And the Ippolit author is...

[Alexander Schmidt]

On the Ippolit Webpage I saw this in the Faq:

Q. IPPOLIT pursues previous ships?
A. True, with KAISSA, Crafty, Fruit/Toga/Rybka/Strelka, etc. Yet beyond solely saponification from predescendants.

And I guess this near the truth.

KAISSA is the only engine I found with somehow similar UCI handling to Ippolit. KAISSA was the successor of Patriot, first a Crafty, then a Fruit clone. I am not sure what the latest Kaissa is based on, but I think it is Crafty.

So Ippolit might be the successor of Kaissa, with parts of Rybka, Fruit, Strelka.

The author of Patriot/Kaissa was Vladimir Yelin. I had many Emails with him, and his english reminds me a lot to the english on the Ippolit webpage. Also the name Patriot fits to the "patriotic" words on the webpage.

So I think it is possible that Ippolit is, based on Kaissa/Crafty with additions of other open source engines, and the author is Vladimir Yelin.

[Matthias Gemuh]

So I think ... the author is Vladimir Yelin.

2 problems I see with the assessment:

a) Ippolit author has to be a truely competent guy.
b) Ippolit is freeware (though strongest engine).

Matthias.

[Dann Corbit]

On the Ippolit Webpage I saw this in the Faq:

Q. IPPOLIT pursues previous ships?
A. True, with KAISSA, Crafty, Fruit/Toga/Rybka/Strelka, etc. Yet beyond solely saponification from predescendants.

And I guess this near the truth.

KAISSA is the only engine I found with somehow similar UCI handling to Ippolit. KAISSA was the successor of Patriot, first a Crafty, then a Fruit clone. I am not sure what the latest Kaissa is based on, but I think it is Crafty.

So Ippolit might be the successor of Kaissa, with parts of Rybka, Fruit, Strelka.

The author of Patriot/Kaissa was Vladimir Yelin. I had many Emails with him, and his english reminds me a lot to the english on the Ippolit webpage. Also the name Patriot fits to the "patriotic" words on the webpage.

So I think it is possible that Ippolit is, based on Kaissa/Crafty with additions of other open source engines, and the author is Vladimir Yelin.

I do not think it is a good idea to speculate about who the author might be.

I would suggest this course of action:
Go to their site and send them a message, asking who they are.

[WinPooh]

Yelin's engine was Kaissa2, not Kaissa. I think Ipp's authors say about original Kaissa written in 1974 in USSR.

[Alexander Schmidt]

Though I used "possible" and "might" I am quite sure about that.

Otherwise KAISSA would not appear in that FAQ, it is not open source afaik, and noone would decompile it.

The UCI output is a good hint where the roots of an engine is. I found no engine except KAISSA that is similar in any way to Ippolit.

So I am very sure, that the comment on the site is true or very near the truth. Ippolit is based on "KAISSA, Crafty, Fruit/Toga/Rybka/Strelka, etc."

Based on that, it is likely that the author of KAISSA is the same as the author of Ippolit. Beside that I remember how Vladimir reacted when we detected his clone Patriot. Unfortunately I don't have the emails anymore. But the tone, the english skills and the hate to the capitalism are the same.

You will agree that this english is unique. Especially the word creation.

Noone knows how talented he is, and several years are gone. The first clone was only based on Crafty and there where many new things in it. So he definately has some programming skills.

If you want write him an email, I doubt you will get a useful answer

I for myself close the folder Ippolit as "solved"

[Alexander Schmidt]

id name Kaissa 1.8a
id author Vladimir Yelin

[F. Bluemers]

if all this is true,the ship has stranded

[Andre van Ark]

Comrade Fonzy

[F. Bluemers]

Comrade Fonzy

Comrade Andre,
Hereby the Party apoints you to the job of penholder !

Idea (Igor): Conjure Bugs leaf, Purpose: holding pen supporting workers

[WinPooh]

id name Kaissa 1.8a
id author Vladimir Yelin

Yelin's engine Kaissa2 was not a clone and played at 2100-2200 level.
When he renamed it to Kaissa it was already (probably) a clone of Crafty (?).

Some people (including me) recommended him not to use the honest name of first Soviet chess program. After that he renamed his engine to Patriot.