CCT World Computer Chess Championship

[Peter Skinner]

Hello everyone,

The CCT World Computer Chess Championship will be a yearly series of events. In the initial year a program will be crowned CCT World Computer Chess Champion. In following years, the winner will be considered the Challenger to the CCT World Champion from the previous year. The Champion will hold its title much like the way the human FIDE Champion does, and will defend the title in a 24 game match against the winner from the next Candidates Qualifiers.

There will be 3 Candidate Qualifiers, where the top 4 programs from each Qualifier, as well as the top two scoring programs from the combined 4 qualifiers that hasn't already qualified(16 total),will move on to the Quarter Finals event. A program may participate in as many candidate events as it wishes, but once qualified, it will not be allowed to play again until the Quarter Finals.

The Quarter Finals Event will feature a Four Round Robin (4RR) style of play, meaning each pairing will play 4 games against their opponent. In the event of a draw score after 4 games, there will be 4 opposite color blitz games (15+0), and will continue to play until there one participant has a 1.5 point lead. The top 4 programs will then move on to the Semifinal Event.

In the Semi Finals, the 4 program will compete in a 12 Round Robin Event (12 games against each opponent). The same tie break method will be carried over from the Quarter Finals until we end up with 2 programs that will compete in the Championship Match.

The Championship Match will consist of 24 games mandatory games, and if the score is tied, games will continue at the regular time control until 1 player has the required 1.5 point lead. The winner will be declared the CCT World Computer Chess Champion, and will defend its title against next year’s winner of this event.

The time controls for all events are as follows:

Qualifiers - 50/0
Quarter Finals - 75/0
Semi Finals - 120/0
Championship Match - 120/0

I am currently tweaking the CCT rules for this event, so please check the website in the next few days.

Before the barrage of questions regarding Houdini, yes it will be able to play. This isn't a CCT event where it is restricted only to original authors.

This event has one simple goal: To crown the strongest program as Champion in the same style FIDE would crown their Champion. By playing so many games, I'm hoping to remove the randomness that single game matches at times produce. At minimum, two programs will play each other 4 times in any given round.

At least one of the Qualifiers will be played on the Playchess server, while the other two will be played on HGM's server. I'm told it is quite easy for Linux users to play at Playchess using WINE.

More details to come..

Peter Skinner

[Martin Thoresen]

Good luck Peter! It will be interesting to follow.

Personally I thought it was kind of user unfriendly just to be able to watch CCT 15 so hopefully you will take this into consideration.

Best,
Martin

[Peter Skinner]

Good luck Peter! It will be interesting to follow.

Personally I thought it was kind of user unfriendly just to be able to watch CCT 15 so hopefully you will take this into consideration.

Best,
Martin

My goal to have all games replayed to PlayChess when not played there. This should make incredibly easy for people to follow the games.

[velmarin]

Before the barrage of questions regarding Houdini, yes it will be able to play. This isn't a CCT event where it is restricted only to original authors.

Congratulations
rectify is wise, you have to be with the times.
The events are remembered for the quality of its winners.


Good luck and thanks.

[Don]

I'm having trouble understanding this. Probably because I can be dense at times

You say there will be 3 Candidate Qualifiers and then say something about the 4 combined qualifiers.

Anyway, I like the idea of having more games and the challenger system in general. I think this will all be a great improvement.

Hello everyone,

The CCT World Computer Chess Championship will be a yearly series of events. In the initial year a program will be crowned CCT World Computer Chess Champion. In following years, the winner will be considered the Challenger to the CCT World Champion from the previous year. The Champion will hold its title much like the way the human FIDE Champion does, and will defend the title in a 24 game match against the winner from the next Candidates Qualifiers.

There will be 3 Candidate Qualifiers, where the top 4 programs from each Qualifier, as well as the top two scoring programs from the combined 4 qualifiers that hasn't already qualified(16 total),will move on to the Quarter Finals event. A program may participate in as many candidate events as it wishes, but once qualified, it will not be allowed to play again until the Quarter Finals.

The Quarter Finals Event will feature a Four Round Robin (4RR) style of play, meaning each pairing will play 4 games against their opponent. In the event of a draw score after 4 games, there will be 4 opposite color blitz games (15+0), and will continue to play until there one participant has a 1.5 point lead. The top 4 programs will then move on to the Semifinal Event.

In the Semi Finals, the 4 program will compete in a 12 Round Robin Event (12 games against each opponent). The same tie break method will be carried over from the Quarter Finals until we end up with 2 programs that will compete in the Championship Match.

