Ruffian

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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.

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#

• Chester
• Kasparov Chessmate
• King of Kings
• 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
• 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#

• ruffian - Wiktionary
• ruffiano - Wiktionary
• from Wikipedia
• Ruffian Games from Wikipedia
• Ruffian (horse) from Wikipedia
• The Ruffian - eBike

References#

1. ↑ What is Ruffian? by Bas Hamstra, CCC, July 24, 2002
2. ↑ Ruffian, the replacement to ABBA, Interview with Perola Valfridsson by Frank Quisinsky et al., October, 2002, hosted by Ed Schröder
3. ↑ Ruffian 2.0: 3 Euro - Schachversand Niggemann
4. ↑ Ruffian’s Secret? by Steve Maughan, CCC, November 23, 2003
5. ↑ Photos from the old CSVN site
6. ↑ Participants 23rd Open Dutch Computer-Chess Championship 18, 19, 25, 26 Oct. 2003; Leiden, Netherlands old CSVN site
7. ↑ Dutch Open Leiden final ranking - Ruffian Champion by Theo van der Storm, CCC, October 26, 2003
8. ↑ iSMDS-03 (unofficial) Swedish Championship 2003 by Albert Bertilsson
9. ↑ Download Winboard and UCI engines by Ed Schröder
10. ↑ ChessAssistance.com A talk with Victor Zakharov, head of Convekta development, part b by Robert Pawlak, February 14, 2003
11. ↑ Arena 1.0 / Ruffian 2.0 … information! by Frank Quisinsky, CCC, November 21, 2003
12. ↑ Good news for Ruffian Lovers from outside europe by Johan Havegheer, CCC, February 21, 2004
13. ↑ Kasparov Chessmate review by Alastair Scott, CCC, July 12, 2003
14. ↑ Perola Valfridsson from MobyGames
15. ↑ Re: CSVN Leiden (Ruffian and Sjeng missing) by Johan Havegheer, CCC, June 01, 2005
16. ↑ Ruffian 2.0: 3 Euro - Schachversand Niggemann
17. ↑ Ruffian support … by Frank Quisinsky, CCC, May 16, 2017

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