From the WCCC: Rybka disqualified and banned from World Computer Chess Championships
Rybka Disqualified and Banned from World Computer Chess Championships
The International Computer Games Association (ICGA) has been conducting an investigation into allegations that, in the chess program Rybka, the programmer Vasik Rajlich plagiarized two other programs: Crafty and Fruit. The ICGA has considered and evaluated the evidence presented to the investigation panel and the report prepared by the panel’s Secretariat. (The report and evidence files are attached.) We would like to thank those members of the panel who contributed to this investigation and the Secretariat for the enormous amount of conscientious work they have put in to this matter.
By a unanimous 5-0 decision of executive members of the ICGA we find ourselves in agreement with the verdict of the Secretariat’s report. We are convinced that the evidence against Vasik Rajlich is both overwhelming in its volume and beyond reasonable question in its nature. Vasik Rajlich is guilty of plagiarizing the programs Crafty and Fruit, and has violated the ICGA’s tournament rules with respect to the World Computer Chess Championships in the years 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. Specifically, Vasik Rajlich, on all five occasions, violated Tournament Rule 2 which requires that:
Each program must be the original work of the entering developers. Programming teams whose code is derived from or including game-playing code written by others must name all other authors, or the source of such code, in their submission details. Programs which are discovered to be close derivatives of others (e.g., by playing nearly all moves the same), may be declared invalid by the Tournament Director after seeking expert advice. For this purpose a listing of all game-related code running on the system must be available on demand to the Tournament Director.
By claiming other programmers’ work as his own, and failing to comply with the abovementioned rule, Vasik Rajlich has unfairly been awarded one shared 2nd-3rd place (in 2006) and four World Computer Chess Championship titles (in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010). Furthermore, it seems to the ICGA that Vasik Rajlich clearly knew that he was in the wrong in doing so, since he has repeatedly denied plagiarizing the work of other programmers.
The ICGA regards Vasik Rajlich’s violation of the abovementioned rule as the most serious offence that a chess programmer and ICGA member can commit with respect to his peers and to the ICGA. During the course of the investigation and upon presentation of the Secretariat’s report Vasik Rajlich did not offer, despite repeated invitations from the ICGA to do so, any kind of defence to the allegations, or to the evidence, or to the Secretariat’s report, other than to claim in an e-mail to myself on May 13th 2011 that:
Rybka has does not “include game-playing code written by others”, aside from standard exceptions which wouldn’t count as ‘game-playing’.
The vague phrase “derived from game-playing code written by others” also does not in my view apply to Rybka.
The ICGA is of the view that such a serious offence deserves to be met with correspondingly serious sanctions against the perpetrator. In deciding on appropriate sanctions the ICGA has borne in mind the approach of the International Olympic Committee for dealing with the most serious cases of the violations of its rules.
The ICGA has therefore decided as follows:
- Vasik Rajlich is hereby disqualified from the World Computer Chess Championships (WCCC) of 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010.
- The 2nd-3rd place awarded to the program called “Rajlich” in the 2006 WCCC is hereby annulled, sole 2nd place is awarded to the program Shredder, and 3rd place in that event is awarded to the program Zappa.
- The 1st places and World Computer Chess Champion titles awarded to the program Rybka in the 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 WCCCs are hereby annulled, and all the other programs that competed in those events are moved up in the final tournament standings by one place. Thus the revised tournament standings and titles for those events will now be as follows.
2007
1st Zappa (World Champion)
2nd Loop
=3rd GridChess
=3rd Shredder2008
1st Hiarcs (World Champion)
2nd Junior
3rd Cluster Toga2009
=1st Junior (Joint World Champion)
=1st Shredder (Joint World Champion)
=1st Deep Sjeng (Joint World Champion)2010
=1st Rondo (Joint World Champion)
=1st Thinker (Joint World Champion)
3rd Shredder- In due course those programmers whose programs have been elevated to World Champion (or joint World Champion) status will receive from the ICGA replicas of the Shannon trophy for the appropriate years.
- The plaques on the Shannon trophy that currently bear the name Rybka (for the years 2007-2010) will be removed from the trophy and new plaques will be engraved with the names of the revised winners of the title.
