Author: Vincent Diepeveen
Date: 21:08:39 06/09/04
Go up one level in this thread
On June 09, 2004 at 11:07:01, Robert Hyatt wrote: >On June 09, 2004 at 03:54:25, Mark Winands wrote: > >>RULES FOR THE 12TH WORLD COMPUTER-CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP >> >>Ramat Gan, Israel >> >>4-12 July, 2004 >> >>The Board of ICGA >> >> >>From July 4-12, 2004 the 12th World Computer-Chess Championship will take place. >>It is the second time that it is organized by the ICGA. Below we recall a few >>decisions from the Maastricht Triennial Meeting in 2002. There the ICGA was >>established and it was decided that a WCCC should be held annually. The >>observation was clear: all kinds of differences between microcomputers, personal >>computers, “normal” computers, and supercomputers were in some sense obsolete >>and the classification thus was considered artificial. So was the division into >>the classes of single processors and multiprocessors. Even the distinction >>between amateur and professional was at stake. Is not the real amateur a >>professional? Or the other way round? For organizational matters we have kept >>this difference, since for amateurs traveling and housing is already expensive. >>Being treated as a professional may be agreeable, but if you have to pay for it >>then it might be less agreeable. As in previous years we have maintained three >>groups here, viz. the amateurs, the semi-professionals, and the professionals. >>Below we provide the rules for the 12th World Computer-Chess Championship, at >>which a permanent ICGA trophy is at stake (i.e., the winner may keep this >>trophy). Moreover, it was agreed at the Maastricht meeting that the Shannon >>Trophy would be retained by Amir Ban and Shay Bushinsky for a period of three >>years. From the 13th World Computer-Chess Championship the Shannon Trophy will >>be awarded annually. Finally, we have split the rules into a section of general >>rules and a section of tournament rules. >> >> >> >>GENERAL RULES >> >> >> >>1. The World Computer-Chess Championship 2004 is the 12th in a series of >>World Computer-Chess Championships. It follows the tournament rules given below. >> >>2. The tournament will be an 11-round Swiss-system event, using standard >>(non-accelerated) Swiss pairings. The provisional playing schedule was given on >>page 293 of the December issue. >> >>3. The winner of the Tournament will be awarded the ICGA Trophy and the >>title of World Computer-Chess Champion 2004. No other titles following from the >>results of this tournament will be awarded (Hence, no Amateur title, no >>Microcomputer title, and no single-processor title, as well as no >>multi-processor title). >> >>4. There will be a separate 9-round Swiss tournament for another ICGA Trophy >>and the title World Computer Speed Chess Champion. >> >>5. Unless otherwise specified, rules of play are identical to those of human >>tournament play. In particular this holds for claiming a draw with respect to >>the three-times-repetition rule (see ICGA Journal, Vol. 26, No. 4, p. 218). If a >>point is in question, the Tournament Director has the right to make the final >>decision (with due respect to the Committee of Appeal). >> >>6. Each game is played on a chessboard with a chess clock provided by the >>Tournament Committee. >> >>7. At the end of each game, both teams are required to hand in a game >>listing to the Tournament Director in electronic (PGN) form. >> >>8. The Tournament Director will be Professor H. Jaap van den Herik. He has >>the power to designate assistants with the appropriate power to decide in cases >>of dispute. Dr. Jos Uiterwijk will act as Assistant Tournament Director. >> >>9. In the event of any rule disputes, or changes necessitated by >>circumstances at the time, the Tournament Director’s decision shall be final >>(with due respect to the Committee of Appeal). >> >>10. The members of the Appeal Committee will be agreed upon during the players’ >>meeting on July 4, 2004. >> >>11. The entry fees for the WCCC (exclusive of membership fee of the ICGA for >>2004 for at least one person) are as follows: >> >> Amateur: Euro 25 >> >> Semi-professional: Euro 250 >> >> Professional: Euro 500 >> >> >> >>The definitions are the same as used in the past. They read as follows. >> >> “Amateur”: programmers who have no commercial interest in their program, and >>are not professional game programmers. Applications for amateur classification >>must supply information to justify their claim. >> >> >>“Semi-professional”: Any program submitted by an employee or associate from a >>games-programming company. The program’s name