+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | Ed's First Annual | | WinBoard-Compatible Freeware-Engine | | Grob Tournament | +--------------------------------------------------------------+ I have a collection of many of the freeware chess engines that are compatible with WinBoard. I woke up early on SuperBowl Sunday, and with the actual game not scheduled to start until after 4:00, I wondered how I was going to spend my Sunday. In the past I had kicked around the idea of having some kind of a tournament between all of my engines and this seemed like a good time to start. Not counting different versions of the same engine, I discovered that I had 18 in all. However, I quickly decided not to include three of them in my tournament; Ant, Fortress, and Gromit. For reasons which I'm not clear on, when each of these three programs are considering their move, my hard disk grinds away like there is no tomorrow. (I think it's because I don't have enough RAM.) This is more unnerving to me than I could ever describe to you. Suffice to say, these programs no longer share space on my hard disk. In addition, there must be something wrong with the Gromit engine, as this game demonstrates. [Event "Freeware-Engine Grob Tournament"] [Site "Mesa, Arizona"] [Date "1999.01.31"] [Round "1"] [White "Gromit 2.0"] [Black "GNUChess"] [Result "0-1"] [TimeControl "600+2"] 1. g4 d5 2. Bg2 Bxg4 3. c4 c6 4. cxd5 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. dxe6 Bxe6 7. d4 Bb4 8. Bg5 h6 9. Bxf6 Qxf6 10. Bxc6+ Nxc6 11. Nf3 O-O-O 12. Ng5 Rxd4 13. Qxd4 Nxd4 14. Nxe6 {White resigns} 0-1 This left me with 15 engines. To round out the field and make an even number of players, in addition to the almost latest version of Crafty that I have, I decided to include an additional, earlier version of Crafty, version 15.15. I may be wrong, but as I write this it is my believe that, with the exception of Crafty, each version of these programs is the very latest one available. (The latest Crafty version that I have is 16.2 and I know that version 16.3 is available and 16.4 is due out soon.) Although it makes for a rather lengthy tournament, I decided to make this a single round-robin event. (I REALLY would have liked to have held a double round-robin event but I'll have to save that for another time.) The time control that I decided on would be a relatively fast 10 minutes per side per game, with a small, two second increment. A round-robin tourney, with 16 participants, consists of 120 games! If I made the time controls any longer, you wouldn't be reading about the results now... I'd still be playing the games! The hardware that I am using is a now out-dated 166 MHz Pentium, with a modest 32 megabytes of RAM. The 16 engines that will be taking part in this event are: Program Version Author ======= ======= ====== ArasanX 5.0a Jon Dart Cilian 4.07 Frantois Scheurer Comet A 96 (?) U. Trke Crafty 15.15 Robert Hyatt Crafty 16.2 Robert Hyatt EXchess 2.51 Dan Homan Faile 0.6 Adrien Regimbald GNUChess 4.14 (?) Free Software Foundation Inmichess 2.05 Inmann Werner LambChop 7.10 Peter McKenzie Little Goliath 1.40 Michael Borgstaedt OliThink 2.2.1 Oliver Brausch Phalanx XX Dusan Dobes SSEChess 2.02 (?) Samuel Slutzky Tristram 4.1.6 James F. Long Zchess 0.98 Franck Zibi Note: I am not sure of the version of... ... Comet that I have; the doc file doesn't say, although one site that I found thinks that it might be A 96. (The date of the comet-wb executable file is 5/29/98.) ... GNUChess I have; the doc file doesn't say, although one site that I found thinks that it may be 4.14 (The date of the executable file is 5/15/96.) ... SSEChess I have; the readme text file in my directory does not say. (The date of the executable file is 1/10/99.) I alphabetically listed each of the programs that I have and then assigned each of them a pairing number. 