Tournois de l'ICGA

Bulletin Day 4 WCCC

Yesterday was excursion day, including trips to the old city of Volendam, to the isle of Marken and to central Amsterdam. If you want to see how your favourite participant looks like in traditional Volendam clothing (or if you want to see pictures from the 15th WCCC and the 12th Computer Olympiad), please check the photo site.

But not all was quiet at the chess front. The postponed game The King - Rybka from round 1 was played. In an almost empty tournament hall, Johan de Koning for The King and Hans van der Zijden for Rybka, with Jos Uiterwijk as director, conducted silently the moves indicated by their machines. In the first half The King could withstand Rybka, but then the latter program proved its strength, and outplayed The King quickly: 0-1.

As a result, after 5 complete rounds there are two leaders, with 4 out of 5, namely Zappa and Rybka. They are followed by a pack of 3 programs, with 3.5 out 5: Deep Sjeng, GridChess, and Shredder.

Round 6

Today there was only one round. In the afternoon the traditional speed chess championship will be played.

One of the leaders, Zappa, had to play with Black against Jonny. After 40 moves the position was still unclear (at least to me, humble human). Black had a queen-side majority, but White had a passed central pawn. But then the central white pawn got lost and Black got a dangerous passed a-pawn. However, White could just defend, so the game ended in a draw. The second leader, Rybka, had quite an easy game. In the early midgame it won the exchange and then easily won. So a single leader after this round!

The three followers all three drew their games. Deep Sjeng and Shredder were paired against each other. Deep Sjeng was able to win a pawn at move 35, but the resulting endgame was carefully defended by Shredder, so a draw was the natural result. The third follower, GridChess, had a quick game against Diep. After 25 moves the position was rather equal, and the programs decided to repeat this position: so a draw also.

The other two games were decided in favour of Black. Loop had no difficulty outplaying Micromax. The King had a good game against The Baron, creating a passed pawn and deciding the game quickly.

So after this day we have one leader, Rybka (5 out of 6), followed by Zappa (4.5 out of 6), and then the same followers Shredder, GridChess, and Deep Sjeng (4 out of 6).

Speed Chess Championship

In the Speed Chess Championship 8 programs decided to enter. These are: Zappa, Rybka, Shredder, Deep Sjeng, Jonny, Loop, MicroMax, and GridChess.

Let us show the results:

Round 1

• Zappa - Jonny 1/2
• Loop - Rybka 0-1
• Shredder - MicroMax 1-0
• GridChess - Deep Sjeng 1/2

Round 2

• Loop - Zappa 0-1
• GridChess - Shredder 1/2
• Rybka - Jonny 1-0
• Deep Sjeng - MicroMax 1-0

Round 3

• Zappa - GridChess 1/2
• MicroMax - Rybka 0-1
• Shredder - Loop 1-0
• Jonny - Deep Sjeng 1/2

Round 4

• MicroMax - Zappa 0-1
• Rybka - GridChess 1/2
• Jonny - Shredder 0-1
• Deep Sjeng - Loop 1-0

Round 5

• Zappa - Deep Sjeng 1-0
• Shredder - Rybka 1/2
• GridChess - Jonny 1-0
• Loop - MicroMax 1-0

Round 6

• Rybka - Zappa 1/2
• Deep Sjeng - Shredder 0-1
• Jonny - Loop 1-0
• MicroMax - GridChess 0-1

Round 7

• Zappa - Shredder 0-1
• Deep Sjeng - Rybka 1/2
• MicroMax - Jonny 0-1
• Loop - GridChess 1-0

This gives the following overall result:

1. Shredder: 6
2. Rybka: 5
3. Zappa: 4.5
4. GridChess: 4
5. Deep Sjeng: 3.5
6. Jonny: 3
7. Loop: 2
8. MicroMax: 0

So Shredder is World Speed Chess Champion 2007! Congratulations!

2007-06-15 14:03:40, Amsterdam