European Go Congress 2005

Computer Go Tournament

Link to Results

The 49th European Go Congress will be held in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, from July 23rd to August 6th 2005. It will include a one-day Computer Go Tournament, on Wednesday July 27th, which is a rest day from the main tournament. The EGC site has some details of this Computer Go Event, but this page gives more details.

Format

The tournament will be a five-round Swiss.

Rules

Chinese rules, with 7½ komi.

Time limits

One hour each, sudden death.

Where programs have reliable and accurate clocks, and are able to use the GTP protocol (see below) to communicate with their opponents, their clocks will be trusted. Otherwise, mechanical clocks will be used.

Five two-hour rounds will take most of the day. However the work of running the programs should not be hard. I understand that refreshments are available nearby.

Prizes

The three highest-placed programs will receive cash prizes. The amounts of these prizes are not yet decided.

Registration

If you wish to enter your program for this event, please send an email to nick@maproom.co.uk, including the words  EGC Computer Registration  in the title of the email.

There is no entry fee.

Operators

Each program must be accompanied by someone who will operate it. This may be its author, or may be any volunteer. It is up to the person who enters the program to find someone who will operate it. The operator does not need to be registered for the European Go Congress.

Communication between programs

Programs are encouraged to communicate with each other directly using GTP (Go Text Protocol), see the GTP page. When they cannot do this (because one of them does not support it, or because they fail to make it work), the following procedure will be used.

A real board and a real clock are placed near the two PCs that are running the two programs. When a program makes its move, its operator copies this move onto the board, and then presses the clock. His opponent copies this move from the board to his own PC.

Computers

The sponsors will provide computers for the use of entrants. The specification of these computers is Entrants may either use one of the computers provided, or bring one of their own. The computers provided have floppy drives and CD drives, so entrants intending to use them may bring their programs on either of these media.
Questions about the event, and comments on this page, should be sent to Nick Wedd.