thomas Mayer]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Thomas Mayer at 19 December 2003 16:58:39:
Als Antwort auf: / In reply to: It is that time of year.....again! geschrieben von: / posted by: Roger Brown at 19 December 2003 05:39:03:

Hi Roger,
just some personal views - which might change in the last few weeks of the year, who knows...

WB engine of the year,
WB author of the year
most interesting competition
an open letter of appreciation
a list of rants
a wish list of desired features or releases for 2004
biggest disappointment
No Fritz gui rules posts please.

To me there the problem already starts... Well, somehow it is Rebel 12 - at least it has the price for being the longest awaited engine. Then I may say that Crafty should have this place, because it seems it is finally back on the road of success... But also Aristarch gets into my mind. Or Postmodernist - that was also something I was waiting for a long time. And don't forget the development SmarThink has made... And the star: Ruffian - but I want to honour here a free engine, so my choice this year is:
Abrok ! Why ? I know the author from several discussions and to me the development of Abrok is outstanding.
To me that is easy: Dieter Bürßner. Why ? Nobody else can explain complicate stuff so well in easy words that even I understand it. Dieter is simply great...
well, last year that was nearly no question: WBEC - Ridderkerk. And I still favour it. But there are other interesting competitions that get closer, especially I think about RWBC - the addition of the live viewer will change the competition-world, I am very sure about that.
What we should not forget: There is the long runner George Lyapko with his great tournaments - I don't know of any other public tournament that runs nearly as long as what George is doing. Thanks for that !
I may have forgot here many other great and interesting tourneys - sorry for that, but I must chose some and the mentioned three above are those I watch most.
must be a posting of you somewhere...
No rants in this forum... (When I have understood the word correctly...
Wish list ? No wishes, I have already everything I want... But maybe someone discovers something that I want but do not know yet about it...
For me that was the Deep affair... And I must say that I fear that we will see more such disappointments in the near future... I do not understand those persons... not at all...
Fritz GUI Rulez ! But WinBoard has all you need... You even can use it at computer tourneys... and nobody can complain - it does not claim itself a draw, only the engine can do...
Greets, Thomas

[Andreas Herrmann]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Andreas Herrmann at 19 December 2003 17:45:24:
Als Antwort auf: / In reply to: It is that time of year.....again! geschrieben von: / posted by: Roger Brown at 19 December 2003 05:39:03:

WB engine of the year,

i would say that this is Kaissa. I'm now playing around with chess programs, for many years, a long time before i have had an own chess prog. I have never seen a progress of more than about 200 to 250 ELO inside one year of an chess prog after the first release. And what i have seen on results for Kaissa 1.7 and 1.8, there must be an improvement between 0.1 and 1.8 of more than 800 ELO, which is absolutely impressiv. My congrats goes to the author of Kaissa.
best wishes
Andreas

[igor Gorelikov]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: igor Gorelikov at 19 December 2003 18:04:08:
Als Antwort auf: / In reply to: It is that time of year.....again! geschrieben von: / posted by: Roger Brown at 19 December 2003 05:39:03:

WB engine of the year

It is hard to select between
Ktulu,
Chinito,
Kaissa,
SmarThink,
and ... Crafty 16.19
I vote for all five
Igor

[Uri Blass]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Uri Blass at 19 December 2003 18:12:48:
Als Antwort auf: / In reply to: WB engine(s) of the year geschrieben von: / posted by: igor Gorelikov at 19 December 2003 18:04:08:

WB engine of the year

It is hard to select between
Ktulu,
Chinito,
Kaissa,
SmarThink,
and ... Crafty 16.19
I vote for all five
Igor

Crafty16.19 is not of this year.
Ruffian2 is of this year so it seems Ruffian2 is a better candidate.
Uri

[Igor Gorelikov]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Igor Gorelikov at 19 December 2003 18:30:24:
Als Antwort auf: / In reply to: Re: WB engine(s) of the year geschrieben von: / posted by: Uri Blass at 19 December 2003 18:12:48:

WB engine of the year

It is hard to select between
Ktulu,
Chinito,
Kaissa,
SmarThink,
and ... Crafty 16.19
I vote for all five
Igor

Crafty16.19 is not of this year.
Ruffian2 is of this year so it seems Ruffian2 is a better candidate.
Uri

I'm agree
Ruffian 2.0 is not freeware.
Igor

[Hector Pizarro]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Hector Pizarro at 19 December 2003 19:07:14:
Als Antwort auf: / In reply to: WB engine(s) of the year geschrieben von: / posted by: igor Gorelikov at 19 December 2003 18:04:08:

