don@cs.qmw.ac.uk (Don Beal) (07/27/90)
This is another reminder of the Computer Games Olympiad to be held in London this August. The second world Olympiad for computer programs will take place at Queen Mary and Westfield College, London University, from August 15 to August 21, 1990. The Computer Olympiad, held last year for the first time, was enormously successful, featuring tournaments for Chess, Bridge, Backgammon, Draughts(Checkers), Poker, Go, Othello, Scrabble, and other classic "thinking" games. In every tournament all of the competitors were computer programs. The role of the human operators is merely to tell their own programs what moves have been made by their opponents. 85 programs from 16 countries participated last year, and a similar entry is expected this year. The 2nd London Conference on Computer Games will take place as part of the Computer Olympiad. There will be papers on various aspects of programming computers to play such "thinking" games as Go, Othello, Draughts(Checkers), etc. The conference chairman will be Tony Marsland from the Computer Science department at University of Alberta, and the editor of the conference proceedings will be Don Beal, from the Computer Science Department at Queen Mary and Westfield College, London University. The Computer Olympiad is organised by International Chess Master David Levy, who is President of the International Computer Chess Association. One day after the Olympiad, there is a separate conference on Computer Chess in particular, probably accompanied by a Man-Machine challenge match. Accomodation is available ranging from 5-star hotel to youth hostel. Anyone wanting more information about attending either event should contact: Computer Olympiad, 11 Loudoun Road, London NW8 OLP, England Tel: +44 1 624 5551 Fax: +44 1 372 3266 (or send email to Don Beal at: don@cs.qmw.ac.uk).