It is finally time to announce:

[Michael Sherwin]

I forgot to mention that there is not going to be an entry fee!

[CThinker]

Do each participant have to bring their own Atom-equipped machines or will the site have them (for uniformity)?

If we can get Intel on board then maybe we can get uniformity which would be the ideal. The idea behind using the atom processor at least is to get everyone roughly on the same level and to make the level of hardware in reach of the most people. Anyone can pack a $200 1.6 GHz 8" notebook in their luggage! My goal is to get as many people to attend this event as possible because they do not feel hopelessly disadvantaged by poor relative hardware performance. Also I would like to see authors challenged to do better on lesser hardware and to squeeze more from less. I will at least make sure that there are extra machines available if they are needed.

I think a smartphone is even easier to pack than an Atom netbook. Maybe a smartphone tournament too? Developers would really be challenged to make the most out of limited hardware.

[Michael Sherwin]

Do each participant have to bring their own Atom-equipped machines or will the site have them (for uniformity)?

If we can get Intel on board then maybe we can get uniformity which would be the ideal. The idea behind using the atom processor at least is to get everyone roughly on the same level and to make the level of hardware in reach of the most people. Anyone can pack a $200 1.6 GHz 8" notebook in their luggage! My goal is to get as many people to attend this event as possible because they do not feel hopelessly disadvantaged by poor relative hardware performance. Also I would like to see authors challenged to do better on lesser hardware and to squeeze more from less. I will at least make sure that there are extra machines available if they are needed.

I think a smartphone is even easier to pack than an Atom netbook. Maybe a smartphone tournament too? Developers would really be challenged to make the most out of limited hardware.

I don't know. There is limited time and resources. How many events can we squeeze in? Are there enough authors interested in migrating to smartphones? How will different smartphone platforms communicate? How much do you want to dilute the prize fund? Let's get a committee together first that has people that have a better knowledge of the constraints that we must deal with whom can decide these matters. If a group of smartphoners show up and want to do something on there own then that should be okay. Who knows, maybe someone can contact Apple and convince them to give every author an Ipad and a development system while there is still time. Then we could have the, 'World Max Ipad Computer Chess Championships'!

Who knows, maybe the ACCA or the WCCC would like to adopt this project. I am willing to listen.

[Michael Sherwin]

Partly out of frustration and partly to give people time to decide whether they want this or not, I am going to refrain from checking back until Friday. I will decide whether to withdraw this offer or to go through with it, based upon what I read here then.

[Aaron Becker]

I think it sounds great. A $120K prize fund is so enormous that it will rightly cause skepticism until there's more information available, but even without a prize fund I think this would be a nice event.

[Roman Hartmann]

I think it sounds great. A $120K prize fund is so enormous that it will rightly cause skepticism until there's more information available, but even without a prize fund I think this would be a nice event.

Fully agree, even without a price fund this sounds like an event that could be fun.

Limiting the hardware to a PC running an Atom-CPU is an interesting idea and I have no objection to that although I could imagine that those who spent a lot of time to make their engine capable to use more than one CPU won't like that.

I don't like the idea to run a tournament on smart-phones though. Even on a weak notebook with Atom-CPU you can edit and recompile your code something you just can't do on (most) smart-phones, so that you had to carry your computer along as well anyway. Fumbling on your smartphone with a computer sitting right next to it just doesn't sound right ...

Roman

[Richard Allbert]

Hi Michael,

I'm of course interested.

Not sure what my plans are in 2012 But if I'm free, I'm in.

Richard

[Richard Allbert]

... oh, forgot to ask,

any prizes for last?

[hgm]

I get the joke!

If there are at least two Atomic-Chess engines and if you include the protocol in Winboard so they can play each other then something will be arranged!

WinBoard has been supporting Atomic Chess even from before the times I got involved with it! But of course I added some nice frills: it actually animates the blast wave of the exploding pieces, which wipes out the surrounding squares. (I even ported that to XBoard, a few weeks ago!)

I am aware of only one engine that plays it, though: Pulsar (one of the reasons included that in the standard binary download). Or does Sjeng support -variant atomic too?

[Nettogrof]

Sjeng doesn't support atomic, but maybe I can do one before spring 2012