[Dann Corbit]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Dann Corbit at 19 December 2003 20:03:11:
Als Antwort auf: / In reply to: WB engine of the year: - Kaissa - no doubt geschrieben von: / posted by: Andreas Herrmann at 19 December 2003 17:45:24:

WB engine of the year,

i would say that this is Kaissa. I'm now playing around with chess programs, for many years, a long time before i have had an own chess prog. I have never seen a progress of more than about 200 to 250 ELO inside one year of an chess prog after the first release. And what i have seen on results for Kaissa 1.7 and 1.8, there must be an improvement between 0.1 and 1.8 of more than 800 ELO, which is absolutely impressiv. My congrats goes to the author of Kaissa.
best wishes

It isn't available to the general public, so I don't even care about it. I include it on the shelf with Ferret and Insomniac as "stong, almost mythical engines that annoy me." I won't go begging the authors for a copy to beta test either. If they don't want to make it available for everyone, I am not terribly interested.
Smarthink and Sjeng have improved just as much, and they are available.
My "engines of the year" are:
Professional engines:
(tie) Deep Sjeng, Ruffian
Amateur engines:
Smarthink. Perhaps now the strongest free engine (even including Ruffian 1.0.5)
Newcomer:
Dan Chess (and not just because of name similarity)
Pocket Rocket:
Thinker. I am impressed that such a strong engine can come in such a small package.



my ftp site {remove http:// unless you like error messages}

[Roger Brown]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Roger Brown at 19 December 2003 20:20:59:
Als Antwort auf: / In reply to: Re: WB engine of the year: - Kaissa - no doubt geschrieben von: / posted by: Dann Corbit at 19 December 2003 20:03:11:

It isn't available to the general public, so I don't even care about it. I include it on the shelf with Ferret and Insomniac as "stong, almost mythical engines that annoy me." I won't go begging the authors for a copy to beta test either. If they don't want to make it available for everyone, I am not terribly interested.

Dann Corbit, as candid and direct as always.
One of my WB personalities of the year.


Later.

[Telmo]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Telmo at 19 December 2003 21:13:06:
Als Antwort auf: / In reply to: It is that time of year.....again! geschrieben von: / posted by: Roger Brown at 19 December 2003 05:39:03:

Hello all,
It is coming to the end of the year when the awards are handed out to all sorts of persons who help make this WB community a special place to be.
With that in mind, please gather your thoughts and be prepared to praise, curse or just plain laugh at the standout elements for 2003.
WB engine of the year, WB author of the year, most interesting competition, an open letter of appreciation, a list of rants, a wish list of desired features or releases for 2004, biggest disappointment, an appeal to all the cloners to stop now (I could not help that!) - it is all good.
No Fritz gui rules posts please.
The awards are not returnable, may not be exchanged for cash and are of course, given entirely at the discretion of the giver. No awards committees here!
Later.

WB engine of the year: surely Ktulu
WB author of the year: Rahman Paidar
Most interesting competition: WBEC, it's already the Wimbledon of WB tournaments
Most desired release for 2004: a new version of Phalanx (to dream is for free)

Telmo

[Dann Corbit]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Dann Corbit at 19 December 2003 21:18:21:
Als Antwort auf: / In reply to: Re: WB engine of the year: - Kaissa - no doubt geschrieben von: / posted by: Dann Corbit at 19 December 2003 20:03:11:

WB engine of the year,

i would say that this is Kaissa. I'm now playing around with chess programs, for many years, a long time before i have had an own chess prog. I have never seen a progress of more than about 200 to 250 ELO inside one year of an chess prog after the first release. And what i have seen on results for Kaissa 1.7 and 1.8, there must be an improvement between 0.1 and 1.8 of more than 800 ELO, which is absolutely impressiv. My congrats goes to the author of Kaissa.
best wishes

It isn't available to the general public, so I don't even care about it. I include it on the shelf with Ferret and Insomniac as "stong, almost mythical engines that annoy me." I won't go begging the authors for a copy to beta test either. If they don't want to make it available for everyone, I am not terribly interested.
Smarthink and Sjeng have improved just as much, and they are available.
My "engines of the year" are:
Professional engines:
(tie) Deep Sjeng, Ruffian
Amateur engines:
Smarthink. Perhaps now the strongest free engine (even including Ruffian 1.0.5)
Newcomer:
Dan Chess (and not just because of name similarity)
Pocket Rocket:
Thinker. I am impressed that such a strong engine can come in such a small package.

As others have pointed out, Ktulu and Slowchess are also meteoric. (I agree)



my ftp site {remove http:// unless you like error messages}

[Dann Corbit]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Dann Corbit at 19 December 2003 22:11:09:
Als Antwort auf: / In reply to: Re: It is that time of year.....again! geschrieben von: / posted by: Thomas Mayer at 19 December 2003 16:58:39:

Hi Roger,
just some personal views - which might change in the last few weeks of the year, who knows...

