mjv@edsel.UUCP (M Valvo) (11/30/88)
1st COMPUTER OLYMPIAD Park Lane Hotel, London August 9th-15th 1989 * WHAT IS THE COMPUTER OLYMPIAD? The Computer Olympiad is a kind of Olympic Games for computers and computer programs. The programs will be playing against each other at a variety of well known strategy games, such as chess, bridge, backgammon, GO and Scrabble, and will compete for gold, silver and bronze medals. * WHY ORGANIZE A COMPUTER OLYMPIAD? Ever since 1970 there have been regular computer chess tournaments in which all of the competitors were computer programs. These tournaments include national championships, European and North American Championships, and World Championships, and they have done much to stimulate interest in writing chess programs. As a result, the best chess programs have now reached master strength. In more recent years there have been computer bridge competitions, and tournaments for playing Reversi (Othello), Go and Go-Moku. There are now so many strategy games which have been programmed, and there is so much interest in programming them, that it is high time to organize a world calibre event combining all of these games. * WHO WILL BE ELIGIBLE TO TAKE PART? Any individual, or a company, school or other educational institute, that has written a computer program to play one or more of these games. * HOW MANY GAMES MAY EACH COMPETITOR ENTER? As many as they wish. You may enter a program to play just one game, or you can enter for every single game with a different program for each. * WHERE WILL IT BE HELD? The Park Lane Hotel, London, situated in Picadilly directly opposite Green Park. This deluxe hotel was the location for the first half of the 1986 World Chess Championship match between Gary Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov. * WHAT ELSE WILL THERE BE IN ADDITION TO THE TOURNAMENTS? There will be a conference on computer games, at which at which enthusiasts will present papers on various aspects of programming strategy games. There will be exhibition games by some of the best programs against human experts. * WHO IS ORGANIZING THE EVENT? David Levy, an International Master and President of the International Computer Chess Association. * HOW WILL THE OLYMPIAD BE ORGANIZED? There will be a different competition to cater for each game. The exact format of each competition may vary according to how many entries there are. In some tournaments it may be possible within the space of seven days for all of the competitors to play each other. If there are too many competitors for an all-play-all tournament the Swiss system will probably be used. * WHO WILL BE THE REFEREE? There will be a different arbiter for each game, someone who is an expert at that particular game. * WHAT ARE THE PRIZES? There will be gold, silver and bronze medals awarded for the top places in each game. In addition there will be special prizes for the programming team, school, college and company which win the most medals. * WHAT GAMES WILL BE PLAYED? Awari (Kalah) Go (9x9) Backgammon Go (19x19) Bridge Go-Moku Chess Mah Jong Chinese Chess Nine Men's Morris (Muhle) Connect Four Poker Cribbage Renju 8x8 Draughts (Checkers) Reversi (Othello) 10x10 Draughts Scrabble Gin Rummy Shogi (Japanese Chess) * HOW DO I GET MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE COMPUTER OLYMPIAD? Write to: David Levy Computer Olympiad 11 Loudoun Road London NW8 OLP England Telephone: (01) 624 5551 Telex: 939002 ICHESS G All correspondence must be in English. RULES FOR THE COMPUTER OLYMPIAD Most of the rules apply to all games. These are: (1) Each entry is a computing system and one or more human operator(s). Each entry requires at least one full time operator (i. e. one operator cannot assist in more than one entry). (2) All computing systems must be on site at the Park Lane Hotel in London. Entrants are responsible for making their own arrangements to have suitable computers brought to the tournament site. In the case of special difficulties, the organizers may decide to assist overseas entrants in obtaining the use of suitable computers for the duration of the Olympiad. (3) Unless otherwise specified, rules of play are identical to those in human play. (4) Most games will be played with clocks to record the thinking time of each program. An operator may request the tournament director to stop his program's clock at most twice in any game because of technical difficulties. The clock must be restarted each time after no more than 15 minutes. An operator who experiences technical difficulties is permitted to change to another computer during the course of a game. (5) Each entry must be made by one or more of the programmers of that program. No entry will be allowed without the agreement of at least one member of the programming team. An exception may be made in the case of a commercially available program or game playing machine, which may be entered at the discretion of the organizers. (6) Each programming team is allowed only one entry in each tournament. (7) A program may be altered between games but not during a game. (8) Program parameters may not be changed by the human operator during a game. (9) The time showing on a program's clock may only be communicated to a program if it asks for such information. (10) All programs must have the facility for taking back moves (and bids or bets), one by one, as far as the start of the game, to allow for the correction of human operator error. Any such error will be corrected, and the human who erred may be penalized by the tournament director, for example by a reduction in the program's remaining time allocation. (11) If possible a program should record the whole game on disk or printer. In any event, the operator of each program must provide the tournament director with a written or printed record of the moves of the game at the end of each game. Some games will have their own specific rules. The most important ones, which may affect your programming plans, are given here: AWARI (KALAH) Each player will have 6 pits plus his own Kalah. At the start of the game each pit contains 6 stones. BACKGAMMON Programs should be able to decide whether or not to accept a double made by the opponent. Any program which is unable to decide, will be assumed to accept any double. Beavering is not allowed. Each match between two programs will be won by the first player to reach a certain number of points. The current status of the match (i. e. how many more points each program needs to win the match) may be input to a program at the start of any game or when recovering from a hardware fault. Each program should be able to play at the rate of 30 "moves" in every 30 minute period. A "move" includes decisions about whether to double or accept a double. BRIDGE Each team must use two computers for the bidding and play of a hand. There will be no direct communication between any of the computers in a hand. Any bidding system or convention may be used by a program and any leading conventions. A program may ask at the start of a hand for yes/no answers to any questions regarding bidding and leading, for example "Do you play ACOL?" Any such questions must be answered as accurately as possible by the operator of the opposing program. Programs will be expected to make each bid and play within 30 seconds. Scoring will be IMP scoring (not match point scoring), i. e. the main objective will be to make the contract and overtricks are of minor importance. GO in the 9x9 tournament each program shall have 45 minutes to make all of its moves. The komi for 19x19 will be 6.5. A program may pass at any time. Chinese rules will be followed, apart from a few changes: All dead stones must be removed by capture. The game ends after three successive passes or when of the programs resigns. All stones on the board are alive. Only completely surrounded territory is counted. Single stone suicide is exactly the same as a pass. POKER The game will be Hold-Em poker which is played in the World Championships every year in Las Vegas. The stakes will be limit raise, with one unit ante by each player. The first player bets 5 blind. The second player may pass, call or raise 5. Any remaining raises before the flop are 10 units. After the flop the blind player must check or bet 10 units and any raises must be 10 units. After the 4th up card and the 5th up card the blind player must check or bet 20, and any raises are also 20 units. There may be no more than 8 raises at each betting interval. Programs must be able to make all betting decisions within 15 seconds. Each round will involve a match between two programs. The match will be won by the program which wins all its' opponents money (10,000 units) or by the program which is ahead after 50 hands. RENJU and GO-MOKU Each program will have 120 minutes in which to make all its moves. REVERSI and GO-MUKU Each program will have 30 minutes to make all of its moves. SCRABBLE The "Official Scrabble Players" Dictionary will be used. Each program will have 60 minutes to make all of its plays. A program may challenge a word-- if the challenge is upheld, the program which made the word loses its turn. If the challenge is incorrect, the program which made the challenge loses its turn. OTHER GAMES No program should take nore than 60 seconds over any decision in a card game (i. e. a bid or the play of a card). In board games programs will be required tp play at the rate of 20 moves per hour.