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Subject: Re: 1998 WCCC and/or WMCCC sponsorship

Author: Peter McKenzie

Date: 16:28:07 07/12/98

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On July 12, 1998 at 17:01:59, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On July 12, 1998 at 16:33:18, Don Dailey wrote:
>
>>>>if you are talking about the WCCC, never fear...I'll do my best to have
>>>>an entry ready and I'll be there, because these events are only 5 rounds
>>>>with 2 on the weekend.
>>
>>By the way, WCCC will be a 5 day event, Monday through Friday.  I think
>>it will be 1 round on Monday, and then 2 per day to get 9 rounds.
>>
>>The time control will be faster than the old 40/2 time control.
>>This was all discussed at the last WCCC.

Excellent idea, those 5 round events were pretty insane in my opinion - too
much emphasis on luck.  Just look at the last WCCC where Fritz score a freak win
over Deep Blue.  Something like game in 60 would be sensible, allowing
2 or 3 rounds per day.


>>
>>- Don
>
>
>Someone didn't think very clearly.  The reason the WCCC (and ACM) events
>have been held partially on weekends was to make it easier for big-iron
>computer chess programs to enter.  We never had any problem with time on
>saturday/sunday, but monday-friday was always a real problem, because that's
>when these computers are heavily used.

Having the bulk of the tournament on a weekend sounds sensible if it allows
the 'big-iron' machines to play.

>
>The WCCC does *not* need 32 entries.  It should be limited to 16 at most,
>and that's not hard to do.  There is no need in making it "open to everyone"
>because that only drives up the number of rounds.  with 16 programs, 4 rounds
>will get a clear 1st place (ignoring draws) while 5 rounds gets a clear 1-4
>places (again ignoring draws).  The micro-based programs will not have a
>problem, but there's not a lot of chance in getting top-of-the-line big
>iron for 5 days, 9 rounds, which means rounds in *prime-time* during the
>day.

Do you really think the Computer Chess World would be best served by
a 16 player tournament?  This seems like a dated concept - especially
to the *many* programmers who would likely be excluded :-).
Surely the aim of such a tournament is not only to establish the champion
program/machine combination, but to stimulate activity in the field.

The best solution is to make it a large tournament, with a sufficiently
large number of rounds (eg. 9) to make it a decent tournament.  A
slightly reduced time control is a very small price to pay for the
advantages of this format.

Regards,
Peter



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