CCT: New rules for CCT Events #2

[Peter Skinner]

Hello everyone,

I have looked over the rules, and have tweaked a few for future events.

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Registration:

1. FICS has agreed to facilitate computer accounts for the CCT tournament. Authors should sign up a human account first, then contact the Tournament Director with their desired engine account name to register their program account. The Tournament Director will then get the account registered, and an email will be dispatched to the particpating author with their account password. This usually will take no longer than 24 hours. (Registration form will handle the above if properly filled out)
1a. It is preferred that your computer account name be the same as your engine name. If this is not possible, please the Tournament Director.

2. Only the original author, Operator or a team member of the original program may enter and operate. The definition of a team member is as follows:

An individual who has internal knowledge of the program and is recognized by the author as a member of the development team.. i.e. Developer, book maker. This person must have advanced knowledge of the program, such as how the program is designed, hashing schemes, book making procedures..

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.
2a2. The operator must use the account that the author has signed up. No exceptions will be made.
2a3. No operator can operate more than one program. No exceptions will be made.

3. Book authors will be required to enter with only one team. Two teams (entrants) will not be able to use the same book author. Books can be as unique as a chess program, thus should follow the same rules as one program per author.

4. To enter, you need to be an established author. This means that a program of yours must have a track record in some public environment such as previous official tournaments participation. If your program has not competed in a previous CCT tournament, or in live events like the WCCC, IPCCC, Leiden, then you must take one of the steps below before registration will be accepted.

3a. Ways to establish yourself as a recognized author are:
If Private, your engine should have an history of official tournament participation (World champs, ACCA, Previous CCT, Paderborn etc)
If private, send the engine to the testing team to get their approval or release of the engine to the public.
Send your engine to be tested with the CCRL.
**All new engine authors undergo this screening test, so this is normal.

Clone/Derivatives Rules

1. Each participant (engine) must an original work. No entry can contain code from another program, or be a "clone" of another program. This includes any "personality" settings of an originating program. This includes opening books.

2. Any engine that is found to be "clone" of another program or close to it (e.g. engine output, pondering information, analysis of positions) will be declared void by the Tournament Director after seeking advice from notable sources. The notable sources will be individuals that have no active standing in other projects, and are respected within the computer chess community.

3. The Tournament Director can ask for the compiled executable and corresponding source to the participating version of an engine to let it be examined by the previous mentioned notable sources. If the author of the engine that is suspect were to refuse to confirm the originality of his own work, the engine and the author will be disqualified from the CCT, and will no longer be able to participate in future events.

Rules:

1. Registration will be limited to one entry per author. If an author has two programs, they must choose which one to enter. This is now extended to book authors, which must decide to enter with one team only. There will be no exceptions.

2. No manually operated programs, and all programs must kibitz their evaluation, and book moves/TB hits if possible. Providing as much information as possible for the viewers and participants is key. It should also be noted that 1-3 lines of text is sufficient. Whispering is not the same as kibitzing, as the opponent can not see your evaluation. If your program is found to be whispering instead of kibitzing, you will be asked to disconnect, correct the issue, and return. This disconnection will count towards rule 5.

3. Participants can use any hardware they can attain. Participants choosing to use remotely located hardware are recommended to have a suitable back up solution in the event of an uncorrectable malfunction.

4 . In the event that there is a late withdrawal or uneven amounts of players, the TD can substitute a program in place of the departing entrant to keep the numbered entries the same. And to avoid a bye round.

5. In the event of a disconnection, the party will be given 10 minutes to return to complete the game and no more than 2 disconnections per game will be allowed. On the third time, the game will be a forfeit. It will be required to request the forfeited win immediately upon the third disconnection.

6 . In the event that a program can not continue a game due to interface or program issues, it will forfeit the game. Under no circumstances will a new game be formed or the game restarted.

7. If a program is not open for matches or arrives late for a scheduled round, after 20 minutes the game will be considered a forfeit. This is to eliminate one game holding up the tournament.

