Computer-Chess Wiki

This is a partial list of Winboard/UCI chess engines that were proven to be unauthorized copies of legitimate engines. I may remove some clones that did not get distributed widely. I am not going to list fake “upgrade versions” of legitimate engines. There are too many clones to list them all, so I want to list those that fooled us long enough to play in a major tournament, or authors who released clones more than once. Many of the programmer names shown under 'Cloner' are not real, but some of them are. This list is intended to be an “avoid list”. I feel strongly that Winboard people should not play clone engines in any tournament! The only exception being the engines marked with an asterisk (*) indicating that the engine is no longer a clone.

• Dec, 2017 – Added Nawito
• Sept, 2017 – Added EzIo aka Diablo
• Jan, 2011 – Added Scaramanga
• June, 2009 – Removed Caiozz, Light, Quartax and Serifinus, they were personalities of the clone engine Lord King
• Feb, 2009 – Removed LuiZa from the list: author states that Faile copyright was inside zip file and there was no attempt to deceive anyone. Removed Lion++ and Cipollino from the list: the original determination of this program as a clone was in error.
• Jan, 2009 – Added LION++ back into the clone list plus another clone engine, Cipollino; Kerostave author identified.
• Nov, 2008 – Added Rooster
• July, 2008 – xyclOps and Oxygen added
• March 17, 2008 – LION++ by Giancarlo Delli Colli from Italy has been removed from the clone list. The ICGA ejected this engine from its tournament because it was determined to be a clone of Fruit. Sources: (ChessNinja) (Internet Chess Club) The tournament application of LION++ to the prestigious ICGA's 14th Computer Chess Tournament failed to mention its history: because of this application form error it violated ICGA's clone rule. The LION++ code was commonly known to be a Fruit derivative and the author was not trying to keep a secret, therefore it is not a true clone. It seems the author simply misunderstood the tournament rules.
• Modification: July 11, 2007 Michael Ehrig identified from Germany by Rainer Serfling
• Modification: June 11, 2007 Hardware Harvey identified as Hiarcs clone by Rainer Serfling

Assistance in creating this list: Olivier Deville, Alexander Schmidt, Guenther Simon, Tony Thomas, Hartmut Woldeit, Gábor Szots, Teemu Pudas, Jim Ablett, Tony Mokonen, Matthias Gemuh, Pedro Castro, Gerhard Schwager, Wilfredo Malave, Michael Diosi, Christopher Conkie, Alessandro Scotti, Dann Corbit, Harun Taner, Rainer Serfling, Antonio Senatore, Peter Alloysius, Norbert Raimund Leisner, and Sergio Martinez. Thanks guys! Especially you, Sergio – it was your idea!

If you have a correction or addition, please email me !