Author: Steven Edwards
Date: 16:24:25 11/04/03
Go up one level in this thread
On November 04, 2003 at 18:47:02, Peter Kappler wrote: >Are you aware of the CCT tournaments that have been played on ICC? We've had 5 >of these since 2000, with increasingly good turnouts each year. The last event >had 45 entries. Yes. But not everyone has an ICC membership. They are not free. I want this to be a free event without any commercial interests upon the part of the organizer. The entrants will be playing solely for their own benefit, not for spectators who've paid an organizer who in turn does not pay the entrants. >1) Why limit participation to 24 programs? I think it's much better to take as >many entries as possible, even if it means playing a Swiss instead of a >round-robin. A round robin event produces a much clearer picture of the relative playing strengths of the entrants. The limit of 24 entrants should be sufficient to cover all the active authors with a few slots in reserve. All of the great human tounaments have been round robins. >2) I hope I'm wrong, but it sounds like you are planning to develop a server for >this. Why? ICC works perfectly fine, and they are willing to give free >accounts to program authors. My program already understands 3 protocols: >Winboard, UCI, and ICC. I'm not excited about adding support for another. I wrote "well documented". I didn't say "new". Be careful when making assumptions. Not all program authors have a free ICC account. In the ICC documentation, a "free" program account is given only if the author already has paid for a regular account. As for the main FICS server, I can't even get an account because their registration program thinks that my email domain is for free (and hence irresponsible) usage. In fact, I have to pay US$100 per year for it. The server used will be a dual P3 Intel rackmount running RH9 Linux. A backup AMD single CPU will be available. Unlike the ICC, the server will be run exclusively for the entrants so there should be plenty of CPU power available. The server IP and passwords will be restricted to the entrants so there should be little chance of excess loading. >3) One game per day in the middle of the day? Most of us have day jobs, so we >won't be able to watch the games. One of the great things about the CCT >tourneys is the weekend format makes it possible for the programmers to be >online, chatting and commenting during the games. This is loads of fun - and >the main reason for participating in these tourneys, IMO. One of the tests of the entrants is the ability to play autonomously. There is no one time period during the day that will please everyone. I will make myself available for technical assistance during all scheduled playing time plus for at least two hours prior to the start of play each day. I assure all entrants that running a smooth event will be my only priority; I have no commercial chess interests at all. >4) Why the title "North American" championship? What's North American about it >other than possibly the location of the server and the home address of the >organizer? It has been a long time (nine years?) since there has been an exclusively North American event. It is intended, in part, as a prelude to physical North American events. These will be an alternative to the European events that, while certainly worthwhile, do little to stimulate CC activity in North America.
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