Re: [computer-go] how to have a computer go tournament?

["Bob Myers" <rtm@xxxxxxx>]

Quoting Ray Tayek:

> hi, we have the cotsen open go tournament
If people don't know the Cotsen, it's one of the biggest US tournaments 
and a lot of fun.

> usually every year here in
> los angeles. i suggested to eric that he entertain the idea of having
> some kind of computer go tournament or maybe even having the programs
> somehow play in the handicap section of the tournament
As other posters mentioned, you should be clear in distinguishing 
between three things:

1) a computer go tournament
2) entering computer go programs in a human tournament
3) having some kind of computer go event

People on this list will be interested only in the first, really. It 
would be great to have a computer go tournament in North America for the 
first time in several years. Of course, such a tournament could be held 
in conjunction with a human tournament; that's been done a lot in the 
past such as at the US Go Congresses mentioned by David, and works well. 
It makes sense--some of the programmers are strong players that like to 
play in the tournament, and it's interesting for the humans to watch the 
go programs play.

This takes a reasonable amount of planning and execution, and 
money--since at least a modest purse is required to attract enough 
participants to make it worthwhile. The Intelligent Go Foundation would 
love to assist in such a plan, since having tournaments is really our 
raison d'etre, and we weren't able to put together the resources for a 
tournament in 2004.

As for 2), (computers in human tournaments) other posters have mentioned 
problems with this; in addition, there's the problem that no one really 
knows how strong the programs are or what rank to enter them as. A 
computer could enter as a 12-kyu and come in first in its division but 
what does that really mean? For the programmers, it's much more 
meaningful to win over other programs. Also, in terms of prize money, 
few programmers would come if the only upside were a shot at a small 
amount of human prize money. They are interested in possibility of 
winning a first prize for the strongest program, which as someone 
mentioned needs to be at least a couple of thousand dollars to get 
reasonable programs to show up. Bottom line: it could be interesting, 
but really just a stunt, to enter a program in the human tournament, 
possibly with the $10 bonus one poster mentioned.

3) (events) is easy and could be a way to spice up the human tournament. 
Just have the winner of the low-kyu section play a strong program with 
some good stand-up comedy-level commentary. However, this doesn't really 
require the participation of the computer go community, othen than maybe 
getting someone to donate a free copy of their program.

--
Bob M. 
_______________________________________________
computer-go mailing list
computer-go@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.computer-go.org/mailman/listinfo/computer-go/