1) ArasanX 9) Inmichess 2) Cilian 10) LambChop 3) Comet 11) Little Goliath 4) Crafty (15.15) 12) OliThink 5) Crafty (16.2) 13) Phalanx 6) EXchess 14) SSEChess 7) Faile 15) Tristram 8) GNUChess 16) Zchess I then decided to use this pairing chart, which I got from one of my chess books. ("The Chess Competitor's Handbook") Round Pairings ===== ====================================================== 1 1:16 2:15 3:14 4:13 5:12 6:11 7:10 8:9 2 16:9 10:8 11:7 12:6 13:5 14:4 15:3 1:2 3 2:16 3:1 4:15 5:14 6:13 7:12 8:11 9:10 4 16:10 11:9 12:8 13:7 14:6 15:5 1:4 2:3 5 3:16 4:2 5:1 6:15 7:14 8:13 9:12 10:11 6 16:11 12:10 13:9 14:8 15:7 1:6 2:5 3:4 7 4:16 5:3 6:2 7:1 8:15 9:14 10:13 11:12 8 16:12 13:11 14:10 15:9 1:8 2:7 3:6 4:5 9 5:16 6:4 7:3 8:2 9:1 10:15 11:14 12:13 10 16:13 14:12 15:11 1:10 2:9 3:8 4:7 5:6 11 6:16 7:5 8:4 9:3 10:2 11:1 12:15 13:14 12 16:14 15:13 1:12 2:11 3:10 4:9 5:8 6:7 13 7:16 8:6 9:5 10:4 11:3 12:2 13:1 14:15 14 16:15 1:14 2:13 3:12 4:11 5:10 6:9 7:8 15 8:16 9:7 10:6 11:5 12:4 13:3 14:2 15:1 Note that each game started from this position: rn1qkbnr/ppp1pppp/8/3p4/2P3b1/8/PP1PPPBP/RNBQK1NR b KQkq - 0 1 (This position was arrived at after the following moves: 1. g4 d5 2. Bg2 Bxg4 3.c4) Why this position? Well, for four reasons I guess: First, some of the programs below don't have opening books, and starting from the above position probably wouldn't penalize the ones that didn't. I wanted to give each of the programs a good chance to account for themselves without worrying about whether one program simply had a larger or more accurate opening book than another. Second, I know that this type of a tournament has been done many times before, by many people. But how many of these tournaments have started from this Grob position? My guess is... none! So this would be a first! Third, I enjoy playing the Grob (I have fun with it... and isn't that the most important thing?) and I often see this position, both in actual over-the-board tournament games as well as when I play on-line. What better way to become more familiar with this position than to see how 16 different computer programs handle it? Fourth, one of my most enjoyable of all my 176+ chess books is indeed Basman's "The Killer Grob." This is taken from the book... ...However, the more valuable the piece, the more exposed it is in the centre, hence we get the idea "Pieces go into the center in reverse order of strength (or value)". Thus the pawns, the weakest pieces of all, go into the centre first. Then come the knights and bishops, with the heavy pieces, the Queens and rooks, holding up the rear. The King, the most valuable piece, does not usually arrive in the centre until very late in the game, since his exposure rating is very high. Having decided that the pawn is the weakest piece, we should consider, "What is weaker than a pawn?". The answer is, clearly, that NOTHING is weaker than a pawn. It follows, with inexorable logic, that you should place NOTHING in the centre at the start of the game, and that, therefore, moves such as 1.e4 or 1.d4 or their equivalents as Black, are PREMATURE and will lead to the exposure of the central position. So the new theory in no way undervalues the importance of the centre -- pieces strive towards the centre to enhance their power. It is just a question of when the should arrive there. I find that interesting. But I think I'm more fond of this statement: When you play the Grob, each game is a marvelous adventure, a trip into uncharted territory. I have found this to be quite true! So, the preliminaries and introductions are over with... let these marvelous adventures begin! +-------------------------------------------------+ | ROUND 1 PAIRINGS, RESULTS, and STANDINGS | +-------------------------------------------------+ Round 1 pairings Winner Standings after Round 1 ================ ====== ======================= ArasanX vs. Zchess Zchess Cilian 1.0 Cilian vs. Tristram Cilian Crafty (16.2) 1.0 Comet vs. SSEChess draw EXchess 1.0 Crafty (15.15) vs. Phalanx Phalanx GNUChess 1.0 Crafty (16.2) vs. OliThink Crafty LambChop 1.0 EXchess vs. Little Goliath EXchess Phalanx 1.0 Faile vs. LambChop LambChop Zchess 1.0 GNUChess vs. Inmichess GNUChess Comet 0.5 SSEChess 0.5 ArasanX 0.0 +-----------------------------+ Crafty (15.15) 0.0 | Grob Score Watch | Faile 0.0 | | Inmichess 0.0 | This round: 4-3-1 | Little Goliath 0.0 | Total: 4-3-1 | OliThink 0.0 +-----------------------------+ Tristram 0.0 Round 1 Comments ================ I may have to pull OliThink from the competition. After White played 20.Bf4, it claimed that White made an illegal move, which it did not. I set the position up again, but it claimed the same thing: [Event "Freeware-Engine Grob Tournament"] [Site "Mesa, Arizona"] [Date "1999.01.31"] [Round "1"] [White "Crafty (16.2)"] [Black "OliThink"] [Result "1-0"] [TimeControl "600+2"] 1. g4 d5 2. Bg2 Bxg4 3. c4 c6 4. Qb3 Qc8 5. cxd5 