ICGA WCCC and WCSC in Santiago de Compostela

[AlexChess]

Thank you my friends for the videos and infos!

[Henk]

I hope they are all okay. Amir Ban's close relatives got attacked by Hamas just over a year ago. I think it was Albert Silver who wrote about that? Hans Berliner passed away in 2017. I hope Frans is okay. I do not think he would have come? I never did find out what happened to Bruce Moreland after he withdrew from computer chess, no public references I could find ever.

Sounds bit like world war one memorial but no soldiers who fought in that war are alive anymore.

[CRoberson]

About the conference (in Russian):
https://habr.com/ru/companies/smartengi ... es/853546/

Gold Medal of Kaissa:
https://habr.com/ru/companies/smartengi ... es/834492/

This world championship, as it turned out, will be the final one.

“We must admit that chess has fallen out of the sphere of artificial intelligence today. It’s time to put an end to this matter. Today’s programs are approximately of the same level. They play 30 games to a draw, then one of them wins, but this no longer arouses any interest,” Vladimir Lvovich noted.

And then, with a mysterious look, he added: “However, it is still impossible to say that the machine plays perfectly — we don’t know. I fully admit that a genius may be born who will beat the machine. Or perhaps he already lives among us.”
Well, this is a good meme material and shows you how "in line" are this legends with modern state of chess engines.

Not sure what you really mean by " how in line are this legends...".
Chess is not solved. Thus, we don't know how to play perfectly.
I recall years ago many SF fanatics claimed computer chess was dead because SF was at the top
for so long and thought that it played nearly perfect. But, then Alpha Zero and Leela come along and destroyed that thought.
Then some thought that Leela was impossible to beat, but new ideas came that could beat Leela and SF. The SF team adopted them quickly.
Now, some claim it again.
I doubt the search algorithm in SF plays perfectly: it prunes heavily, maybe too much.
So, new ideas will come .... and as history suggests they will not be from SF.
To my WCCC colleagues and friends: some of you liked my ideas to make neural nets more efficient and want to try them.
That is fine. I plan to publish on the topic after gathering more data. Please don't repeat the ideas for the SF team to get before I can publish.

[johnhamlen65]

From the pictures seen, I am missing the following oldies frequently having participated.

Berliner
Robert Hyatt
Frans Morsch
Marty Hirsch
Mark Uniacke
Mark Lefler
SMK
Amir Ban

I suppose Vas did not get an invitation

I know Bob Hyatt, Ken Thompson, and the Spracklens were logged onto the video feed. I don't know about the others.

[CRoberson]

From the pictures seen, I am missing the following oldies frequently having participated.

Berliner
Robert Hyatt
Frans Morsch
Marty Hirsch
Mark Uniacke
Mark Lefler
SMK
Amir Ban

I suppose Vas did not get an invitation

I know Bob Hyatt, Ken Thompson, and the Spracklens were logged onto the video feed. I don't know about the others.

Bruce Wright (DuChess) and Mark Lefler were online as well.

[johnhamlen65]

About the conference (in Russian):
https://habr.com/ru/companies/smartengi ... es/853546/

Gold Medal of Kaissa:
https://habr.com/ru/companies/smartengi ... es/834492/

This world championship, as it turned out, will be the final one.

“We must admit that chess has fallen out of the sphere of artificial intelligence today. It’s time to put an end to this matter. Today’s programs are approximately of the same level. They play 30 games to a draw, then one of them wins, but this no longer arouses any interest,” Vladimir Lvovich noted.

And then, with a mysterious look, he added: “However, it is still impossible to say that the machine plays perfectly — we don’t know. I fully admit that a genius may be born who will beat the machine. Or perhaps he already lives among us.”
Well, this is a good meme material and shows you how "in line" are this legends with modern state of chess engines.