8. Seeding will be calculated on results from previous official tournaments. WCCC/Leiden/IPCCC/CCT/Testing Groups.
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What do you all think of these?

Peter Skinner
CCT Tournament Director

[garybelton]

Definitely an improvement Peter. I assume the CCT is not ready to limit books to ECO relative length then?

[Harvey Williamson]

Sounds good Peter.

[hgm]

Why is a player that does not kibitz required to disconnect?

Wouldn't it be more logical to just have him switch on the kibitzing?

[Peter Skinner]

Definitely an improvement Peter. I assume the CCT is not ready to limit books to ECO relative length then?

In my mind, limiting the books equates to limiting the hardware or depth the program is allowed to search.

Books are an integral part of an engine, and the CCT has been and always will be an "Open" event. In that you bring the best hardware, the best version of your engine, and your team's best book. (Book has obviously just been added)

When you start to limit to many things, the event becomes a basement tournament that anyone could run in their spare time. The CCT, in my mind, is the most important computer chess event in any calendar year. (My apologies to Charles who also runs an online event, but CCT is my baby now )

Peter

[Peter Skinner]

Why is a player that does not kibitz required to disconnect?

Wouldn't it be more logical to just have him switch on the kibitzing?

For some using Polyglot + Winboard, or Chess Partner, it is required to disconnect to switch to kibitzing.

With Crafty it is as easy as sending a zippyPassword2 tell.

Peter

[garybelton]

Possibly I agree with you, although if something is not done I predict at some point a handheld device like an iPhone will turn up with the latest Playchess theory and draw with the Sjeng cluster and everyone else (it would have drawn with Sjeng this weekend).

On book limiting, I'm reminded of Michael J. Fox in "Back to the Future" .... "I guess you guys aren't ready for this yet but your children will love it!"

The CCT, in my mind, is the most important computer chess event in any calendar year.

I possibly agree with you on this too, maybe the ICGA wouldn't, but I certainly find your event more entertaining than the WCCC, it's a pity Rybka couldn't make it this year.

[Harvey Williamson]

Possibly I agree with you, although if something is not done I predict at some point a handheld device like an iPhone will turn up with the latest Playchess theory and draw with the Sjeng cluster and everyone else (it would have drawn with Sjeng this weekend).

On book limiting, I'm reminded of Michael J. Fox in "Back to the Future" .... "I guess you guys aren't ready for this yet but your children will love it!"

The CCT, in my mind, is the most important computer chess event in any calendar year.

I possibly agree with you on this too, maybe the ICGA wouldn't, but I certainly find your event more entertaining that the WCCC, it's a pity Rybka couldn't make it this year.

I am sure Peter will correct me if I am wrong but I think he missed out the word 'online.' However i agree it has become a major event on the calendar.

[michiguel]

Why is a player that does not kibitz required to disconnect?

Wouldn't it be more logical to just have him switch on the kibitzing?

For some using Polyglot + Winboard, or Chess Partner, it is required to disconnect to switch to kibitzing.

With Crafty it is as easy as sending a zippyPassword2 tell.

Peter

To keep the spirit, make it consistent, and cover the hole mentioned by hgm, maybe you can replace this

"If your program is found to be whispering instead of kibitzing, you will be asked to disconnect, correct the issue, and return. This disconnection will count towards rule 5. "

with this

"If your program is found to be whispering instead of kibitzing, or not kibitzing at all, you will be asked to correct the issue within 10 minutes. In case you need to disconnect to fix the problem, every disconnection will count towards rule 5. If you fix it without disconnecting, you will still be penalized with one disconnection. If the problem is not fixed within 10 minutes, the program will forfeit the game."

Miguel

[Ferdy]

Hello everyone,

I have looked over the rules, and have tweaked a few for future events.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Registration:

1. FICS has agreed to facilitate computer accounts for the CCT tournament. Authors should sign up a human account first, then contact the Tournament Director with their desired engine account name to register their program account. The Tournament Director will then get the account registered, and an email will be dispatched to the particpating author with their account password. This usually will take no longer than 24 hours. (Registration form will handle the above if properly filled out)
1a. It is preferred that your computer account name be the same as your engine name. If this is not possible, please the Tournament Director.