Nf6 6. Nc3 e5 7. Nf3 Bd6 8. O-O e4 9. Ng5 Qc7 10. h3 Bxe2 11. dxc6 Bh2+ 12. Kh1 bxc6 13. Nxe2 O-O 14. Nxe4 Nxe4 15. Bxe4 Bd6 16. Qc2 g6 17. d4 Re8 18. Kg2 Rxe4 19. Qxe4 Qc8 20. Bf4 I'll give it another chance but if this happens again, I'll have to replace it with another engine. For the moment, I awarded Crafty the win... I kind of wondered whether both Crafty's would run away with the tournament. Phalanx, with it's nice win over Crafty (15.15) obviously had other ideas! +-------------------------------------------------+ | ROUND 2 PAIRINGS, RESULTS, and STANDINGS | +-------------------------------------------------+ Round 2 pairings Winner Standings after Round 2 ================ ====== ======================= Zchess vs. Inmichess Inmichess GNUChess 2.0 LambChop vs. GNUChess GNUChess Phalanx 2.0 Little Goliath vs. Faile Little Goliath Comet 1.5 OliThink vs. EXchess * OliThink (cheated) Cilian 1.0 Phalanx vs. Crafty (16.2) Phalanx Crafty (16.2) 1.0 SSEChess vs. Crafty (15.15) Crafty EXchess 1.0 Tristram vs. Comet Comet LambChop 1.0 ArasanX vs. Cilian ArasanX OliThink 1.0 Zchess 1.0 ArasanX 1.0 +-----------------------------+ Crafty (15.15) 1.0 | Grob Score Watch | Inmichess 1.0 | | Little Goliath 1.0 | This round: 4-4-0 | SSEChess 0.5 | Total: 8-7-1 | Faile 0.0 +-----------------------------+ Tristram 0.0 Round 2 Comments ================ No draws this round. And whoa... Phalanx wins again!! As it turned out, it had the "unfortunate" distinction of being paired up against both Crafty's in the first two rounds. Who would have predicted that it would finish 2-0 with possibly its strongest competition now behind it? Well, that's it... OliThink is outta here. It actually gave a very good account of itself, right up until the final move. However, it delivered an illegal mate! [Event "Freeware-Engine Grob Tournament"] [Site "Mesa, Arizona"] [Date "1999.01.31"] [Round "1"] [White "OliThink"] [Black "EXchess (2.51)"] [Result "1-0"] [TimeControl "600+2"] 1. g4 d5 2. Bg2 Bxg4 3. c4 c6 4. cxd5 cxd5 5. Qb3 Nf6 6. Qxb7 Qc8 7. Qxc8+ Bxc8 8. Nc3 e6 9. Nf3 Bb4 10. a3 Bxc3 11. dxc3 O-O 12. Bf4 Ba6 13. e3 Nbd7 14. Rd1 Rfe8 15. Ne5 Nxe5 16. Bxe5 Nd7 17. Bd6 Bc4 18. Rg1 a5 19. Bf3 Rac8 20. Rg4 Red8 21. Rgd4 Bb3 22. R1d2 Nb6 23. Bg3 Nc4 24. Re2 Re8 25. Bg2 Ba4 26. e4 dxe4 27. Bxe4 Red8 28. Rxd8+ Rxd8 29. f4 Bd1 30. Bh4 Rd6 31. Rg2 f5 32. Bb7 Bb3 33. Re2 Rd1+ 34. Kf2 Rb1 35. Rxe6 Rxb2+ 36. Kg3 Rd2 37. Re8+ Kf7 38. Rd8 Rc2 39. Bd5+ Kg6 40. Bxc4 Bxc4 41. Rd1 Rxc3+ 42. Kg2 Rxa3 43. Rd6+ Kh5 44. Be1 a4 45. Bd2 Ra2 46. Kh3 a3 47. Kh4# 1-0 Now, what to do... I suppose the easiest solution would be to just replace this engine with another. Having decided that, I then decided to go with an earlier version of EXchess, version 2.37 for absolutely no reason whatsoever. This means my pairing list has changed slightly. Notice now that no longer are all of the engines in alphabetical order, but hey, you can't have everything! 1) ArasanX 9) Inmichess 2) Cilian 10) LambChop 3) Comet 11) Little Goliath 4) Crafty (15.15) 12) EXchess (2.37) 5) Crafty (16.2) 13) Phalanx 6) EXchess (2.51) 14) SSEChess 7) Faile 15) Tristram 8) GNUChess 16) Zchess This also means EXchess (2.37) now needs to play Crafty and then EXchess (2.51), OliThink's first two opponents. (One great thing about conducting a computer tourney is the participants don't complain about stuff like this!) Round 1 pairing change Winner Revised Standings Round 1 ====================== ====== ========================= Crafty (16.2) vs. EXchess (2.37) draw Cilian 1.0 EXchess (2.51) 1.0 GNUChess 1.0 +-----------------------------+ LambChop 1.0 | Revised Grob Score Watch | Phalanx 1.0 | | Zchess 1.0 | Round 1: 3-3-2 | Comet 0.5 | Total: 3-3-2 | Crafty (16.2) 0.5 +-----------------------------+ EXchess (2.37) 0.5 SSEChess 0.5 ArasanX 0.0 Crafty (15.15) 0.0 Faile 0.0 Inmichess 0.0 Little Goliath 0.0 Tristram 0.0 Round 2 pairing change Winner Revised Standings Round 2 ====================== ====== ========================= EXchess (2.37) vs. EXchess (2.51) EXchess (2.51) EXchess (2.51) 2.0 GNUChess 2.0 Phalanx 2.0 +-----------------------------+ Comet 1.5 | Revised Grob Score Watch | Cilian 1.0 | | LambChop 1.0 | Round 2: 3-5-0 | Zchess 1.0 | Total: 6-8-2 | ArasanX 1.0 +-----------------------------+ Crafty (15.15) 1.0 Inmichess 1.0 Little Goliath 1.0 Crafty (16.2) 0.5 EXchess (2.37) 0.5 SSEChess 0.5 