An Open Letter and $100,000 challenge to FIDE President Kirsan N. Ilyumzhinov
His Excellency
FIDE President Kirsan N. Ilyumzhinov
May 31, 2007
Dear Mr. President,
First, let me start by commending you for your entry into computer chess with the organization of The Ultimate Computer Chess Challenge 2007. Computer chess has seen dramatic improvements in the past few years. Some chess engines have progressed dramatically from the primitive beancounters of yesterday and I believe that our games too now qualify as art. Chess at this level inevitably attracts the attention of chess players all over the world.
Unfortunately, the lack of an open, formal qualification procedure for your event was disappointing, and your choice of the two opponents was downright bizarre. You have snubbed my program, Rybka, which leads every single computer chess rating list by a considerable margin at all time controls from blitz games to long tournament games [1]. In many cases the gap between Rybka and her nearest competitor is well over 100 Elo. None of this is anything particularly new – Rybka was released on December 4, 2005, and since then her smallest lead ever in any major rating list at any time control and on any hardware was 60 Elo. In addition to this, she has competed in all eight major international tournaments held since her first release and taken clear (unshared) first place in seven of them. [2] Rybka has also displayed her superiority in competitions against human players. It’s no wonder that Rybka is generally considered the undisputed strongest chess program in the world.
Some of the other aspects of the match also raise questions. Chessbase exclusively markets three of the world’s top ten engines, so it’s a curious coincidence that two of them will participate. Also curious is the involvement of the ICGA – after all, their own self-titled “World Computer Chess Championship” is being held on overlapping dates. This type of apparent division between insiders and outsiders runs counter to all principles of sport and fairness, and I call on you to uphold democratic FIDE norms in the organization of such events.
In the spirit of open competition, I am formally offering a $100,000 computer chess challenge from Rybka to FIDE, who will be represented by the winner of the Ultimate Computer Chess Challenge 2007. My challenge consists of a 24 game match, at classical time controls, on unlimited hardware and with unlimited opening books, held at 2 games per day over twelve days, with Rybka giving a handicap of one point plus draw odds and thus requiring a score of 13 out of 24 or better to win the match. The prize fund of $100,000 should be a winner-takes-all, loser-pays-all proposition.
As the Ultimate Computer Chess Challenge 2007 takes place during the Candidates Matches in Elista, it is appropriate that the winner’s match vs Rybka be played in Mexico between September 12 and October 1, 2007, during the FIDE World Chess Championship.
Gens una Sumus,
Vasik Rajlich
author of Rybka
FIDE International Master
Fritz won’t accept. Rybka will kill Fritz.
Note that:
“Rybka giving a handicap of one point plus draw odds”
Might a bit insulting, :-). But Vasik wanted to really make his point heard loud and clearly.
From 1985 to 1990 the KGB stationed Vladimir Putin in Dresden, East Germany.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Putin
FIDE President reports directly into Vladimir Putin. Chessbase is from Germany, their CEO is Rolf Behovits. It looks like Chessbase works closely with Russians. It is not surprising to see that Rybka was not invited by FIDE in Elista.
fritz is better in endings while junior is better in finding wild lines, a combination of both would be much stronger than rybka, remember junior was the only engine which found 24.. Nc7 in krajakin anand game 2006 wijk aan zee.
kkkkkkk
dd
Vasik and Rybka should get their chance. Rybka is an amazing program and I wish them well!
Very interesting, aggressive, and at the end of the day, not what we really want for chess.
It is important for Rybka to be recognized and included in the high-end of computer championship chess.
But the prize pool should not be in the form of a bet. I don’t think we want our player’s (man or machine) to be losing money because they loss.
I think Vas should be confident, let the offer stand (put a time limit on it), and put up the prize pool (not make a bet), but the 100k goes to the winner.
He doesn’t stand to win money, if he wins. But he will have taken the world crown by force if he does.
Now that is stylish. Chessbase have been taking these marketing initiatives, and at the same time avoiding ICGA’s WCCC events.
A pity that the ICGA has lent its name to this event: another jolly for David Levy, but what does the ICGA gain?
Presumably they will not be playing so-called Sanctuary Chess whereby, if the tablebases say it’s a draw, then it’s agreed to be a draw?
Hi,
according to computer Elo lists
Rybka is 200 Elo over the other programms.
That is the point why chessbase tries to avoid the match.
Why Fide is ignoring the top programm it is difficult to say.
Concerning challenge Fide refused 2 000 000,00 $ challenge in human chess.
Regards
Pony.
IDEA: If all the major chess sites would make room for Rybka to comment on the games, make prediction, etc to emphasize the fact that we are watching the lesser gods…
That would be so hilarious!
QUESTION: How can we unite & organize these sites in their effort to show the FIDE what the FIDE is really all about?
This is like Wimbledon without inviting Roger Federer!
kind regards,
Marc
Give Rybka or Junior hardware to asses 200,000,000 positions per second and watch how HYDRA (ie.Brutus) gets destroyed!
My prediction :Junior will be victorious vs Fritz in their match.
The point to a bet is sometimes that you know it won’t be accepted.
