TCEC Season 1 - Stage 2a lineup and start date!

[michiguel]

In other news, the new TCEC computer has been built, a dual CPU Intel Xeon with a total of 16 cores.
It will not be used yet since there are still single threaded engines left in the current Season.
If there are no single threaded engines left for Stage 3 this new hardware will be used from that point on.

Your tournament, so your rules and your decision. But a pity not to enable the SMP engines the chance to use extra cores ASAP. The single core engines, well they are in the minority, and if they don't SMP that is an issue they should deal with if they wish to.

I philosophically agree, but there is one subtle problem. If the hardware is updated now, it will indirectly punish the SMP engines that did not qualify to round 2. They may have done it with 16 cores (beating the single core), but did not with 3. If you change the rules now, you may find that the single core beat some multicore that may have been competitive with the remaining multi.

I think that sticking to the original rules gives more credibility to the tournament (EDIT: even if this is only psychological). People know what to expect from the beginning to end. Everybody knows what is coming, so everybody has now a set goal to improve and prepare the engines for 16 cores. One of the most important aspects of keeping things consistent, is that if offers the programmers a given "carrot" to follow. I think this is an important contribution. Moving targets are not good for the programmers.

We are all excited to go for the 16 core, but in the long run I think that Martin's decision may end up being wiser. IMHO.

Miguel

[Graham Banks]

.......If the hardware is updated now, it will indirectly punish the SMP engines that did not qualify to round 2. They may have done it with 16 cores (beating the single core), but did not with 3. If you change the rules now, you may find that the single core beat some multicore that may have been competitive with the remaining multi.

I think that sticking to the original rules gives more credibility to the tournament (EDIT: even if this is only psychological). People know what to expect from the beginning to end. Everybody knows what is coming, so everybody has now a set goal to improve and prepare the engines for 16 cores. One of the most important aspects of keeping things consistent, is that if offers the programmers a given "carrot" to follow. I think this is an important contribution. Moving targets are not good for the programmers.

We are all excited to go for the 16 core, but in the long run I think that Martin's decision may end up being wiser. IMHO.

Miguel

Well said.

[Modern Times]

Well, there's also the alternative view that one shouldn't change horses midstream.

He is going to do that anyway The discussion point is, at what point he will do that.

[Martin Thoresen]

Well, there's also the alternative view that one shouldn't change horses midstream.

He is going to do that anyway The discussion point is, at what point he will do that.

Ray,

I understand your point of view.

The reason that I don't want to switch to the 16-core right away is that I included single core engines on the basis that their MP opponents would be using 3 cores.

So in Season 1, for good or bad, there will not be a switch until there are no more single core engines left.

For Season 2, I am not including any single core engines (except Komodo, but I expect it to be MP by then).

Best,
Martin

[Martin Thoresen]

Standings after Round 3:

Code: Select all

N Engine           Pts   SB S R J H C H G S 

1 Stockfish 210213 2.5 1.50   =         1 1 
2 Rybka 4.1        2.0 3.00 =       1   =   
3 Junior 13.3      2.0 2.25       = =   1   
4 Hiarcs 14        2.0 1.75     =     =   1 
5 Critter 1.6a     1.5 2.50   0 =     1     
6 Houdini 3        1.5 1.00       = 0     1 
7 Gaviota 0.8602   0.5 1.00 0 = 0           
8 Spike 1.4        0.0 0.00 0     0   0     

All games can be found here:
http://www.tcec-chess.net/stage_2a.php

[Don]

Well, there's also the alternative view that one shouldn't change horses midstream.

He is going to do that anyway The discussion point is, at what point he will do that.

Ray,

I understand your point of view.

The reason that I don't want to switch to the 16-core right away is that I included single core engines on the basis that their MP opponents would be using 3 cores.

So in Season 1, for good or bad, there will not be a switch until there are no more single core engines left.

For Season 2, I am not including any single core engines (except Komodo, but I expect it to be MP by then).

Best,
Martin

Martin,

If and/or when Komodo is the only single core engine left, I would not be opposed to you using your full hardware - even if the MP version is not ready. It's probably 50/50 whether it will be ready or not but I would like to see your hardware put to good use and you are probably eager for this too. It's totally up to you of course, but I am ok with it.

If there are other single core engines still in there however of course this would be grossly unfair to them based on the expectations they were presented with at the start.

Don

[Graham Banks]

So in Season 1, for good or bad, there will not be a switch until there are no more single core engines left.

For Season 2, I am not including any single core engines (except Komodo, but I expect it to be MP by then).

Best,
Martin

Sounds fair.

[Martin Thoresen]

The TCEC website has now been updated, there is also a forum now.

[Martin Thoresen]

Standings after Round 6 of 14:

Code: Select all

N Engine           Pts    SB S R C H J H S G 

1 Stockfish 210213 4.5 10.50   =   = 1 = 1 1 
2 Rybka 4.1        4.0 11.50 =   1   = 1 = = 
3 Critter 1.6a     4.0  9.25   0   1 = 1 = 1 
4 Hiarcs 14        3.5  7.50 =   0   = = 1 1 
5 Junior 13.3      3.0  7.50 0 = = =     = 1 
6 Houdini 3        2.5  6.00 = 0 0 =     1 = 
7 Spike 1.4        1.5  5.50 0 = = 0 = 0     
8 Gaviota 0.8602   1.0  3.25 0 = 0 0 0 =     

All games can be found here:
http://www.tcec-chess.net/stage_2a.php

[ernest]

The TCEC website has now been updated, there is also a forum now.

I have XP Home with IE8.
10 days ago, on http://www.tcec-chess.net/live.php everything was fine

Since a few days (I think, maybe even before that update), I only get:
* on the left part of the screen, just the current board and the current game (the upper left part, with the name of the playing engines, is missing!)
* on the right part of the screen, under the words "Engine Output - Swap - Show", just a black space

A friend with XP Home and an older IE, has the same bug

On Firefox 19, no problem