Author: Peter Skinner
Date: 07:42:57 08/15/00
================================================= Frans Morsch,Fritz- Ed Schroder/Jeroen Noomen,Rebel- Ed Schroder/Jeroen Noomen/Christophe Theron,ChessTiger- James Robertson,Insomniac- Franck ZIBI,ZChess Bruno BRAS,Pacque Expert ?lvaro Begu? Aguado,Ruy-Lopez Robert Hyatt,CRAFTY- Rudolf Huber,SOS- Stefan Meyer-Kahlen,Shredder- Vincent Diepeveen,DIEP- Tony Werten,XiniX Chrilly Donninger,Nimzo-8- Tom King,Francesca Amir Ban/Shay Bushinsky,Junior- ================================================= This year is a fantastic field. These are the picks for the order of finish, I feel will happen. ? are made due to versions playing unknown. 1. Nimzo 8 2. Shredder 5? 3. Crafty 17.13? 4. ChessTiger 12.9? 5. Junior 6? 6. Fritz 7? 7. Rebel 8. SOS 9. Insomniac 10. Diep 11. ZChess 12. Francesca 13. Ruy-Lopez 14. Pacque Expert 15. XiniX I think Nimzo has the inside track on this years tourney. Every year, Nimzo is strong due to it's wide tournament book, but this year it has added strength, so I think it really can't lose. I also believe that Shredder is the only one really that can challenge Nimzo for top spot. Shredder hasn't lost a WCCC game in 2 years, and could be very tough, but I expect it to lose to Nimzo. Crafty running on the Alpha is going to be very tough to beat, but I don't think it can take out the top 2 to get the title.. would be great so see, but not this year I am afraid. I don't want to call it a sleeper due to it's strength, but Crafty could take the whole thing. We will have to see what book Robert will use for it. In the ICC tournament, it won, and others were shaking their heads. Could this be the same result? ChessTiger comes in #4 this year, and this is really an improvement. If it is using tablebases, I would pick it higher, but it's endgame is not as good with out them. Christophe has done great work with Ed, and I think it will show at this year's tournament. Junior is next in 5th, what more can I say. Junior is Junior, but not this year. The competition is to tough at the top. New Fritz, maybe new book, we will have to wait to see what happens, but don't expect great results. It may be good on chess servers due to amatuers running the programs, but these are the authors. They know what is best for their programs. 6th place this year. In 7th place comes Rebel. This is not a GM tournament, so anti-gm is not really going to factor in. Rebel vs other top programs, is good, but not tops yet. SOS is great at long time controls. And rated highly by the SSDF. We will see where it finishes, but I think the other commercials will spank it a few times. Great program though, and could be one of the sleepers in the tourney. Number 8 all the way I think. Now we come to Insomniac, James has done well with in, and did excellent in the ICC tourney. I just feel others has advanced quicker, and Insomniac hasn't. Again, this could be another sleeper. 9th place would do well here. I am only picking Diep here, as the others haven't really had promising tournaments. I feel that Diep could actually do quite a bit worse in fact. I only rank it here, because it will beat up on the weaker people, but doesn't really have a shot against the big boys. Make it faster Vincent, and the results will come :) 10th for you this year. Those are my top 10, I am in no way an expect on this, in fact I haven't even wrote my own program. However, I am very good in seeing the advancements programs have made, and where others have been left behind. I think there are really only two programs that can ruin the ChessBase parade of programs this year. Crafty and Shredder are going to be in the top.
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