53rd Programmers Tournament Leiden 2018 - Hiarcs wins!

[sandermvdb]

So this is a bit like saying "why visit your children who emigrated to Greece, this summer? It is much cheaper to just e-mail them your photograph, so they could put it up on their door to show the local vilagers how you look".

Strange, even Syrians don't want to emigrate to Greece. I wonder what kind of sick thought process is running in your head when you mention that...

My wife for sure wants to emigrate to Greece! Great country

[hgm]

Strange, even Syrians don't want to emigrate to Greece. I wonder what kind of sick thought process is running in your head when you mention that...

Actually that is easily explained: I will be leaving for a holiday on Rhodos soon, so Greece was foremost in my mind. I go to Greece almost every year. Sunny, great food, friendly people...

I leave it up to the reader to conclude which one of us has any sick thoughts in relation to this.

[Milos]

Strange, even Syrians don't want to emigrate to Greece. I wonder what kind of sick thought process is running in your head when you mention that...

Actually that is easily explained: I will be leaving for a holiday on Rhodos soon, so Greece was foremost in my mind. I go to Greece almost every year. Sunny, great food, friendly people...

I leave it up to the reader to conclude which one of us has any sick thoughts in relation to this.

Wow, equalizing emigration and going few days a year on holiday to the Greek islands. I didn't think you'd understand, living whole life under protective bubble and fighting though battles with your first world problems. And ofc it is easy to make fun of ppl who haven't been so lucky to be born in a country that owns its richness to robbing of half of the world two centuries ago...
Try going to Samos and not to 5 stars resort instead of Rhodos.

[hgm]

I have already been to Samos (Kokkari). One nice thing about Greece is that you never run out of new islands to go to during your lifetime, if you visit one a year.

If I would emigrate I would probably go living in Spain. In particular Los LLanos on La Palma, one of the Canary islands. So far that is the place I liked best. But who knows, perhaps Rhodos will change my mind.

One of my nephews currently lives in Lebanon, a country I have thoroughly blacklisted, even as holiday destination. But my brother just returned from a holiday there, an he actually like it!

[Ronald]

I also enjoyed participating in the tournament!

As a newcomer, maybe I look at it a little bit different, but is was fun meeting people with the same interest and also to have a competitive aspect with your own engine. The building is not really top of the bill, but it's not why I was there. Part of the enjoyment was of course the results of Rofchade, which after seven rounds could still become number 2 of the tournament. Unfortunately it could not turn a 1 pawn advantage in the endgame against the King into a win, so eventually it became third together with chess22K, a result I never expected.

I will certainly join the next programmer tournament

[sandermvdb]

I also enjoyed participating in the tournament!

As a newcomer, maybe I look at it a little bit different, but is was fun meeting people with the same interest and also to have a competitive aspect with your own engine. The building is not really top of the bill, but it's not why I was there. Part of the enjoyment was of course the results of Rofchade, which after seven rounds could still become number 2 of the tournament. Unfortunately it could not turn a 1 pawn advantage in the endgame against the King into a win, so eventually it became third together with chess22K, a result I never expected.

I will certainly join the next programmer tournament

I think your watercooling made a big difference

[Ronald]

The watercooling must have impressed some engines...

[pijl]

As usual I enjoyed playing in this tournament and thank all involved to have made this happen.

Some notes on the games:
The Baron started against the King and got an advantage in a King's Indian (how appropriate!). The King sacrificed a pawn to make a mess out of the white king-side, but messed up its own king protection as well. Baron's tripled pawns were not really weak and may even have won the game for the Baron.
The draw against Rofchade was a draw once Rofchade left its book. A clever exchange sacrifice that led to a forced repetition.
The three last rounds brought three of the strongest opponents.
The Baron's book dropped a surprise (at least for me) on Chess22k by playing the O'Kelly Sicilian, but as Chess22k plays without a book anyway that was probably not a very good choice. The position closed up quickly and neither side had much. The Baron tried a piece sac to free up some pawns to march forward, but it was not enough to win the game.
In the last tournaments the Baron has a relatively high amount of draws against Hiarcs, and playing with the white pieces promised some hope of repeating that in this tournament as well. But by playing the Dutch, and the Baron choosing the less-played 2.Bg5 in response, Hiarcs deservedly won its game this time.
Before the start of the final round it was clear that Hiarcs had won the tournament, but there were still four contenders for the 2 remaining places in the top-3. The Baron had to win its game against Arminius with black to be sure of second place. And as Arminius had beaten the Baron before that was by no means a sure thing. The Baron's book chose the O'Kelly variation again and this time it worked out well and 2nd place was secured.

The Baron version that played was a slightly modified 3.42 version (evaluation changes). As I spotted a few things I want to address these before the WCCC and WCSC in Stockholm next month. After that tournament it is likely that I will make it available again.

In the meantime the work on the next Baron generation is progressing slowly. I hope to have it ready for the Open Italian Championship that will be played in Mantova in the last weekend of October.