Strelka () is a computer
chess engine
In computer chess, a chess engine is a computer program that analyzes chess or List of chess variants, chess variant positions, and generates a move or list of moves that it regards as strongest.
A chess software engine, engine is usually a Front ...
for
Windows
Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
, developed by Yuri Osipov and released in May 2007. In total five versions of the program have been developed with the latest 5.5 version, released in May 2012, running only on a single processor core. The engine is named after the
Soviet space dog of the same name.
Strelka's achievements has been considered controversial, due to
the disputed originality of its source code.
Strelka has been one of the strongest chess programs in the world according to the rating lists published by "Computerchess.org" and "husvankempen.de", entering the lists in late 2011
and climbing the ranks, taking second place in the 40/4 blitz rating list by December 2011
and seventh place in the 40/40 rating list by April 2012.
After late 2012, Strelka dropped to the fourth place in 40/4, surpassed by the
Critter,
Komodo, and eventually
Stockfish
Stockfish is unsalted fish, especially cod, dried by cold air and wind on wooden racks (which are called "hjell" in Norway) on the foreshore. The drying of food is the world's oldest known preservation method, and dried fish has a storage li ...
. Strelka fell out of top twelve in 40/40 rating by early 2015.
Playing strength
As of version 5.0, Strelka included 32-bit and 64-bit uniprocessor versions. Strelka 5.5 64-bit had 3197
Elo
Elo or ELO may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Electric Light Orchestra, a British rock music group
** ''The Electric Light Orchestra'' (album), the group's debut album
* ''Elo'', a member magazine for the Tuglas Society
Biology
* Very-long-c ...
in the 40/40
computer chess rating list (CCRL) published in April 29, 2012, while in
CEGT
Chess Engines Grand Tournament, also known as CEGT, is an organization that tests computer chess software by playing chess engines against one another and publishing a ratings table.
CEGT routinely tests chess engines in various time controls suc ...
40/4 rating Strelka 5.0 x64 1CPU reached its highest 3214 Elo in December 2011.
History
Strelka finished 2nd at the
CIS computer chess championship in 2008, behind WildCat.
Controversy
With the initial release of Strelka, chess players on "Rybkaforum" alleged that this engine was a clone of
Rybka
Rybka is a computer chess engine designed by International Master Vasik Rajlich. Around 2011, Rybka was one of the top-rated engines on chess engine rating lists and won many computer chess tournaments.
After Rybka won four consecutive Wor ...
1.0 beta—a reverse-engineered and slightly modified version of Rybka. Several players on the forum found Strelka to yield identical analysis to Rybka in a variety of different situations, even having the same bugs and weaknesses in some cases. Osipov, however, repeatedly stated on discussion boards that Strelka was based on
Fruit
In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering.
Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...
, not Rybka, and that any similarities was either because Rybka was also based on Fruit, or because he had tuned the evaluation function to be as close to Rybka as possible.
After the release of Strelka 2.0 beta in January 2008, source code was included. Vasik Rajlich, the author of Rybka, stated that the source made it "obvious" that Strelka 2.0 beta was indeed a Rybka 1.0 beta clone, although not without some improvements in certain areas. On the basis of this, he claimed the source as his own and intended to re-release it under his own name, although he later decided not to do so. He also made allegations that "Yuri Osipov" was a
pen name
A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...
.
According to Victor Zakharov (Convekta company) in his review for Arena chess website: "I consider that Yuri Osipov (Ivanovich) is his real name. He didn't hide it. However I can't state this with 100% assurance." And he also has some contact with Yuri Osipov for development of mobile platforms chess program.
On Jan 23, 2011, Fabien Letouzey, the author of Fruit, sent a letter to another chess programmer Tord Romstad about Strelka and Rybka, where he expressed an opinion that Strelka 2.0 beta was a Fruit derivate with some minor changes.
References
External links
*
Chess engine Strelka(English translation)
*
By Jury Osipov (English Translated).
* {{webarchive , url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160217084855/http://www.sdchess.ru/download_engines.htm , date=February 17, 2016 , title=Engine downloads
Chess engines