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        Arimaa >> Events >> 2004 Arimaa World Championship
        
(Message started by: 99of9 on Nov 17th, 2003, 10:16am)
Title: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by 99of9 on Nov 17th, 2003, 10:16am
Just thought I'd start a thread to discuss this.  I'm looking forward to it, mostly looking forward to watching, because I will be away for a couple of the weeks, so will probably have to forfeit.

Round 1 doesn't look too exciting though ;-)

The pairings organised by ratings might also make for some interesting jostling just before pairings come out in the last few weeks.
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by 99of9 on Nov 18th, 2003, 3:55pm
Will the times of games also be listed on the current pairings list when they are decided?

It looks like Haizhi has been pracising mercilessly with arimaanator for his first match against Omar.  However I can't help but wonder if he has accidentally logged his bot in as himself - because they've been playing games for about 19 hours straight at the time of writing... and that seems a little inhuman to me.  On the other hand, he has resigned many of the matches, which is a little unbotlike.... are you a cyborg?

99
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by omar on Nov 19th, 2003, 12:50am
The game times will be posted along with the pairings.

Also the scheduled games will appear under "Current Games".

I think Haizhi is trying to psych me out with all the games he's been playing lately :-)
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by fotland on Nov 19th, 2003, 10:12pm
He sure has been pushing down ariminator's rating a lot.
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by 99of9 on Nov 20th, 2003, 4:27am
He pushed it up a long way first!  (his own rating went down to around 1200 at one point).
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by haizhi on Nov 20th, 2003, 5:12pm
Sorry, I just found that the bot can only play a game each time, so it seems so selfish that I played it 100 times while other people waiting. :-[

I don't concern human tounament much. But I do concern building a seirous bot, I am a student from University of Alberta, it's my project this term. My surpervise is Sheaffer, some of you guys maybe know him for his champion checker program "chinook".

Only one month left, and there were so many thing todo...
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by 99of9 on Nov 21st, 2003, 8:43am
Ahhh, the famous UA games group!

Glad you guys are interested in arimaa, a lot of what I know about games programming (not that much) comes from online papers written by your group.

By the way, I wouldn't worry about hogging a particular bot.  If the owner wants they can run two instances of the bot anyway.  More than likely they are very happy to see it being played against.
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by 99of9 on Nov 21st, 2003, 8:45am
Oh, and be careful to spell your supervisors name correctly in your thesis :-).

I once misspelt one of my examiners names every time I cited one of his papers ... so know from experience that it's not a particularly wise thing to do!
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by haizhi on Nov 21st, 2003, 4:18pm
Oh, now I know the reason that I got a poor score in his class last term.

His name is "Jonathan Shaeffer",  but it's  "Johnson Sheaffer"  on my report for several weeks.  
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by fotland on Nov 22nd, 2003, 1:43pm
Tell Jonathan I said hello.  Building a strong arimaa program is much harder than it seems.  I've put in maybe 10 or 15 hours a week since February.

This week I'm fixing all the bugs in the goal evaluator.  I thought it would take a day or two, but I've fixed at least 20 so far, and it still finds a bug in a about half the new positions I look at :(

I want the goal to search to find 3-ply forced goals in less than 0.1 second, so that it can find 5-ply forced goals during a game, and never leave the opponent an avoidable 3-ply goal.

David Fotland
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by 99of9 on Nov 22nd, 2003, 5:55pm
Perhaps you should offer to examine Haizhi's term paper David?  That would give you a real challenge Haizhi!
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by 99of9 on Nov 22nd, 2003, 7:10pm
Can I check one thing about the rules for the championship:

Takebacks:  I presume since these are not friendlies, that takeback requests are discouraged?  Someone receiving such a request should surely feel no obligation to accept it.  However if perchance your opponent wants one, are you allowed to give it (presumeably if you think it's in your advantage for him/her to take it back ... say because of the clock or something).
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by 99of9 on Nov 22nd, 2003, 7:26pm
Also:

With this new championship results prediction thing...

What if I want to predict that AllAmericanAlligator will not turn up for his match, and will hence forfeit?    Maybe forfeits aren't counted in the prediction results?

I hope no one resigns in the championship, that would distort the prediction results.
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by 99of9 on Nov 23rd, 2003, 8:08pm
So the pairings are done according to the ratings at the start of the tournament?  not those at the time each round is created?

I guess it doesn't matter much in the end, better and better opponents as the rounds go on.
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by fotland on Nov 24th, 2003, 1:18am
I am not available at 30 times next week, and the scheduler won't let me input less than 30 available times.  I can play any evening at 8:00 or Saturday or Sunday between 10am and 8 pm.
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by clauchau on Nov 24th, 2003, 6:10am

Quote:
I am not available at 30 times


If your opponent is available on Saturday or Sunday as well, you'll most probably play during those days, since the scheduler first picks up the latest common available time.

Hence you may input some early times in Wednesday Morning as available and they'll only be picked up if there was no other way to make you play - assuming the scheduler is smart enough to start scheduling the most constrained pairs.

