New CC book: Beyond Deep Blue

[sje]

On page 12 of the 2011.11 issue of Chess Life is a review of a new computer chess book Beyond Deep Blue by long time CC researcher Monty Newborn. The review, written by GM Joel Benjamin, says in abstract "A useful, but bland, reference for computer chess buffs".

Has anyone here read the book yet?

[Will Singleton]

Haven't got it, but it's available from Amazon, so I'll order it. The blurb (below) indicates that some of the analyzed games come from ICC tournaments, I wonder if those are from CCC events?

"More than a decade has passed since IBM’s Deep Blue computer stunned the world by defeating Garry Kasparov, the world chess champion at that time. Beyond Deep Blue tells the continuing story of the chess engine and its steady improvement. The book provides analysis of the games alongside a detailed examination of the remarkable technological progress made by the engines – asking which one is best, how good is it, and how much better can it get. Features: presents a total of 118 games, played by 17 different chess engines, collected together for the first time in a single reference; details the processor speeds, memory sizes, and the number of processors used by each chess engine; includes games from 10 World Computer Chess Championships, and three computer chess tournaments of the Internet Chess Club; covers the man-machine matches between Fritz and Kramnik, and Kasparov and Deep Junior; describes three historical matches between leading engines – Hydra vs. Shredder, Junior vs. Fritz, and Zappa vs. Rybka."

[Peter Skinner]

On page 12 of the 2011.11 issue of Chess Life is a review of a new computer chess book Beyond Deep Blue by long time CC researcher Monty Newborn. The review, written by GM Joel Benjamin, says in abstract "A useful, but bland, reference for computer chess buffs".

Has anyone here read the book yet?

This is from the table of contents:

15 2008: Rybka, Naum Top Field at Internet Chess Club CCT 10......... 187
Round 4: Zappa vs. Hiarcs (1–0).............................................................. 192
Round 5: Rybka vs. Zappa (1–0).............................................................. 193
Round 6: Hiarcs vs. Rybka (1–0).............................................................. 194
Round 6: Zappa vs. Naum (½–½)............................................................. 195
Round 7: Naum vs. Hiarcs (1–0).............................................................. 196
Round 7: Rybka vs. Fruit (1–0)................................................................ 198
Round 7: Glaurung vs. Zappa (½–½)....................................................... 199
Playoff 1: Naum vs. Rybka (½–½)........................................................... 200
Playoff 2: Rybka vs. Naum (½–½)........................................................... 201

17 2009: Rybka Tops at Internet Chess Club CCT 11.............................. 217
Round 4: Bright vs. Rybka (0–1).............................................................. 222
Round 6: Crafty vs. Rybka (½–½)............................................................ 223
Round 8: Fruit vs. Rybka (0–1)................................................................ 225

19 2010: Sjeng Wins Internet Chess Club CCT 12................................... 235
Round 5: Hiarcs vs. Sjeng (½–½)............................................................. 241
Round 6: Sjeng vs. Shredder (1–0)........................................................... 243
Round 9: Sjeng vs. Crafty (1–0)............................................................... 244

Being the organizer of the event, shouldn't I have been contacted before publishing these games?

I recall someone a few years ago emailing me asking for permission to use the PGN of games for an article, which I of course agreed to as long as they linked back to the CCT website.

Hmmm

Peter

[AdminX]

Being the organizer of the event, shouldn't I have been contacted before publishing these games?

Peter

Your kidding right. I don't believe you don't know the answer to this question.

[Peter Skinner]

Being the organizer of the event, shouldn't I have been contacted before publishing these games?

Peter

Your kidding right. I don't believe you don't know the answer to this question.

I was only asking. No need to be rude Ted.

Peter

[bob]

On page 12 of the 2011.11 issue of Chess Life is a review of a new computer chess book Beyond Deep Blue by long time CC researcher Monty Newborn. The review, written by GM Joel Benjamin, says in abstract "A useful, but bland, reference for computer chess buffs".

Has anyone here read the book yet?

This is from the table of contents:

15 2008: Rybka, Naum Top Field at Internet Chess Club CCT 10......... 187
Round 4: Zappa vs. Hiarcs (1–0).............................................................. 192
Round 5: Rybka vs. Zappa (1–0).............................................................. 193
Round 6: Hiarcs vs. Rybka (1–0).............................................................. 194
Round 6: Zappa vs. Naum (½–½)............................................................. 195
Round 7: Naum vs. Hiarcs (1–0).............................................................. 196
Round 7: Rybka vs. Fruit (1–0)................................................................ 198
Round 7: Glaurung vs. Zappa (½–½)....................................................... 199
Playoff 1: Naum vs. Rybka (½–½)........................................................... 200
Playoff 2: Rybka vs. Naum (½–½)........................................................... 201

17 2009: Rybka Tops at Internet Chess Club CCT 11.............................. 217
Round 4: Bright vs. Rybka (0–1).............................................................. 222
Round 6: Crafty vs. Rybka (½–½)............................................................ 223
Round 8: Fruit vs. Rybka (0–1)................................................................ 225

19 2010: Sjeng Wins Internet Chess Club CCT 12................................... 235
Round 5: Hiarcs vs. Sjeng (½–½)............................................................. 241
Round 6: Sjeng vs. Shredder (1–0)........................................................... 243
Round 9: Sjeng vs. Crafty (1–0)............................................................... 244

Being the organizer of the event, shouldn't I have been contacted before publishing these games?

I recall someone a few years ago emailing me asking for permission to use the PGN of games for an article, which I of course agreed to as long as they linked back to the CCT website.

Hmmm

Peter

I think copyright law says "no". Chess games can't be copyrighted individually, nor as played in a tournament. If you go through each game and select a sub-set based on some criterion, that "collection" can be copyrighted, although any of the games (or even all) could still be used so long as they are merged with many other games eliminating the "collection" concept...

More than one tournament organizer/sponsor has tried to lock down the pgn for the games played in an event. It has never been upheld by the courts...

[IanO]

On page 12 of the 2011.11 issue of Chess Life is a review of a new computer chess book Beyond Deep Blue by long time CC researcher Monty Newborn. The review, written by GM Joel Benjamin, says in abstract "A useful, but bland, reference for computer chess buffs".

Has anyone here read the book yet?

I ran across this title as an ebook available from my local library. In the first few pages I read, I already came across four outright errors (e.g. Bruce Moreland's Ferret was "derived" from "his" open source program GnuChess!). The final WMCCCs were given short shrift, though they had the same strength as the WCCCs of the time. No mention of any rating list except the SSDF, and thus no mention of the general move from tournaments to rating lists as the new arena for computer chess improvement. Brief mention in the CCT12 chapter of the rise of open-source engines and the cloning problem (but not the consequences for Rybka, due to the publication date). Basically, if an engine wasn't in a tournament, match, or SSDF list, it wasn't mentioned in this book. There are many game scores, but the comments are insipid. No insight at all into the key improvements since the 1990s, except the obvious commodity hardware improvements allowing faster search, bigger books, and six-piece endgame databases. I did find it to be a good reference for tracking exactly what hardware was used in each tournament. In short, an outsider's summary of the waning computer tournament era, which needs an errata!

Is there a more insightful, more technical survey of the phenomenal progress in computer chess since Deep Blue?