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(Message started by: RonWeasley on Dec 14th, 2009, 10:13am)
Title: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
Post by RonWeasley on Dec 14th, 2009, 10:13am
Congratulations in advance to the bot and its developer which challenges humanity in 2010.  There are many new bots this year and it seems like they're getting better and better.  Could this be the year a bot wins?

I was reviewing the rules for the challenge and for bot qualifying.  I would like to see some language about server-related disadvantages to the bots and how the tournament coordinator should respond to them.  A paragraph similar to the one in the computer championship would do nicely.  Specifically, I would like to see a specification as to whether a game should be adjourned at the point the disadvantage begins, and continue from that point, or should be replayed entirely.

This was an issue last year.  The policy of continuing was used, but there were substantive arguments against it and there were logistical problems implementing it.  A restart policy has its own fairness issues, but is more straightforward to implement.
Title: Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
Post by Fritzlein on Dec 14th, 2009, 12:19pm
It makes a difference to me how difficult continuing is.  I think Omar had some hopes of making it easier to continue a game from a given move, which would make me more in favor of enshrining continuations in the rules.
Title: Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
Post by omar on Dec 24th, 2009, 9:36pm
I made some good progress on this today. I can now restore a game fairly easily so that it can be resumed. In fact I can restore it from any move not just the last position. The reserve times and the game time left are correctly reset to what they were at the start of the move. Time can also be added or reduced from the reserve of the player on move to give some time for joining the game. So continuing a game should be much easier now.
Title: Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
Post by omar on Dec 27th, 2009, 4:32pm
I added a similar paragraph to the Challenge match rules to cover technical problems.
Title: Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
Post by Fritzlein on Jan 3rd, 2010, 11:18am
The following rule still seems weird to me:

"The name of the human players and backup players will be submitted to the match director before the start of the computer championship. The names of these players will be announced publicly after the computer championship tournament is completed."

When I have been a Challenge defender in the past, it was awkward not to tell anyone, and I didn't see the point of the secrecy.  Once the bots are frozen from further development (at the start of the Computer Championship), the bot developers can no longer gain an advantage from tweaking their bots to play differently against the defenders than against other humans.  So why not just announce the names of the defenders immediately after the code freeze?
Title: Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
Post by Fritzlein on Jan 3rd, 2010, 2:26pm
Also, I notice the rules page says the prize is $15,000 for this year.  Did I not mention that I was in for $1,000 again this year?  Also PMertens' long-ago pledge still has one year left on it, namely $250 for 2010.  I am going to update the Wikipedia page on Arimaa with the prize at $16,250 for this year.
Title: Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
Post by omar on Jan 9th, 2010, 10:50pm

on 01/03/10 at 11:18:30, Fritzlein wrote:
The following rule still seems weird to me:

"The name of the human players and backup players will be submitted to the match director before the start of the computer championship. The names of these players will be announced publicly after the computer championship tournament is completed."

When I have been a Challenge defender in the past, it was awkward not to tell anyone, and I didn't see the point of the secrecy.  Once the bots are frozen from further development (at the start of the Computer Championship), the bot developers can no longer gain an advantage from tweaking their bots to play differently against the defenders than against other humans.  So why not just announce the names of the defenders immediately after the code freeze?


Yes, we had discussed this once and I was going to change it. But then I though just for climatic reasons that I still want the official public announcement of the defenders and the challenge bot done by the TD close to the start of the challenge match. There won't be any restriction on the challenge match defenders to keep it a secret, but the official announcement will still be done by the TD.
Title: Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
Post by omar on Jan 9th, 2010, 10:54pm

on 01/03/10 at 14:26:26, Fritzlein wrote:
Also, I notice the rules page says the prize is $15,000 for this year.  Did I not mention that I was in for $1,000 again this year?  Also PMertens' long-ago pledge still has one year left on it, namely $250 for 2010.  I am going to update the Wikipedia page on Arimaa with the prize at $16,250 for this year.


Thanks for that update. I had forgotten about PMertens pledge and I didn't know for sure about yours. I've changed it on the challenge page now.
Title: Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
Post by RonWeasley on Mar 4th, 2010, 5:58am
As tournament director for the 2010 Arimaa Challenge Match, I am pleased to announce the defenders for the match.  The defenders are:

Greg Magne (Adanac) - a twice previous defender and world championship finalist

Daniel Scott (Tuks) - a world championship finalist

Patrick Dudek (Arimabuff) - a bot bashing specialist holding multiple bot bashing records

Under the rules of the Match, Omar chooses three defenders to participate in separate best-of-three matches.  The challenger bot must win all three matches to win the Challenge.  Being chosen as a defender is a great honor in the arimaa community.  It means you have demonstrated mastery over all phases of the game and the prize sponsors believe you can successfully manage the game better than the best bot, whichever one becomes the challenger.  It also means you are defending the very honor of humanity.

