21 November 2022

Stockfish vs. ChessBase Settlement

I've been following the 'Fat Fritz' story on this blog for over three years -- four years if you count the 'Deus X [DeusX]' posts linked in the first post listed here:-

Interest in the subject is high, and that last 'In Court' post is currently at no.5 in 'Popular Posts (last 12 months)' at the bottom of all pages on the blog. A few days ago Stockfish announced, ChessBase GmbH and the Stockfish team reach an agreement and end their legal dispute (stockfishchess.org). The press release said,

We are pleased to announce that we have found an agreement that strengthens the Stockfish project in its aim to deliver the world’s number #1 chess engine as Free Software and that allows ChessBase to distribute our software in the future.

Some Stockfish fans are going to be unhappy with the settlement, especially since ChessBase escaped monetary compensation to the Stockfish team. Given the already heavy blow to its reputation, I doubt that ChessBase would agree damages were light.

No comments: