Announcement: TCEC SEASON 3 - All info.

[Martin Thoresen]

Hello everyone,

I want to thank all the people that followed the previous seasons.
Perhaps not a big surprise: the Elite Matches had the highest
interest of all events during those two seasons.

Therefore in season 3 a number of changes will be implemented. The
system will go from a division based one to a "last engine standing" type.
There will be 4 stages before the Elite Match. So now you can see
Houdini & all the other strong engines in action already in the first event
of a season.

The TCEC website has been redesigned to accommodate all changes.

Stage 1:
7 round swiss, 32 engines. Top 16 move on to stage 2.

Stage 2a & 2b:
8 engines in each playing a double round robin with switched colors.
The top 4 from 2a and 2b move on to stage 3.

Stage 3:
8 engines playing a double round robin with switched colors.
The top 4 move on to stage 4.

Stage 4:
4 engines playing a hexa round robin with switched colors.
The top 2 moves on.

Elite Match
The top 2 from stage 4 meet in a 48-game Elite Match.


The time control from season 2 has been kept (150' + 30"),
except that in the swiss (stage 1) it is reduced to 90' + 30".

Ratings have also been implemented, they will be automatically calculated
after each game. The base is CEGT 40/20 and CCRL 40/40 1 CPU lists.
Since many engines in TCEC use 6 cores their ratings should most likely
increase a bit over the long run. Ratings will be kept for all seasons,
and if an engine is updated to a new version the new version will inherit
the rating of the old version. This way you can follow your favorite eninge
in the TCEC system.

For all small and big changes I recommend reading the updated Info page
on my site: http://www.tcec-chess.org/info.php

There's also a brand new archive for season 2:
http://www.tcec-chess.org/archive_s2.php

Stage 1 will start Friday 29th of April at 19:00 CEST.

Best,
Martin

[yanquis1972]

all great ideas, i think.

why 48 games though? that seems like a lot; i thought the prior ones were 40?

[Martin Thoresen]

all great ideas, i think.

why 48 games though? that seems like a lot; i thought the prior ones were 40?

Thanks!

Actually, the very first TCEC matches in the now ancient TCEC system had 48 games in them.

I wanted to go back to 48 after feedback from people.

48 games aren't many more than 40 and it should only take 1-2 extra days to complete.

Best,
Martin

[Dr.Wael Deeb]

all great ideas, i think.

why 48 games though? that seems like a lot; i thought the prior ones were 40?

Thanks!

Actually, the very first TCEC matches in the now ancient TCEC system had 48 games in them.

I wanted to go back to 48 after feedback from people.

48 games aren't many more than 40 and it should only take 1-2 extra days to complete.

Best,
Martin

The more,the better Martin....go for it
Dr.D