Faile 0.0 Tristram 0.0 +-------------------------------------------------+ | ROUND 3 PAIRINGS, RESULTS, and STANDINGS | +-------------------------------------------------+ Round 3 pairings Winner Standings after Round 3 ========================== ====== ======================= Cilian vs. Zchess Cilian EXchess (2.51) 3.0 Comet vs. ArasanX Comet GNUChess 3.0 Crafty (15.15) vs. Tristram Crafty Comet 2.5 Crafty (16.2) vs. SSEChess Crafty Cilian 2.0 EXchess (2.51) vs. Phalanx EXchess Crafty (15.15) 2.0 Faile vs. EXchess (2.37) EXchess Inmichess 2.0 GNUChess vs. Little Goliath GNUChess Phalanx 2.0 Inmichess vs. LambChop Inmichess Crafty (16.2) 1.5 EXchess (2.37) 1.5 +-----------------------------+ ArasanX 1.0 | Grob Score Watch | LambChop 1.0 | | Little Goliath 1.0 | Round 3: 7-1-0 | Zchess Goliath 1.0 | Total: 13-9-2 | SSEChess 0.5 +-----------------------------+ Faile 0.0 Tristram 0.0 Round 3 Comments ================ This round saw two of the tournament leaders, EXchess (2.51) and Phalanx, paired up against one another, with EXchess coming out on top... Notice the Grob won every game this round with the exception of just one! A near perfect sweep! Whoa! I never expected this!... After three rounds, there are just two perfect scores, although Comet, with 2.5, also has yet to lose... For the first time, both Crafty's won their games. I still expect these two programs to do well, although I'm sure Crafty (16.2) is "disappointed" with its current score. +-------------------------------------------------+ | ROUND 4 PAIRINGS, RESULTS, and STANDINGS | +-------------------------------------------------+ Round 4 pairings Winner Standings after Round 4 ================ ====== ======================= Zchess vs. LambChop Zchess GNUChess 4.0 Little Goliath vs. Inmichess Inmichess Comet 3.5 EXchess (2.37) vs. GNUChess GNUChess EXchess (2.51) 3.5 Phalanx vs. Faile Phalanx Inmichess 3.0 SSEChess vs. EXchess (2.51) draw Phalanx 3.0 Tristram vs. Crafty (16.2) Crafty Crafty (16.2) 2.5 ArasanX vs. Crafty (15.15) ArasanX ArasanX 2.0 Cilian vs. Comet Comet Cilian 2.0 Crafty (15.15) 2.0 +-----------------------------+ Zchess 2.0 | Grob Score Watch | EXchess (2.37) 1.5 | | LambChop 1.0 | Round 4: 3-4-1 | Little Goliath 1.0 | Total: 16-13-3 | SSEChess 1.0 +-----------------------------+ Faile 0.0 Tristram 0.0 Round 4 Comments ================ Have you ever rooted for a computer? I found myself cheering on ArasanX against Crafty (15.15) in their match. ArasanX actually loses the exchange during the middle game, but comes roaring back to win! This game is a must see!... GNUChess continued it's perfect record and is now 4-0.... EXchess (2.51), who had a perfect record up until this round, was very lucky to hold SSEChess to a draw. At one point, SSEChess had a winning endgame, being up a whole bishop and pawn but was not able to convert the material to a win. The 50 move rule eventually was implemented... I'm not sure what happened with Little Goliath against Inmichess. After dancing back and forth for about 40 moves, with 45 seconds left on its clock, it suddenly stopped moving after 106... Rg1. Thus, Black won on time. +-------------------------------------------------+ | ROUND 5 PAIRINGS, RESULTS, and STANDINGS | +-------------------------------------------------+ Round 5 pairings Winner Standings after Round 5 ================ ====== ======================= Comet vs. Zchess Comet GNUChess 4.5 Crafty (15.15) vs. Cilian Crafty Comet 4.5 Crafty (16.2) vs. ArasanX draw EXchess (2.51) 4.5 EXchess (2.51) vs. Tristram EXchess Inmichess 4.0 Faile vs. SSEChess SSEChess Crafty (16.2) 3.5 GNUChess vs. Phalanx draw Phalanx 3.5 Inmichess vs. EXchess (2.37) Inmichess ArasanX 2.5 LambChop vs. Little Goliath Little Goliath Crafty (15.15) 2.5 Cilian 2.0 +-----------------------------+ Little Goliath 2.0 | Grob Score Watch | SSEChess 2.0 | | Zchess 2.0 | Round 5: 4-2-2 | EXchess (2.37) 1.5 | Total: 20-15-5 | LambChop 1.0 +-----------------------------+ Faile 0.0 Tristram 0.0 Round 5 Comments ================ The big game in Round 5 was undefeated GNUChess (4-0-0) going up against Phalanx (3-1-0). Well, GNUChess is no longer perfect... but it still is undefeated as these two battled to a long hard fought draw... At this point there is an impressive difference in score between EXchess (2.51) with 4.5 points, and EXchess (2.37), which has just 1.5 points... Inmichess