The Baron

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The Baron, a Chess Engine Communication Protocol compatible chess engine developed by Richard Pijl started in August 2001. Richard's intention was to make a knowledge based engine rather than a fast searcher, with main focus on endgame knowledge. The Baron's search started out to be pretty much brute force, except for null-move pruning, but more recently more extensive use of futility pruning and late move reductions have been implemented. The Baron further applies position learning and has its own type of endgame bitbases.

=Photos= Richard Pijl operating The Baron versus Peter Svidler, Chess Classic Mainz 2005

=Tournaments= So far, The Baron participated at six World Computer Chess Championships, the WCCC 2005, WCCC 2007, WCCC 2008, WCCC 2009, WCCC 2011, and the WCCC 2015, and various over the board and online tournaments, such as the Dutch Open Computer Chess Championship, International CSVN Tournament, International Paderborn Computer Chess Championship, CCT Tournaments, and the The Chess Programmers Tournament organized by Richard Pijl himself. Opening book authors were Carlos Pesce, Arturo Ochoa , and Sebastian Böhme. In May 2014, The Baron won the PT 46, in June 2015, the PT 48, and in November 2017 the PT 52. At the IGT 2016 in Rome, The Baron came in third behind winner Chiron and Booot.

=Chess960= A version of The Baron able to play Chess960 competed at Livingston Chess960 Computer World Championship, the Chess960CWC 2005 and Chess960CWC 2006.

=See also=
 * Crashtest Dummy
 * Duchess
 * Kempelen
 * Nobility

=Forum Posts=

2001

 * New Winboard engine!! by Leo Dijksman, Winboard Forum, December 04, 2001
 * The Baron v0.18 available!! by Leo Dijksman, Winboard Forum, December 07, 2001
 * The Baron 0.21 released by Richard Pijl, Winboard Forum, December 09, 2001

2002

 * Baron 0.26 released by Richard Pijl, Winboard Forum, January 27, 2002
 * Bug-fixed Baron + new opening book by Richard Pijl, Winboard Forum, January 31, 2002
 * New Baron by Richard Pijl, Winboard Forum, February 07, 2002
 * Baron 0.29 by Richard Pijl, Winboard Forum, March 07, 2002
 * Baron 0.30 released by Richard Pijl, Winboard Forum, April 13, 2002
 * Baron 0.32 'Leiden' released by Richard Pijl, CCC, June 03, 2002
 * New version of The Baron by Richard Pijl, CCC, November 16, 2002

2003

 * The Baron in CCT5 by Richard Pijl, CCC, January 20, 2003 » CCT5
 * The Baron 1.0 (ICT-3) available by Richard Pijl, CCC, May 18, 2003
 * The Baron 1.0.1 released by Richard Pijl, CCC, May 25, 2003
 * The Baron 1.0.3 FRC released by Richard Pijl, CCC, July 19, 2003

2004

 * The Baron at CCT-6 (long post) by Richard Pijl, CCC, February 03, 2004 » CCT6
 * Testposition from Comet-The Baron by Richard Pijl, CCC, February 15, 2004 » Comet, IPCCC 2004
 * The Baron 1.3.0 by Richard Pijl, CCC, April 26, 2004
 * The Baron 1.4.0 by Richard Pijl, CCC, August 08, 2004
 * The Baron in Leiden by Richard Pijl, CCC, October 25, 2004 » DOCCC 2004

2005 ...

 * The Baron 1.6.1 by Richard Pijl, CCC, June 20, 2005
 * New book for the Baron by Richard Pijl, CCC, April 09, 2007
 * The Baron 2.23 by Richard Pijl, CCC, July 26, 2008
 * The Baron 2.23 without, and with LMR by Mike Scheidl, CCC, July 28, 2008
 * The Baron 1.7.0 FRC bug by Matthias Gemuh, CCC, January 27, 2009
 * The Baron v MChess Pro by Harvey Williamson, Hiarcs Forum, May 24, 2009 » MChess, Sandro Necchi

2010 ...

 * The Baron at the WCRCC by Richard Pijl, Hiarcs Forum, July 16, 2012 » WCRCC 2012
 * Movei, The Baron, and TSCP by Uri Blass, CCC, January 23, 2014 » Movei, TSCP
 * The Baron and TSCP by Richard Pijl, CCC, January 27, 2014
 * The Baron wins in Leiden by Harvey Williamson, Hiarcs Forum, May 19, 2014 » PT 46

2015 ...

 * Baron 1st, Arasan 2nd by Jon Dart, CCC, June 14, 2015 » PT 48
 * *NEW VERSION* of The Baron by Steve Maughan, CCC, July 08, 2015
 * Re: *NEW VERSION* of The Baron by Richard Pijl, CCC, July 08, 2015


 * The Baron - Latest Version Released by Steve Maughan, CCC, October 22, 2017
 * New Version of The Baron (3.42) by Steve Maughan, CCC, January 09, 2018

=External Links=

The Baron

 * Chess Programming | The Baron hosted by Steve Maughan
 * The Baron's Lair
 * The Baron - Homepage
 * The Baron - Latest Version
 * The Baron's ICGA Tournaments

Name Ancestors

 * Barony from Wikipedia
 * Duchy of Brabant including the Barony of Breda
 * Baronie van Breda from Wikipedia.nl (Dutch)
 * Schaakvereniging de Baronie
 * Baron (disambiguation) from Wikipedia
 * Baron from Wikipedia


 * Wolfgang von Kempelen from Wikipedia

=References=

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