Not sure what you really mean by " how in line are this legends...".
Chess is not solved. Thus, we don't know how to play perfectly.
I recall years ago many SF fanatics claimed computer chess was dead because SF was at the top
for so long and thought that it played nearly perfect. But, then Alpha Zero and Leela come along and destroyed that thought.
Then some thought that Leela was impossible to beat, but new ideas came that could beat Leela and SF. The SF team adopted them quickly.
Now, some claim it again.
I doubt the search algorithm in SF plays perfectly: it prunes heavily, maybe too much.
So, new ideas will come .... and as history suggests they will not be from SF.
To my WCCC colleagues and friends: some of you liked my ideas to make neural nets more efficient and want to try them.
That is fine. I plan to publish on the topic after gathering more data. Please don't repeat the ideas for the SF team to get before I can publish.

Even though LC0 wasn't there, and the SF derivative was woefully underpowered on only 6 cores , it was great to see Stoofvlees (tens of thousands of nps) trading equal blows with Jonny (billions of nps). It's lovely to still have diversity of approach.

Looking forward to the publication Charles

[Viz]

Not sure what you really mean by " how in line are this legends...".
Chess is not solved. Thus, we don't know how to play perfectly.
I recall years ago many SF fanatics claimed computer chess was dead because SF was at the top
for so long and thought that it played nearly perfect. But, then Alpha Zero and Leela come along and destroyed that thought.
Then some thought that Leela was impossible to beat, but new ideas came that could beat Leela and SF. The SF team adopted them quickly.
Now, some claim it again.
I doubt the search algorithm in SF plays perfectly: it prunes heavily, maybe too much.
So, new ideas will come .... and as history suggests they will not be from SF.
To my WCCC colleagues and friends: some of you liked my ideas to make neural nets more efficient and want to try them.
That is fine. I plan to publish on the topic after gathering more data. Please don't repeat the ideas for the SF team to get before I can publish.

Humans wouldn't beat sf, no matter how genius they are.
It's the same as "maybe there is a genius who can outrun a ferrari, maybe he is already born".
Oh btw humans can't beat sf8 either, maybe if they get game-winning edge out of the opening... By remembering sf 17 lines, heh.
And everything else he said is also a complete BS. That engines at the top are no different and they just mostly draw - they are vastly different, in both opening choices and strength, just to showcase strength you need to feed them positions where they can do so, and in the openings, well, they also choose different plans and play differently.
Just that nowadays you don't see "exciting" games where they blunder dead drawn positions all that often, indeed.

[AlexChess]

“We must admit that chess has fallen out of the sp It’s time to put an end to this matter. Today’s programs are approximately of the same level. They play 30 games to a draw, then one of them wins, but this no longer arouses any interest,” Vladimir Lvovich noted.

Not sure what you really mean by " how in line are this legends...".
Chess is not solved. Thus, we don't know how to play perfectly.
I recall years ago many SF fanatics claimed computer chess was dead because SF was at the top
for so long and thought that it played nearly perfect. But, then Alpha Zero and Leela come along and destroyed that thought.
Then some thought that Leela was impossible to beat, but new ideas came that could beat Leela and SF. The SF team adopted them quickly.
Now, some claim it again.
I doubt the search algorithm in SF plays perfectly: it prunes heavily, maybe too much.
So, new ideas will come .... and as history suggests they will not be from SF.
To my WCCC colleagues and friends: some of you liked my ideas to make neural nets more efficient and want to try them.
That is fine. I plan to publish on the topic after gathering more data. Please don't repeat the ideas for the SF team to get before I can publish.

Even though LC0 wasn't there, and the SF derivative was woefully underpowered on only 6 cores , it was great to see Stoofvlees (tens of thousands of nps) trading equal blows with Jonny (billions of nps). It's lovely to still have diversity of approach.

Looking forward to the publication Charles

Stockfish is too drawish. They should insert an Aggressive mode, they have even removed the contempt factor option, instead...

[mclane]

While watching another Video from Santiago d.C. i get the impression: is there ANY participant not doing a selfie with Richard Lang ??

Seemed King Richard had his fan boys with him…

[johnhamlen65]

While watching another Video from Santiago d.C. i get the impression: is there ANY participant not doing a selfie with Richard Lang ??

Seemed King Richard had his fan boys with him…

What can we say? He's a very popular guy! #veryjealous
And he hasn't changed in 30 years!