Ruffian
Ruffian,
a chess engine developed by Perola Valfridsson since 1998, which appeared in July 2002 as a surprisingly strong newcomer playing on ICC and FICS [1], supporting both, the Chess Engine Communication Protocol and UCI.
Description
With portability and performance in mind, Ruffian was written in C, and used a hybrid board representation of bitboard and 8x8 board. It performs PVS with null move pruning and other forward pruning techniques as well as a few own algorithms and tricks [2]. One of the major evaluation terms is mobility based on pre-calculated tables considering various patterns [3] [4].
Photos
ICT 2004 winners: Chrilly Donninger, Erdogan Günes (Hydra 2nd), Stefan Meyer-Kahlen (Shredder 1st),
Johan Havegheer (Ruffian 3rd), Vincent Diepeveen (Diep 3rd) [5]
Achievements
Ruffian was shared winner of the CCT5 and lonesome winner of the DOCCC 2003 supported by book author Đorđe Vidanović, operated by Johan Havegheer, Frank Quisinsky and Leo Dijksman [6] [7], winner of the (unofficial) Swedish Championship in 2003 [8], and further played a strong CCT6 and ICT 2004.
Free Ruffian
The free Windows versions 1.0 from September 2002 is still available for download from Ed Schröder's Winboard and UCI engines download site [9].
Commercial Ruffian
In 2003, Ruffian 2 went commercial, first bundled with Chess Assistant by Convekta, where Victor Zakharov mentions Dann Corbit was a big help [10], and further with the otherwise free Arena GUI, CD production by Frank Quisinsky and distribution by Schachversand Niggemann [11], and soon as bundle with ChessPartner by Lokasoft [12]. Ruffian is base of the chess AI in Kasparov Chessmate [13], with Perola Valfridsson credited as author by MobyGames [14]. The initial hype about Ruffian's commercialization was apparently detrimental to its authors motivation to continue the development [15]. In conjunction with the upcoming strong free engines catching up, this was slowly but surely the fall of the commercial endeavor [16]. In May 2017, Frank Quisinsky rescued Ruffian versions 2.02 and 2.1 from their commercial burdens [17].
See also
Forum Posts
2002
- What is Ruffian? by Bas Hamstra, CCC, July 24, 2002
- Some info about Ruffian by Benny Antonsson, CCC, July 29, 2002
- Ruffian 0.76 is still playing incredible strong! by Jouni Uski, CCC, September 19, 2002
- Ruffian is here - Make your move Bob Hyatt! by Peter Fendrich, CCC, September 23, 2002
- Interview with Ruffian programmer Per-Ola Valfridsson available! by Frank Quisinsky, CCC, October 09, 2002
2003
- Dutch Open Leiden final ranking - Ruffian Champion by Theo van der Storm, CCC, October 26, 2003
- First impression of Ruffian 1.0.5 by capgadget, Winboard Forum, November 07, 2003
- Arena 1.0 / Ruffian 2.0 ... information! by Frank Quisinsky, CCC, November 21, 2003
- Ruffian's Secret? by Steve Maughan, CCC, November 23, 2003
- The America/Ruffian ordeal... by Slater Wold, CCC, December 03, 2003
- Questions about Ruffian2 and other platforms by Daniel Clausen, CCC, December 17, 2003
- One more post on Ruffian 2.0 by Đorđe Vidanović, CCC, December 19, 2003
2004
- Ruffian on a G5 isn't bad! by George Sobala, CCC, January 31, 2004
- Ruffian 2.1.0 ... by Frank Quisinsky, CCC, February 09, 2004
- Good news for Ruffian Lovers from outside europe by Johan Havegheer, CCC, February 21, 2004
- Ruffian 2.1.0 or Ruffian 2.0.2 ... by Frank Quisinsky, CCC, February 23, 2004
- Ruffian 2.0.2 copy protection by Jouni Uski, CCC, March 02, 2004
- Ruffian's most peculiar way of pondering by Peter Berger, CCC, March 27, 2004
2005 ...
- Re: CSVN Leiden (Ruffian and Sjeng missing) by Johan Havegheer, CCC, June 01, 2005
- SSDF(Fruit 2.2.1 - Ruffian 1.0.1)A1200, 2½-2½, ended 26-14 by Tony Hedlund, CCC, January 09, 2006 » Fruit
2015 ...
- Computer Chess Progress: Stockfish 7 vs Ruffian 1.0.5 by Martin Fierz, CCC, March 17, 2016 » Stockfish
- Ruffian support ... by Frank Quisinsky, CCC, May 16, 2017
External Links
Chess Engine
- Ruffian from Arena (Wayback Machine)
- https://web.archive.org/web/20170830232610/http://www.top-5000.nl/int/ruffian.htm Ruffian, the replacement to ABBA], Interview with Perola Valfridsson by Frank Quisinsky et al., October, 2002, hosted by Ed Schröder (Wayback Machine)
- Shredder and Ruffian lead in Leiden by Eric van Reem and Theo van der Storm, ChessBase, April 24, 2004 » ICT 2004
- Ruffian in CCRL 40/40
- Download Winboard and UCI engines by Ed Schröder
- Frank's Chess Page, Downloads by Frank Quisinsky
Misc
References
- ↑ What is Ruffian? by Bas Hamstra, CCC, July 24, 2002
- ↑ Ruffian, the replacement to ABBA, Interview with Perola Valfridsson by Frank Quisinsky et al., October, 2002, hosted by Ed Schröder
- ↑ Ruffian 2.0: 3 Euro - Schachversand Niggemann
- ↑ Ruffian's Secret? by Steve Maughan, CCC, November 23, 2003
- ↑ Photos from the old CSVN site
- ↑ Participants 23rd Open Dutch Computer-Chess Championship 18, 19, 25, 26 Oct. 2003; Leiden, Netherlands old CSVN site
- ↑ Dutch Open Leiden final ranking - Ruffian Champion by Theo van der Storm, CCC, October 26, 2003
- ↑ iSMDS-03 (unofficial) Swedish Championship 2003 by Albert Bertilsson
- ↑ Download Winboard and UCI engines by Ed Schröder
- ↑ ChessAssistance.com A talk with Victor Zakharov, head of Convekta development, part b by Robert Pawlak, February 14, 2003
- ↑ Arena 1.0 / Ruffian 2.0 ... information! by Frank Quisinsky, CCC, November 21, 2003
- ↑ Good news for Ruffian Lovers from outside europe by Johan Havegheer, CCC, February 21, 2004
- ↑ Kasparov Chessmate review by Alastair Scott, CCC, July 12, 2003
- ↑ Perola Valfridsson from MobyGames
- ↑ Re: CSVN Leiden (Ruffian and Sjeng missing) by Johan Havegheer, CCC, June 01, 2005
- ↑ Ruffian 2.0: 3 Euro - Schachversand Niggemann
- ↑ Ruffian support ... by Frank Quisinsky, CCC, May 16, 2017
