computer-go: Hello again!

["Chris Fant" <fantius@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello all.  Long time, no talk.  I've been away from the scene for almost a
year now.  Can't even remember what happened, but all of the sudden, I
stopped programming Go.  Well anyway, I got to thinking about it again and
started back up about a month ago.  I've got my code running as a C DLL
called by a VB interface.  It looks decent (loosely modeled after Mr.
Fotland's MFG).  So here's the good news: after a total of about 5 months
actual effort from my first learning about Go and the difficulties of
computer Go, I am proud to announce that my program (I call it "Stoned", b/c
it used to play like it was stoned) has beaten MFG level 9 in 4 out of 12
games, playing black with no handicap and giving white 5.5 points komi on a
9x9 board.  If I sound like I'm bragging, I am.  I apologise, but I'm proud
of my achievement thus far.  The only downside is that at the settings I was
using, it takes about 40 minutes to complete a 9x9 game; pretty darn slow.
I want to do some more research and hopefully improve the strength and
certainly improve the execution time and them I would like all you good
players to evaluate it for me (I can't b/c I am a TERRIBLE Go player).

Oh yeah, what happened to the prizes?  Last year's 21 Century Cup prizes
were in the several thousands if I remember correctly, and this year's grand
prize is $500?  Whats up with that?