Re: [computer-go] GTP and Tourney in SmartGo 1.4

[Nick Wedd <nick@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In message <A424A906-7294-11D8-A7AD-000A959D091C@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Marco 
Scheurer <marco@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes

> I'd like our company to sponsor a Computer Go tournament for its 10th 
> anniversary (in fall 2004). It it happens it would be for GTP engines, 
> and would also be broadcasted on a server, possibly with a live video 
> stream, if anyone cares.
>
> Any advice about rules, the setup? What is needed to make a tournament 
> big? No entrance fee and prize money?
My unorganised thoughts follow.

Rule set is unlikely to be an issue.

High entrance fee certainly deters entrants.
Low, or subsidised, travel costs encourage them.
Prizes encourage those few who have a chance to win them.

Insisting on GTP will exclude most competitors, as they don't support 
it.  I have heard that it is hard to implement, with two line-feeds 
having a different meaning from one line-feed (my personal opinion is 
that significant whitespace is a really stupid idea.)

About five years ago, when many programs claimed to support GMP, the 
chance of two such programs actually being able to play an entire game 
by GMP was rather small.  If two of your entrants fail to get their game 
started, or play part of a game and then go to sleep, do you propose 
investigating which one is guilty of not doing the GTP stuff right, and 
giving the win to the other?

Most computer Go tournaments require each entrant to be accompanied by a 
human, to operate it.  Allowing people to send in a program, to be 
operated by a volunteer, will encourage weak entrants.  Few good 
programs will accept this arrangement, because of fear of theft.

Nick
--
Nick Wedd    nick@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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