John Merlino

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John Merlino [1] John Merlino,

an American project manager and programmer in the games industry. He was a programmer on several versions of the Chessmaster series (4000 Turbo and 6000 [2], 7000 and 8000), and was project manager and lead programmer for Chessmaster 9000 [3], incorporating The King engine by Johan de Koning, affiliated with Software Toolworks, Inc., Mindscape and Ubisoft [4]. He was also involved in the production of Majestic Chess and Disney’s Aladdin Chess Adventures [5], created by Fluent Entertainment, with engines by David Kittinger. In 2009, after all his experience with De Koning and Kittinger programs, John Merlino started to write his own WinBoard compliant chess engine Myrddin [6] .

1998 …#

• Chessmaster 6000 1.0.2 Patch now available by John Merlino, CCC, December 22, 1998
• Chessmaster 6000 1.0.3 Patch now available by John Merlino, CCC, February 04, 1999
• Chessmaster 7000 “FAQ” by John Merlino, CCC, September 23, 1999
• Chessmaster 7000 Patch v1.0.6 by John Merlino, CCC, December 17, 1999

2000 …#

• Potential STRONG Chessmaster personality by John Merlino, CCC, January 07, 2000
• Re: Chessmaster on winboard? by John Merlino, CCC, February 28, 2000
• An open call to all USCF rated players from the Chessmaster developers by John Merlino, CCC, May 24, 2000
• Re: Why is Chessmaster so popular in CCC? by John Merlino, CCC, July 05, 2000
• Further news in the Chessmaster saga (some parts are OT) by John Merlino, CCC, March 05, 2001
• Software Toolworks to Ubi Soft (OT) by John Merlino, CCC, March 20, 2001
• Turns out John Merlino is a nice guy after all by Dann Corbit, Winboard Forum, June 09, 2001
• A questionarre for all Chessmaster users by John Merlino, CCC, October 22, 2001
• Chessmaster 9000 Beta Report by John Merlino, CCC, May 07, 2002
• Re: is chessmaster a french program? by John Merlino, CCC, July 28, 2002
• Re: For John Merlino Chessmaster goes gold? by John Merlino, CCC, July 31, 2002
• Re: Just Curious - Does anyone know Johan de Koning of Chessmaster fame? by John Merlino, CCC, February 28, 2003 » Johan de Koning
• Re: Hoyle Majestic Chess : Head-To-Head with ChessMaster? by John Merlino, CCC, July 12, 2003
• Re: Almost Oriental Software Team in CM 10º edition by John Merlino, CCC, June 24, 2004
• Re: Chessmaster Engine History by John Merlino, CCC, December 28, 2004

2005 …#

• Re: Historical Chessmaster ? by John Merlino, CCC, April 24, 2005
• Re: Historical Chessmaster ? by John Merlino, CCC, April 25, 2005
• To John Merlino. Majestic Chess by Steve Blincoe, CCC, August 04, 2005
• Re: To John Merlino by John Merlino, rgcc, October 07, 2005
• Some Chessmaster:GM Edition Info by John Merlino, CCC, September 11, 2007
• Re: Chessmaster Grandmaster version by John Merlino, CCC, May 18, 2008
• Introducing Myrddin v0.0000001a by John Merlino, CCC, February 24, 2009
• Interrupting a search and still picking a move by John Merlino, CCC, March 17, 2009
• kbhit() taking huge CPU?? by John Merlino, CCC, April 01, 2009 » C, Thread
• Crafty (and others?) time management question by John Merlino, CCC, April 14, 2009 » Time Management, Crafty
• Leaving/Returning to Book Annoyance by John Merlino, CCC, May 05, 2009 » Opening Book
• Limiting Quiescent Search Depth by John Merlino, CCC, May 20, 2009 » Quiescence Search
• Potentially Trapped Pieces by John Merlino, CCC, June 24, 2009 » Trapped Pieces
• Return eval or upper bound? by John Merlino, CCC, October 26, 2009 » Fail-Soft, Fail-Hard
• Only recaptures in qsearch? by John Merlino, CCC, November 21, 2009 » Quiescence Search
• Stupid Extension Problem/Question by John Merlino, CCC, December 23, 2009 » Extensions

2010 …#

• Researching if LMR-affected search improves Alpha? by John Merlino, CCC, January 22, 2010 » Late Move Reductions
• It’s time for this position again by John Merlino, CCC, January 31, 2010
• Re: A fool confesses to being foolish by John Merlino, CCC, Engine Origins, February 07, 2011 (requires registration) » Almond
• Re: Programmers: what’s the story behind the name of your engine by John Merlino, CCC, June 21, 2011 » Myrddin
• 64-bit and 32-bit exes producing different results by John Merlino, CCC, July 26, 2011
• Possible pawn hash speed optimization? by John Merlino, CCC, September 19, 2011 » Pawn Hash Table
• SMP and pondering by John Merlino, CCC, February 08, 2014 » Parallel Search, Pondering

2015 …#

• Myrddin 0.87 release by John Merlino, CCC, January 25, 2015
• Rebel Book Draw? by John Merlino, CCC, October 03, 2018 » Opening Book, Draw

2020 …#

• Working on Myrddin again by John Merlino, CCC, June 28, 2021
• Number of aspiration “windows” before full-width search? by John Merlino, CCC, November 09, 2021 » Aspiration Windows

External Links#

• John Merlino | LinkedIn
• John Merlino - Developer BIO from MobyGames
• Chessmaster 6000 (1999) Macintosh credits - MobyGames
• Chessmaster 6000 Credit Information - GameFAQs
• Chessmaster 6000 Details and Credits for PC - Metacritic
• Chessmaster 7000 (1999) Windows credits - MobyGames
• Chessmaster 8000 Credit Information - GameFAQs
• Chessmaster 9000 (2002) Windows credits - MobyGames
• Chessmaster 9000 Details and Credits for PC - Metacritic
• Disney’s Aladdin Chess Adventures (2004) Windows credits - MobyGames
• Myrddin by John Merlino, Computer-Chess Wiki by Ron Murawski

References#

1. ↑ John Merlino | LinkedIn
2. ↑ Chessmaster 6000 1.0.2 Patch now available by John Merlino, CCC, December 22, 1998
3. ↑ Chessmaster 9000 Beta Report by John Merlino, CCC, May 07, 2002
4. ↑ Software Toolworks to Ubi Soft (OT) by John Merlino, CCC, March 20, 2001
5. ↑ Disney’s Aladdin Chess Adventures (2004) Windows credits - MobyGames
6. ↑ Myrddin by John Merlino, Computer-Chess Wiki by Ron Murawski

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