Don Dailey (March 10, 1956 – November 22, 2013) was an American researcher in computer chess and a game programmer. Along with collaborator Larry Kaufman, he was the author of the chess engine Komodo. Dailey started chess programming in the 1980s, and was the author and co-author of multiple commercial as well as academic chess programs.

Chess programs

Rex Rex was Dailey's first chess program in the 1980s, in collaboration with Sam Sloan and Larry Kaufman. It competed at various ACM North American Computer Chess Championships and World Computer Chess Championships. Rex was improved further and marketed as RexChess.Larry Kaufman (1990). The Rexchess Story. Computer Chess Reports Quarterly. Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 8, Chess Computer UK by Mike Watters

Heuristic software In the early 1990s, Dailey started to work with chess master and computer chess programmer Julio Kaplan within his company Heuristic Software. The program they developed was called Heuristic Alpha, which later evolved into Socrates, Socrates II and the mass market entry Kasparov's Gambit.Larry Kaufman (1993). PC-Software. Computer Chess Reports, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 8-9, Chess Computer UK by Mike Watters

MIT connection At the ACM 1993 computer chess tournament, which was won by Dailey's program Socrates II on an IBM PC ahead of Cray Blitz, he met Bradley Kuszmaul and Charles Leiserson from MIT competing with StarTech, and they asked him to help develop a new parallel chess program. Some time later when Heuristic went out of business, he began working part-time for Leiserson at the lab at MIT on the new parallel program Star Socrates, beside his duty as official systems administrator. Star Socrates played a strong World Computer Chess Championship 1995 in Shatin, Hong Kong, finally losing the playoff versus Fritz. Dailey continued his cooperation with Charles Leiserson on the massively parallel chess program Cilkchess, written in Cilk.Don Dailey, Charles E. Leiserson (2001). Using Cilk to Write Multiprocessor Chess Programs. Advances in Computer Games 9, Jaap van den Herik and Burkhard Monien (eds.) (2001) Computer Science Department, IKAT, Maastricht University;

Corel and Mini Additionally, in the 1990s, Dailey further worked with Larry Kaufman on the commercial mass market entry Corel Chess. Beside competing with CilkChess, their serial chess program Mini played the World Computer Chess Championship 1999 in Paderborn.

Doch and Komodo After a break from computer chess and a few years focusing on other domains, Dailey's 2009/2010 chess program Doch as well as its successor KomodoKomodo chess engine by Don Dailey and Larry Kaufman wew again a joint effort in collaboration with Larry Kaufman.Komodo - Rybka in Danger? by Larry Kaufman, Rybka Forum, January 21, 2010 In Fall 2013, the developmental version of Komodo won stage 3,komodo wins stage 3 by Don Dailey, Talkchess.com, November 4, 2013 and already after Don's death, the final of the Thoresen Chess Engines Competition, the latter in a 48-game match versus stage 4 winner Stockfish by a margin of 25–23.nTCEC - Superfinal Finalist Stockfish DD, dedicated to Don Dailey, was officially released during the final,Stockfish DD: a new official release by Marco Costalba, Talkchess.com, November 29, 2013 the commercial Komodo-TCEC a few days later.Komodo-TCEC by Larry Kaufman, Talkchess.com; retrieved December 1, 2013Komodo TCEC released by Larry Kaufman, Talkchess.com; December 4, 2013

Personal life Dailey was an active poster in computer chess forums and computer Go newsgroups. He was raised as a Jehovah's Witness and served in recent years as an elder in the church of Roanoke.Kaufman, Larry. Remembering Don Dailey, komodochess.com; accessed November 30, 2013

Death In October 2013, Dailey announced the release of Komodo 6, but also news concerning the future status of Komodo due to his fatal illness of an acute form of leukemia,Komodo release by Don Dailey, TalkChess.com, October 1, 2013 and introduced Mark Lefler as new member of the Komodo team.Re: Who is Don/Larry's new partner!? by Don Dailey, TalkChess.com, October 8, 2013 Dailey died of leukemia at the age of 57 on November 22, 2013.Don Daily (1956 -2013) Goodbye by Larry Kaufman, Komodochess.com

Notes

References

External links Don Dailey's ICGA Tournaments Don Dailey: Chessprogramming wiki Computerschach, Interview with Don Dailey by Frank Quisinsky, Schachwelt, December 18–20, 2009 Interview with Don Dailey (Komodo programmer) , nTCEC interview by Martin Thoresen, April 7, 2013