The Story Behind The Engine Names ?

[sedicla]

My engine is named Tucano (Toucan in english), which is a peculiar bird that can be found in south America and is popular in Brazil, my native country. I was just looking for good Brazilian name. The first one that come to my mind was Capivara (Capybara in english), but it was already taken. Capivara in brazilian chess means patzer, not very imposing name, but fun .
Anyways I like Tucano name thou...

[rainhaus]

My engine is named Tucano (Toucan in english), which is a peculiar bird that can be found in south America and is popular in Brazil, my native country. I was just looking for good Brazilian name. The first one that come to my mind was Capivara (Capybara in english), but it was already taken. Capivara in brazilian chess means patzer, not very imposing name, but fun .
Anyways I like Tucano name thou...

Thanks for the info, one of the few engines where the name is also clarified on the website. According to the CCRL list, the program is well ahead: Tucano 10.00 64-bit 4CPU 3358 Elo. My reference to the programmer.

There is another engine from Brazil, "Pirarucu", as you probably know, a big fish. With Stockfish, Rybka and Pirarucu we have 3 fish and with Tucano and Raven 2 birds.
Animals are popularly used as engine names at all :
Dragon, Igel, Wasp, Gibbon, Bumblebee, Giraffe, Spider, Scorpio, Bison, Amoeba, Black Mamba.

Stay on the trigger
Rainer

[rainhaus]

Why didn't you mention the dirty cucumber engine? The name is funny and internationally understandable. A cucumber means a not so successful person or thing in German, that is what is meant, OK ?

Cucumber in colloquial spanish means the opposite e.g.: a fast car, or a powerful computer . The real thing is that in my real life I sell cucumbers and Fonzy liked it for a version name so we used it.
Well, EveAnn is a very simple amateur engine. I'm not a good programer. When we merge it with Buzz (by Pradu Kannan), which is tecnically much better (but lousy in chess knowledge), the mix was gradually incrementing its strength. Then, Fonzy entered the team and boosted it a lot, ending with the Dirty Cucumber version.

Good to know, especially for the Spaniard. He should be careful not to call something or someone a cucumber in Germany

May the "Dirty Cucumber" continue to flourish!

Greetings from Germany
Rainer

[lkaufman]

.
What is the story behind the names of chess engines? Dear authors, it would be great if you could tell us something about it.

In the case of the top chess engines Stockfish and Komodo, you can actually find something on the original sites.
"Komodo Dragon is the most terrifying lizard in the world, and because "Dragon" refers to the Dragon Sicilian, a popular chess opening"

............

Oh hard times! Stockfish is a typical Scandinavian specialty, a dried cod or pollock, and the authors also wanted to express the trade between Norway (Tord Romstad) and Italy (Marco Costalba). But dried fish remains a dry fish, there are prettier names and associations with a chess engine, IMHO. O.k. swimming against the tide, so to speak, I would certainly not baptize my child like that.
But otherwise you can't say anything against this program Not just an engine, but a world project for which many work and from which many also benefit. The world of computer chess has never seen anything like this.

Rainer
.

There was actually a third reason I chose the name "Komodo (Dragon)" on top of the two listed above. The strongest piece in shogi is a promoted rook, which is then called a "dragon". I was considered to be the top non-Asian shogi player from about 1980 to 2000 and remain very active in shogi, so this naturally appealed to me. The choice was proven to be prophetic when Komodo (and other top engines) adopted the NNUE idea which was first implemented in shogi. Prior to this the Dragon part of the name was only implied, but when we adopted NNUE it became officially part of the name, quite appropriately in view of the NNUE/shogi connection.

[Ozymandias]

What about Doch?

[Ajedrecista]

Hello:

What about Doch?

Doch is acronym of Don's Chess according to CPW:

Doch was never intended to be the name that would stick. When I first decided to write this program I needed a name and did not want to spend days obsessing over it. I did not want to call it "chess" but it needed a name to give it some personality. Doch stands for DOn's CHess. I never got around to giving it a proper name and I feel a bit immodest calling it after my own name!

Link of the interview from December, 2009.

