What is the story behind the names of chess engines? Dear authors, it would be great if you could tell us something about it.
A few days ago, I asked the author of the chess engine RubiChess in the CSS-Forum where the name of his engine came from. For me it was pretty clear that it was simply named after the gem ruby. Here's what Andreas Mathies, had to say about it (translation from German):
"Everything you assumed is wrong. In fact, the name originated here: https://de.findagrave.com/memorial/8429 ... ny-tomasin. In my English class in fifth grade (it must have been 1979), a classmate gave us names from the TV series 'House at Eaton Place'. It's a mystery why I was given a female name, but strangely, it meant that this nickname persisted into adulthood and well beyond high school. To give the name a personal touch, I changed the y to an i in the early 1980s. My first programming exercises on the C64, which never went beyond my own 5 1/4-inch floppy disks, ran under the name 'Rubisoft.' And just as 'Rubi' had disappeared into obscurity, I was looking for a name for my emerging chess program. End of story."
So, it's a very personal story. Knowing the story behind a work, it can give you a feeling of what the engine stands for and what inspires it. Which chess engines do we actually know the story behind their names? Which author has commented on it, and what connects them personally to the name?
I couldn't find a separate section for it on GitHub, Wikipedia, CPW, or the authors' pages. Here's a little report on what I was able to research about top engines and well-known programs on the internet and in forums.
Arasan means "king" in Tamil, a language spoken in South India and Sri Lanka.
Koivisto is unknown. Does the name come from a small group of islands northwest of Stockholm, Auno Henrik Koivisto, a Finnish politician who was the ninth president of Finland from 1982 to 1994, or Henrik Koivisto, a Finnish professional ice hockey player?
Nothing was found for Ethereal, Seer, RofChade, Uralochka, Minic and many others.
Okay, with many of the engines the names are so suggestive that you can guess what they are supposed to express: Deep Thought, Tiger, Dragon, Rebel, Tal, Wasp, etc.
The eagerly awaited new CSTal engine. The name says a lot aldready. Mikhail Tal, one of the most famous player personalities, the magician from Riga, the master of sacrifices and combinations.
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Two quotes from him:
- "You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one
- There are two types of sacrifices: correct ones, and mine."
Houdini had the double meaning of Houdart/escapologist as its inspiration. Whether the engine actually excels in this discipline, to escape from precarious situations, is not known to me.
Hiarcs is simply an abbreviation: "Higher Intelligence Auto Response Chess System."
But beware, sometimes you can be wrong. S.M. Kahlen the author of Shredder, S.M. Kahlen the author of Shredder did not want to make "mincemeat" of his opponents, but to surf a wave in a flashy and skillful way.
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It might be that this immediately changes the author's image: not a butcher but a sportsman looking for elegance
Since the TV series VIKINGS, many people know what a Berserk is, an angry and violent fighter. However, it could also specifically refer to a Japanese manga
Fritz is a typical German name
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.Frederick the Great, King of Prussia from 1740-1786, was nicknamed "Old Fritz", and during World War II, Germans called the British "Tommy" and the British called the Germans "Fritz". In my opinion not such a good reference, a war. I don't know why, but for me, Fritz is somehow a synonym for "cheeky"!?
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"
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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
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