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Created page with "'''Home * Engines * Almond''' '''Almond''',<br/> a Clone of Mark Lefler's program Now, by fake author "Richard Hall"..."
'''[[Main Page|Home]] * [[Engines]] * Almond'''
'''Almond''',<br/>
a [[:Category:Clone|Clone]] of [[Mark Lefler|Mark Lefler's]] program [[Now]], by fake author "Richard Hall"
<ref>[https://www.csvn.nl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=492%3Abedrog&catid=51%3Atoernooien&Itemid=28&lang=en Bedrog (Fraud)] [[CSVN|CSVN site]] (Dutch)</ref>,
an alleged student from [[University of Michigan]], who asked the [[CSVN]] via [[Jan Krabbenbos]] and [[Hans Secelle]] to play the [[ICT 2010]].
"Richard Hall" further sent another version (?) of Almond to [[Jim Ablett]] which appeared to be a clone of an early version of the [[Myrddin]] engine by [[John Merlino]],
as confirmed by John, giving some details about the culprit
<ref>[http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?topic_view=threads&p=393341&t=37393 Re: A fool confesses to being foolish] by [[John Merlino]], [[CCC]], Engine Origins, February 07, 2011 (requires registration)</ref>. The cloner made only the tiniest attempt to modify the source, even keeping all of internal comments, such as thanking the [[Chessmaster]] development team!
The "successor" of Almond, [[Scaramanga]], played the [[DOCCC 2010]], also operated by [[Hans Secelle]] who regularly contacted "Richard Hall"
<ref>[[Hans Secelle]] ('''2011'''). ''<nowiki>Scaramanga: het verhaal van een ontmaskering of 'Het pad van een operator is met doornen geplaveid'</nowiki>''. [[Computerschaak]], No. 1, Feb 2011</ref>.
[[Harvey Williamson]] raised suspicions after ''Scaramanga'' was connected from an Indian server at [[Playchess]], and [[Hans Secelle]] sent the source code applied to [[Don Dailey]] forwarded for confirmation to Mark Lefler.
Mark admitted he had naively shared his source code with someone who said he was named "Chinmay" who offered to run Now in a tournament with faster hardware and better compiler,
and said he had operated [[Rybka]] at [[ACCA 2008]] <ref>[http://hiarcs.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3906&sid=dd922e95c6d41bfd32d5242cd7d4f2d4 Scaramanga is a Clone] by [[Harvey Williamson]], [[Computer Chess Forums|Hiarcs Forum]], December 31, 2010</ref>.
=See also=
* [[Scaramanga]]
=External Links=
* [https://www.csvn.nl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=492%3Abedrog&catid=51%3Atoernooien&Itemid=28&lang=en Bedrog (Fraud)] [[CSVN|CSVN site]] (Dutch)
=References=
<references />
'''[[Engines|Up one level]]'''
[[Category:Clone]]
'''Almond''',<br/>
a [[:Category:Clone|Clone]] of [[Mark Lefler|Mark Lefler's]] program [[Now]], by fake author "Richard Hall"
<ref>[https://www.csvn.nl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=492%3Abedrog&catid=51%3Atoernooien&Itemid=28&lang=en Bedrog (Fraud)] [[CSVN|CSVN site]] (Dutch)</ref>,
an alleged student from [[University of Michigan]], who asked the [[CSVN]] via [[Jan Krabbenbos]] and [[Hans Secelle]] to play the [[ICT 2010]].
"Richard Hall" further sent another version (?) of Almond to [[Jim Ablett]] which appeared to be a clone of an early version of the [[Myrddin]] engine by [[John Merlino]],
as confirmed by John, giving some details about the culprit
<ref>[http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?topic_view=threads&p=393341&t=37393 Re: A fool confesses to being foolish] by [[John Merlino]], [[CCC]], Engine Origins, February 07, 2011 (requires registration)</ref>. The cloner made only the tiniest attempt to modify the source, even keeping all of internal comments, such as thanking the [[Chessmaster]] development team!
The "successor" of Almond, [[Scaramanga]], played the [[DOCCC 2010]], also operated by [[Hans Secelle]] who regularly contacted "Richard Hall"
<ref>[[Hans Secelle]] ('''2011'''). ''<nowiki>Scaramanga: het verhaal van een ontmaskering of 'Het pad van een operator is met doornen geplaveid'</nowiki>''. [[Computerschaak]], No. 1, Feb 2011</ref>.
[[Harvey Williamson]] raised suspicions after ''Scaramanga'' was connected from an Indian server at [[Playchess]], and [[Hans Secelle]] sent the source code applied to [[Don Dailey]] forwarded for confirmation to Mark Lefler.
Mark admitted he had naively shared his source code with someone who said he was named "Chinmay" who offered to run Now in a tournament with faster hardware and better compiler,
and said he had operated [[Rybka]] at [[ACCA 2008]] <ref>[http://hiarcs.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3906&sid=dd922e95c6d41bfd32d5242cd7d4f2d4 Scaramanga is a Clone] by [[Harvey Williamson]], [[Computer Chess Forums|Hiarcs Forum]], December 31, 2010</ref>.
=See also=
* [[Scaramanga]]
=External Links=
* [https://www.csvn.nl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=492%3Abedrog&catid=51%3Atoernooien&Itemid=28&lang=en Bedrog (Fraud)] [[CSVN|CSVN site]] (Dutch)
=References=
<references />
'''[[Engines|Up one level]]'''
[[Category:Clone]]
