A word for casual testers

[lucasart]

All that remains is to test hexedited masterpieces.

"Hexedited master pieces": I like that

[Don]

You may notice that in some cases
someone will make a minor modification to some open source program and
based on some 100 game match declare a breakthrough.

This is SO true !

The world is swamped with derivatives of IvanHoe and Stockfish, that claim to be some kind of breakthrough, because they solved this position faster than the original, or whatever futile criterion they may find.

But proper testing always confirms that the derivatives are weaker than the original. It takes a lot more work and humility to improve significantly on something like IvanHoe or Stockfish...

Yes, I feel exactly the same way you do on this. Sometimes there are online tournaments people run where there are multiple minor revisions of the same program. It's disconcerting that I don't get to have 2 or 3 versions of Komodo running. They don't see the problem because they don't understand the math and that this is an unprofessional way to run a tournament.

Don

[Graham Banks]

Yes, unfortunately.
Some creative guys spit 3000+ engines like a volcano, those who never had to debug their move generator of course; no problem as long as they comply with the license, sure.
What I don't understand however is that these get room in some tournaments (yes I'm referring to CCRL - PS I wonder why there's still the grey area - quite pointless nowadays IMHO
So basically they test x versions of the same engine, just renamed and "improved". All that remains is to test hexedited masterpieces.

Hi Martin,

we're looking at removing the controversial grey colour, as it does indeed seem pointless these days.
Any mention of derivative status will likely occur in the engine notes instead.

Graham.

[mar]

Hi Martin,

we're looking at removing the controversial grey colour, as it does indeed seem pointless these days.
Any mention of derivative status will likely occur in the engine notes instead.

Graham.

Hi Graham,

that's indeed a better idea

Martin