- Similarly, the titles of World Computer Speed (Blitz) Chess Champion
that were awarded to Rybka in 2009 and 2010 are hereby annulled. The revised winners of the speed chess title for those years are therefore:2009 Shredder
2010 Jonny and Shredder (joint champions)
- Vasik Rajlich is banned for life from competing in the World Computer Chess Championship or any other event organized by or sanctioned by the ICGA.
- The ICGA demands that Vasik Rajlich return to the ICGA the four replicas of the Shannon Trophy presented at the World Computer Chess Championships in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, and to return to the ICGA all prize money awarded for Rybka’s performances in those events.
David Levy [President – ICGA]
June 28th 2011
You can read more details from Peter Doggers here.
Rybka is DEAD
Wow, big news!!! I wonder if soon it will be removed from all commercial status.
anyone following this story over the last few years shouldn’t be surprised. I just wonder why it took so long
About time. This has been a problem in these circles for a long time now.
Like Jason…I’m surprised it took this long…but on the flip side..Information is becoming quite common and accesible to anyone who’d care to go looking for it…so….Is it such a big deal? I suppose to the one stealing it and the one being robbed it is….but c’mon. Why do you thik Houdinii is free for heavens sake…There’s code from all over ther place in that Program…so this is not really uncommon. Also…You follow game Anand Topalov till move 32…are you guilty of stealing?? This world is presenting us many wonderful and interesting questions as to rights to ideas. I hope it will be discussed as positively as possible.
Regards Folks.
Rybka isn’t dead…..everyone is stealing from everyone…how is this news?
Mike Magnan,
I think in many ways you’re correct, it isn’t a surprise this story, and it also isn’t a huge deal for most people. However, the fact that Rybka (essentially a stolen product) is being bought and sold around the world is horrible. Houdini is free, that’s no comparison, no one makes money off of Houdini, but what Vas and the Rybka team did and to make money off of it is a pretty huge deal.
At least is wasn’t steroids.
Computer cheating…
The bigger problem is that this could mean that Topalov is the World Champion, since Kramnik was using Rybka in the Toilet-gate. We need to see how Danialov responds here.
… since Kramnik was using Rybka in the Toilet-gate.
I hope this was just a lame attempt to be funny.
RIPka 2005-2011.
Though they might have stolen some code from other chess programs, Rybka was dominating the scene for quite a long time.
So there must have beeen some very good unique programming on their own, not just copy and paste from others.
So if the Rybka team had just given the well deserved cudos to the ones they had taken code from, they still had created the best program around.
Why didn’t they do so?
Just for the money?
I don’t understand.
“Why didn’t they do so?
Just for the money?
I don’t understand.”
What are you talking about/planet are you living on? People do all sorts of things for money. People kill for money. People work 39 hours a week for money. People study for years and years for money. There are mortgages to be paid, people do all sorts of things for money. Rybka is a big deal, worth hundreds of thousands at least.
Rybka would not be allowed to operate as a commercial product by taking all of this code, at least not without paying heavy royalties for it.
Saying that Rybka is “better” is not valid. Just because they added SOMETHING to other code, optimized SOMETHING about it doesn’t mean it’s all okay. If they didn’t do that then they would have done literally nothing at all. Adding some extra research to a non-fiction book doesn’t mean you can just claim all the copyright on it and sell it like that!!!
People have been doing this since the dawn of time. Thats how you improve…you take from others. This is basic mechanics. Making money “pretending” it was all your idea is one of the oldest scams. Sure its not right…but seriously…everyone does it. You think you know the Sicilian or the Ruy because you invented it???
What happened here with this software is not uncommon….Its perfectly natural. I’m just curious to see how the rights to ideas plays out….because I don’t think there’s an answer that will please everyone.
Soo…..what do you think…can I copyright B#c6 in the Ruy Then? Hmmm…Might want to think about that.
It seens a nightmare!
For years, Rybka was hounding others from playing in events, claiming they’d stolen their code
by reverse engineering it.
Now the code they’ve claimed to be stolen, was in fact Crafty and Fruit open source all along!
Vas is chess programming’s greatest con-man