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Project of an annual thematic tournament on ICC

PostPosted: 23 Jul 2008, 06:46
by Olivier Deville
Robindu Guha (author of Oxygen) and I are planning to organize a computer chess thematic tournament on ICC on an annual basis, open to engine authors and approved operators. The first edition will be held this year in September or October.

The main idea is to pay tribute to a chess champion by starting all the games with one of his favorite openings. For this first edition, we have chosen Robert James Fischer. The 6.Bc4 variation of the Najdorf comes to mind.

The ICC admins agreed to support our project and allot temporary accounts for those who have no permanent ICC account, provided we are able to find at least 20 participants. The ICC server would send the starting position to the engines.

The event would be run during a week end in September or October, for example on September 20th and 21st, that is one week before WCCC.

The rules (swiss or round robin, simple or double round, time control, number of rounds, etc) are still to be decided. We need your feedback to know if there is an interest from engine authors, and to take decisions about the schedule.

Ah yes, and the event needs a name as well :)

Our thanks to :

- fjaam who started it all by suggesting a tournament to honour Fischer's memory
- Charles Roberson who gave us extended advices, including the idea of a thematic tournament
- The ICC team, who accepted our project

Re: Project of an annual thematic tournament on ICC

PostPosted: 23 Jul 2008, 10:23
by Marc Lacrosse
I have some doubts regarding this project (and even more doubts if the chosen opening is a Najdorf variation).

Either you allow opening book use and the tournament will be a booker competition more than an engine one (even more in the Najdorf : please do take into account that there are more and more frequently games that go to a forced draw at move 50 without leaving the book : this is daily experience on Playchess!)...

.. Or you forbid book use (tournament played from a given startposition without book) but how could you enforce this rule for an online competition ? False PV can easily be recorded for book moves and could not be differentiated from real interactive PV ...

I am not sure this is really a good idea.

Why not simply revive Skiner's CCT and CCTblitz tournaments ?

My two cents

Marc

Re: Project of an annual thematic tournament on ICC

PostPosted: 24 Jul 2008, 12:39
by mike schoonover
i like the idea.
najdorf players may find it interesting.

regards
mike