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Hydra
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'''Hydra''',<br/>
was a chess playing entity based on a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrinet Myrinet] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_(computing) computer cluster] consisting of [[FPGA|FPGAs]] and [[x86]] PCs.
Hydra was the continuous development of of the [[ChessBase]] funded FPGA project called [[Brutus]] by [[Chrilly Donninger]] et al. now under the patronage of the ''Pal Group of Companies'' <ref>[http://www.palgroup.com/ Pal Group of Companies]</ref> and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheikh Sheikh] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tahnoun_bin_Mohammed_Al_Nahyan Tahnoun Bin Zayed Al Nahyan] <ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Nahyan_family Al Nahyan family from Wikipedia]</ref> <ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydra_%28chess%29 Hydra (chess) from Wikipedia]</ref> <ref>[http://gsec.abudhabi.ae/Sites/GSEC/Navigation/EN/ExecutiveCouncil/picture-gallery.html The General Secretariat of the Executive Council - Abu Dhabi - Members' Profiles]</ref> of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Dhabi_%28city%29 Abu Dhabi], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Arab_Emirates United Arab Emirates].
=Tournament Play=
Hydra had its tournament debut at the [[IPCCC 2004]] winning clearly with 6½/7 ahead of [[Fritz]] and [[Shredder]]. Soon later, at the [[ICT 2004]], Hydra came in behind Shredder,
but taking revanche revenge in August 2004, winning a [[Shredder versus Hydra 2004|match ]] with 6½5½-2½. Also the [[IPCCC 2005]] was dominated with 8/9, a half point ahead of Shredder.
Hydra also achieved strong results versus humans, playing two times the [[Man vs Machine Team Championship]], and in 2005 [[Adams versus Hydra 2005|versus]] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Adams_(chess_player) Michael Adams] winning decisively with 6½-½.
The chess monster further played [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Chess freestyle matches] along with its sponsor, chess lover and chess player under the pseudonym ''Zorchamp'' <ref>[https://en.chessbase.com/post/zor-champ-wins-freestyle-tournament Zor-Champ wins Freestyle Tournament] by [[Arno Nickel]], [[ChessBase|ChessBase News]], April 16, 2006</ref>, and was active on the [[Playchess]] server - its last game in June 2006 <ref>[http://en.chessbase.com/post/who-will-be-the-next-freestyle-champion Who will be the next Freestyle Champion] by [[Arno Nickel]], [[ChessBase|ChessBase News]], July 05, 2006</ref>. In June 2009, Hydra book author [[Christopher Lutz]] stated that "unfortunately the Hydra project is discontinued." The sponsors decided to end the project <ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydra_%28chess%29 Hydra (chess) from Wikipedia]</ref>.
=System Hydra=
[[FILE:SystemHydra.png|none|border|text-bottom|580px|link=https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydra_(Schachcomputer)]]
=Team Hydra=
=See also=
* [[Shredder versus Hydra 2004]]
* [[Adams versus Hydra 2005]]
* [[Brutus]]
=Publications=
* [[Chrilly Donninger]], [[Ulf Lorenz]] ('''2004'''). ''[http://www.springerlink.com/content/hp9la9pwq0a1cmrp/ The Chess Monster Hydra]''. in [http://www.springerlink.com/content/8grv6pu2e8hd/?p=3037c8af6a0147319f6f5a8e133083dd&pi=0 Field Programmable Logic and Application], 14th International Conference, FPL 2004, Leuven, Belgium, August 30-September 1, 2004[https://en. Proceedings, pp 927-932wikipedia. org/wiki/Springer_Science%2BBusiness_Media Springer Berlin / Heidelberg, ISBN 978-3-540-22989-6], [http://www2.cswww.unitop-paderborn5000.de/cs/ag-monien/PERSONAL/FLULOnl/publicationsps/fpl04The%20chess%20monster%20Hydra.pdf pdf]
: Abstract
: With the help of the FPGA technology, the boarder between hard- and software has vanished. It is now possible to develop complex designs and fine grained parallel applications without the long-lasting chip design cycles. Additionally, it has become easier to write coarse grained parallel applications with the help of message passing libraries like MPI. The chess program Hydra is a high level hardware-software co-design application which profits from both worlds. We describe the design philosophy, general architecture and performance of Hydra. The time critical part of the search tree, near the leaves, is explored with the help of fine grain parallelism of FPGA cards. For nodes near the root, the search algorithm runs distributed on a cluster of conventional processors. A nice detail is that the FPGA cards allow the implementation of sophisticated chess knowledge without decreasing the computational speed.