The Championship Match will consist of 24 games mandatory games, and if the score is tied, games will continue at the regular time control until 1 player has the required 1.5 point lead. The winner will be declared the CCT World Computer Chess Champion, and will defend its title against next year’s winner of this event.

The time controls for all events are as follows:

Qualifiers - 50/0
Quarter Finals - 75/0
Semi Finals - 120/0
Championship Match - 120/0

I am currently tweaking the CCT rules for this event, so please check the website in the next few days.

Before the barrage of questions regarding Houdini, yes it will be able to play. This isn't a CCT event where it is restricted only to original authors.

This event has one simple goal: To crown the strongest program as Champion in the same style FIDE would crown their Champion. By playing so many games, I'm hoping to remove the randomness that single game matches at times produce. At minimum, two programs will play each other 4 times in any given round.

At least one of the Qualifiers will be played on the Playchess server, while the other two will be played on HGM's server. I'm told it is quite easy for Linux users to play at Playchess using WINE.

More details to come..

Peter Skinner

[casaschi]

Good luck Peter! It will be interesting to follow.

Personally I thought it was kind of user unfriendly just to be able to watch CCT 15 so hopefully you will take this into consideration.

Best,
Martin

My goal to have all games replayed to PlayChess when not played there. This should make incredibly easy for people to follow the games.

If you can produce a PGN file updated each time a move is made, it's straightforward to create a javascript based webpage to show the games to anyone using just a web browser.

Any additional info you can add to the PGN file can be shown on the webpage as well, some come for free (like the clock info) other might require some coding. I can help with guidelines how to set this up (in the same way I helped Martin with TCEC).

The problem with playchess (not sure about HGM's server) is that they use TCP/IP ports other than 80 that are often blocked by corporate networks, so you'd lose everyone peeking from work

[Peter Skinner]

Fixed that. Probably had a few to many wobbly pops last night watching hockey and figuring out this whole system I wanted to employ.

Peter

I'm having trouble understanding this. Probably because I can be dense at times

You say there will be 3 Candidate Qualifiers and then say something about the 4 combined qualifiers.

Anyway, I like the idea of having more games and the challenger system in general. I think this will all be a great improvement.

Hello everyone,

The CCT World Computer Chess Championship will be a yearly series of events. In the initial year a program will be crowned CCT World Computer Chess Champion. In following years, the winner will be considered the Challenger to the CCT World Champion from the previous year. The Champion will hold its title much like the way the human FIDE Champion does, and will defend the title in a 24 game match against the winner from the next Candidates Qualifiers.

There will be 3 Candidate Qualifiers, where the top 4 programs from each Qualifier, as well as the top two scoring programs from the combined 3 qualifiers that hasn't already qualified(16 total),will move on to the Quarter Finals event. A program may participate in as many candidate events as it wishes, but once qualified, it will not be allowed to play again until the Quarter Finals.

The Quarter Finals Event will feature a Four Round Robin (4RR) style of play, meaning each pairing will play 4 games against their opponent. In the event of a draw score after 4 games, there will be 4 opposite color blitz games (15+0), and will continue to play until there one participant has a 1.5 point lead. The top 4 programs will then move on to the Semifinal Event.

In the Semi Finals, the 4 program will compete in a 12 Round Robin Event (12 games against each opponent). The same tie break method will be carried over from the Quarter Finals until we end up with 2 programs that will compete in the Championship Match.

The Championship Match will consist of 24 games mandatory games, and if the score is tied, games will continue at the regular time control until 1 player has the required 1.5 point lead. The winner will be declared the CCT World Computer Chess Champion, and will defend its title against next year’s winner of this event.

The time controls for all events are as follows:

Qualifiers - 50/0
Quarter Finals - 75/0
Semi Finals - 120/0
Championship Match - 120/0

I am currently tweaking the CCT rules for this event, so please check the website in the next few days.

Before the barrage of questions regarding Houdini, yes it will be able to play. This isn't a CCT event where it is restricted only to original authors.

This event has one simple goal: To crown the strongest program as Champion in the same style FIDE would crown their Champion. By playing so many games, I'm hoping to remove the randomness that single game matches at times produce. At minimum, two programs will play each other 4 times in any given round.

At least one of the Qualifiers will be played on the Playchess server, while the other two will be played on HGM's server. I'm told it is quite easy for Linux users to play at Playchess using WINE.

More details to come..

Peter Skinner

[Don]

Let me get this straight (I feel like I'm in a Monty Python skit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdKa9bXVinE )

You will have 3 tournaments first, the top 4 programs in each will play in a round robin which makes 12 players. You will get 2 more players from the top finishers not already playing which makes 14 players. You came up with 16 and I cannot figure out where those players are all coming from.

After this, the top 4 finishers will compete to face the challenger. Is that pretty much it with some minor details perhaps off?

I can wait until you post the format of this on your web site. Maybe you can run it by me first because if I can understand it probably anyone can!

Don

Fixed that. Probably had a few to many wobbly pops last night watching hockey and figuring out this whole system I wanted to employ.

Peter

I'm having trouble understanding this. Probably because I can be dense at times

You say there will be 3 Candidate Qualifiers and then say something about the 4 combined qualifiers.

Anyway, I like the idea of having more games and the challenger system in general. I think this will all be a great improvement.

Hello everyone,

The CCT World Computer Chess Championship will be a yearly series of events. In the initial year a program will be crowned CCT World Computer Chess Champion. In following years, the winner will be considered the Challenger to the CCT World Champion from the previous year. The Champion will hold its title much like the way the human FIDE Champion does, and will defend the title in a 24 game match against the winner from the next Candidates Qualifiers.

There will be 3 Candidate Qualifiers, where the top 4 programs from each Qualifier, as well as the top two scoring programs from the combined 3 qualifiers that hasn't already qualified(16 total),will move on to the Quarter Finals event. A program may participate in as many candidate events as it wishes, but once qualified, it will not be allowed to play again until the Quarter Finals.

The Quarter Finals Event will feature a Four Round Robin (4RR) style of play, meaning each pairing will play 4 games against their opponent. In the event of a draw score after 4 games, there will be 4 opposite color blitz games (15+0), and will continue to play until there one participant has a 1.5 point lead. The top 4 programs will then move on to the Semifinal Event.

In the Semi Finals, the 4 program will compete in a 12 Round Robin Event (12 games against each opponent). The same tie break method will be carried over from the Quarter Finals until we end up with 2 programs that will compete in the Championship Match.

The Championship Match will consist of 24 games mandatory games, and if the score is tied, games will continue at the regular time control until 1 player has the required 1.5 point lead. The winner will be declared the CCT World Computer Chess Champion, and will defend its title against next year’s winner of this event.

The time controls for all events are as follows:

Qualifiers - 50/0
Quarter Finals - 75/0
Semi Finals - 120/0
Championship Match - 120/0

I am currently tweaking the CCT rules for this event, so please check the website in the next few days.

Before the barrage of questions regarding Houdini, yes it will be able to play. This isn't a CCT event where it is restricted only to original authors.

This event has one simple goal: To crown the strongest program as Champion in the same style FIDE would crown their Champion. By playing so many games, I'm hoping to remove the randomness that single game matches at times produce. At minimum, two programs will play each other 4 times in any given round.

At least one of the Qualifiers will be played on the Playchess server, while the other two will be played on HGM's server. I'm told it is quite easy for Linux users to play at Playchess using WINE.

More details to come..

Peter Skinner

[Peter Skinner]

Let me get this straight (I feel like I'm in a Monty Python skit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdKa9bXVinE )

You will have 3 tournaments first, the top 4 programs in each will play in a round robin which makes 12 players. You will get 2 more players from the top finishers not already playing which makes 14 players. You came up with 16 and I cannot figure out where those players are all coming from.

After this, the top 4 finishers will compete to face the challenger. Is that pretty much it with some minor details perhaps off?

I can wait until you post the format of this on your web site. Maybe you can run it by me first because if I can understand it probably anyone can!

Don

Step 1:

3 Candidate events where the top 4 from each event qualify for the Quarter Finals.

The top 2 scorers from the combined 3 Candidate events that have not already qualified will also move on to the Quarter Finals.

So yes, that is 14.. where I was getting 16 from is beyond me. (As I said, I had a few watching NHL Playoffs last night )

Step 2:

The 14 participants that previously qualified, will play a four round robin event (each pairing will play 4 games), and the top 4 programs from the Quarter Finals, will move on.

Step 3:

The 4 programs that move on from the Quarter Finals event will play a 12 round robin event (each pairing will be 12 games), and the top two programs will move on to the Championship Match.

Step 4:

The Championship Match will be contested over 24 games. If at the end of the 24 games it is a tied match, games will continue until 1 player has the required 1.5 points lead to become Champion. (This sounds fine in my head right now, but it might not make sense.. )

The following year, step 4 will give us the "#1 Contender" that will go on to face the Champion for the title.

Does that make things clearer?

I'm hoping so, because I have a slight hangover and I am really trying...

Peter

[Laskos]

Step 4:

The Championship Match will be contested over 24 games. If at the end of the 24 games it is a tied match, games will continue until 1 player has the required 1.5 points lead to become Champion. (This sounds fine in my head right now, but it might not make sense.. )

Peter

1 or 2 points required lead.