Regards from Spain.

Ajedrecista.

[rainhaus]

What is the story behind the names of chess engines? Dear authors, it would be great if you could tell us something about it.
In the case of the top chess engines Stockfish and Komodo, you can actually find something on the original sites.
"Komodo Dragon is the most terrifying lizard in the world, and because "Dragon" refers to the Dragon Sicilian, a popular chess opening"
............
Rainer

There was actually a third reason I chose the name "Komodo (Dragon)" on top of the two listed above. The strongest piece in shogi is a promoted rook, which is then called a "dragon". I was considered to be the top non-Asian shogi player from about 1980 to 2000 and remain very active in shogi, so this naturally appealed to me. The choice was proven to be prophetic when Komodo (and other top engines) adopted the NNUE idea which was first implemented in shogi. Prior to this the Dragon part of the name was only implied, but when we adopted NNUE it became officially part of the name, quite appropriately in view of the NNUE/shogi connection.

Hi Larry,
having a super dragon stop by here is a special appreciation, thanks for that complementary info. So to speak, the "invisible 3rd reason" as a premium announcement here in this thread. Great!

Just a few weeks ago I made a quiz for the German CSS-Computerschachforum, where the engine authors could be identified by their photos.

Question 4) Komodo, a program series with a long tradition up to the NNUE Dragons. One of the few commercial programs. Together with Stockfish the top duo, no significant difference to each other anymore, but to the rest. Which Komodo author is pictured, or are there even more?
Question 9) Is there also one of the best western shogi players?
Question 10) Is there a grandmaster?
https://forum.computerschach.de/cgi-bin ... #pid162629

All three questions apply to you, but the conclusion of the small survey: of course many know who the authors are, but hardly anyone knows how they look like.Too lazy to google, typical internet.

Many hobby programmers want to program a second Komodo, but it only becomes a Quasimodo, but that's good, the dragon needs something to eat

Your statement in the posting of March 17 "KomodoChess sales weren't sufficient to hire a new full-time programmer" says everything what can be earned with chess programming. I hope we will hear news from the new Komodo Dragon owner soon.

Best regards from Germany
Rainer

[Ozymandias]

Hello:

What about Doch?

Doch is acronym of Don's Chess according to CPW:

Doch was never intended to be the name that would stick. When I first decided to write this program I needed a name and did not want to spend days obsessing over it. I did not want to call it "chess" but it needed a name to give it some personality. Doch stands for DOn's CHess. I never got around to giving it a proper name and I feel a bit immodest calling it after my own name!

Link of the interview from December, 2009.

Regards from Spain.

Ajedrecista.

Thanks, I missed that one.

[smatovic]

...btw, I like the Zahak story:

https://www.chessprogramming.org/Zahak
https://www.chessprogramming.org/Zahak#Etymology

Zahak (or Zahhak or Azhi Dahak) is an evil figure in Iranian/Kurdish/Perisan mythology, evident in ancient Iranian folklore as Azhi Dahāka, the name by which he also appears in the texts of the Avesta. Legend has it, that he had two giant snakes on his shoulders and he had to feed them two human brains on daily basis.

Giant brain eating snakes, beautiful theme for an chess playing engine

--
Srdja

[pijl]

When I participated in my first tournament in 2002 I was interviewed and asked about the name of my chess engine 'The Baron'. More specifically the question was whether it was a tribute to Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen, who created the Turk in the 18th century.
That would have been a good story, but it is not true.
I lived in Breda, the Netherlands at the time I created it, and was member of the chess club 'De Baronie' (the Barony) which made is logical at the time to call the engine 'The Baron'. Especially since the name was not yet taken and there were quite a few engines at the time carrying noble titles, like The King, Queen and Duke.

Later, when writing a new chess engine I called it Crashtest Dummy (CTD) as it was intended as a test version to become the new 'The Baron'. It actually participated under that name in one of the CSVN tournaments, operated by my daughter Tessa. Running on a slow laptop it almost beat the old Baron version. It earned her the prize for 'best operator', which considering her age at the time (10 years old) was well deserved!
Richard.