the SECOND annual dedicated chess computer tournament to be held on Sunday May 27th in the posh Saints section of Paris
the list of participants(both as to the computers and the human operators) reads like a "Who's Who" in the field of dedicated computers
the human participants are made up of highly respected experts in the field and the computers amongst the strongest ever released for sale
having to make an appointment weeks in advance i was finally able to get in to interview the tournaments organizer and Founding Father Alain Zanchetta
after arriving in France by Airplane i was led by police escort to Alain's offices in Paris where i was searched and then approved for clearance
once in his huge offices ..his Secretary offered me a much welcomed breakfast of a heavily buttered, freshly baked French Croissant and hot Coffee for which i gladly accepted..
after paying the check(150 Euro+1.00 Euro Tip).. the interview began in earnest
Q:As is well known this is the second dedicated chess computer tournament ever conducted in France with the first being lasts years historical Paris 06 event..could you tell us a little about all of the planning and work involved in organizing an event of this magnitude?
Alain:
In fact, I launched the idea last year and I do the public relations on the web but most of work is done by Patrick http://www.zanchetta.net/echecs/Paris20 ... C_0492.htm : he found the place where we play, he prepares the room as well as the pairings and the supply) and it is also him who sent to Paris 06 participant an email in mid-January to start discussions for Paris 2007, so : Thanks a lot Patrick !
So my work in the organization is basically to advertise the tournament on forums (as well as with direct emails to all potential attendees) as well as to create and update the tournament’s site. Last year I also made a CD after the tournament with a local copy of the web site and all the pictures taken and sent it to the participants. I will do the same this year.
Q:This years computers are all very strong dedicated units..this is by chance or was a definite decision made to have the best computers compete?
Alain:
We wanted to try another category of computers than last year and I knew that Patrick (who is a very good chess player) preferred stronger computer than a weaker category. So I proposed to target an Elo of 2100 and we saw that we were able to have computers quite close in strength AND representative of famous programmers ; if we hadn’t been able to have an homogeneous group of computers, we would have probably changed the target Elo, either we would have played again with the same kind of computers than last year (not necessarily the same computers) or with weaker ones.
I suppose that we will try another range next year but we will see. Every participant can give his opinion about that.
Q:some of the human operators in this years tournament are very well known collectors and experts in the field of dedicated chess computers.
is it difficult to have such highly respected participants together in one playing hall together competing for a full day?
do emotions run high as the tournament proceeds to a conclusion?
Alain:
Attitude against results vary from operator to operator but all in all, everybody just want to spend a nice day with friends and fellow collectors. Except for a few friends who already had met before the tournament, last year was the occasion to meet “in person” people we only knew through emails.
For example this year, I am looking forward to meet Christian who is a well known collector as well as a very strong chess player and who will come from Germany just for our tournament !
Q:your personal interest in computer chess certainly is not restricted to just dedicated chess computers
your CEBoard is well known by many and just recently you were able to win two contests held by the Hiarcs folks where you compiled older Hiarcs Versions to be able to run on todays Pc computers...
could you give the readers a little of your background in Computers and chess in general?
Alain:
I have always been interested in chess but was not able to go to a club when I was young. The arrival of chess computers as well as programmable calculators and personal computers in France in early 80s corresponded to a “favorable” age for me : I got my CC7 when I was 15 for Christmas 1980, a TI58 a few months before and an Apple II two years later. I spent a lot of time playing with the CC7 and programming these things. I have never stopped programming since and still do it part time at work.
Why do I just write “tools” for chess and not a chess engine ? I wrote once a chess program when I was a student; to write an engine is really time consuming and as I have neither brilliant & original ideas nor time, if I wrote an engine, it would be just another weak engine. On the tools side, I can provide “new” things for people : CEBoard was the first program to have a full PGN support (e.g. with variations handling) for Pocket PC and it still has “unique” capabilities on the Pocket PC such as search (position & material) and connection to old dedicated machines…
Next program to be released will be Toga for Xbox 360 (see http://www.zanchetta.net/echecs/images/Toga360_1.jpg and http://www.zanchetta.net/echecs/images/Toga360_2.jpg) which involved a translation from C++ to C# as C# is the only language available for hobby programmers on the Xbox 360. With this constraint, the power of the Xbox is not available and this version of Toga will not compete against PC programs. Anyway, it will be the first chess program available for Xbox 360 and it will be strong enough for human players (it won yesterday against Chessgenius running on my Smartphone).
Now about chess : I went to a chess club for the first time a few years ago (there was no chess club in the city where I grew up) and even played some tournaments and team competitions but as I am married, have four children and a more than full time work, time is missing so I stopped playing chess in club after two years because I never found the time to play a real game between competitions. My last Elo was 1740 but it was overrated and 1500-1550 is more accurate.
Q:one of the prizes for winning the contest was a new wooden chess computer valued at close to $500 which you declined to accept could you explain why you chose not to accept the prize?
Alain:
I had already a Citrine and the patron (“mécène” in French ?) who offered this computer has already greatly contributed to my computer collection with some generous gifts or swaps. I did this contest for the Programming Challenge itself as well as for the basic price, Hiarcs itself.
It was very interesting to do and a great occasion to talk with Hiarcs team ; these people are really nice and I hope that Hiarcs will perform well in Leiden (and I think it is
) Q:you have a very excellent collection of the old dedicated computers could you mention which of these are your favorites and the reasons for it?
Alain:
CC7 and Par Excellence because they were “my” computers before I started the collection and a few computers from the 80s because I dreamt of them but could not afford them in that time (MGS Sargon 2.5, Elite A/S, Sargon ARB). I also like a lot the Nigel Short (and the other Mephisto with the same housing) and the Renaissance which is the most beautiful computer I have.
Q:and Finally..after this years event do you have any future plans for the Paris tournaments that you can share with us??
Alain:
Several well know collectors from Germany, Netherlands and United Kingdom have shown their interest to may be participate to a future edition of Paris tournament.
So I hope we will be able to organize the tournament again next year and in this case, we will do the advertising of the tournament a lot sooner to allow these potential participants to make the arrangements if they still want to participate.
I also hope that we will have an Internet connection in the tournament’s place next year (wifi, 3G, etc…) in order to allow the remote participation of our friend Steve
Thank you Alain for granting me this Interview and i think i can speak for all collector's Worldwide in wishing you the very best success for Paris 07 and Beyond !!
http://www.zanchetta.net/echecs/default ... =Paris2007
CNN Regards
Steve
