CCT 12 - New entrant

[Peter Skinner]

Hi Peter,

I really wonder whether this incredible low number of participants so far is a direct consequence of this Ippo/Robbo/Ivanhoe/Igorrit/Firebird/TobyTal/Tankist comrades nonsense. Somehow fun is gone, thanks to those comrades. (Well, the process might have started earlier because of maybe too strong open source stuff... there is no real competition anymore if it is so easy for so many to start with something 2800 or even 3000 Elo. Older engines had always some versions 0.x which started mostly even below 1800. Now every new engine seems to start in the 2800...)

Greets, Thomas

No, I don't think it has to do with Ippolit and company.

This is the norm every year. During the last two weeks many people join. Last year, prior to 1 month before the event we only had 5 entrants and it turned out to have 40 or something.

Same will happen again. If I ever find that it isn't fun anymore I will stop holding the event. Since I still look forward to it.. CCT 12 here I come!

Peter

[Richard Allbert]

Hi Peter,

I have only jsut seen the CCT 12 thread!

I have registered an account with with FICS today, and have the password.

Before putting Jabba online on FICS, I need to wait for you organise for itto be a computer account, is that correct?

I don't expect any problems, otherwise, have played plenty of games with winboard/ICC.

Thanks

Richard

PS Edit* I've sent a message to computers, asking for my account to be made into a computer account

[hgm]

REM -- Azkikr on FICS
:loop
"D:\Chess\Winboard\winboard.exe" -zp -ics -icshost freechess.org -icshelper timeseal.exe -keepAlive 30 -fd D:\Chess\Polyglot -fcp "polyglot Hiarcs1.ini" -zippyGameEnd="ga1\nga2\nga3\nga4\nga5\n" -icslogon Azkikr.ini
goto loop

Just copy that into notepad, edit the paths for your engine, and save as ktulu.bat

Note that this glosses over an important point: if you invoke Polyglot this way, you will need to make or obtain a file Hiarcs1.ini that tellsPolyglot where to find your engine. (Or change the name in the command line to the name of such a file for your engine.)

This can simply be avoided, by writing

"D:\Chess\Winboard\winboard.exe" -zp -ics -icshost freechess.org -icshelper timeseal.exe -keepAlive 30 -fd D:\Chess\Hiarcs -fcp "Hiarcs.exe" -fUCI -icslogon Azkikr.ini -autoKibitz

Where you replace \Chess\Hiarcs by the path name of the folder where you have your engine installed, and Hiarcs.exe by the name of your engine executable. And Azkikr.ini by a file cotaining your own login instructions.

Note I left out the ga1 / ga2 / ... stuff, as I have no idea what that is for.

Make sure polyglot.exe is in the same folder as winboard.exe (D:\Chess\WinBoard in this example). Also make sure you have at least Polyglot.1.4.38x or higher. (If you do not see the controls for the engine's UCI options in the WinBoard "Options -> Engine #1 Settings" menu, you are using an obsolete Polyglot.)

All this will automatically be satisfied if you have installed WinBoard from the "Gold Pack" that is downloadable from WinBoard forum.

[IanO]

If anyone is looking for an operator, fell free to contact me if you don't mind running on an 8-core Mac Pro

I'm not an author, but that would be a sweet platform for Stockfish. I hope they give you permission to host it.

Ian

P.S. I am perversely hoping that someone tries entering Robbolito or Ivanhoe, just to see whether the clone rules have any teeth. [Edit: ah, I see someone already tried. Peter Skinner's teeth are sharp indeed! ]

[Tord Romstad]

If anyone is looking for an operator, fell free to contact me if you don't mind running on an 8-core Mac Pro

I'm not an author, but that would be a sweet platform for Stockfish. I hope they give you permission to host it.

The rules regarding non-author operators have been made more strict for this year's CCT (probably a good idea, IMHO). From the tournament rules:

2a. Operators will only be allowed under the following conditions:

2a1. The author must be online during the tournament to participate in discussions in channel 64, and in the event there is an issue with their program they can provide real time support to their operator.

I have no great interest in CCT (or in online tournaments in general), and have no desire to be online during the tournament. I haven't asked them, but I suspect that Joona and Marco feel the same way. It's therefore very unlikely that Stockfish will participate.