Re: Ing Prize

[Nick Wedd <Nick@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Don,  (CC Computer Go list)

Don Wagner <donw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes

>When reading the rules for the the Ing prize at
>
>http://www.britgo.demon.co.uk/ing/rules.html
>
>I noticed the wording:
>"Alternatively, competitors may bring their own computers. "
>Would this mean that a player could have a phone hookup to a remote
>computer (lets call it C1), doing calculations?

An interesting question.

If there were objections to this, I think they would arise from the
impossibility of checking whether the off-site system might be cheating,
by using human assistance.

>If this is the case, would it be legal to have a computer with multiple
>processors?

I believe so, yes.

In one computer Go Tournament, one of the entrants was three PCs
connected together by serial cables.  One of them received its
opponent's move, selected about 20 plausible replies, and farmed out 7
each to its two assistants while it evaluated the other 6.  Then it
collected all the results and played the one with the highest score.

>Would it be possible to have multiple computers also talking to the C1,
>and having C1 tabulate the results and feeding it to the "players"
>machine?

I believe so.  But I am not an authority on this.  It would be for the
Ing Foundation to rule on it.

>I am curious because since this is the last year to get the prize, it
>would appear that the only possible way to accomplish this would be
>similar to the way people are finding Mersenne primes (
>http://www.mersenne.org/prime.htm ), and wanted to see if this would be
>legal under the rules.

Nick
-- 
Nick Wedd    nick@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx