HIARCS wins the World Chess Software Championship

[Modern Times]

The top engines? Surely you mean the Clones were not there....Rybka.. Houdini..

Good to see a sense some humour introduced to the thread. Stockfish, Komodo and Critter were not there either.

[hgm]

What he meant, and I 100% agree with him, is that:

* hardware competition is pointless. it should be a software competition, so everyone should run on the same hardware.

* opening books: same problem. it should not be a race of who uses the best opening book. opening positions should be given by the tournament and each game repeated twice with colors reversed, as done by any proper tournament (eg. TCEC).

* number of participants: what you don't want is to have one hundred different versions (or should I say compiles) of IvanHoe. I don't think he was against the multiplication of genuine engines. Anyway, given the lack of interest in this tournament, I don't think the nyumber of participants is a problem: only 6 participants, no pre-selection phase.

That's not rigging the rules. The rules are just silly, and he is right to disagree with them.

Yeah, and I think I am the only true World Champion Formula I racing. The current competition is really silly. They are allowed to use cars with engines, now I ask you! Of course I would only compete if engine use were forbidden, and the cars had to be pushed. And people much taller or shorter than 1.85m, or having a weight outside the range 75-80 kg should be barred from entering too. Those are cheaters, deriving advantage from low body mass when going uphill, or excess muscle!

[Peter Skinner]

And for the second year running, it is meaningless.

The top engines were not there, and the number of games were tiny. There are lots of equal hardware ratings lists out there, with ALL the engines and hundreds of games per engine. Those are far more relevant.

I don't think it is meaningless.

While I believe the tournament itself is outdated, you can't win an event if you don't play in it...

Two years ago when Usain Bolt was disqualified at the World Championships in the 200, was the eventual champion looked at as a false champion? Of course not.. He ran and won the title.

Just because when you look up World Computer Software Champion 2013 and it doesn't say Houdini/Komodo/Stockfish/Critter/addofotherenginenamehere, doesn't make it less valuable.

Hiarcs played against the competition presented and won. Hiarcs therefore IS the 2013 World Computer Software Champion.

Peter

[JuLieN]

Congrats HIARCS!
The engine for the cheese enthusiasts!
(Yes, that's what you find when you misspell HIARCS in Google...)