From: Pieter Stouten shogi net> Date: 9 jun 2004 Subject: Shogi Freestyle Cup 2004 ----------------------------------------------------------- Empower your Team with Remote Access. GoToMyPC Pro provides your organization with instant remote access to email,files, applications and network resources in real time. FREE TRIAL: http://click.topica.com/caaciqTa2i6YsbnuqMaa/ExpertCity ----------------------------------------------------------- [The Shogi Freestyle web site has had some problems, so please find below all relevant information, provided by Mot Shimazaki lark cs inf shizuoka ac jp>] --------------------------------------------------------------------- SHOGI FREESTYLE CUP 2004 We are proud to announce our first hosting of the Shogi Freestyle Cup 2004. We are exploring a new way to learn more about the potential of human+computer teams in a freestyle Shogi tournament. Each participant is a team with arbitrary members and arbitrary decision structure. So, any combination of humans, programs, and computers is acceptable and may choose freely its ways to make decisions. The Shogi Freestyle Cup 2004 will be played in realtime via internet. Each team has to include at least one human, the team leader. This person may be involved in the decision processes or only be operating. Team leaders are not allowed to participate in more than one team. Copies of the same Shogi computer program may be used in more than one team. All teams in the cup shall reveal their team and decision structures after the tournament. NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS IN THE SHOGI FREESTYLE CUP If six or less teams participate, a round-robin tournament will be played. If the number of teams is between seven and sixteen, there will be Random- Swiss pairing. In this pairing system, the first two rounds are random pairing, then followed by Swiss. For each won game one winning point is given, in case of a draw 0.5 winning points are given to both teams. The tie-breaking could be Solkof and SB. At most 16 teams will be admitted. Each participant will have to play five games in the event. If more than 16 teams apply the organizers will decide which teams to accept. Our intention is to make the event as high-calibre as possible. Applicants with good explanations why their team should be strong and/or interesting have better chances to be admitted. Also, teams with early registration have better chances to be accepted SCHEDULE The Shogi Freestyle Cup will start on Saturday, June 19, 2004. The matches will be played every Saturday during the course of the five-week tournament (June 26, July 3, July 10 and) ending on Saturday, July 17. One round per week will be played. For each pairing both teams involved have to agree on a date and time for the game. If no other agreement is made, the game starts at 21:00 (Japan standard time) on the corresponding Saturday. THINKING TIME Thinking time will be 90 minutes base time and 60 sec byoyomi. A team has to arrange all internal decisions during its thinking time. Clocks will be run by the Internet server. Every team is responsible for the whole connection line on its side of the internet server. VENUE TO PLAY Games are to be played on a game server on the Internet, on the Shogi Club 24 site , in the International Dojo to be exact . After you register (please refer to the registration instruction below), you will be given a password to the above-mentioned dojo via e-mail from us. Once you are there the tournament participants will be identified/recognized by having "(f)" in front of their usernames so you can find your opponent(s) without any difficulty. REGISTRATION Registration is possible from now on. Just send e-mail with the necessary information to the e-mail address here: shimazaki lark cs inf shizuoka ac jp to submit your registration information. Teams from all over the world are welcome to participate. Only human team leaders are allowed to register, however. A successful applicant should include the following information: Team name Primary e-mail address where we can contact you, as well as for your Shogi Club 24 password to be sent to. Team members' names and background information Decision-making style in detail You will also be required to provide us with a special username to be used on the Shogi Club 24 site. Your username can be the same as your team name or a different one, as long as it is less than 14 characters long (upper/lower case, numbers, space, +, - and _ are allowed). We will register your user name(s) with Shogi Club 24 and your password, which will be required to gain access to the dojo, will be e-mailed to you by us. Once you are in the dojo, as mentioned above, the tournament participants will be identified by having "(f)" in front of thier username ("f" for freestyle). It will be put in front of your username by the webmaster, hence you do not need to count that as a part of your username. As indicated above, although the usual thinking time at Shogi Club 24 is 30 minutes, we have made a special arrangement with the webmaster to have it extended to 90 minutes for this occasion. Registration deadline is June 13, 2004. Later registrations will not be accepted. Applicants will be notified when the registration process is complete via e-mail. There is no starting fee. Application and participation are free. PRIZE One thousand Euros will be given to the leader of the winning team. In case of disputes and reclamation only the referrees will decide the outcome and the teams are to abide by their ruling. In case of a tie-break situation (in winning points) the prize money will be split in equal parts. NOTES Along will Hiroyuki Iida there will be another referree whom we are currently negotiating his service for. Also we would like to call for some independent volunteers for supporting the event; please, offer your help. After each game teams are requested to send a file with the moves and the result to the organizers. ORGANIZERS Looking forward to an intriguing "Shogi Freestyle Cup 2004" with many new ideas on human+computer teams, Hiroyuki Iida (Shizuoka University, Shizuoka, Japan) and Ingo Althofer (Friedrich-Schiller University, Jena, Germany) ----------------------------------------------------------- Let University of Phoenix make 2004 your year. Evening, weekend or FlexNet® classes – over 130 locations. 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