must not be derived from or >>similar to a commercial product. >> >> >>“Professional”: A program whose name is the same as or derived from a commercial >>product. >> >>Any entry received after June 15, 2004 will be subject to a penalty fee, >>doubling the above fee. >> >>Entry forms are available at http://www.cs.unimaas.nl/wccc2004. The final >>acceptance of an entry is by the Board of ICGA. Notification of acceptance will >>be given on June 25, 2004 or even earlier if required. >> >> >>TOURNAMENT RULES OF THE 12th WORLD COMPUTER-CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP >> >>1. Each entry is a computing system and one or more humans who programmed it. At >>least one of the program developers should attend the WCCC to operate the >>program, otherwise the entry fee for the program is doubled. >> >>3. Each program must be the original work of the entering developers. >>Programming teams whose code is derived from or including game-playing code >>written by others must name all other authors, or the source of such code, in >>their application details. Programs which are discovered to be close derivatives >>of others (e.g., by playing nearly all moves the same), may be declared invalid >>by the Tournament Director after seeking expert advice. For this purpose a >>listing of all game-related code running on the system must be available on >>demand to the Tournament Director. >> >>3. Participants are required to attend an organizational meeting on July 4, 2004 >>prior to the start of the tournament for the purpose of officially registering >>for the tournament. Operational rules will be finalized at that meeting. >> >>4. The format of each tournament and the rate of play will generally be >>determined by the Tournament Director according to the number of programs >>entered and any other relevant factors. The 12th World Computer Chess >>Championship (WCCC) will be a Swiss-system event with 11 rounds in which the >>rate of play will be 60 moves in 2 hours followed by the rest of the game in 30 >>minutes. >> >>5. An operator error made when starting a game or in the middle of a game can be >>corrected only with the approval of the Tournament Director. If an operator >>enters an incorrect move, the Tournament Director must be notified immediately. >>Both clocks will be stopped. The game must then be backed up to where the error >>occurred. Clocks will be corrected and the settings at the time when the error >>occurred will be reinstated using whatever information is available. Both sides >>may then adjust their program parameters with the approval of the Tournament >>Director. The Tournament Director may allow certain program parameters to be >>changed. >> >>6. All monitors must be positioned so that the operator’s activities are clearly >>visible to the opponent. An operator may only: [a] enter moves, and [b] respond >>to a request from the computer for clock information. This latter activity must >>be observed by the Tournament Director or his designate. If an operator needs to >>enter other information, it must be approved ahead of time by the Tournament >>Director. The operator may not query the system to see if it is alive without >>the permission of the Tournament Director. >> >>7. A team must receive permission from the Tournament Director to change from >>one computing system to another. >> >>8. Tie-breaking: (a) if precisely two participants are tied for first place, two >>play-off games of one hour per side are to be played. At the longest, such a >>match may take four hours. Should that match be drawn, then one sudden death[1] >>game should be played (White 12 minutes, Black 10 minutes); (b) whenever two or >>more teams have an equal number of points, a tie-ranking order is defined as >>follows. The dominant ranking is by the sum of the opponents’ scores. If there >>is still a tie, the sum of the respective programs’ cumulative scores after each >>round (i.e., score after round-1 + score after round-2 + …. + score after >>last-round) will be used; (c) if three or more participants are tied for first >>place, then the two participants ranked most highly are to be determined by the >>tie-ranking order in (b). This pair of participants then play off as in (a). > > > >This seems to simply be _wrong_. > >White gets _more_ time in the sudden-death playoff? The only way that makes >sense is if a draw is treated as a win for black. > >This needs to be clarified or re-done. More traditional would be _black_ gets >12 minutes, white gets 10, to compensate for white's opening advantage. > > > > >> >>9. For the ply-off procedure for the first place as given in rule 