From: Pieter Stouten SHOGI NET> Date: 2 jul 2000 Subject: MSO Computer Olympiad - enter your Shogi program now! 5th COMPUTER OLYMPIAD --------------------- The Computer Olympiad is a multi-games event in which all of the participants are computer programs. The purpose is to find the strongest programs at each of the games, partly as an academic exercise and partly because the competitions are fun! The Computer Olympiad was created by David Levy in the late 1980s. The inaugural event took place at the Park Lane Hotel in London in 1989 and the following three years saw the event grow in popularity - twice more it was held in London (1990 and 1992) and once in Maastricht (1991). Following the 1992 event attempts were made to find a new organiser who would increase its scope and plan the organisation of the Olympiad each year. Unfortunately no-one came forward and the event has not taken place since. Now, due to popular demand, we are reviving the Computer Olympiad and bringing it into the Mind Sports Olympiad where we expect it to become a regular feature. This year's Computer Olympiad takes place from August 21st-25th and will be played in the largest area at Alexandra Palace, the West Hall. We are planning tournaments for 14 different Mind Sports: Amazons Backgammon Bridge Chess [World Microcomputer Chess Championship] Chinese Chess 8x8 Draughts 10x10 Draughts Hex Lines of Action Othello Oware Poker Scrabble Shogi A tournament will take place for each Mind Sport provided that there are at least two programs entered for that particular game. The detailed tournament schedule will not be announced until the closing date for entries which is August 7th. MSO Gold, Silver and Bronze medals will be awarded to the leading programs in each tournament. Whether or not there are cash prizes will depend on whether we are able to secure sponsorship for the Computer Olympiad. The Tournament Director of the Computer Olympiad will be Professor Jaap van den Herik from the Computer Science Department at the University of Maastricht, who will also be the Chairman of a computer games workshop taking place on the evenings of August 22nd, 23rd and 24th starting at 8pm. For full details of the workshop and the procedure for the submission of papers, please contact Professor van den Herik on herik cs unimaas nl ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- RULES OF THE 5th COMPUTER OLYMPIAD 1) Each entry is a computing system and one or more humans who programmed it. At least one of the program developers should attend the Computer Olympiad to operate the program, otherwise the entry fee for the program is doubled. In the case of the World Microcomputer Chess Championship at least 50% of the entering developers and all developers attending the event must be members of the International Computer Chess Association in good standing. No exceptions will be made to this rule. 2) Each program must be the original work of the entering developers. Programming teams whose code is derived from or including game playing code written by others must name all other authors, or the source of such code, in their application details. Programs which are discovered to be close derivatives of others (e.g. by playing nearly all moves the same), may be declared invalid by the Tournament Director after seeking expert advice. For this purpose a listing of all game-related code running on the system must be available on demand to the Tournament Director. 3) Participants are required to attend an organisational meeting prior to the start of the tournament on August 21st for the purpose of officially registering for the tournament. Operational rules will be finalized at that meeting. 4) The format of each tournament and the rate of play will generally be determined by the Tournament Director according to the number of programs entered and any other relevant factors. The World Microcomputer Chess Championship will be a Swiss system event with at least 7 and possibly as many as 11 rounds in which the rate of play will be 60 moves in 2 hours followed by the rest of the game in 30 minutes. 5) Unless otherwise stated the rules of play for a tournament will be identical to those of human tournament play. In the case of Mind Sports where there has been little or no previous experience of computer tournament play (e.g. Poker), the rules will be determined by the Tournament Director after discussion with the competing programmers. 6) If the situation warrants it the Tournament Director has the right to adjudicate a game after 4 or more hours of play. All adjudications will be made on the assumption of perfect play. The Tournament Director may ask for expert advice as he sees fit. 7) An operator may ask the Tournament Director to stop the clocks at most twice during a game because of technical problems. The operator can ask the Tournament Director for permission to restart the program. When restarting after a failure of any kind the operator must reset all parameters to their values at the time the game was interrupted. Play must resume after at most a 15 minute delay. 8) All computers must be on site in the playing hall. If the event organisers can secure sponsorship from a PC manufacturer then the event will be a "uniform platform" event to the extent that in any one game both (all) programs will execute on identical PC hardware. If the event organisers are unable to secure sponsorship from a PC manufacturer then all participants will be required to make their own arrangements for computers though in exceptional cases (e.g. participants from countries which do not permit the temporary export of computers) the organisers will assist participants in arranging the loan of computers. 9) In the World Microcomputer Chess Championship all chess playing code must execute on a single generally available processor. 10) An operator error made when starting a game or in the middle of a game can be corrected only with the approval of the Tournament Director. If an operator enters an incorrect move, the Tournament Director must be notified immediately. Both clocks will be stopped. The game must then be backed up to where the error occurred. Clocks will be corrected and their settings when the error ooccurred using whatever information is available. Both (all) sides may then adjust their program parameters with the approval of the Tournament Director. The Tournament Director may allow certain program parameters to be changed, e.g. contempt factors. 11) All monitors must be positioned so that the operator's activities are clearly visible to the opponent. An operator may only: [a] enter moves, and [b] respond to request from the computer for clock information. This latter activity must be observed by the Tournament Director or his designate. If an operator needs to enter other information, it must be approved ahead of time by the Tournament Director. The operator may not query the system to see if it is alive without the permission of the Tournament Director. 12) A team must receive permission from the Tournament Director to change from one computing system to another. 13) Each game must be played using game equipment (e.g. boards, sets and clocks) provided by or approved by the event organisers. At the end of each game or playing session the tams are required to hand in a game listing or similar record to the Tournament Director. 14) Tie-breaking systems will be announced at the start of each tournament. 15) In the event of any rule disputes or changes necessitated by circumstances at the time the Tournament Director's decision shall be final. 16) Entry fees shall be as follows: Amateur: $100 Semi-professional: $250 Professional: $500 "Amateur": programmers who have no commercial interest in their program, and are not professional game programmers. Applications for amateur classification must supply information to justify their claim. "Semi-professional": Any program submitted by an employee or associate from a games programming company. The program's name must not be derived from or similar to a commercial product. "Professional": A program whose name is the same as or derived from a commercial product. Any entry received after August 7th will be subject to a penalty fee, doubling the above fees. ENTRY FORM Name of program __________________________________________________ Entering author(s) of program _______________________________________________ (Note that entries may be submitted only by the author(s) of the program.) Name and e-mail address for all correspondence ________________________________ Affiliation (e.g. university, company): ________________________________________ Snailmail address ________________________________________________________ Home telephone number:___________________________________________________ Work telephone number: ___________________________________________________ Fax number _____________________________________________________________ Who will come to the Computer Olympiad to operate your program? ________________ Entry category and fee _____________________________________________________ INFORMATION ABOUT THE COMPUTER PLATFORM YOU WILL USE IF ARRANGING YOUR OWN HARDWARE Please describe the computer system you will use if the organisers do not supply hardware. Manufacturer of computer and model:_________________________________________ RAM: __________________________________ Disk space for al necessary game-related software _______________________________ Operating system and any additional information ________________________________ INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR PROGRAM Please provide a brief description of your program (100-200 words). _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________etc.