as White had a short 25 move mate against Little Goliath, the shortest win of the entire tournament so far!... The tournament is currently 1/3 of the way through with three programs tied for first place, and not one of them are the two Crafty's! +-------------------------------------------------+ | ROUND 6 PAIRINGS, RESULTS, and STANDINGS | +-------------------------------------------------+ Round 6 pairings Winner Standings after Round 6 ========================== ====== ======================= Zchess vs. Little Goliath Little Goliath Comet 5.5 EXchess (2.37) vs. LambChop LambChop EXchess (2.51) 5.5 Phalanx vs. Inmichess Phalanx Crafty (16.2) 4.5 SSEChess vs. GNUChess SSEChess GNUChess 4.5 Tristram vs. Faile Tristram Phalanx 4.5 ArasanX vs. EXchess (2.51) EXchess Inmichess 4.0 Cilian vs. Crafty (16.2) Crafty Little Goliath 3.0 Comet vs. Crafty (15.15) Comet SSEChess 3.0 ArasanX 2.5 +-----------------------------+ Crafty (15.15) 2.5 | Grob Score Watch | Cilian 2.0 | | LambChop 2.0 | Round 6: 4-4-0 | Zchess 2.0 | Total: 24-19-5 | EXchess (2.37) 1.5 +-----------------------------+ Tristram 1.0 Faile 0.0 Round 6 Comments ================ Whoa! GNUChess, previously unbeaten, lost as Black to SSEChess! Trust me, I am NOT making these games up! Nor am I in any way trying to be pro-Grob. But SSEChess, previously with just 2 points against GNUChess's 4.5, forced GNUChess's King to f5 as early as move 22 and won convincingly!! A spectacular, must-see Grob win!... Crafty (15.15) continues to disappoint me, this time losing to Comet, which now shares first place with EXchess (2.51). Looking ahead, I see these two are paired up against each other in Round 8. That should prove to be a good game... Tristram got it's first point of the tournament but only because it was paired up against Faile, who also had a big goose egg. At this point I'm not sure if Faile is capable of winning a single game. +-------------------------------------------------+ | ROUND 7 PAIRINGS, RESULTS, and STANDINGS | +-------------------------------------------------+ Round 7 pairings Winner Standings after Round 7 ================ ====== ======================= Crafty (15.15) vs. Zchess Zchess Comet 6.5 Crafty (16.2) vs. Comet Comet EXchess (2.51) 6.5 EXchess (2.51) vs. Cilian EXchess GNUChess 5.5 Faile vs. ArasanX ArasanX Phalanx 5.5 GNUChess vs. Tristram GNUChess Crafty (16.2) 4.5 Inmichess vs. SSEChess SSEChess Inmichess 4.0 LambChop vs. Phalanx Phalanx SSEChess 4.0 Little Goliath vs. EXchess (2.37) EXchess ArasanX 3.5 Little Goliath 3.0 +-----------------------------+ Zchess 3.0 | Grob Score Watch | Crafty (15.15) 2.5 | | EXchess (2.37) 2.5 | Round 7: 2-6-0 | Cilian 2.0 | Total: 26-25-5 | LambChop 2.0 +-----------------------------+ Tristram 1.0 Faile 0.0 Round 7 Comments ================ Whoa! With both Crafty's paired with White in the first two games, I fully expected to see a couple more early Grob wins. Wrong again! Both Crafty's lost! Comet is now a very impressive 6.5 points out of 7!... In the previous two rounds, GNUChess, which had started out so well, only scored .5 points. It came roaring back against Tristram for a nice win... Little Goliath had another time problem, just like in Game 4. After 28... Kd8 Goliath suddenly stopped moving and Black won on time. (?)... SSEChess proved it knew how to mate in a King, bishop, and knight vs. King endgame, doing so in 27 moves... the Grob Watch is almost dead even... 26 wins, 25 losses and 5 draws. +-------------------------------------------------+ | ROUND 8 PAIRINGS, RESULTS, and STANDINGS | +-------------------------------------------------+ Round 8 pairings Winner Standings after Round 8 ================ ====== ======================= Zchess vs. EXchess (2.37) Zchess Comet 7.5 Phalanx vs. Little Goliath Little Goliath EXchess (2.51) 6.5 SSEChess vs. LambChop LambChop GNUChess 6.5 Tristram vs. Inmichess Inmichess Crafty (16.2) 5.5 ArasanX vs. GNUChess GNUChess Phalanx 5.5 Cilian vs. Faile Cilian Inmichess 5.0 Comet vs. EXchess (2.51) Comet Little Goliath 4.0 Crafty (15.15) vs. Crafty (16.2) Crafty (16.2) SSEChess 4.0 Zchess 4.0 +-----------------------------+ ArasanX 3.5 | Grob Score Watch | Cilian 3.0 | | LambChop 3.0 | Round 8: 4-4-0 | Crafty (15.15) 2.5 | Total: 30-29-5 | EXchess (2.37) 2.5 +-----------------------------+ Tristram 1.0 Faile 0.0 Round 8 Comments ================ With this