8, the colour >>assignment is as follows. In the first match game the colours are reversed with >>respect to the game played in the tournament. In the sudden-death game the >>following rules apply: (1) if possible, the colour division in the tournament >>(play-off match inclusive) will be settled at 7 – 7; if this is impossible then >>(2) the colours of the game played in the tournament will be reversed. >> >>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >>[1] The outcome of a sudden-death game is defined as follows. White wins the >>sudden-death game if White wins the game, otherwise Black wins. > >Seems like a silly way to award a title like "World Computer Chess Champion". I >think I would prefer to be black. I believe his odds are better than whites, >since a draw for black is a win for black... > >With so many rounds, and so few players, why not knock off the playoff crap and >just use sum of opponent's and so forth? In case of a half a round robin by definition everyone has the same sum of opponents. Secondly it would be very unfair to let SOP decide in case of 14 participants and 11 rounds, because if you manage to tie with Shredder it means shredder is already champion as it is ranked #1 in the first round, which means that if you play the first round against The Crazy Bishop that you have like 3 Sum of Opponent points less for sure than Shredder. >It worked just fine for 25 years of ACM events and previous WCCC events I have >attended. Your impression is also based upon 7 rounds and 30 participants. It never worked well. In fact. I have seen in person the tie between Shredder and Ferret in 1999 and i felt real real bad after the world champs that i had not scored enough points for Bruce, because Stefan was given the title for having 0.5 points more sum of opponents than Ferret. This based upon the fact that Shredder had been ranked higher at start of the championship than Ferret. In fact even if last round i would not have been paired against woodpusher (which also had played Ferret) the title would have been Ferret's. I personally would never want to come in such a dispute. The rules as proposed now decide the title based upon games and not by some amateur claiming a draw or not. Last year for example we had a clear tie Fritz versus Shredder. Both wanted to play that playoff. 1 extra day of publicity. Chessbase did *not* complain. In a clear playoff they could decide who was strongest. Shredder won. Easy. It is a fact you were not against the rule that triggered the decision in the Jonny game. If you scroll up the text some you will see that rule. You do not complain against it here. So in a similar case crafty-jonny the point would go to crafty in 2004, just like it went in 2003 to Shredder. The important fact is however that buchholz (SOP) did not decide last tournaments. From 2000,2001,2002,2003 there was a clear winner. Either decided by tie or by having clearly more points. That's much better than deciding based upon 0.5 sum of opponents in the first round who gets the title and who will be forgotten in history by most. However i do not understand your complaint about the 11 rounds in one other respect. Some years ago many complained loud that 7 rounds was too little, so now it is 11 rounds and i personally feel that 11 rounds is definitely better. I would prefer however to play 3 rounds a day and make the event 5 days. 1 day with 1 round and a blitz championship, 2 days with 2 rounds and 2 days with 3 rounds. 11 rounds in total. In chess weekend tournaments sometimes up to a 100 players play 3 rounds a day themselves. That's pretty exhausting, but nothing as simple as operating a chessprogram and you are even allowed to correct mistakes, which in a real chessgame you are not allowed. Further an exhausting world champs is not a problem in itself. It is a world champs! Just touching a piece there or promoting with a pawn to the promotion square already means you got a major problem. No such problems with the world champs, that is the hard fact. I play many tournaments a year. Usually i play : world champs, paderborn, ict, dutch champs, and when possible i join cct too. That's currently about 2 months of tournament days and direct preparation/travelling days for the tournaments that i lose. I do not dare to explain why i have zero holidays a year. They all go lost to computerchess events! It is a hard fact however that the world champs is something special in the calendar and when that is a few more days, then so be it. Let's look forward to good weather in Israel! >>www.cs.unimaas.nl/wccc2004
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