Larry Kaufman

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Larry Kaufman [1]

Lawrence (Larry) Charles Kaufman, (born November 15, 1947)
is an American chess Grandmaster [2] , chess writer, Shogi player, chess teacher, opening book author, and professional computer chess programmer with focus on evaluation. In 1965, while already a chess master and top rated U.S. Junior player and began to study economics at MIT, he started his computer chess career as opening book author of Richard Greenblatt's Mac Hack VI [3]. In the 80s and 90s, Larry Kaufman collaborated with Don Dailey and Julio Kaplan. Kaufman is well known for his research on material [4] [5] and his work and publication on The Evaluation of Material Imbalances [6] and doubled pawns [7] based on statistics. In 1993 as editor of ICD's Computer Chess Reports, Kaufman proposed a 25 problem test suite for chessplaying programs [8]. During the late 90s and early 2000s, Larry Kaufman was affiliated with Excalibur Electronics. He was chess consultant supporting Ron Nelson concerning evaluation, and responsible for the opening books of their dedicated chess computers [9] [10]. Larry Kaufman was member of the Rybka team around Vasik Rajlich, and successfully improved the evaluation of Rybka 3. He started again to work with Don Dailey on his new program Doch [11] and since 2010 on Komodo [12] [13]. After Don Dailey's death in November 2013, the work on Komodo continued with Mark Lefler, culminating with the release of the Dragon by Komodo Chess in November 2020 [14].

Chess Programs

Larry Kaufman was/is involved in the development of following chess programs [15] :

Senior World Champion

In 2008 Larry won the FIDE Senior World Championship in Bad Zwischenahn, Germany [16] [17] , also receiving the Grandmaster title [18].

Quotes

by Ron Nelson on his work with Larry Kaufman [19]:

The book openings for all the Excalibur Chess Games was designed by Larry Kaufman. Larry Kaufman is a most brilliant Chess Master that understood computer chess search. He would explain to me how Frans Morsch evaluated positions, just by playing his program. He was incredible. He wrote a list of things for an evaluation function and how to balance it. His piece weightings were different than the Spracklens. 

Selected Publications

1986 ...

1990 ...

1995 ...

2000 ...

2010 ...

2020 ...

Forum Posts

2010 ...

Will Connie Ever Castle?? by Steve B, CCC, July 14, 2010
GM Kaufman v.Novag Constellation 3.6 QR Odds (Moves 41-55) by Steve B, CCC, August 10, 2010

2012

2014

2015 ...

2020 ...

External Links

References

  1. The Rybka Team
  2. Larry is senior world champion and GM! from the Rybka Forum November 11, 2008
  3. Richard Greenblatt, Donald Eastlake, Stephen D. Crocker (1967). The Greenblatt Chess Program. Proceedings of the AfiPs Fall Joint Computer Conference, Vol. 31, reprinted (1988) in Computer Chess Compendium
  4. The joys of chess – and the value of the pieces, ChessBase News, December 21, 2011
  5. Christian Hesse (2011). The Joys of Chess - Heroes, Battles & Brilliancies. New In Chess
  6. Larry Kaufman (1999). The Evaluation of Material Imbalances. (first published in Chess Life March 1999, online version edited by Dan Heisman)
  7. Larry Kaufman (2005). All About Doubled Pawns. (first published in Chess Life, May 2005)
  8. Kaufman test suite in SAN/FEN by Steven Edwards, rec.games.chess, November 28, 1993
  9. Excalibur Electronics by ChessChallenger, Hiarcs Forum, December 22, 2015
  10. Re: Ron Nelson by ChessChallenger, Hiarcs Forum, December 23, 2015
  11. A question to Larry Kaufman, Rybka Forum, December 30/31, 2009
  12. Komodo chess engine by Don Dailey and Larry Kaufman
  13. Komodo - Rybka in Danger?, Rybka Forum, January 21, 2010
  14. Dragon by Komodo Chess by Larry Kaufman, CCC, November 10, 2020
  15. rec.games.chess.computer FAQ 3/3
  16. Welcome to the website on XVIII. Senior World Championship 2008 in Bad Zwischenahn
  17. Final Standings Senior World Championship Men 2008 Bad Zwischenahn
  18. The United States Chess Federation - Larry Kaufman World Senior Champion!, November 8, 2008
  19. Excalibur Electronics by ChessChallenger, Hiarcs Forum, December 22, 2015
  20. Re: Engine books: Hiarcs vs. Komodo ... @Larry by Larry Kaufman, CCC, January 13, 2012

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