round completed the tournament is now a little more than half-way finished. At the beginning of the tournament I must confess I peeked ahead to see when the two Crafty's would be paired up against each other and which one would be handling the Grob as White. That round was this one which had finally arrived. The more recent version, Crafty 16.2, won with the Black pieces... However, the big game was between Comet with a score of 6-0-1 and EXchess (2.51) also with a score of 6-0-1. This would decide sole possession of first place. Comet won despite needing 33 moves to mate a lone King with a Queen!.... The biggest upset of this round without a doubt was Little Goliath's win over Phalanx! Phalanx had only lost once up to this point! +-------------------------------------------------+ | ROUND 9 PAIRINGS, RESULTS, and STANDINGS | +-------------------------------------------------+ Round 9 pairings Winner Standings after Round 9 ========================== ====== ======================= Crafty (16.2) vs. Zchess Crafty Comet 8.5 EXchess (2.51) vs. Crafty (15.15) Crafty EXchess (2.51) 6.5 Faile vs. Comet Comet Crafty (16.2) 6.5 GNUChess vs. Cilian * Cilian GNUChess 6.5 Inmichess vs. ArasanX Inmichess Phalanx 6.5 LambChop vs. Tristram LambChop Inmichess 6.0 Little Goliath vs. SSEChess Little Goliath Little Goliath 5.0 EXchess (2.37) vs. Phalanx Phalanx Cilian 4.0 SSEChess 4.0 Zchess 4.0 * GNUChess actually played Black. LambChop 4.0 See my comments on this round. ArasanX 3.5 Crafty (15.15) 3.5 +-----------------------------+ EXchess (2.37) 2.5 | Grob Score Watch | Tristram 1.0 | | Faile 0.0 | Round 9: 5-3-0 | | Total: 35-34-5 | +-----------------------------+ Round 9 Comments ================ Little Goliath won again, for the third time in the past four games... I had a problem with GNUChess. For some reason which I can NOT figure out, it would refuse to move, as White, against Cilian. It simply refused to move from the starting position. I restarted the program, I rebooted, I set the position up and made Black's move for it so now it was White to play first and did everything else I could think of to "trick" it to move. Nothing worked at all. But GNUChess had no problem on the BLACK side against this program. So I made a tournament director's decision and let it play black even though it should have been White that round... That was the only excitement as there were no other surprises this round at all... Note that Comet now has a commanding two game lead with six games to go. But four programs are all tied for second place. +--------------------------------------------------+ | ROUND 10 PAIRINGS, RESULTS, and STANDINGS | +--------------------------------------------------+ Round 10 pairings Winner Standings after Round 10 ================= ====== ======================== Zchess vs. Phalanx Phalanx Comet 8.5 SSEChess vs. EXchess (2.37) SSEChess Crafty (16.2) 7.5 Tristram vs. Little Goliath Little Goliath GNUChess 7.5 ArasanX vs. LambChop LambChop Phalanx 7.5 Cilian vs. Inmichess Inmichess Inmichess 7.0 Comet vs. GNUChess GNUChess EXchess (2.51) 6.5 Crafty (15.15) vs. Faile draw Little Goliath 6.0 Crafty (16.2) vs. EXchess (2.51) Crafty LambChop 5.0 SSEChess 5.0 +-----------------------------+ Cilian 4.0 | Grob Score Watch | Crafty (15.15) 4.0 | | Zchess 4.0 | Round 10: 2-5-1 | ArasanX 3.5 | Total: 37-37-6 | EXchess (2.37) 2.5 +-----------------------------+ Tristram 1.0 Faile 0.5 Round 10 Comments ================= Wow, just when I thought I was able to predict the outcome of each game, Faile surprises me by drawing against Crafty (15.15) and Comet loses its very first game. to GNUChess. Crafty (16.2) took this opportunity to narrow Comet's lead, which is just one point now. +--------------------------------------------------+ | ROUND 11 PAIRINGS, RESULTS, and STANDINGS | +--------------------------------------------------+ Round 11 pairings Winner Standings after Round 11 ================= ====== ======================== EXchess (2.51) vs. Zchess Zchess Comet 9.5 Faile vs. Crafty (16.2) Crafty Crafty (16.2) 8.5 GNUChess vs. Crafty (15.15) Crafty Phalanx 8.5 Inmichess vs. Comet Comet GNUChess 7.5 LambChop vs. Cilian LambChop Inmichess 7.0 Little Goliath vs. ArasanX draw EXchess (2.51) 6.5 EXchess (2.37) vs. Tristram EXchess Little Goliath 6.5 Phalanx vs. SSEChess Phalanx LambChop 6.0 Crafty (15.15) 5.0 +-----------------------------+ SSEChess 5.0 | Grob Score Watch | Zchess 5.0 | | ArasanX 4.0 | Round 11: 2-5-1 | Cilian 4.0 | Total: 39-42-7 | EXchess (2.37) 3.5 +-----------------------------+ Tristram 1.0 Faile 0.5 Round 11 Comments ================= Interesting game between Little Goliath and ArasanX! For several moves during the middle-game, White had two Queens on the board, and thought it had a big advantage. But when it was Black's turn to move, you could see Black's evaluation of the position and Black felt it was nearly equal! Sure enough, the two Queens weren't enough and Black won! Nice game! Wait! I typed up those words before the game actually ended. White found a way to force a draw by repetition, by checking the King endlessly! White is currently still checking, giving the game an evaluation of 0.00 and Black still things he has a huge 9.18 point advantage! Fun!! Another must see game! Wait! No! I wrote THOSE words too quickly! The Black King was being subjected to at least 40 continuos checks and I felt the game was surely a draw. Suddenly White stopped the checking series and played a non-checking move. Black then put White's King in check... and White stopped moving and lost the game on tine!!! Wait! I just figured out WHY White stopped moving. He must have claimed a draw by the 50-move rule. Exactly 50 moves ago the last piece was captured! As the tournament director, I'm declaring this game a draw!... The Grob has taken a pounding in each of the past two rounds, going 2-5-1 in each. With it now being five three games behind the .500 mark, I don't think it'll be able to reach that mark again, although as I peek ahead to the Round 12 pairings it might do well there. +--------------------------------------------------+ | ROUND 12 PAIRINGS, RESULTS, and STANDINGS | +--------------------------------------------------+ Round 12 pairings Winner Standings after Round 12 ================= ====== ======================== Zchess vs. SSEChess Zchess Comet 10.5 Tristram vs. Phalanx Phalanx Crafty (16.2) 9.5 ArasanX vs. EXchess (2.37) ArasanX Phalanx 9.5 Cilian vs. Little Goliath draw EXchess (2.51) 7.5 Comet vs. LambChop Comet GNUChess 7.5 Crafty (15.15) vs. Inmichess Crafty Inmichess 7.0 Crafty (16.2) vs. GNUChess Crafty Little Goliath 7.0 EXchess (2.51) vs. Faile EXchess Crafty (15.15) 6.0 LambChop 6.0 +-----------------------------+ Zchess 6.0 | Grob Score Watch | ArasanX 5.0 | | SSEChess 5.0 | Round 12: 6-1-1 | Cilian 4.5 | Total: 45-43-8 | EXchess (2.37) 3.5 +-----------------------------+ Tristram 1.0 Faile 0.5 Round 12 Comments ================= No real big surprises this round; just about all of the stronger programs won. But just a round ago, when I thought the Grob wouldn't be able to quite hit .500 again, it did so immediately, and better, with an impressive 6-1-1 performance this round... With just three rounds to go, it looks like it's now a three-horse race between Comet, Crafty (16.2) and Phalanx. And I see Comet and Phalanx will play each other in the final round! Whoa! +--------------------------------------------------+ | ROUND 13 PAIRINGS, RESULTS, and STANDINGS | +--------------------------------------------------+ Round 13 pairings Winner Standings after Round 13 ================= ====== ======================== Faile vs. Zchess Zchess Comet 11.5 GNUChess vs. EXchess (2.51) EXchess Crafty (16.2) 10.5 Inmichess vs. Crafty (16.2) Crafty Phalanx 10.5 LambChop vs. Crafty (15.15) Crafty EXchess (2.51) 8.5 Little Goliath vs. Comet Comet GNUChess 7.5 EXchess (2.37) vs. Cilian Cilian Crafty (15.15) 7.0 Phalanx vs. ArasanX Phalanx Zchess 7.0 SSEChess vs. Tristram SSEChess Inmichess 7.0 Little Goliath 7.0 +-----------------------------+ LambChop 6.0 | Grob Score Watch | SSEChess 6.0 | | Cilian 5.5 | Round 13: 2-6-0 | ArasanX 5.0 | Total: 47-49-8 | EXchess (2.37) 3.5 +-----------------------------+ Tristram 1.0 Faile 0.5 Round 13 Comments ================= No real big surprises this round either. It is getting easier to predict the winner of most all games. Again, I am indeed looking forward to the last round game between Comet and Phalanx which will decide first place. +--------------------------------------------------+ | ROUND 14 PAIRINGS, RESULTS, and STANDINGS | +--------------------------------------------------+ Round 14 pairings Winner Standings after Round 14 ================= ====== ======================== Zchess