Project of an annual thematic tournament on ICC

[Olivier Deville]

Robindu Guha (author of Oxygen) and I are planning to organize a computer chess thematic tournament on ICC on an annual basis, open to engine authors and approved operators. The first edition will be held this year in September or October.

The main idea is to pay tribute to a chess champion by starting all the games with one of his favorite openings. For this first edition, we have chosen Robert James Fischer. The 6.Bc4 variation of the Najdorf comes to mind.

The ICC admins agreed to support our project and allot temporary accounts for those who have no permanent ICC account, provided we are able to find at least 20 participants. The ICC server would send the starting position to the engines.

The event would be run during a week end in September or October, for example on September 20th and 21st, that is one week before WCCC.

The rules (swiss or round robin, simple or double round, time control, number of rounds, etc) are still to be decided. We need your feedback to know if there is an interest from engine authors, and to take decisions about the schedule.

Ah yes, and the event needs a name as well

Our thanks to :

- fjaam who started it all by suggesting a tournament to honour Fischer's memory
- Charles Roberson who gave us extended advices, including the idea of a thematic tournament
- The ICC team, who accepted our project

[Edsel Apostol]

Hi Olivier,

Twisted Logic would like to join this tournament.

My suggestion is to make it a double round robin format, so that the engine can play the position as black and white against each opponent. That would remove any bias from the position by playing one side of the opening only.

[swami]

If possible I can ask Allard to permit me to operate Bright...I got the offer from him the last ACCA but I was not available at the time to operate it.

I wanted to know the time zone as well, other than that no problem

[Marc Lacrosse]

I have some doubts regarding this project (and even more doubts if the chosen opening is a Najdorf variation).

Either you allow opening book use and the tournament will be a booker competition more than an engine one (even more in the Najdorf : please do take into account that there are more and more frequently games that go to a forced draw at move 50 without leaving the book : this is daily experience on Playchess!)...

.. Or you forbid book use (tournament played from a given startposition without book) but how could you enforce this rule for an online competition ? False PV can easily be recorded for book moves and could not be differentiated from real interactive PV ...

I am not sure this is really a good idea.

Why not simply revive Skiner's CCT and CCTblitz tournaments ?

My two cents

Marc

[Robindu Guha]

To: Marc

As if now we are just trying to get the authors & potential participants' view points,

& ME,as myself am of the opinion of not allowing any further book,after the defined opening line,which we will send to ICC,& ICC admins will take care of the starting position from their side.
So Participants do not need any preparation or changes as such to make

Regarding Skinner's CCTs,IIRC someone else has already taken that responsibility,if wrong,please correct me.

Regarding "Cheating" point you make,we must trust the participants to be as fair as they can. & if there is suspicious behavior, I & Olivier will look into it,seeking help from experts to confirm.

But to be honest,the authors are very good people ,& i do not think someone will be interested in doing what you mention.& Since our tournament is only for programmers themselves & their authorized operators,I do not expect any of that from known author friends

Regarding "new" legitimate entries,which we will scrutinize before allowing it to play,we shall keep a closer eye on them.

The real success of any tour depends on the trust factor .
Hence we must trust participants & they must trust us for the decisions we take.

Anyway I in person do not expect any of this.I am sure my author friends will agree

Robindu

[Robindu Guha]

If possible I can ask Allard to permit me to operate Bright...I got the offer from him the last ACCA but I was not available at the time to operate it.

Sure,Operators will be allowed only of the author himself sends us email authorizing him as his operator for the tour.so if Allard authorizes you,there is no problem with you operating Bright. We would be pleased to have Bright in the participants list.

I wanted to know the time zone as well, other than that no problem

For Time Zones,let me tell you one thing personally,I am one of the Tournament Directors here & I myself reside in India currently,so you will not be having a huge sleepless nights

As we want to take in participants from all over the world,we shall set the times we would most likely set times keeping everyone in mind & by this i mean taking time zones of all the participants

We will take care that US Citizens do not have to get up too early or Eastern citizen to sleep too late,these guys also have a job on Monday

So we will try to keep all the participants happy & in "Do"able time...

Robindu

[Robindu Guha]

Hi Olivier,

Twisted Logic would like to join this tournament.

Twisted Logic is most welcome

My suggestion is to make it a double round robin format, so that the engine can play the position as black and white against each opponent. That would remove any bias from the position by playing one side of the opening only.

Yes,we have had a discussion over this & me & Olivier have thought about Double RR,but the problem that we fall into is time...

ie. If we have 20 Participants<currently lower boundary> we need 19 games a round,& for that we need to cut down the time controls...

Even if we have game in 10 minutes,it would still mean 2.5 rounds an hour<if we do not stop at all<ie. no delays> & there are no problems>

even if we take that...it will be ~8 Hours a round....which might just about fit into a weekend zone...

a disadvantage of this is that author's who like to chat one on one lose their opportunity due to such short games.

& if the participants number goes higher then that,we have trouble again...

then we thought of Double Round Swiss...discussions are still going on & we will see what comes out...

But it will surely be a fair & acceptable decision.We wait for more opinions too,

Currently we have the following situation :-

1) Have Single round with longer TC,we will try to get as close to even as we can in the starting position.

2) We have double RR at short TC<provided that the total time permits this>,so each engine plays other engine as white & as black,to give equal opportunity to be in the shoes of the Legend we want to pay our tribute to

Thanks for the suggestion,
Looking forward to Twisted Logic's participation in our tournament

Argh,I am fed of saying "our" tournament or just "thematic tournament" you creative guys out there should suggest is some name for the tournament

The Concept is as Olivier posed above.

Robindu

[swami]

I thought Peter Skinner gave rights to Daniel(?) from superchessengine.com to continue CCT's? or is that just a rumour?

[Robindu Guha]

Yup,

Indeed,I too am of the same belief.

Robindu

[swami]

If you thought of some creative name for the tournament, lay out all the conditions etc, then I think you would see enough entrants, enough to be more than 20.

In Computer chess, tournament is a rarity, So I support having more online computer chess tournaments, It's fun and useful.