* [[Carl Bicknell]] ('''2004'''). ''Interview with Chrilly Donninger, Subject: Hydra''. [[Selective Search]] 113, pp. 19, [http://www.chesscomputeruk.com/SS_113.pdf pdf] hosted by [[Mike Watters]]
* [[Chrilly Donninger]], [[Ulf Lorenz]] ('''2005'''). ''The Hydra project''. Xcell Journal, Issue 53, pp. 94–97, [https://www.xilinx.com/publications/archives/xcell/Xcell53.pdf pdf]
* [[ChessBase]], the Editor, [[John Nunn]], [[David Levy]] ('''2005'''). ''Adams Outclassed by HYDRA''. [[ICGA Journal#28_2|ICGA Journal, Vol. 28, No. 2]]
* [[David Levy]] ('''2005'''). ''Man vs. Machine – What Next?'' [[ICGA Journal#28_2|ICGA Journal, Vol. 28, No. 2]]
* [[Peter Vossen]] ('''2007'''). ''Computer-WM Amsterdam''. [[Computerschach und Spiele|Computerschach und Spiele Online]], [http://computerschach.de/Files/2007/Computer-WM%20Amsterdam%20%281%29.pdf pdf1] <ref>[http://computerschach.de/Files/2007/Computer-WM%20Amsterdam%20%281%29.pdf Part 1] has an interview with [[Chrilly Donninger]] about [[Hydra]]</ref>
* [[Chrilly Donninger]] ('''2007'''). ''Flugstunden mit Ken Thompson''. [https://brigitte-godot.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Flugstunden.pdf pdf] (German)
* [[Ulf Lorenz]], [[Chrilly Donninger|Christian Donninger]], [[Mohammed Nasir Ali|Muhammad N. Ali]], [[Erdogan Günes]], [[Christopher Lutz]] ('''2020'''). ''Hydra: Report and technical overview''. [[ICGA Journal#42_23|ICGA Journal, Vol. 42, Nos. 2-3]]
=Forum Posts=
* [https://www.stmintz.com/ccc/index.php?id=470834 Corr Game 3: Hydra Scylla vs. Nickel, Arno 1/2 (PGN)] by [[Eduard Nemeth]], [[CCC]], December 16, 2005
* [https://www.stmintz.com/ccc/index.php?id=488118 Topalov will play with Hydra] by Lubo Lubop, [[CCC]], February 20, 2006
* [https://www.hiarcs.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=398&start=19 Re: I know something of Dr.Donninger] by [[Harvey Williamson]], [[Computer Chess Forums|Hiarcs Forum]], October 16, 2007 <ref>quoted with the kind permission of [[Chrilly Donninger|Chrilly]] and [[Enrique Irazoqui|Enir]] » [[Rybka]]</ref>
=External Links=
==Chess Entity==
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydra_%28chess%29 Hydra (chess) from Wikipedia]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080518105542/http://www.hydrachess.com/ Hydrachess.com] ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayback_Machine Wayback Machine], May 18, 2008)
* [http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=87303 Games at chessgames.com]
* [https://en.chessbase.com/post/nine-headed-monster-wins-paderborn Nine-headed monster wins Paderborn], [[ChessBase|ChessBase News]], February 15, 2004
* [https://en.chessbase.com/post/hydra-shocks-shredder-with-2-0-lead Hydra shocks Shredder with 2-0 lead], [[ChessBase|ChessBase News]], August 16, 2004