2. Only the original author, Operator or a team member of the original program may enter and operate. The definition of a team member is as follows:

An individual who has internal knowledge of the program and is recognized by the author as a member of the development team.. i.e. Developer, book maker. This person must have advanced knowledge of the program, such as how the program is designed, hashing schemes, book making procedures..

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.
2a2. The operator must use the account that the author has signed up. No exceptions will be made.
2a3. No operator can operate more than one program. No exceptions will be made.

3. Book authors will be required to enter with only one team. Two teams (entrants) will not be able to use the same book author. Books can be as unique as a chess program, thus should follow the same rules as one program per author.

4. To enter, you need to be an established author. This means that a program of yours must have a track record in some public environment such as previous official tournaments participation. If your program has not competed in a previous CCT tournament, or in live events like the WCCC, IPCCC, Leiden, then you must take one of the steps below before registration will be accepted.

3a. Ways to establish yourself as a recognized author are:
If Private, your engine should have an history of official tournament participation (World champs, ACCA, Previous CCT, Paderborn etc)
If private, send the engine to the testing team to get their approval or release of the engine to the public.
Send your engine to be tested with the CCRL.
**All new engine authors undergo this screening test, so this is normal.

Clone/Derivatives Rules

1. Each participant (engine) must an original work. No entry can contain code from another program, or be a "clone" of another program. This includes any "personality" settings of an originating program. This includes opening books.

2. Any engine that is found to be "clone" of another program or close to it (e.g. engine output, pondering information, analysis of positions) will be declared void by the Tournament Director after seeking advice from notable sources. The notable sources will be individuals that have no active standing in other projects, and are respected within the computer chess community.

3. The Tournament Director can ask for the compiled executable and corresponding source to the participating version of an engine to let it be examined by the previous mentioned notable sources. If the author of the engine that is suspect were to refuse to confirm the originality of his own work, the engine and the author will be disqualified from the CCT, and will no longer be able to participate in future events.

Rules:

1. Registration will be limited to one entry per author. If an author has two programs, they must choose which one to enter. This is now extended to book authors, which must decide to enter with one team only. There will be no exceptions.

2. No manually operated programs, and all programs must kibitz their evaluation, and book moves/TB hits if possible. Providing as much information as possible for the viewers and participants is key. It should also be noted that 1-3 lines of text is sufficient. Whispering is not the same as kibitzing, as the opponent can not see your evaluation. If your program is found to be whispering instead of kibitzing, you will be asked to disconnect, correct the issue, and return. This disconnection will count towards rule 5.

3. Participants can use any hardware they can attain. Participants choosing to use remotely located hardware are recommended to have a suitable back up solution in the event of an uncorrectable malfunction.

4 . In the event that there is a late withdrawal or uneven amounts of players, the TD can substitute a program in place of the departing entrant to keep the numbered entries the same. And to avoid a bye round.

5. In the event of a disconnection, the party will be given 10 minutes to return to complete the game and no more than 2 disconnections per game will be allowed. On the third time, the game will be a forfeit. It will be required to request the forfeited win immediately upon the third disconnection.

6 . In the event that a program can not continue a game due to interface or program issues, it will forfeit the game. Under no circumstances will a new game be formed or the game restarted.

7. If a program is not open for matches or arrives late for a scheduled round, after 20 minutes the game will be considered a forfeit. This is to eliminate one game holding up the tournament.

8. Seeding will be calculated on results from previous official tournaments. WCCC/Leiden/IPCCC/CCT/Testing Groups.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What do you all think of these?

Peter Skinner
CCT Tournament Director

Just a suggestion in item 2.

2. Only the original author, Operator or a team member of the original program may enter and operate. The definition of a team member is as follows:

An individual who is recognized by the author as a member of the development team.. i.e. Developer, book maker. This person must have knowledge in running the program online.

Much simpler