vs. Tristram Zchess Comet 12.5 ArasanX vs. SSEChess ArasanX Crafty (16.2) 11.5 Cilian vs. Phalanx Phalanx Phalanx 11.5 Comet vs. EXchess (2.37) Comet EXchess (2.51) 9.5 Crafty (15.15) vs. Little Goliath Crafty GNUChess 8.5 Crafty (16.2) vs. LambChop Crafty Crafty (15.15) 8.0 EXchess (2.51) vs. Inmichess EXchess Zchess 8.0 Faile vs. GNUChess GNUChess Inmichess 7.0 Little Goliath 7.0 +-----------------------------+ ArasanX 6.0 | Grob Score Watch | LambChop 6.0 | | SSEChess 6.0 | Round 14: 6-2-0 | Cilian 5.5 | Total: 53-51-8 | EXchess (2.37) 3.5 +-----------------------------+ Tristram 1.0 Faile 0.5 Round 14 Comments ================= SSEChess completely lost a drawn endgame. In fact, I had already written "draw" as the result and went back to watching the TV. A few moments later I looked up and White was clearly winning. I think SSEChess felt it was winning (when it wasn't) and didn't want a draw by repetition so it made an inferior move... In Little Goliath's game against Crafty (15.15), on move 21, White had all four minors developed, its Queen developed and had castled with its rooks connected. By comparison, Goliath had three of its minors and both rooks still on their original squares and had lost castling privileges. +--------------------------------------------------+ | ROUND 15 PAIRINGS, RESULTS, and STANDINGS | +--------------------------------------------------+ Round 15 pairings Winner Final Standings ================= ====== =============== GNUChess vs. Zchess Zchess Comet 13.5 Inmichess vs. Faile Faile Crafty (16.2) 12.5 LambChop vs. EXchess (2.51) EXchess Phalanx 11.5 Little Goliath vs. Crafty (16.2) Crafty EXchess (2.51) 10.5 EXchess (2.37) vs. Crafty (15.15) Crafty Crafty (15.15) 9.0 Phalanx vs. Comet Comet Zchess 9.0 SSEChess vs. Cilian draw GNUChess 8.5 Tristram vs. ArasanX ArasanX Inmichess 7.0 Little Goliath 7.0 +-----------------------------+ ArasanX 7.0 | Grob Score Watch | SSEChess 6.5 | | Cilian 6.0 | Round 15: 0-7-1 | LambChop 6.0 | Final Total: 53-58-9 | EXchess (2.37) 3.5 +-----------------------------+ Faile 1.5 Tristram 1.0 Round 15 Comments ================= And the winner is... (drum roll please) Comet with an impressive score of 13.5 out of 15! Phalanx could have made it a three-way tie for first place with a win over Comet, but Comet was not to be denied... Notice Faile won for the very first time!! Whoa! And against Inmichess no less, who finished with 7 points... GNUChess, who had an impressive 7.5 points after 10 rounds, could only muster 1 more point in the final five rounds and thus finished with a slightly disappointing 8.5. The Grob took a beating in this final round. The total won-loss Grob record before this round was just two games above .500 but this round saw five of the top seven programs due for Black and each of these programs won, which certainly made the difference. Here are a few meaningless statistics out of the 120 games played: ================================================================== White (The Grob) won... 53 times Black won.............. 58 times There were............. 9 draws Black played 3... Nf6 31 times Black's record with this: 19-10-2 3... c6 88 times Black's record with this: 38-43-7 3... e5 1 time Black's record with this: 1- 0-0 --------- 58-53-9 White castled Kingside..... 38 times Queenside.... 13 times not at all... 69 times! Note: All 120 games can be found at: http://www.edcollins.com/chess/grob-tourney-games.txt It is my belief I could run the entire tournament again and probably come up with very different results. But the results, and the games themselves, are much fun to look at... and often instructive too. I had a LOT of fun in putting this tourney together and watching the games and results unfold on my screen. (And at times I found myself actually feeling sorry for the programs that weren't doing so well!) It was interesting to see how one program evaluates a position compared with another. Many times, both programs thought they were EACH winning... or losing! I think everyone should hold their own little tournament like this, starting from your own favorite opening position. WinBoard is free... all of these engines (and more) are free... the programs play themselves without any interaction from you... you took enough of an interest in this tournament to read this far... So what's stopping you? Best in chess, Edward D. Collins