Author: Russell Reagan
Date: 13:50:27 07/14/04
Go up one level in this thread
On July 14, 2004 at 12:30:13, Omid David Tabibi wrote:
>For this very reason a uniform hardware rule should be adopted. The number of
>participants would be much higher in a uniform hardware event, and you can
>expect other strong single processor engines (like Hiarcs and Tiger) to join.
Really?
Sorry, I have to disagree with this ("much higher"). The reason many of us will
probably never participate in a WCCC is the cost. It costs too much time and too
much money. It has nothing to do with being open hardware. If I could afford the
time and money, I would gladly bring my 32-bit Athlon 2GHz (or use the machines
that are provided if they're faster) and have fun. People will show up if they
are able regardless of whether they think they can win. Look at CCT. Dozens of
authors who are there mainly to have fun, who know they will probably not win.
Besides, 1 out of 50 or 60 are not good odds :)
Changing the format to be equal hardware will probably have very little change
on participation. You may gain a few, but you may lose a few. Brutus is
certainly out, which would be a pity. No offense to the commercial PC engine
guys, but I'd rather see Brutus playing. I can watch Hiarcs, Tiger, Ruffian,
Rebel, The King, etc. play on a chess server, or I can buy them and watch them
play all day long. I would love to see them all, but if my options are:
(A) Brutus (or anything like it) will never play and a few other commercial guys
*might* show up
(B) Brutus will almost surely play and a few other commercial guys *might* show
up
Give me (B).
Now, can you show me one person who stayed home who 1) had the money to attend
2) had the time to attend 3) stayed home because the event was open hardware?
Even if you can, you can count them on one hand. That's not "much higher", and
you have done a fantasitc job of haulting cutting edge development of computer
chess projects like Brutus or the next Deep Blue. If everyone gets a single CPU
Opteron, well, that's not much different than any of the home tournaments that
people run and post here, and SSDF has you beat by a mile.
If you want participation to go up, make the event shorter (fewer days), and
make it easier for people to attend with more financial assistance. $500 is a
nice gesture, but I'd still need a few thousand dollars that I don't have, and
two weeks of vacation that I don't have. I'd rather see online qualifiers that
anyone can participate in, and have the final event be top flight engines. If
the participation was limited to the top 8 qualifiers, there is more money to
lend to assisting amateurs (if any qualify and demonstrate need), and the
organizers may have an easier time convincing a company to let them borrow 8
machines for a single weekend instead of saying, "Well, we are not sure how many
we will need. Probably 16 or so, but we can't be sure until two weeks before the
event, and we need them for two weeks."
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