Playchess: Engines room - ideas for Computer chess classes

[cooldalek]

I'm a keen Masters swimmer. In Masters you compete against people in your age group, 25-29, 30-34, 35-39 and so on, right up to 95-99 and then 100+

The problem with the playchess.com engine room is a) everyone has Rybka; b) it's just a competition to see who has the best hardware

So why not have classes; e.g.

1. Single CPU system
a) 32 bit
b) 64 bit

2. Dual Core

3. Quad core

etc

Or have the breakdowns as a) commercial programs b) freeware programs

Given playchess.com logs your comp type it could automatically prevent you from cheating and playing in too low a class

That way we might see a few more of the less strong engines on there. At the moment people are turned off because they know they're just going to get whipped by a Rybka and a monster PC

[nuff]

What about those tournaments that are for non-rybkas. I mostly play as a human but if I had my own engine/non-ryybka I would surely enter the non-rybka tourney/category. I wouldn't necessarily see it as a battle of hardware but of opening books/engines. Look at some of the centaurs games. Or even the freestyle.

Its a good idea though.

[Erik Roggenburg]

I like your idea.

You could even have an "Open Category" option for folks that run singles that like to stick it to quads and duals. lol

[cooldalek]

Perhaps if Richard Stickles is around (or anyone has his e-mail address) we could point him to this thread?

[Nelson Hernandez]

He's at richard.stickles@chessbase.com.

I like your idea, but have a few of observations...

1. It is possible to have a much-stronger computer play moves without possibility of detection. I was reading about a Russian programmer who had done this some time ago. If it is possible to cheat, people will find a way! Why would someone do this? To prove it can be done and to operate outside the boundaries, I guess.

2. While it is very true that hardware stratifies the ranking lists to a great extent, it is possible for someone to play much stronger than his hardware class if he has a professional opening book.

3. At any given time there may be 60-80 people actually playing in the engine room. Of those players, perhaps 10-15% now own quad-cores. So we are talking 6-12 players in the top hardware class at any one time. It would get quite boring for these players to play each other exclusively over and over. And what happens to the first guy to own a 45nm octo with juiced-up Rybka 3.0? He'll be in a class unto himself.

[nuff]

L Roberts, have you got your own prog? What if you do not select automatic accept but you challenge non-rybkas manually.

As far as your idea, it would be trivial for ChessBase to make a room like the ones they have on the menus or the facilities given to people who want to run tourney's.