Author: Jeroen Noomen
Date: 11:42:50 04/30/02
During the last 6 - 12 months I have noticed a trend that there are very clear indications that non-commercial programmers of chess programs make use of (parts of) commercially available books. As I was in Maastricht during the WMCCC in 2001, lots of speculations and complaints were heard about this topic. From several sources I know that also the Rebel books have been ‘hacked’ by people (I will not mention their names, I am sure they know themselves whom I am talking about). As the Rebel books are my lifework I want to put a very clear statement in this forum. The Rebel books have been developped by me during a period of almost 14 years. Not only is it handmade, it also contains lots of stuff you will not find in other books. In the past it has happenend a few times that chess programs were caught as not being made by the programmer himself. Examples are Quick Step back in 1989, Greif, the several Crafty clones. As we can see from todays rules by the ICCA, such programs are not tolerated anymore. And in my view this is fully correct. What about the openingbook of a chess program? Of course programs using a very good book have an advantage over programs using a less good book. Here is a point where especially the commercially available programs have an advantage. I need only to name Alex Kure, Sandro Necchi and myself who have produced high quality books. One thing is sure: These books are wanted, because when using them, other programs will get the strength of these books as well. Of course the copying of books is morally not to be tolerated. You can even call it piracy. By simply copying (parts of) one of the best books available other programs suddenly get the same elo boost, without a single second of work to be done. Also this is very suspect in tournaments: Such programs suddenly have a big advantage against others, who make their own book and do NOT use this illegal copying. A trend that is very worrying in my view and also break the rules of sportmanships. I think that the ICCA should make strict rules for openingbooks as well. There is a clear rule that it is not allowed to use f.e. a crafty source code. In this respect IMO it should also be forbidden to use (parts of) books of authors that have not given permission to use them. As far as the Rebel books are concerned: It is very easy for me to verify whether somebody has stolen parts of my book. If programmers think they can use my book and hide this from me: Sorry, that will not work. In the past I have seen this happen and I have taken proper steps. I want to make it clear that if I find out (at a tournament or elsewhere) that somebody is using my book, that I will undertake steps. As far as I am concerned, such programs are banned from all the important events, or something like that. I will also suggest such a rule to the ICCA. Jeroen Noomen Bookauthor for Rebel and Chess Tiger
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