Alexander Naumov

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Alexander (Alex) Naumov, (born 1969) a Serbian computer scientist and as former computer chess programmer author of the chess engine Naum. Alex studied computer science at the University of Belgrade and moved to Canada in 1994, where he worked as C++ and Java developer. He wrote his first logical game as a teenager for Commodore 64, and the first game featuring alpha-beta algorithm in 1992. He started programming Naum in 2003, the first version for Palm handheld computers, later ported to x86 PCs, where Naum soon evolved to a top commercial chess engine. =Open Source= Alexander Naumov on open source, reply to Tord Romstad after his announcement to release the source code of Glaurung 0.1.5. in 2004 : First of all, this post is not related to Glaurung, but to the idea of publishing the source code.

I strongly disagree with anyone publishing the source code. Winboard community mainly exists, because people enjoy running tournaments, and programmers enjoy competing in them. Publishing source code totally destroys competitive side of chess programming. I HATE Crafty, and I think it's doing a big damage to this community. You never know who stole code from it, and how much of some engine's code is stolen from Crafty.

There are probably many not so good programmers who reach the plato in their development, and then start 'borrowing' code from the open source programs, because it's the only way for them to increase the strength of their engine. What would be the purpose of publishing Glaurung's source. Crafty is already out there doing the damage. You think your code is easier to read. Great! It will help someone to steal it more easily.

If someone wants to check the basic idea's, there is TSCP. If someone wants to dig in deeper, there is Crafty. I don't think there is need for anything else. But I guess, as long as Crafty is out there, there is no reason why you shouldn't publish your own code. I just don't see the big reason for it.

=Forum Posts=
 * Naum is a copy of ... SENSATION !! by Frank Quisinsky, CCC, November 07, 2004
 * Giving you a better chance against multi-processor engine by Naum, Winboard Forum, November 13, 2004
 * Naum 1.8 for Palm (light version) by Alex Naumov, CCC, August 15, 2005
 * Re: Do you evaluate internal nodes? by Naum, Winboard Forum, January 18, 2006
 * Re: Irrefutable laws of chess programming ! by Naum, Winboard Forum, January 22, 2006
 * Future of Naum by Alexander Naumov, CCC, May 21, 2009

=External Links=
 * Category 29: The strongest chess tournament…ever! Chess Tigers News by Eric van Reem, July 18, 2008
 * Rybka defends Chess960 title after tough final with Shredder - Chess Tigers News by Eric van Reem, August 01, 2008

=References= Up one level