Author: Robert Hyatt
Date: 06:55:08 05/29/01
Go up one level in this thread
On May 28, 2001 at 13:06:05, Andrew Williams wrote: >ICC Computer Chess Tournament 3 > >My program, PostModernist, partcipated in the 3rd >Computer Chess Tournament on ICC. PM managed 16th >place with 4 points. I can't stress enough how much >fun this tournament was. IM Jonathan Schroer was >providing commentary and he was *hugely* entertaining. >I'd strongly urge anyone who has a winboard/xboard >compatible program to get it playing on FICS/ICC and >enter the next tournament! > >My thanks to James Swafford who set it up, the various >ICC admins who acted as TDs and to IM Schroer for his >enthusiastic commentary. > >I've put some brief comments on PM's eight games below: > >Game 1 PostModernist 1-0 Tristram > >I felt sorry for James Swafford after this game. He'd clearly >put a lot of effort into arranging CCT3, but in Tristram's >first game it picked a *terrible* line from its big book. PM's >first search returned a score of +5.75 and Tristram didn't get >into the game at all. > > >Game 2 Crafty 1/2 PostModernist > >After a lot of exchanges, crafty emerged pawn up. There ensued >a long struggle, for much of which crafty's eval suggested +1.5, >while PM thought -0.75. Crafty had the initiative throughout, but >couldn't force the win. A tense struggle was eventually drawn by >agreement. > This game was very useful to me, as it pointed out that a particular bit of evaluation had been broken sometime back. IE Crafty knows that a rook _behind_ a passed pawn is good, and that a rook in front of a passed pawn is bad. But this had become defective sometime in the past. The scores now are about 1 pawn lowoer, roughly, once the white pawn reaches c7 with the rook on c8, as it now statically realizes the pawn is stuck forever. > >Game 3 PostModernist 1/2 Searcher > >A great game. Searcher had an awkward opening and PM pushed hard. >An interesting feature of this game was the comparison between PM's >eval and Searcher's. For a long time, PM said +3.something while >Searcher's view was -1.something. I think this is an interesting >position: > >[D] 3k4/4bR2/8/8/1p6/7P/rP1B2P1/6K1 w - - acd 14; acn 18171648; acs 64; ce >+280; fmvn 44; hmvc 1; id "PostModernist vs SearcherX, move 44"; pm Rxe7 > >In this position, PM went for Rxe7. I've looked at this position >a bit, and I can't see a win after this. In some ways, it *looked* >right. But then if I could play chess, I wouldn't have written PM. >Searcher defended the resulting position brilliantly, putting its >King in front of the connected passers on the right and using its >rook to prevent PM's King from getting involved. I had the thought >after seeing this that Searcher could do well in CCT3. A good game >with a nice ending. > > >Game 4 Diep 1-0 PostModernist > >A good finish by Diep here, after an interesting exchange sacrifice >to allow it to castle (I think). PM was undone by a pin, combined >with an advanced passed a-pawn which it had ignored. A fine move by >Diep follows: > >[D] 3r2k1/5qnp/P7/2p2p1p/8/1r1BPP2/QB3RP1/6K1 w - - fmvn 42; hmvc 3; id "diep vs >PostModernist, move 42"; sm Bf1 > >Diep's move here was Bf1. It takes PM 57 seconds to find it. > > > >Game 5 PostModernist 1/2 Shrike > >PM drew with Shrike in CCT1 as well. Here was another case of a >wide gap in evaluations. For most of the game, Shrike's and PM's >evaluations were more than two pawns apart! PM had RRNN+3p vs >Shrike's RRB+6p Shrike really liked his passers and the high >scores it was emitting had me worried for a while. But in the >end PM blockaded them and managed to release his h-pawn. Shrike >held it together though, and by the end, in a dead drawn position, >PM had an eval of +10.75. How embarassing. Actually, apart from >my embarassment, this was another really interesting ending. > > > >Game 6 Shredder 1-0 PostModernist > >Yuk! PM drew with Shredder in CCT1. Here, in a promising position, >PM had a rush of blood to the head, and unaccountably swopped its >Queen for one of Shredder's rooks. PM proudly displayed an eval of >+4.1 To say that I had my doubts would be putting it mildly! PM now >had only one asset left, but since it was a passed a-pawn of course >it ignored it completely. To make matters worse, when I tried to >explain to the enthralled spectators why PM had committed suicide, >I was accused of sounding like Vincent Diepeveen! Normally, the author >of such a comment would have been subjected to a torrent of abuse, but >I was having too much fun to really care. > > > >Game 7 PostModernist 1-0 Chezzz > >I was happy with this win. To be honest though, Chezzz was heavily >outgunned (a celeron 466 vs PM's Athlon 1200). Also it didn't have >an opening book and doesn't ponder yet. This put it at a huge >disadvantage, although the opening it came up with was OK. The >problem came after it had castled K-side and PM took the Knight >on f6. Chezzz recaptured with the g-pawn, opening up his kingside >to attack. > > > >Game 8 Chester 1/2 PostModernist > >A fun game. I chat with Steve Timson quite a bit on ICC and we both >enjoyed this game. Chester does a little better than PM in their >matches, so I was bit worried - the more so when PM went for a >rather eccentric Caro-Kann. IM Schroer commented that PM shouldn't >read books on unorthodox opening. Actually, PM shouldn't read >*webpages* about unorthodox openings. Anyway, PM castled q-side and >chester lost no time in swapping Rook for Knight with a wide open >king position to aim at. PM's King took one look at the situation >and ran back to the centre. For most of the game, Chester had an >edge, but somehow it seemed to slip away, and PM generated some >back-rank mate threats. These were pretty feeble, however, and >the game ended in a tablebase draw. This is Chester's nice exchange >sac: > >[D] 2kr2nr/pp2bpp1/n1p1q3/3p1p2/3P1B1p/3Q1N1P/1PP1NPP1/R4RK1 w - - fmvn 17; hmvc >0; id "ChesterX vs PostModernist, move 17"; sm Rxa6 > > >Cheers > >Andrew
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