Rybka demise

  

Rybka demise


Back to forum


Wayne Lowrance    (2009-12-29)
Rybka demise

Howdy all. I feel like voicing my opinion of Vas and Rybka. I honestly feel his hold on the chess community has weakened to the point of breaking. He has his problems. His source code apparently has been compromized. This has led him to not releasing a Rybka3+ as promised. The release of Rybka4 is very cloudy. Then there is this cloud Rybka internet rentel thing that is supported by no one it seems, me for sure.
Anyways this is just back drop for recent developments in free software engines that are very strong and are pushing R3 in ratings. I am thinking about the following engines, that I have downloaded and find very interesting AND strong :

Stockfish 1.6
Brite 0.4A
Spark 0.3

I have minimal experience with these engines. I just want all my friend here on FICGS to be aware of them and if interested they can download them and be on equal footing. My wish is for better chess and I have no ambition to have secret progams.
The important thing I feel is that the loss of Rybka engine does not put much of dent in play quality. It was gonna happen sooner or later, and now it seems sooner.
My honest evaluation today is that Rybka3 still provides the best insite to best mid game play.
I want to put in a word for Zappa. I fairly often use Zappa as my CC engine partner because of better end game analysis. Rybka has no peer in mid game analysis. Well I share these thought with you all for what it may be worth. Best 2010 Cheers. Wayne


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-12-29 14:37:07)
Rybka demise

Thanks for sharing your views on the current computer chess world, Wayne. It is always interesting :) As for Rybka, I did not (want to) imagine this outcome... I continue to think that the little fish would have been catched by her older brothers within a few months/years. But if Rybka's source code has indeed been compromised, the future of chess engines is quite uncertain.

In a way, it could have some interesting consequences for correspondence chess to see clones with the same strength playing different chess.


William Taylor    (2009-12-29 15:49:17)
Rybka demise

Thanks Wayne - an interesting post. I've downloaded Stockfish and am currently testing it against Rybka - 50% so far. While searching for the engines you mentioned I came across an engine called RobboLito (and Ippolit and Igorrit which are similar I believe). Opinion seems to be divided as to whether or not it is a Rybka clone, and how strong it is. Is this what you were referring to when you said Rybka's code may have been compromised? Any opinion on RobboLito?


Wayne Lowrance    (2009-12-29 18:40:55)
Rybka demise

William, wow, These are new engines for me, I will look for them.
On cloning, Stockfish is not the engine cloned as for as I know. There are two other engines for which I have downloaded because the moderators of the Rybka forum have deleted all reference to them, including engine name and download site. Vas has admitted that one in particuliar is a clone and the cloning programmer had discussions with Vas letting him know what he was doing, very interesting. Since both these engines are free downloadable making the source code available for all other programmers. It is common on the forum discussions about R3 source code being compromised. Thank you for sharing your Stockfish- Rybka testing results. What time control are your test run. Wayne


Wayne Lowrance    (2009-12-29 18:45:35)
Rybka demise

Ooops sorry, I meant to say two engines I have NOT down loaded
Wayne


William Taylor    (2009-12-29 18:46:30)
Rybka demise

I wasn't suggesting that Stockfish was a Rybka clone - I was talking about RobboLito.

My testing of Stockfish vs Rybka was not serious - just a 12-game blitz match (4 minutes with 2 seconds increment). Rybka won 6.5 - 5.5, so not a bad performance by Stockfish, but we can't draw any real conclusions from such a test.