Don Dailey, 1956 -2013

[mvk]

Today is 15 years and 2 days ago that I met Don. It was the first round of the DOCCC, where he participated with CilkChess. The event was held in Alphen aan den Rijn that year, a town near Leiden. In those days the tournament lasted two full weekends. The CilkChess team was on-site, which was really great. I lived in Eindhoven at the time and I remember missing the train to Leiden that morning. I had overslept because of a late night hacking session the night before, attempting to get some basic parallelism from my single cpu program (the idea was to use the shared hash table approach). After having missed the train I remember deciding to hop in a taxi to make it on time for the first round. The trip set me back about 350 guilders, ouch. The same trip would probably cost at least the same amount in Euros nowadays. I played on a university Sun computer, connecting remotely with a borrowed laptop. I made it just in time to get beaten by Don in the first round.

[pgn]
[Event "DOCCC 1998"]
[Site "Alphen aan den Rijn"]
[Date "1998.11.21"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Rookie 2.0+"]
[Black "CilkChess"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A57 Benko gambit half accepted"]

1. c4 Nf6 2. d4 c5 3. d5 b5 4. cxb5 a6 5. e3 g6 6. Nc3 d6 7. Nf3 Bg7 8. Be2 O-O 9. a4 axb5 10. Bxb5 Ba6 11. Bxa6 Nxa6 12. O-O Nb4 13. e4 c4 14. Kh1 Nd3 15. Qe2 Qb6 16. Ne1 Nxc1 17. Rxc1 Qb4 18. Ra1 Rfb8 19. Ra2 Qb3 20. f3 Nd7 21. Rf2 Bd4 22. Rf1 Nc5 23. a5 Bxc3 24. bxc3 Na4 25. Qd2 Nxc3 26. Ra1 Na4 27. Nc2 c3 28. Qf2 Qc4 29. Qd4 Rc8 30. Rfb1 Qxd4 31. Nxd4 Rc4 32. Nb5 Nc5 33. Ra2 c2 34. Rc1 Nd3 35. Rcxc2 Rxc2 36. Rxc2 Rxa5 37. h4 Rxb5 38. Kh2 f5 39. Rc8+ Kg7 40. Re8 Rb7 41. Kg3 fxe4 42. fxe4 Kf6 43. Rh8 h5 44. Rg8 Nc5 45. e5+ dxe5 46. Rf8+ Kg7 47. Rd8 Ne4+ 48. Kf3 Nd6 0-1
[/pgn]

This is a picture of us after the game. From left to right: Vincent Diepeveen, Don Dailey, Aske Plaat, an unknown spectator (not MIT team member), and me.


Don's approach to chess programming was already much more professional than most of us. The idea of testing by playing many automated games was not commonly done by amateurs. Don explained the difficulties he had interfacing with commercial programs. Nothing like UCI existed and all programs came with their own GUI. His solution to play them anyway: frame grab the display from the video memory and detect where the pieces are drawn. Send back your own moves by faking keyboard interrupts. Absolutely brilliant.

Don will be severely missed.

[gladius]

A tremendous loss. RIP Don.

[reflectionofpower]

See you in the New System Don. I didn't know you was a JW and my brother. I have been one for 27 years.

[gordonr]

Rest in peace Don. You'll always be remembered.

[RJN]

RIP Don, and thanks for all your contributions. I enjoyed your chat on TCEC in your final days. You have left an enduring mark on computer chess, and thus you will be remembered in many ways, by many people. You had the respect of your peers, and of those like myself who are mere enthusiasts.

Good Journey to you.

[Marek Soszynski]

Niech spoczywa w pokoju (May he rest in peace)

[bob]

This is always a miserable topic. And repeated FAR too many times. I've made lots of friends through computer chess over the years, and each time this happens, it is painful...

May he rest in peace.

[fern]

I hope Don was right and there is another world where he will enjoy the eternal light and love of God.
I wonder if we can do something else beyond just say a good bye in a thread.
I have no more words to say. I felt very near Don because the many post and mail we shared and even when we discussed about lot of things I felt near him
Now I know that, as me, Don was born in humble conditions and was a man without scholarly titles and even so he fought to get prestige as a programmer of first class.

I hope we will meet again.

Fern

[jdart]

Sorry to hear of his passing. He had an impressive list of accomplishments.

I have a relative who is a leukemia survivor (cancer-free so far but with a lot of lingering side effects from the treatment). It is a tough thing to fight.

--Jon

[Jamal Bubker]

My sincere condolences to Don's family. Jehovah won't forget you Don !