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In July of 2021 we reported that authorized proceedings had begun between the builders of Stockfish, the world’s strongest chess engine, and Chessbase GmbH, builders of varied fashionable chess software program. After greater than a 12 months of wrangling, that lawsuit has now come to an finish with the events agreeing to a settlement.
Per the settlement, Chessbase concedes they used Stockfish in violation of its license in two of their merchandise, Fats Fritz 2 and Houdini 6. That they had beforehand asserted for years that Houdini was an unique creation. They are going to be prevented from distributing Stockfish in modified or unmodified type for a interval of 1 12 months, except for re-downloads of already bought merchandise. This would appear to imply that their massive holiday-season product ChessBase 17, which can be launched in on November twenty third, is not going to come packaged with the strongest chess engine obtainable, nor will it comprise any of the Stockfish-derived engines that ChessBase has bought up to now.
Moreover, ChessBase agrees that any future public comparisons they make between their engines and Stockfish can be truthful and use the strongest model of Stockfish. Chessbase had beforehand printed comparisons between Fats Fritz 2, utilizing the most recent model of Stockfish, towards an older model of Stockfish to attempt to show that Fats Fritz was stronger.
Chessbase may also be required to submit notices on all internet pages linked to Fats Fritz 2 or Houdini 6 making clear that these merchandise come from Stockfish. The YouTube interview the place Fats Fritz 2 “head coach” Albert Silver talks about growing Fats Fritz “virtually from scratch” now awkwardly comprises a discover mentioning the usage of Stockfish and its license with the feedback part closed. A ChessBase weblog selling that video has now apparently been deleted.
The settlement additionally contains the need to rent a Free Software program Compliance Officer to guarantee that additional violations don’t happen. Critically, the settlement contains no monetary compensation for the Stockfish group, not even authorized charges. There are fines for violating the settlement, however they’d be paid to the Free Software program Basis Europe and never the Stockfish group.
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