Author: Russell Reagan
Date: 22:06:50 07/08/02
Go up one level in this thread
On July 08, 2002 at 23:46:36, Kevin Strickland wrote: >Since the ICCA charter _does_ state... Who cares what their charter states. I think that if you can get some financial backing from a sponsor, and get the support of people with connections in the computer chess community like Dr. Hyatt (who already said he would help), then organize a legitimate world championship for computer chess. The world championship of chess should be decided in a match, not in a tournament. I think that the responses you recieved are very good signs that something like a qualifying cycle could be organized and supported financially. Since the computer chess engine population is far less than the human chess playing population, I think it wouldn't be necessary to hold 3 years worth of qualifiers to determine the two engines that will duke it out for the championship. It's kind of cheesy that the ICCA holds their tournament every 3 years to make it like the classic world championship for chess, but then they use a swiss tournament to decide the winner. I think there is a ton of room for improvement in the computer chess community for things like this, and the only thing holding it back is money. If you can get sponsors for something like this, then forget ICCA altogether and make educated decisions as to a good method for deciding how the computer chess world champion will be decided. Another idea that comes to mind is to create a computer chess federation that keeps ratings and holds events for computers much like the FIDE, but that's probably thinking too big for now :) I think that if a better way to determine the best engine in the world was created, a sponsor could advertise for it and gain a lot of attention for itself, and for computer chess. Maybe it's different in other parts of the world, but I have heard absolutely not one thing about the computer chess world championship outside of CCC. ICCA's goal is probably not to promote computer chess to the masses. I remember visiting their website years ago and seeing that the last "world championship" was a year or two into the past. I thought that interest just died out and they decided to stop having it, since it didn't explain that it was only held every 3 years anywhere. Anyway, you have my full support. I'd love to see something better than a swiss tournament decide the best engine in the world. I think it would be great to have something like a North American qualifier, a South American qualifier, a European qualifer, Asian qualifer, and so on. Those don't have to be the actual regions, but you get the idea. If there is more interest in Europe, break it up into more regions so they can have more representatives at the actual world championship qualifier. So I guess my idea would be to break up the globe into regions based upon interest, then each region will get to send X number of representatives to the world championship qualifier, and then (depending on how many engines you have participating in the qualifier) you either have two matches amongst the top 4 finishers in the qualifier (then those two winners meet in the WC match), or you just take the top 2 and hold the world championship match. The specific details aren't super important, but I think a proper computer chess world championship should allow for anyone to be able to participate (reasonably) and also have some sort of qualifying method. The fact that any Joe with money can enter the "world championship swiss tournament" doesn't make me feel very good about the winner being the "world champion". Currently you could write a program, play in the "world championship", and then sell your program as a "world champion calibre program". I think it would be extremely exciting to attend a qualifier for the U.S. or for North America, and if everyone held them at the same time, there would be such a buzz in the computer chess community with all kinds of tournament results, upsets, and tragic losses of "sure win" engines. To me it would be bigger news and draw my attention more if I saw that Fritz failed to qualify for the world championship rather than if Fritz simply performed badly in a swiss tournament. Anyway, there's some food for thought. Keep up the good work, and hopefully you can get something going. If nothing else, just hold a computer chess tournament if you can get the sponsorship. Maybe go for a lesser goal of a North American championship. I've always thought there should be a U.S. computer chess championship, even though that might not apply to you since you live in Canada, but the same could go for Canada or any other country. The bottom line is that if you get anything accomplished, you're doing something to better the computer chess community, so go for it! Russell
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