Please feel free to join me in congratulating these worthy defenders.
Title: Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
Post by Fritzlein on Mar 4th, 2010, 10:04am
Congratulations to Adanac, Tuks, and Arimabuff!  I expect humanity to win all three mini-matches again this year.  Bots have advanced over the past year, true, but we still have a long head start that they have to overcome.

In the past, Omar has also announced an alternate player, often himself.  Is there an alternate this year too?
Title: Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
Post by Fritzlein on Mar 4th, 2010, 10:10am

on 01/09/10 at 22:54:25, omar wrote:
Thanks for that update. I had forgotten about PMertens pledge and I didn't know for sure about yours. I've changed it on the challenge page now.

Just to clear this up in advance, if the humans successfully defend the Arimaa Challenge in 2010 (and they will) I'm good for a $1000 pledge for the 2011 prize as well.
Title: Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
Post by RonWeasley on Mar 5th, 2010, 5:50am

on 03/04/10 at 10:04:43, Fritzlein wrote:
Congratulations to Adanac, Tuks, and Arimabuff!  I expect humanity to win all three mini-matches again this year.  Bots have advanced over the past year, true, but we still have a long head start that they have to overcome.

In the past, Omar has also announced an alternate player, often himself.  Is there an alternate this year too?

Oops.  I should have remembered the alternate defender is indeed our own Omar Syed.  But he needs no introduction.
Title: Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
Post by Fritzlein on Mar 5th, 2010, 7:01am

on 03/05/10 at 05:50:59, RonWeasley wrote:
Oops.  I should have remembered the alternate defender is indeed our own Omar Syed.  But he needs no introduction.

I like how there is a mini-challenge within the greater Arimaa Challenge.  OK, your software can't beat the World Champion yet, but can it at least beat the creator of Arimaa?  To me that will be a psychologically important milestone.
Title: Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
Post by chessandgo on Mar 5th, 2010, 12:32pm
good luck guys, hurray for humans :)
Title: Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
Post by omar on Apr 14th, 2010, 9:34am
Tuks, can you let me know when you would like to play your game this week. The time I setup in the gameroom was just a place holder.
Title: Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
Post by Tuks on Apr 14th, 2010, 9:51am
how about tomorrow at 8 p.m? so people can watch
Title: Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
Post by omar on Apr 15th, 2010, 7:25am

on 04/14/10 at 09:51:13, Tuks wrote:
how about tomorrow at 8 p.m? so people can watch


I've updated the game time. Send me an email if there is any problem. I'll probably see that sooner.
Title: Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
Post by omar on Apr 17th, 2010, 1:55pm
I recorded the bot_marwin vs Arimabuff game today since Pat requested me to record it. But I am sorry Pat my audio settings were not right and the audio did not come through.
Title: Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
Post by 722caasi on Apr 17th, 2010, 2:06pm
I just noticed that in the six games played so far, silver is 5-1, Adanac's first game was the only win for gold. Coincidence, or true advantage for silver?
Title: Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
Post by chessandgo on Apr 18th, 2010, 5:22am
Congrats to the defenders for the succesful challenge defense!
Title: Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
Post by chessandgo on Apr 18th, 2010, 11:00am
... and good luck for the last round games :)
Title: Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
Post by omar on Apr 19th, 2010, 9:16am

on 04/17/10 at 14:06:46, 722caasi wrote:
I just noticed that in the six games played so far, silver is 5-1, Adanac's first game was the only win for gold. Coincidence, or true advantage for silver?


Definitely a coincidence. To really look for the side advantage requires analyzing the results of many games. The games archive is available if anyone wants  to try it.
   http://arimaa.com/arimaa/download/gameData/
Title: Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
Post by Fritzlein on Apr 19th, 2010, 11:13am

on 04/17/10 at 14:06:46, 722caasi wrote:
I just noticed that in the six games played so far, silver is 5-1, Adanac's first game was the only win for gold. Coincidence, or true advantage for silver?

The Cleveland Indians (http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/teams/cle), picked to finish last place in their division, have won their last four games in a row.  (Statistically, 4-0 is even more of an outlier than 5-1.)  Coincidence, or are the Indians actually a good team?  ;-)

These days I lean toward believing Silver has a slight advantage, but I don't want to jump to conclusions in the absence of solid statistical evidence.  I recall too well how everyone, including me, used to believe that Gold had a slight advantage, despite the lack of statistical evidence supporting that belief at that time.  My current guess that Silver has an advantage is overwhelmed my caution that I have no solid evidence to support my belief.
Title: Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
Post by omar on Apr 24th, 2010, 12:52pm
Thanks Adanac, Tuks and Arimabuff for playing in the challenge match this year and defending the challenge. It was quite a fun event to watch this year. There is no doubt that the bots are improving. We will need to have more HH games so that humans can continue advancing Arimaa theory and stay ahead.

Congratulations Tize on developing such a strong bot and having the best finish ever in the challenge match.
Title: Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
Post by omar on Apr 24th, 2010, 12:55pm
Here is the audio from the last game of the 2010 Arimaa challenge match; Arimabuff vs bot_marwin.

http://arimaa.com/arimaa/video/2010ac/g142332.mp3


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