If that happens however and your partner shows up on Wednesday, you'll lose by forfeit >:(. It cannot be fair, especially now that you've told everybody which times you are really available. Your partner may have the strategy to input those times as unavailable to him and force you to forfeit.

Perhaps the players who can't find a common available time might both play against the same bot at different times. The result and length of their game would determine who is the winner?
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by 99of9 on Nov 24th, 2003, 6:43am
I hope you have 2 computers at your house Messrs Siddiqui !
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by 99of9 on Nov 26th, 2003, 4:07am
when can we make the next round's predictions? :-)
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by 99of9 on Nov 26th, 2003, 9:42am
now i notice!
should be interesting to see who is aggressive and who is slow but steady.
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by 99of9 on Nov 26th, 2003, 6:09pm
Anyone who's done their round 2 predictions already...

the ones on the fotland game seem to have disappeared, you may want to redo yours.
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by MrBrain on Nov 27th, 2003, 11:43am
I noticed that.  Luckily I remembered my pick for that game. :)
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by MrBrain on Nov 28th, 2003, 4:11pm
Another forfeiture, bah.  Really makes me wonder if the people really are available for all those slots they sign up for, or if the three-minute window to get to the game is too small.  Well, let's wait one more day for a match.   :-/
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by 99of9 on Nov 28th, 2003, 7:55pm
Has anyone else had the problem that the times offered on the availability list are not the same as the times allocated for games?

All my availability list times are odd hour numbers, but all the games are on even hours (in my timezone).  I think the server may have an inconsistency by one hour when it tries to calculate my timezone (UK).

Nevertheless, I am happy with this week's game time...
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by 99of9 on Nov 29th, 2003, 7:46am
Ok now the game times have changed to odd hour numbers... so i guess everything is in synch?

I hope everyone can make their new game times!
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by MrBrain on Nov 29th, 2003, 10:06pm
Another forfeit.   As many forfeits as actual games.  And tomorrow I am busy so I will not be able to watch many games.  :(  Well at least I advance to the next round.  I hope I get to play a game soon.   :-/
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by 99of9 on Nov 30th, 2003, 10:28am
A pity... we *almost* got the game between Belbo and junaid

Belbo was here on time and junaid turned up about 10 min after.
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by fotland on Nov 30th, 2003, 10:39am
There needs to be a bigger window to get the games started.  Not everyone keeps their clocks set to within 5 minutes accuracy.  I think 5 or 10 minutes should be allowed before the start of a game before the forfeit.
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by cam43031 on Nov 30th, 2003, 12:06pm
What time is it GMT right now? I live in eastern time and haven't been able to figure out when these games are.
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by MrBrain on Nov 30th, 2003, 12:46pm

on 11/30/03 at 12:06:48, cam43031 wrote:
What time is it GMT right now? I live in eastern time and haven't been able to figure out when these games are.

I believe that would be 6:06:48 p.m. GMT.  It is 5 hours ahead of ET.
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by omar on Nov 30th, 2003, 6:14pm

on 11/30/03 at 12:06:48, cam43031 wrote:
What time is it GMT right now? I live in eastern time and haven't been able to figure out when these games are.


If you login to the gameroom and then view the game times they should be listed in you local time. If you are not logged in, they are shown in GMT.

Omar
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by 99of9 on Dec 2nd, 2003, 6:31am
Brian, sorry if I don't make our tournament game this week - it will rely on me finding a good internet cafe in japan, which I'm sure is possible, but may not happen.

If it does, look forward to playing you Sunday, otherwise, good luck at finally getting a game in the semifinals!
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by MrBrain on Dec 2nd, 2003, 8:16am
Well good luck in finding a suitable internet connection.  Not being able to get online is definitely the worst way to be eliminated.   :(  (This is one reason I don't like traveling very much right now: I have no good way to get on line when I'm on the road.)

Well anyway, I am looking forward to my first game in the tournament, and I hope to see you at game time.  But I must honestly say that were I to win the world championship by default, I wouldn't complain too hard.   ;)  Hope to see you Sunday.
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by naveed on Dec 2nd, 2003, 9:58am
Well now adays most of the hotels have internet connection. If not Iam  sure you can ask the receptionist about were to find a good connection. I was able find a decent connection in India so Iam sure Japan shouldn't be any problem. Iam definitely looking forward to watching your game. Good Luck.

Naveed
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by MrBrain on Dec 7th, 2003, 1:55pm
Why is naveed's result from round 3 not being reported?  Their game was official, was it not?  It's been completed for over 2 days now.
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by MrBrain on Dec 7th, 2003, 7:28pm
OK.  I see it's there now.  I was counting on that result to catapult me up the predictions standings, but I can see I still have a ways to go.
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by 99of9 on Dec 23rd, 2003, 7:14am
I just noticed the next tournament final is tomorrow.  So if you only check the forum, go check the tournament times.
Title: Re: 2004 Arimaa World Championship
Post by MrBrain on Dec 24th, 2003, 8:31pm
Final game lost on time!!   :(  Too bad.  Was a great game.  Congratulations on becoming the World Champion, Frank!


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