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        Arimaa >> Events >> 2006 Computer Championship
        
(Message started by: 99of9 on Jan 17^th, 2006, 5:19pm)

Title: 2006 Computer Championship
Post by 99of9 on Jan 17^th, 2006, 5:19pm

Time for a new thread, as the hours tick down until Omar gets back. I wonder if the games will start straight away, or if us spectators will get a schedule first. Either way, I can't wait - this year should be fascinating - especially since we still don't even know which version of the reigning champion is going to be playing!

Title: Re: 2006 Computer Championship
Post by omar on Jan 19^th, 2006, 1:27pm

Hi everyone. As most of you know I was away for the past two weeks. I had gone for the Hajj pilgrimage. I am really glad to have made it back safely. You might have heard in the news about the stampeed incidence that killed some 360 people. Our group was fortunately not in the area at that time.

Also while I was away my grandmother passed away. She was the last of my grand parents and was very close to me. I regret not being able to be with her in the end. Yesterday I went to visit her grave site.

Sorry for the delay in getting the computer championship started. It has taken me longer than I had expected to get back on track after returning. Hope to get the games started later today.

I plan to have two games per day with one starting at 10 am Eastern time and other at 6 pm Eastern time. These are good times for me so that I can make sure the games got started OK. The games will be played everyday until the tournament is finished.

Good luck to all the bot developers.

Title: Re: 2006 Computer Championship
Post by Fritzlein on Jan 19^th, 2006, 2:12pm

Omar,

I'm sorry to hear of the passing of your grandmother while you were away. It is tough to not be able to say goodbye at the very end. I am glad, however, that you returned in safety despite the tragic stampede.

I notice the first-round pairings are up, with Loc vs Bomb and Clueless vs Aamira. That doesn't look right with the current ratings of

Aamira - 1692
Gnobot - 1588
Loc - 1586
Clueless - 1507
Bomb -1484

According to these ratings Aamira should get the bye, and the pairings should be Gnobot vs Bomb and Loc vs Clueless. Are you doing the pairings based on ratings from some other time? If so, what are the ratings you are going from? When is/was the development freeze?

It's great to have to back with us, and to see the Computer Championship underway!

Title: Re: 2006 Computer Championship
Post by jdb on Jan 19^th, 2006, 2:55pm

I would guess he took the ratings as of late Tuesday. At that time, the given pairings would be correct.

An interesting question would be when would be the best time for a bye?

Title: Re: 2006 Computer Championship
Post by 99of9 on Jan 19^th, 2006, 4:27pm

Hi Omar, thanks for getting this going. Sorry to hear about your grandmother.

Best wishes to all the other bot developers.

Regarding ratings... in theory they should have been locked in on Dec 31, but I don't think they'll matter that much since it's triple elim. I don't think any of us remember the bot order from that date! (Unless Omar captured it.) Jeff is right that Gnobot was rated above Aamira for a day or two - but Aamira is clearly stronger when the two play each other.

Title: Re: 2006 Computer Championship
Post by Fritzlein on Jan 20^th, 2006, 10:50am

on 01/19/06 at 14:55:45, jdb wrote:

I would guess he took the ratings as of late Tuesday. At that time, the given pairings would be correct.

Omar clarified that the ratings used for the seedings were taken from January 1:
1667 Gnobot
1586 Loc
1580 Aamira
1574 Clueless
1484 Bomb

Quote:

An interesting question would be when would be the best time for a bye?

The seedings are completely out of whack anyway, due to a weak version of Bomb playing all December, and due to Gnobot's playing a bunch of games against past Fast, Blitz, P1, and P2 bots (as opposed to merely past CC bots). Therefore I don't think a late-round bye will be worth more than an early-round bye this time.

However, there is a reasonable chance that there will be an uneven number of byes awarded, unlike in the human World Championship where it worked out neatly that each of the top three players got one bye. The important advantage will be if the top bot gets two byes while the second and third place bots each only get one bye. Fortunately, the second round of byes will be awarded according to tournament wins rather than pre-tournament rating, so even if it the byes assigned are unequal, they probably won't be unfair.

An interesting quirk is that Bomb, as bottom seed, can't get the first or second bye assigned, but could win both the third and the fourth bye! It might work like this: In the third round Bomb could get a bye on merit for being undefeated. If the bottom bot happened to be eliminated in the third round with its thrid loss, there would be no bye in the fourth round. Later it could get down to three bots, each of them having received one bye to that point, and if Bomb had the best record, Bomb would get another bye first.

Title: Re: 2006 Computer Championship
Post by Ryan_Cable on Jan 20^th, 2006, 11:55am

Omar, glad to have you back safely. Being at a religious event, with tragic deaths both there and in your family must bring powerful emotions.

Title: Re: 2006 Computer Championship
Post by Ryan_Cable on Jan 21^st, 2006, 2:57am

I was quite impressed by Bomb’s win against Gnobby today. It was far from crushing, but it looked to me like Bomb consistently out searched Gnobby. Though my track record with bold, pro-favorite predictions is not very stellar, I think Bomb has a better than 50% chance of going undefeated in the CC.

Still, I think Bomb will loose all 3 Challenge matches. To beat top humans, you have to train against top humans.

Title: Re: 2006 Computer Championship
Post by Fritzlein on Jan 21^st, 2006, 10:01am

on 01/21/06 at 02:57:31, Ryan_Cable wrote:

Though my track record with bold, pro-favorite predictions is not very stellar, I think Bomb has a better than 50% chance of going undefeated in the CC.

I'll take the other side of that wager, and say Bomb has a greater than 50% chance of losing a game before it is all over. There's too much uncertainty in this biz to go out on a limb.

Quote:

Still, I think Bomb will loose all 3 Challenge matches. To beat top humans, you have to train against top humans.

No argument from me there. I'd say the odds of the humans going undefeated in this year's Challenge is over 50%. Oh, wait, does that count as going out on a limb? ;-)

Title: Re: 2006 Computer Championship
Post by Fritzlein on Jan 27^th, 2006, 4:12pm

Congratulations to Bomb on the three-peat! It really throws down the gauntlet for other developers when the champion can win again without major changes.

on 01/21/06 at 10:01:44, Fritzlein wrote:

I'll take the other side of that wager, and say Bomb has a greater than 50% chance of losing a game before it is all over. There's too much uncertainty in this biz to go out on a limb.

If it weren't for one miracle endgame by Clueless, I would have gone down on this bet. But when you throw in the dangerous-looking position Aamira was able to create, Bomb didn't quite look invulnerable.

Quote:

I'd say the odds of the humans going undefeated in this year's Challenge is over 50%. Oh, wait, does that count as going out on a limb? ;-)

Knowing that this is almost last year's Bomb makes it look better for humans in the Challenge. We may not be able to use all of the bot-bashing strategies verbatim because Fotland did fix some bugs after the 2005 championship, but for the most part we should be well-versed in how to take this bot down.