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Saturday, July 2, 2011

Rybka Banned for Plagiarism

      The International Computer Games Association (ICGA) has conducted an investigation into allegations that, in the chess program Rybka, the programmer Vasik Rajlich plagiarized two other programs: Crafty and Fruit.  The result: By a unanimous 5-0 decision they were convinced that the evidence against Vasik Rajlich was overwhelming and beyond reasonable doubt.
       On five occasions, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, he violated rules by claiming other programmers’ work as his own and as a result  was unfairly been awarded one shared and four World Computer Chess Championship titles.  Rajlich has repeatedly denied plagiarizing the work of other programmers.
        As a result Rajlich has been stripped of past titles and the titles now go to the next program in line.  So, the new champions are 2006 2nd place goes to Shredder,  2007 Zappa (World Champion), 2008 Hiarcs (World Champion), 2009 tie between Junior, Shredder and Deep Sjeng, and the 2010 champion was a tie between Rondo and Thinker.  Rybka was also stripped of its blitz titles for 2009 and 2010.
       Vasik Rajlich is banned for life from competing in the World Computer Chess Championship or any other event organized by or sanctioned by the ICGA and they have demanded that he return the trophies and prize money.  FULL STORY
      It will be interesting to see what develops from all this.
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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousJuly 2, 2011 at 12:33 PM

    A twist in the midway for Rybka... I've seen this battle from a reasonably long time, over the internet discussion threads and it surprised me. Once Rybka's code is closed, it should be opened in order to understand if its software engineers copied pieces of code from another programs but Rajlich never allowed it based in copyright issues.

    So, let's see what will unfold from right now.

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  2. KirkJuly 2, 2011 at 2:43 PM

    It has become so complicated now. Engines like Houdini are based on Fruit, Crafty, Stockfish, and the (Fire, Robolito, Ivanhoe) group which were made from recompiled Rybka (now accused of being Fruit/Crafty code). I guess the issue is making money over others work, especially Fruit.

    What worries me is that soon all programs are going to provide the same bland analysis. Will Fritz, Shredder and Junior now be "watered down" only to compete on ELO alone?

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  3. AnonymousJuly 2, 2011 at 7:16 PM

    Well, it seems to me that the point is related to using code from other developers without giving them credits for their work, and making money violating terms of license, I think.

    What will be the next scene in these events ?

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