Ferret 1.00 v258 - program from 1995

[reflectionofpower]

I used to always say to Bruce and others that Bruce sleeps with ferret under his pillow at night. He has NEVER released a version of ferret publicly that I know of.

[supersharp77]

1.- thought Ferret was privateware and not released.

2.-I am pretty sure it was Winboard compatible. It was one of the earliest programs on ICC. I know nothing about the details of running it though.

--Jon

Hello !

1.- Theoretically, yes. But they are some versions floating around. The axiom "friend of a friend" works even in privateware world.

2.- The 1.00 (258) version it is a WB-1 compatible chess engine. Any doubt. Just missing a command-line argument to work in Winboard/Arena GUIs.

A terrible strong chess program for the 1995 year. They are many private chess engines, but Ferret is a computer chess jewellry.

Regards,
SilvianR

These rumors of a Ferret winboard chess engine or a simple code change that makes Ferret a winboard compatible engine persist..Or of a Convetka-Ferret engine project that was placed on hold..Any truth to those rumors? Thx AR

[Dann Corbit]

Bruce was working with Convetka to make a commercial version.
The project never got completed.

[Alexander Schmidt]

I remember reading some old Winboard forum posts about a chess engiine that wasn't released to the public, I forget the engine's name, and some beta testers had let it out into the wild. If I remember correctly the engine's programmer was young, maybe even just a teenager, and the release of the engine against his wishes turned him off to continuing.

Dieter Bürssner and Yace. It was about to be as strong as the best commercial engines at that time. It never made it to version 1.

[jdart]

Ferret competed in quite a few tournaments from 1995-early 2000s, and it was active on chessclub.com. Some games are available here:

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=30003

[Dann Corbit]

https://www.chessprogramming.org/Ferret
"Ferret won the Amateur World Microcomputer Chess Champion Title in Paderborn 1995 and was two times winner of the World Microcomputer Speed-Chess Champion, in Jakarta 1996 and Paris 1997. Ferret became runner up at the 14th World Microcomputer Chess Championship, Jakarta 1996 without losing a game. At the 9th World Computer Chess Championship, Paderborn 1999, Ferret was unlucky in not winning a dramatical playoff against Shredder. "

Bruce Moreland was a marvelous programmer with a true gift for explaining things. His chess programming site was a real boon for beginners.

[mclane]

To all the chess programmers who gave us the engines to do our best hobby.

Respect to those who have gone. Don Dailey, David Broughton.

[Albert Silver]

Bruce was working with Convetka to make a commercial version.
The project never got completed.

Yes, it was somewhere between Fritz 5 and Fritz 6 strength, the two kings of the time. Like them, it was an incredibly fast engine that compensated many of its positional flaws by simply outcalculating its rivals. I actually still have it and one of the test interfaces built to run it, though it was for... drum roll... Windows 98/Millennium.

[reflectionofpower]

Ferret competed in quite a few tournaments from 1995-early 2000s, and it was active on chessclub.com. Some games are available here:

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=30003

In those games I was DoctorWho - Game 11. I think I was using Fritz 5 or it could have been wChess DOS version which was pretty strong,fast,string endgame. I played against ferret a lot using those programs. I liked using MChess Pro 3.5 verse ferret. Those were blood baths, mostly my blood but were very entertaining games. A good amount of people would watch the games because they were so entertaining and ferret was a beautiful program, tactically a monster,an attacking maniac with a very strong endgame.

[Gabor Szots]

I remember reading some old Winboard forum posts about a chess engiine that wasn't released to the public, I forget the engine's name, and some beta testers had let it out into the wild. If I remember correctly the engine's programmer was young, maybe even just a teenager, and the release of the engine against his wishes turned him off to continuing.

Dieter Bürssner and Yace. It was about to be as strong as the best commercial engines at that time. It never made it to version 1.

Are you sure? If memory serves me well Yace was published by Dieter of his own accord.

The engine in question may be Insomniac by James Robertson.