Developer

Rybka is a computer chess program designed by Vasik Rajlich an International Master and Larry Kaufman, a Grandmaster. The other people associated with this program are well known figures in the chess world. Some are chess players and the others are experts. The winner of the 2008 Senior Chess World Championship and a Grandmaster, Larry Kaufman is the person in charge of the evaluation function. Jeroen Noomen, who was also the designer for Rebel, deserves a mention as he along with Dagh Nielsen, one of the famous freestyle chess players are authors of Rybka’s opening book.

Rajlich, the creator of Rybka is a Czech-American citizen who performed brilliantly in his academics all his student life. He graduated from MIT, United States. He is married to Iweta Rajlich, who besides being Vasik Rajlich's wife is also a Grandmaster and primary tester for Rybka.

Features:

Rybka is a closed source program and uses bitboard representation. This gives 60% extra processing efficiency as it’s run in 64-bit mode. It is an alpha-beta searcher having quite a large aspiration window. It supports single processor and symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) systems. However, the current versions of Rybka have multiple processors and its evaluation function is considered one of the best advantages that it has over the rival programs.

Participation:

Rybka won the 17th World Computer Chess Championship 2009. The championship was held in Pamplona, Spain. It won against chess software like Shredder and Junior thus retaining the title for three times at a stretch.

Rybka participated in numerous Computer Chess Championships. It has won the 15th International Paderborn Computer Chess Championship in the year 2005 with a score of 5½ points against other chess engines like Gandalf, Zappa, Spike, Shredder and Fruit. It has won the CCT8 with a score of 8 and PAL/CSS (The PAL Group of Companies and German magazine,“Computerschach und Spiele”) Freestyle main tournament in the year 2006 with a good score. May 2006, Rybka won the 6th Leiden ICT with a score of 8½ keeping itself ahead of chess programs like Sjeng, Gandalf and Shredder. Rybka won the Dutch open computer chess championship with a score of 9 to 9. On December 2006, Rybka participated in16th International Paderborn Computer Chess Championship and won it with a score of 6½. Rybka was a contender of CCT9 and won it with a score of 6 to 7. Rybka won the 7th Leiden ICT in the year 2007 with a score of 7½. It was in the year 2007 that Rybka won the Dutch open computer chess championship with a score of 8 to 9. It also won the 27th Open Dutch Computer Chess Championship, held in Leiden.

World Computer Chess Championship

Rybka was a prime contender of the 14th World Computer Chess Championship that was held in Turin, Italy in the year 2006, May. Rybka was playing the tournament under the name Rajlich. It tied with software like Shredder. Rybka won the 15th World Computer Chess Championship in the year 2007 with a score of 10. Rybka won the 16th World Computer Chess Championship with a score of 8 on 9. The tournament was held in Beijing, China. Rybka also won the 17th World Computer Chess Championship, held in Pamplona, Spain, with a score of 8.0 on 9.

Future Releases:

Hopefully the future versions of Rybka will release shortly which promise compatibility with Linux and options of Pocket PCs and mobile devices versions too. Rybka 3.0 would work on platforms other than Windows. It will use an experimental translation layer only for Rybka, which is known by the name of microwine.

WCCC

2009

Palacio del Condestable, Pamplona, Spain was the host for 17th World Computer Chess Championship held from 10th to 18th may, 2009. From the 10 participating programs, Rybka retained its World Championship title with Junior, Shredder and Deep Sjeng shared 2-4th position. With this title win Rybka has won World Computer Chess Championship three times in a row.

2008

The 16th World Computer Chess Championship was held Beijing Golden Century Golf club, Fangshan, Beijing, China. The championship was organized from 28th September to 5th October 2008 with 10 participating teams and saw use of hardware ranging from 40-core system to a Nokia cell phone. The championship saw defending champion Rybka winning the crown with a full point ahead of the British rival Hiarcs, and Junior securing third position with a point behind the runner-up.

2007

The Netherlands, hosted the 15th World Computer Championship at Science Park Amsterdam, Amsterdam from 11th to 18th June, 2007. 12 teams participated in the round robin event without defending champion Junior and Fritz. Rybka defeated Shredder in the last round and ended the championship with an impressive 10 points out of possible 11. US programmer IM Vasik Rajlich`s Rybka was for the first time crowned 15th World Computer Champion.