Home * Engines * 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. With portability and performance in mind, Ruffian is written in C, and a hybrid between bitboard and 8x8 board. It performs a PVS with null-move- 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].
Ruffian, 1975 [5]

Photos

ICT 2004 winners: Chrilly Donninger, Erdogan Günes (Hydra 2nd), Stefan Meyer-Kahlen (Shredder 1st), Johan Havegheer (Ruffian 3rd), Vincent Diepeveen (Diep 3rd) [6]

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 ^{[7] [8]}, winner of the (unofficial) Swedish Championship in 2003 ^[9], and further played a strong CCT6 and ICT 2004.

Free Ruffian

The free Windows versions 1.0.0 and 1.0.1 from September 2002 are still available for download ^[10].

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 ^[11], and further with the otherwise free Arena GUI, CD production by Frank Quisinsky and distribution by Schachversand Niggemann ^[12], and soon as bundle with ChessPartner by Lokasoft ^[13]. Ruffian is base of the chess AI in Kasparov Chessmate ^{[14] [15]}, with Perola Valfridsson credited as author by MobyGames ^[16]. The initial hype about Ruffian's commercialization was apparently detrimental to its authors motivation to continue the development ^[17]. In conjunction with the upcoming strong free engines catching up, this was slowly but surely the fall of the commercial endeavor ^[18].

See also

• Chester
• Kasparov Chessmate
• King of Kings
• Mammal
• Tinker

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
• 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

• Arena Chess GUI for Linux and Windows - Ruffian
• Ruffian, the replacement to ABBA, Interview with Perola Valfridsson, October, 2002, by Frank Quisinsky et al., hosted by Ed Schröder and playwitharena
• Shredder and Ruffian lead in Leiden by Eric van Reem and Theo van der Storm, ChessBase, April 24, 2004 » ICT 2004
• Ruffian 2.1.0 in CCRL 40/40

Misc

• ruffian - Wiktionary
• ruffiano - Wiktionary
• Ruffian (horse) from Wikipedia
• Ruffian (1972 - 1975) - Find A Grave Memorial

References

1. ^ What is Ruffian? by Bas Hamstra, CCC, July 24, 2002
2. ^ Ruffian, the replacement to ABBA, Interview with Perola Valfridsson, October, 2002, by Frank Quisinsky et al., hosted by Ed Schröder and playwitharena
3. ^ Ruffian 2.0: 3 Euro - Schachversand Niggemann
4. ^ Ruffian's Secret? by Steve Maughan, CCC, November 23, 2003
5. ^ Ruffian, Filly Triple Crown winner, Image courtesy of John Bellucci, from On the 30th Anniversary of Ruffian’s Last Race by Lyn Lifshin
6. ^ Photos from the old CSVN site
7. ^ Participants 23rd Open Dutch Computer-Chess Championship 18, 19, 25, 26 Oct. 2003; Leiden, Netherlands old CSVN site
8. ^ Dutch Open Leiden final ranking - Ruffian Champion by Theo van der Storm, CCC, October 26, 2003
9. ^ iSMDS-03 (unofficial) Swedish Championship 2003 by Albert Bertilsson
10. ^ ruffian chess engine | Downloads
11. ^ ChessAssistance.com A talk with Victor Zakharov, head of Convekta development, part b by Robert Pawlak, February 14, 2003
12. ^ Arena 1.0 / Ruffian 2.0 ... information! by Frank Quisinsky, CCC, November 21, 2003
13. ^ Good news for Ruffian Lovers from outside europe by Johan Havegheer, CCC, February 21, 2004
14. ^ Kasparov Chessmate review by Alastair Scott, CCC, July 12, 2003
15. ^ Kasparov Chessmate from Wikipedia
16. ^ Perola Valfridsson from MobyGames
17. ^ Re: CSVN Leiden (Ruffian and Sjeng missing) by Johan Havegheer, CCC, June 01, 2005
18. ^ Ruffian 2.0: 3 Euro - Schachversand Niggemann

What links here?

Up one Level