WB engine of the year,
WB author of the year
most interesting competition
an open letter of appreciation
a list of rants
a wish list of desired features or releases for 2004
biggest disappointment
No Fritz gui rules posts please.

To me there the problem already starts... Well, somehow it is Rebel 12 - at least it has the price for being the longest awaited engine. Then I may say that Crafty should have this place, because it seems it is finally back on the road of success... But also Aristarch gets into my mind. Or Postmodernist - that was also something I was waiting for a long time. And don't forget the development SmarThink has made... And the star: Ruffian - but I want to honour here a free engine, so my choice this year is:
Abrok ! Why ? I know the author from several discussions and to me the development of Abrok is outstanding.
To me that is easy: Dieter Bürßner. Why ? Nobody else can explain complicate stuff so well in easy words that even I understand it. Dieter is simply great...
well, last year that was nearly no question: WBEC - Ridderkerk. And I still favour it. But there are other interesting competitions that get closer, especially I think about RWBC - the addition of the live viewer will change the competition-world, I am very sure about that.
What we should not forget: There is the long runner George Lyapko with his great tournaments - I don't know of any other public tournament that runs nearly as long as what George is doing. Thanks for that !
I may have forgot here many other great and interesting tourneys - sorry for that, but I must chose some and the mentioned three above are those I watch most.
must be a posting of you somewhere...
No rants in this forum... (When I have understood the word correctly...
Wish list ? No wishes, I have already everything I want... But maybe someone discovers something that I want but do not know yet about it...
For me that was the Deep affair... And I must say that I fear that we will see more such disappointments in the near future... I do not understand those persons... not at all...
Fritz GUI Rulez ! But WinBoard has all you need... You even can use it at computer tourneys... and nobody can complain - it does not claim itself a draw, only the engine can do...

All of those are nice. Another sweet engine is Aristarch.
Author of the century. His explanations rival those of Bruce Moreland (who has for all intents and purposes retired from chess programming -- at least I don't hear anything from him any more).
WBEC is the best. WCCL is second best (and has the best web site). But Lyapko George's is more important than either, because of the volume of data. In truth, it is the combination of many contests from which we can draw conclusions. I like every one of them.
Rants --> not cloning another engine. But (rather):
1. cloning another engine.
2. making no mention of the original author.
3. claiming it as original work.
We should form a hall of shame!
I can never live with just one GUI. I need them all. That means Winboard, Chess Assistant, CM, Arena, you name it. Each does something that the others does not do



my ftp site {remove http:// unless you like error messages}

[Vladimir Yelin]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Vladimir Yelin at 19 December 2003 22:13:48:
Als Antwort auf: / In reply to: Re: WB engine of the year: - Kaissa - no doubt geschrieben von: / posted by: Dann Corbit at 19 December 2003 20:03:11:

WB engine of the year,

i would say that this is Kaissa. I'm now playing around with chess programs, for many years, a long time before i have had an own chess prog. I have never seen a progress of more than about 200 to 250 ELO inside one year of an chess prog after the first release. And what i have seen on results for Kaissa 1.7 and 1.8, there must be an improvement between 0.1 and 1.8 of more than 800 ELO, which is absolutely impressiv. My congrats goes to the author of Kaissa.
best wishes

It isn't available to the general public, so I don't even care about it. I include it on the shelf with Ferret and Insomniac as "stong, almost mythical engines that annoy me." I won't go begging the authors for a copy to beta test either. If they don't want to make it available for everyone, I am not terribly interested.
Smarthink and Sjeng have improved just as much, and they are available.
My "engines of the year" are:
Professional engines:
(tie) Deep Sjeng, Ruffian
Amateur engines:
Smarthink. Perhaps now the strongest free engine (even including Ruffian 1.0.5)
Newcomer:
Dan Chess (and not just because of name similarity)
Pocket Rocket:
Thinker. I am impressed that such a strong engine can come in such a small package.

This your right, fortunately your opinion is not the main for me.
Best.
Vladimir.

