It is finally time to announce:

[Vinvin]

I just installed your WB and Pulsar, it seems there's a bug somewhere : sometime there's no explosion .
The game :

[Event "Computer Chess Game"]
[Site "VINVIN-PC"]
[Date "2010.11.08"]
[Round "-"]
[White "Vinvin"]
[Black "pulsar2009-9a.exe"]
[Result "*"]
[TimeControl "40/300"]
[Variant "atomic"]
[Annotator "1... -0.20"]

1. Nf3 f6 2. e4 h5 3. Bb5 Nc6 4. d4 e6 5. Bf4 e5 6. Bxc6 *

After 6.Bxc6, no explosion :-/

WB 4.4.x unfortunately only does the explosion when animating moves, not when animating dragging. I had overlooked that, and only discoverd it recently, when porting the code to XBoard. So moves by the computer (e.g. by the engine, or when stepping through an existing game) should always animate the explosion, and moves entered by the human as click-click moves trigger the same anmation routine, and thus also have explosions. Dragging the piece around is done by another routine, however, and when you release it on the target square, the move animation is suppressed, because WB assumes the move has already been done. (You don't want the piece to jump back to the starting square, and do the move again.) But in Atomic the explosion would still have to be animated, as you don't want that to start before you commit to the capture by releasing the piece.

This is fixed now in the development version, which we hope to release soon as 4.5.0. A WinBoard binary of this is already included in the package http://hgm.nubati.net/Spartan.zip .

OK, but it's not only a graphical problem ... when 6. Bxc6 is played, b7, c7 and d7 should disappear and they doesn't

[hgm]

No, Pawns are resistant to explosion in this variant, unless they are on the capture square itself.

[Greg Strong]

Maybe including 10x8 chess (CRC or something else) could be interesting.

There is a need to specify, which protocols have to be supported then, and whether engine programmers also have to be present during the event.

I'm certainly interested in participating, especially if there is a 10x8 variant included.

[jshriver]

Was excited till I saw the price and figured it was a joke

To bad since that is probably the only one I could attend since Youngstown is like a 3 hr drive.

Hope all is well.
-Josh

[OliverUwira]

I would be very interested to participate. Since I have some friends in Richmond, VA, a visit to them could be nicely coupled with the rather short hop to Ohio.

Right now, I cannot confirm anything, of course. It's a matter of whether I'd get leave at work, given I've got work one year from now...

Five years ago I was flat broke when I wrote RomiChess...

That's like the condition I'm in now... but I'm finally about to graduate and chances are good that my student job contract will get upgraded to full hours next spring... so there is hope

[Michael Sherwin]

Was excited till I saw the price and figured it was a joke

To bad since that is probably the only one I could attend since Youngstown is like a 3 hr drive.

Hope all is well.
-Josh

Hi Josh,

To make it more believable for you, I will be happy to charge you a rather large entry fee! Just tell me how much you would have to pay, so you can believe.

Oh and I would like that in advance, please!

[CThinker]

On an ACCL event a few years ago, people traveled to Alabama. There was no monetary prize for that event, and yet authors were willing to travel.

I'm pretty sure that people in North America would go this event that you are organizing even without monetary price.

One option that I would suggest is to use your funds for a man-vs-machine event. It has been a long time since there was one. Perhaps this could be a North American GM vs the winner of the Atom computer tournament.

[Michael Sherwin]

Interesting idea!

I am glad that there is a lot of time to formulate the best possible event.

[Don]

Interesting idea!

I am glad that there is a lot of time to formulate the best possible event.

I have not been on talkchess for a few weeks so I just now noticed this thread.

I think it's awesome and I'll make every effort to be there.

I have a suggestion however. The only reason I go to ANY computer chess event is to interact with other program authors. Without program authors these kind of events are not very interesting - you could easily just run the tournament in your own house by having people send you programs. With such a personal investment of cash you should insist on that the event is dignified with authors.

To make a good turnout likely, you could do something like providing travel assistance or perhaps accommodations for the players. You can usually negotiate good prices for a block of rooms this way.

Those are just some thoughts and suggestions - things I think are important to most every computer chess author - especially the ones that are not so well funded!

Don

[Michael Sherwin]

Interesting idea!

I am glad that there is a lot of time to formulate the best possible event.

I have not been on talkchess for a few weeks so I just now noticed this thread.

I think it's awesome and I'll make every effort to be there.

I have a suggestion however. The only reason I go to ANY computer chess event is to interact with other program authors. Without program authors these kind of events are not very interesting - you could easily just run the tournament in your own house by having people send you programs. With such a personal investment of cash you should insist on that the event is dignified with authors.

To make a good turnout likely, you could do something like providing travel assistance or perhaps accommodations for the players. You can usually negotiate good prices for a block of rooms this way.

Those are just some thoughts and suggestions - things I think are important to most every computer chess author - especially the ones that are not so well funded!

Don

I can see now that getting authors to the event that could not otherwise afford to come by helping them with travel and lodging may be more important than a large prize fund. However, the cost may be way more than the prize fund offered in the first place. This is getting very confusing and it would be nice to have some clarity. I need people to get on board with helping to plan things as there is never as much time as it seems.

Some realism:

I offered such a large prize fund to entice as many authors as I could, to be there. It is the normal way of things that some will just simply not be able to make it, for what ever reason. Most authors do not live in a vacuum and have family and friends or a university or countryman that could sponsor them. I would be willing to donate a little extra to a fund that others can donate to as well. There must be other persons with means that would be willing to help, because they also would want this event to be a huge success.

On the other hand if my investments do half as good in the next year and a half as they did this last year and a half, then no problem, I will just pay for everything. This event then could be my legacy to computer chess. We will see, but no promises other than the promised 120k.