If Rybka had played in and won the Computer World Championship event, it would be playing Fritz instead of Junior.
This sounds like one more “I have a high rating, why should I bother to qualify” complaints. Who cares?
And as an owner of Rybka and Fritz and Junior, and as an ELO 2500+ correspondence chess player, I can tell you that Rybka does NOT analyze positions better than either of those two programs. More than likely its rating results from the opening book.
Ken
nonsense sorry…the author is to sure he wins it that is why he puts this up…plz some program beat him out of his money
Fully support this letter by Rybak’s creator. Rybka is FAR superior than Fritz and Junior.
I own the three of them as well.
“More than likely its rating results from the opening book.”
All the rating lists (except SSDF) give each engine the same opening book. That is, they do not use the “Rybka book” or the “Fritz book”.
Rybka gets a higher rating because she plays better chess in a large majority of positions. It really is that simple.
As for your claim that Rybka does not analyse positions better than the competitors… Well, I do not think it is a coincidence that practically everybody in the Freestyle tournaments mainly rely on Rybka.
Btw, Fritz never plays in any international computer tournaments. How does that qualify Fritz? Rybka played in 8 so far in 1½ year, winning 7 of them. None of these 8 tournaments were ever considered a “qualifier” for an ultimate match. For something to qualify as a “qualifier”, it should, to start with, be announced in advance. Otherwise, we get this choice of participants based on random and “convenient” criteria.
Fritz and Junior are nr. 7 and 8 on the CCRL list, which is as trustworthy a list as they come. Fritz never plays in computer tournaments. Recently, Junior played in a few and won one. Fritz and Junior are from the same company. Perhaps you can see why there is reason to object against the choice of exactly these two engines for an “ultimate” match?
Never mind, it will be a fun match. But this challenge from team Rybka is fully justified, and now we just have to wait and see if Chessbase dare accept the challenge.
“I can tell you that Rybka does NOT analyze positions better than either of those two programs. More than likely its rating results from the opening book.”
This is completely wrong. Most if not all ratinglists use the same book for every program.
I have Deep Fritz and Rybka and both have their good/bad points. But if push came to shove, Rybka is the King!
Ryan;
I do not believe many tournaments have a rule on opening books, although some may. Depends on point of the tournament I think.
Have you run computer tournaments yourself, from set positions (same as having identical opening books)with several participants?
I do this to evaluate certain opening positions/novelties statistically. Generally Shredder has the best results and Junior the worst, with Fritz and Rybka in the middle.
All programs optimize their performance by selecting books tailored to their strengths and weaknesses.
I think there are positives AND negatives to having the identical book for a match or tournament.
Incidently as was demonstrated with Hydra and other matches, CC GMs generally analyze better than any of these machines so I may have a different perspective than for an online freestyle event…
Ryan;
The SSDF is the main computer rating list (actually I know of no other serious one). It has Rybka well in first place.
It’s website very clearly notes that all programs use their own library. There is even a brief discussion of “killer” libraries which are optimal for computers but not humans…and SSDF says they run the program with that is it comes that way.
So library is very critical to SSDF rating, and it is not unlikely that in position analysis – not competition – the highest rated computer might not be the strongest, especially when playing humans.
And I am talking about games which have twice as much analysis time per move as these tournaments use per game, so we are measuring Program Strength and not Strength in a Competition.
ken;
“The SSDF is the main computer rating list (actually I know of no other serious one).”
Hmm, no, it is not, and it has not been for years. They use severely outdated hardware, they have been slow with updates, and many people don’t like that they do not take the programs’ opening books out of the testing equation.
The main testing groups are CEGT and CCRL, and these groups test with limited and shared books. So, Rybka’s high rating is simply not a result of her opening book, but a result of her playing better chess than the competitors.
There are OTB GMs as well as CC GMs participating in these Freestyle events. Everybody uses Rybka. If you don’t, you don’t have a realistic chance to compete.
I don’t understand how one can talk about program strength without taking a competition into consideration.
It’s ok, maybe Rybka is not your favorite analysis partner, and you may have good reasons for preferring another engine that you may, for example, consider more reliable in certain types of positions. My point is just that Rybka IS the strongest engine in a random pick of positions, according to a multitude of objective tests being performed for the last year and a half.
i havnt used these programs. from what i heard and seen rybka is the strongest. ive looked at some rybka games and it really uses some unusual lines of play. ken what do you know. rybka would beat you a hundred straight games. your words mean nothing.ive seen rybka use extremly strong opening, middle and end games. it has no weakness. you say dont have a chance to compete unless you use these programs. you speak as if your the worlds preminent authority. dont make statements that arnt true. you can do problems and play weaker engines and be able to compete with anyone. all the engines have strong opening books. where they differ is in middle and end game techniques. this is something that you cant learn from a chess engine. you have to do problems and play the game to develop your chess strength.
FIDE MUST set up a match between Rybka and Junior!!!Rybka has earned a shot at a world class match and Rybka just WON the ICGA World Computer Championship (June 18,2007). Go Rybka!!!
Wel, friends. Chessbase has taken over Rybka, end of story.