Happy UnBirthday Ken

Mad Hatter: Now, statistics prove, prove that you’ve one birthday. March Hare: Imagine, just one birthday every year. Mad Hatter: Ah, but there are three hundred and sixty four unbirthdays! March Hare: Precisely why we’re gathered here to cheer.

Ken Regan just had his birthday the other day. Today is another unbirthday.

Please join me in wishing Ken many more happy birthdays as well as many many more unbirthdays.

Ken is a Mathematician

Ken is of course a co-author of this blog. We try to cover computer science and mathematics, but we are open to other areas. Ken started his career in Mathematics; he obtained a PhD in math from Oxford University in 1986. It was under Dominic Welsh and was tilted: On the separation of complexity classes. Welsh’s family tree is here.

Ken is a Programmer

Ken is of course famous for being one of the world’s top chess cheating detectors. Recall to cheat at chess is to use a computer program to make your moves in a game against a human opponent. This is strictly illegal.

Ken was featured on the cover in chess review. His work gets critic review here by David Barnes and Julio Hernandez-Castro in the 2015 article On the limits of engine analysis for cheating detection in chess in the journal Computers and Security.

Ken is Unique

Ken is special in many ways. He is smart, he is a wonderful partner, and he is a great friend. I would claim that he is one of the few people that have the following three properties:

1. He is an international master in chess of rating ;
2. He is a strong researcher in complexity theory;
3. He is a terrific programmer.

The last I would claim is pretty remarkable. There are many strong chess players, there are many of us working in complexity theory. But few have written as much production quality code as Ken has. For his work on chess cheating he has had to write thousands of lines of code. This code must run fast, and be correct. The latter, correctness, is really important. This since his work on detecting cheating has led players to be suspended from chess for years. It also has helped protect players who did not cheat, even though many thought they had.

Open Problems

Again I wish him a wonderful unbirthday day.