Author: Peter McKenzie
Date: 00:59:06 07/13/98
The Australian National Computer Chess Championships (Nc3) was a very successful and enjoyable event. The running of the tournament on a chess server proved to be a very good idea, with no major hitches encountered. It was certainly enjoyable from a programmer's perspective to be able to sit back and watch each round without having to manually operate your program. Seven of the eight programs interfaced automatically to the server from machines on site at the university. The other program was operated manually, and was also located remotely in Melbourne. The tournament itself turned out to be a 3 hourse race with KnightCap, WimpKnight (a derivative of KnightCap) and lambChop (my program) all scoring 100% against the other 5 programs. The matches between these 3 programs were very hard fought, the result of each game could easily have been reversed. In lambChop vs WimpKnight, lambChop achieved an opening advantage then grabbed a poisened pawn. A good example of WimpKnights trapped piece eval. term kicking in. lambChop still had 3 passed pawns for the piece, but eventually lost. WimpKnight could have crushed KnightCap and won the tournament if, in the following position it had played h4. r4b1k/1nq2b2/2p2p2/2P1pNp1/pP4Q1/7P/2N2PP1/R1B3K1 w - - Possibly WimpKnights assymetric search/eval causes it to not find h4 very quickly. Anyway, it played Nfe3, got short on time (30 0 time contol) and overlooked a tactic to lose. KnightCap achieved a crushing opening vs lambChop, but went astray and eventually lost an endgame that was misplayed by both sides. And so to the blitz playoff, double round robin game in 5min. lambChop and KnightCap tie with 2.5/4. WimpKnight has problems with time management - in fairness its programmer wasn't expecting a blitz playoff. Sudden death game in 5min playoff. KnightCap gets a crushing 2 queens up endgame, but is now playing at 0.1 sec/move. Then the incredible happens - it stalemates lambchop!!! Gotta love those bugs :) Sudden death game in 2min playoff. LambChop wins an entertaining game watched by all on the big screen. Basically the playoff was fun but pretty random and all 3 programs were evenly matched. An exhibition match was then played, lambChop vs IM Ben Martin. Time control game in 60, lambChop was running on a PII 333mhz. Ben built up an advantage, but lambChop didn't do anything too silly and Ben went astray to lose a complex ending. [White "IM Ben Martin"] [Black "lambChop"] 1. e4 Nc6 2. Nf3 e5 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. d3 Be7 [last book move] 5. Nbd2 d5 6. Bb3 dxe4 7. dxe4 O-O 8. c3 Bc5 9. O-O a6 10. a4 Rb8 11. a5 Qe7 12. Qe2 Bg4 13. Nc4 Rbd8 14. Bg5 h6 15. Bh4 g5 16. Bg3 Be6 17. Bc2 Bxc4 18. Qxc4 Rfe8 19. b4 Ba7 20. b5 axb5 21. Qxb5 Qc5 22. Qxc5 Bxc5 23. Rfb1 g4 24. Ne1 Rb8 25. Kf1 Bd6 26. Bh4 Re6 27. Rb5 Kh7 28. Bb3 Nxe4 29. Bxe6 [Bc2 might be better] fxe6 30. Rc1?! Na7! [surprise!] 31. Rb4 Bxb4 32. cxb4 Nb5 33. Nd3 Rf8 34. Nxe5 [34.Nc5 might improve] h5 35. a6 bxa6 36. Rc6 Ned6 37. Rxa6 Rf4 38. Nd3 Rd4 39. Ke2 Nc3+ 40. Kd2 Nd5 41. Ra7 Nxb4 42. Rxc7+ Kh6 43. Rc3 Nc4+ 44. Ke2 Re4+ 45. Kd1 Nxd3 46. Rxd3 Nb2+ 47. Kd2 Nxd3 48. Kxd3 Re1 49. Kd2 Rg1 50. Ke2 Rxg2 51. Bg3 Rg1 52. Ke3 Kg5 53. Bf4+ Kf5 54. Bg3 e5 55. Kd3 Ra1 56. Ke3 Ra3+ 57. Ke2 Ke4 58. Kd2 Kd4 59. Ke2 Ra1 60. Bh4 Rc1 61. Bg3 Rb1 62. Bh4 Rb3 63. Kf1 Rh3 64. Bf6 Rxh2 65. Kg1 Rh3 66. Kg2 Rf3 67. Bg5 e4 68. Bh6 h4 69. Bg5 h3+ 70. Kg1 g3 0-1 Thanks to all involved, it was great fun meeting you guys. Rumour has it the event will be open to all comers next year, which would make it even better. cheers, Peter More games at: http://hendrix.anu.edu.au/nc3/
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