[Dann Corbit]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Dann Corbit at 19 December 2003 22:19:35:
Als Antwort auf: / In reply to: Re: WB engine of the year: - Kaissa - no doubt geschrieben von: / posted by: Dann Corbit at 19 December 2003 21:18:21:

WB engine of the year,

i would say that this is Kaissa. I'm now playing around with chess programs, for many years, a long time before i have had an own chess prog. I have never seen a progress of more than about 200 to 250 ELO inside one year of an chess prog after the first release. And what i have seen on results for Kaissa 1.7 and 1.8, there must be an improvement between 0.1 and 1.8 of more than 800 ELO, which is absolutely impressiv. My congrats goes to the author of Kaissa.
best wishes

It isn't available to the general public, so I don't even care about it. I include it on the shelf with Ferret and Insomniac as "stong, almost mythical engines that annoy me." I won't go begging the authors for a copy to beta test either. If they don't want to make it available for everyone, I am not terribly interested.
Smarthink and Sjeng have improved just as much, and they are available.
My "engines of the year" are:
Professional engines:
(tie) Deep Sjeng, Ruffian
Amateur engines:
Smarthink. Perhaps now the strongest free engine (even including Ruffian 1.0.5)
Newcomer:
Dan Chess (and not just because of name similarity)
Pocket Rocket:
Thinker. I am impressed that such a strong engine can come in such a small package.

As others have pointed out, Ktulu and Slowchess are also meteoric. (I agree)

Gothmog! I forgot about Gothmog. Damn!! I hate it when I forget about Gothmog.
WIth all these hot new talents, new chess programmers are (while bleeding profusely) jumping into a pool of rabid, starving great white sharks. With an attitude.




my ftp site {remove http:// unless you like error messages}

[Dann Corbit]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Dann Corbit at 19 December 2003 22:22:47:
Als Antwort auf: / In reply to: Re: WB engine of the year: - Kaissa - no doubt geschrieben von: / posted by: Vladimir Yelin at 19 December 2003 22:13:48:

WB engine of the year,

i would say that this is Kaissa. I'm now playing around with chess programs, for many years, a long time before i have had an own chess prog. I have never seen a progress of more than about 200 to 250 ELO inside one year of an chess prog after the first release. And what i have seen on results for Kaissa 1.7 and 1.8, there must be an improvement between 0.1 and 1.8 of more than 800 ELO, which is absolutely impressiv. My congrats goes to the author of Kaissa.
best wishes

It isn't available to the general public, so I don't even care about it. I include it on the shelf with Ferret and Insomniac as "stong, almost mythical engines that annoy me." I won't go begging the authors for a copy to beta test either. If they don't want to make it available for everyone, I am not terribly interested.

This your right, fortunately your opinion is not the main for me.

I do not mean to demean your effort. Certainly you have great talent. But the private engines like Ferret and Kaissa are little more than a small frustration for me.



my ftp site {remove http:// unless you like error messages}

[Vladimir Yelin]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Vladimir Yelin at 19 December 2003 22:41:37:
Als Antwort auf: / In reply to: Re: WB engine of the year: - Kaissa - no doubt geschrieben von: / posted by: Dann Corbit at 19 December 2003 22:22:47:

WB engine of the year,

i would say that this is Kaissa. I'm now playing around with chess programs, for many years, a long time before i have had an own chess prog. I have never seen a progress of more than about 200 to 250 ELO inside one year of an chess prog after the first release. And what i have seen on results for Kaissa 1.7 and 1.8, there must be an improvement between 0.1 and 1.8 of more than 800 ELO, which is absolutely impressiv. My congrats goes to the author of Kaissa.
best wishes

It isn't available to the general public, so I don't even care about it. I include it on the shelf with Ferret and Insomniac as "stong, almost mythical engines that annoy me." I won't go begging the authors for a copy to beta test either. If they don't want to make it available for everyone, I am not terribly interested.

This your right, fortunately your opinion is not the main for me.

I do not mean to demean your effort. Certainly you have great talent. But the private engines like Ferret and Kaissa are little more than a small frustration for me.

I have understood you, thanks.
Best.
Vladimir.

[Tord Romstad]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Tord Romstad at 19 December 2003 22:56:52:
Als Antwort auf: / In reply to: It is that time of year.....again! geschrieben von: / posted by: Roger Brown at 19 December 2003 05:39:03:

Engine of the year: SmarThink, of course. Nobody else is even remotely close.
Wishlist for 2004:

SmarThink for Mac OS X and/or Linux
PostModernist for Mac OS X and/or Linux
Phalanx XXIII
Winboard/xboard versions of classics like MChess, WChess, Socrates and CSTal
A freeware version of Zarkov
Tord

[Igor Korshunov]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Igor Korshunov at 20 December 2003 00:30:32:
Als Antwort auf: / In reply to: It is that time of year.....again! geschrieben von: / posted by: Roger Brown at 19 December 2003 05:39:03:

WB engine of the year:

SmarThink!!! Aristarch, Delfi and Kaissa are also deserved a good words.
WB author of the year:
I like all chess programmers.
most interesting competition:
WBEC
biggest disappointment:
World championship, Ruffian.
Chessbase is disappointment forever.
All this dissappointments are unserious, because I don't like to be disappointed .