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Topic: 2010 Arimaa Challenge (Read 3530 times) |
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RonWeasley
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2010 Arimaa Challenge
« on: Dec 14th, 2009, 10:13am » |
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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.
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Fritzlein
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Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
« Reply #1 on: Dec 14th, 2009, 12:19pm » |
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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.
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omar
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Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
« Reply #2 on: Dec 24th, 2009, 9:36pm » |
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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.
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omar
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Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
« Reply #3 on: Dec 27th, 2009, 4:32pm » |
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I added a similar paragraph to the Challenge match rules to cover technical problems.
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Fritzlein
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Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
« Reply #4 on: Jan 3rd, 2010, 11:18am » |
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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?
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Fritzlein
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Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
« Reply #5 on: Jan 3rd, 2010, 2:26pm » |
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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.
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omar
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Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
« Reply #6 on: Jan 9th, 2010, 10:50pm » |
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on Jan 3rd, 2010, 11:18am, 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? |
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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.
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omar
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Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
« Reply #7 on: Jan 9th, 2010, 10:54pm » |
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on Jan 3rd, 2010, 2:26pm, 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. |
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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.
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RonWeasley
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Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
« Reply #8 on: Mar 4th, 2010, 5:58am » |
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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.
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Fritzlein
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Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
« Reply #9 on: Mar 4th, 2010, 10:04am » |
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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?
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| « Last Edit: Mar 4th, 2010, 10:06am by Fritzlein » |
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Fritzlein
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Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
« Reply #10 on: Mar 4th, 2010, 10:10am » |
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on Jan 9th, 2010, 10:54pm, 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. |
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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.
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RonWeasley
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Harry's friend (Arimaa player #441)
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Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
« Reply #11 on: Mar 5th, 2010, 5:50am » |
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on Mar 4th, 2010, 10:04am, 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? |
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Oops. I should have remembered the alternate defender is indeed our own Omar Syed. But he needs no introduction.
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Fritzlein
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Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
« Reply #12 on: Mar 5th, 2010, 7:01am » |
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on Mar 5th, 2010, 5:50am, RonWeasley wrote:
Oops. I should have remembered the alternate defender is indeed our own Omar Syed. But he needs no introduction. |
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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.
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chessandgo
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Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
« Reply #13 on: Mar 5th, 2010, 12:32pm » |
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good luck guys, hurray for humans 
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omar
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Re: 2010 Arimaa Challenge
« Reply #14 on: Apr 14th, 2010, 9:34am » |
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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.
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