Talk:Vasik Rajlich

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The notion of Rybka (which I proudly owns) being the best computer-chess program is a disputed one. This is probably what I would think myself, but there are people who do not believe so, and we have to do them justice, and state that 'Rybka is one of the strongest publically available chess programs'. Rybka is too new (one year in August 2006) in the computer chess scene to state that it is the best program. The notion of a program being good at chess is very relative. Anand for example prefers Hiarcs over Rybka for his analysis of the game, because Hiarcs move are more natural than those produced by Rybka. Strength may be loosely relative to 'goodness' or 'soundness' of the moves, I may agree on that. But than, to prove that Rybka is the best chess playing program, it would have to play in tournaments where top human and computer programs are involved, and consistently perform better than the other programs, or at least get a higher ELO. It would only be in this case that one could say that 'Rybka is the best computer program' (as we say now that Topalov is rated as the best chess player on Earth, in August 2006). Strong statements as these should only be written in Wikipedia when the claim cannot be contested. Which is not the case (yet!). Hope this helps to explain why I think it's best to maintain the sentence that says that Rybka is one of the best computer chess programs.

[edit] Is Vasik Czech born?

According to this discussion Vasic was not born in the US: http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5829&sid=5c89be869db8e88ad5df0c1ce2057cd1