March Madness

[tsmiller1]

Brackets A & B in Round 2 are now complete. All matches went as expected with one big exception: In Bracket A No. 6 seed Alaric upset No. 3 seed Bright 6.5-5.5. This was a tough, brutal match that was decided in Game 12.

So eight engines have advanced to Round 3, the "Sweet Sixteen".
As a reminder, you can check out the progress at: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key= ... l=en#gid=1

Remember to click either "Round 1" or "Round 2" tab at the bottom to look at the round you so choose.

[tsmiller1]

I've been watching this tournament with interest also. I had a similiar
idea but you beat me to the punch. I do hope that you continue with
additional tournaments after this one is done.

You can still do this tournament, but do it with all commercial engines, or ALL engines, or 64-bit engines, etc. They're lots of fun ways to compare engines.

[tsmiller1]

OK, Bracket C of Round 2 has finished, with no upsets. ET Chess made it interesting against Twisted Logic, but the latter prevailed 6.5-4.5. Now onto Bracket D. Once this bracket is finished, we can move on to Round 3, the "Sweet Sixteen".

[tsmiller1]

Round 2 has now been completed. Bracket D finished with a lot of blowouts, including an upset, as No. 6 seed Cyrano beat No. 3 seed Spike 7-2! This was completely unexpected. Spike must have had trouble with Cyrano's style, as Cyrano just crushed it.

So Round 2 finishes with 2 upsets out of the 16 pairings. Interestingly, both upsets involved no. 6 seeds defeating no. 3 seeds.

So congratulations to those engines who advance to Round 3, the "Sweet Sixteen": Ippolit, Bison, Alaric, Thinker, Stockfish, Frenzee, Critter, Protector, Komodo, Booot, Twisted Logic, Spark, Rybka, Naum, Cyrano and Grapefruit.

Fittingly, the "Sweet Sixteen" will be Best of 16 (first to 8.5 or 9 points). We'll see if the "Cinderella" engines of Alaric and Cyrano can continue their good fortune. As a reminder, you can look at the brackets and the results at http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key= ... l=en#gid=1

[John_F]

Thanks for sharing your tournament!

We'll see if the "Cinderella" engines of Alaric and Cyrano can continue their good fortune.

In sports, a "Cinderella" team may get "hot" at just the right time, but surely there is no such thing as software that gets hot -- unless the motherboard overheats!

The "Cinderellas" are likely headed for a crushing.

[tsmiller1]

Round Three begins with Ippolit crushing Bison 8.5-0.5. I would have thought that the strong Bison program, which defeated the legedary Crafty in the previous round, would have more to show than a single draw, but this Ippolit is one STRONG engine! Oh, well, a draw is better than Ippolit's previous two challengers were able to accomplish.

Alaric's unlikely march to the championship was halted in almost a similar fashion by the mighty Thinker engine 8.5-2.5.

Now on to Bracket B, which features Stockfish vs. Frenzee and Protector vs. Critter.

[tsmiller1]

Bracket B in Round 3 is now complete. Frenzee really gave Stockfish a scare by jumping out to a 3-1 lead, and I thought I had a major upset in the making! But then Stockfish went on an amazing run, taking 7.5 of the next 8 games. Great fun.

Protector then defeated Critter without much trouble 8.5-2.5.

Next up in Round 3: Bracket C, which features Komodo vs. Booot, and Twisted Logic vs. Spark.

[govert]

It's great fun to follow this Madness.

If you decide to redo the tournament again, may I suggest that each match only features 2 (or maybe 4) games with really long time controls!

With that you would get a lot more upsets, and still very interesting games to follow.

[tsmiller1]

It's great fun to follow this Madness.

If you decide to redo the tournament again, may I suggest that each match only features 2 (or maybe 4) games with really long time controls!

With that you would get a lot more upsets, and still very interesting games to follow.

That certainly would produce more upsets. I guess you could take that to its logical conclusion and do single-elimination like in the real NCAA Championships! But I'm afraid to shorten the matches too much, lest they become even more of a crapshoot than they already are, and people would find no significance to them and lose interest. I like the way they determined the Chess Champion back in Fischer's Day, with a series of ever-increasing length matches until a challenger was determined.

[tsmiller1]

Bracket C of Round 3 has ended now, pretty much as expected. Komodo beat Booot 8.5-4.5, and Spark defeated Twisted Logic 8.5-3.5.

And now, onto Bracket D, which features Rybka vs. Naum, and the upstart Cyrano vs. Grapefruit.

As a reminder, you can follow the Brackets and results at: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key= ... l=en#gid=0