CSc 180
Intelligent Systems
TOURNAMENT RESULTS
2019 (Spring)
See the full event report here.
GAME: Congress Chess
This is a board-game with chess-like pieces, in which each player has TWO kings.
Victory is achieved by capturing both kings. Other pieces are pawns, bishops,
and horses. The board is divided in half (vertically), and all of the horse/bishop
pieces are horses on the left side of the board, and bishops on the right side.
That means that the type of piece changes if it crosses the dividing line.
Also, the board is divided in half horizontally, and pieces in the forward half
are allowed to capture backwards, whereas pieces in the back half are not.
The initial position is:
H H - K K - B B (COMPUTER)
- P P P P P P -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- p p p p p p -
h h - k k - b b (HUMAN)
32 entries
1st place - "Progress" (Scott Gordon)
2nd place - "Chipinator" (Ciprian Elies)
3rd place - "Hamilton" (Jones), 4th place - "Nedah" (Barrow)
"Progress" was written in C and used minimax, alpha-beta pruning, iterative deepening,
history tables, and an extremely passive (but efficient) terminal evaluation function.
By contrast, "Chipinator" utilized bitboards and used an aggressive strategy. Their
matches see-sawed throughout the tournament, with "Progress" luckily getting the
better of it during the final match. "Chipinator" is fun to play against because of
it's great graphical user interface, and is available to download here:
download "Chipinator"
(Windows executable)
Here are two great games played between "Chipinator" and "Progress":
6 - - K N K - - B Chipinator vs. Progress: 1.g1h2 f5f4 2.b1a3 b5b4 3.a3b5 d6c6
5 - P P P - P P B 4.b5d6 g6h5 5.a1b3 h5xe2 6.d1c1 e2d1 7.b3a5 (diagram. Progress
4 - - - - - - - - has happily allowed an early loss of a king, for an overwhelming
3 - p - - - p - - material and mobility advantage) d1xf2 8.e1f1 g5g4 9.a5xc6 e5e4
2 N - p p p - p - 10.d6xe4 d2xe3 11.c6xb4 c5xb4 12.c1b1 g4g3 13.b1a1 g3xh2
1 h h k N k - - b 14.b2b3 a6c5 15.d2d3 e4xd3 16.c2c3 b4xc3 17.g2g3 f2xg3 18.b3b4 c5b3
----------------- 19.h1g2 e6f6 20.g2f3 b3d2 21.f3g4 d2xf1 22.g4f5 d3d2 23.f5e6 f6g6
A B C D E F G H 24.b4b5 h6g5 and Chipinator has no legal moves.
6 - - K - b - - K Progress vs. Chipinator: 1.b2b3 g6h5 2.f2f3 d6c6 3.e1f1 b5b4
5 - - h - - - - - 4.g2g3 e6f6 5.d1c1 f6g6 6.g1f2 g5g4 7.f1g1 h6g5 8.h1g2 g6h6
4 p - p - - - - - 9.f3f4 e5xf4 10.g3xf4 g5xf4 11.f2h4 f4h2 (finally some action!)
3 h - - - - - - - 12.g1h1 g4g3 13.e2e3 h5e2 14.g2h3 e2d1 15.h4g5 g3g2 16.e3e4 d5xe4
2 N - - N - - P B 17.h3xf5 e4e3 18.g5xe3 d1xe3 (this time, Chipinator's aggressive
1 - - k - - - - k focus on the kings pays off) 19.c2c3 e3f2 20.c3c4 f2e1 21.f5e6
----------------- b6a4 22.b3xa4 b4b3 23.a1xb3 a6b4 24.b1a3 e1xd2 25.b3c5 b4a2
A B C D E F G H (both kings are lost) 26.c1b1 d2xb1 27.a3b5 g2xh1 and Chipinator wins.
2018 (Fall)
See the full event report here.
GAME: Hot Wheels Chess
This is a board-game with chess-like pieces, in which a player tries to move
his "car" one square at a time along a "track". The player whose car first
reaches the finish line wins the game. Players try to use their pieces to
block the opponent's car, while also capturing opponent's pieces that are
blocking their own car. The car cannot be captured. It also cannot capture,
unless such a move is the only legal move. The initial position is:
C - - - - - - (COMPUTER)
- P - - - - -
R R P B B - -
N N - P P P P
n n - p p p p
r r p b b - -
- p - - - - -
c - - - - - - (HUMAN)
24 entries
1st place - "Capability Brown" (Eli Richner)
2nd place (tie) - "Adversareval" (Matt Merrill) and "Boosted Bot" (Ricky Gutierrez)
"Capability Brown" was written in C++ and used minimax, alpha-beta pruning, and an
efficient incremental evaluation function. Iterative deepening was added for the
tournament, but wasn't included in this distribution version:
download "Capability Brown"
(Windows executable - run from a command window because the app closes at the end of the game)
Here is a convincing win by "Capability Brown" over the instructor's program:
8 C - - - - - - Deora vs. Capability Brown:
7 - P - - - - - 1.d5e4 a4b6 2.e5f4 d4d5 3.f4e3 a3a5 4.b5d4 d5e6 5.a6a5 c3d4
6 - n - - p - - 6.d6f4 b4d5 7.c6c5 b3b4 8.f5g4 b2b3 (see diagram -- so far, neither
5 R - P n - - P car has moved, but Deora's car is clearly stuck, and the end is near)
4 - r - p P B P 9.c5c4 d3c4 10.a5d5 c4d5 11.e3e2 a1b2 12.f4e3 b2c3
3 - p - b P - - 13.g4g3 d5b7 14.e3f2 d4d5 15.f2b6 b4b6 16.g5g4 c3d4
2 - - - - - - - 17.e2e1 d5d6 18.g3g2 b7e4 19.a3b7 e4c6 20.g2g1 d4e4
1 c - - - - - - 21.g4g3 e4f4 22.g3g2 f4g4 Capability Brown's car has reached
______________ the finish line. Deora's has only managed to move one square.
A B C D E F G
2018 (Spring)
See the full event report here.
GAME: Newcular Chess
This is a chess-like game in which pieces can either move, capture, or "explode".
Each side starts with 4 pawns, 2 rooks, 2 knights, 2 bishops, and a king.
It is played on a 7x9 board. If a player chooses to "explode" a piece, it removes
itself and all other pieces adjacent to it. Kings can only move forward.
Other pieces can move forward, or can capture forwards or backwards.
The initial position is:
- N R K R N - (COMPUTER)
- - - B - - -
- - - B - - -
P - P - P - P
- - - - - - -
p - p - p - p
- - - b - - -
- - - b - - -
- n r k r n - (HUMAN)
28 entries
1st place - "Pepper" (Chun Yue Leung)
2nd place - "Conor McGregor" (Xin Goh)
3rd place - "NYANC" (Peter Yao)
"Pepper" was written in C++ and utilized minimax, alpha-beta pruning, iterative
deepening, killer move heuristic, and transposition tables.
download "Pepper"
(Windows executable)
Here is an excellent and very close game between "Pepper" and the instructor's program:
9 - N R - - - - Button vs Pepper:
8 - - - - - K - 1.e4e5 g6g5 2.c4c5 a6a5 3.d3e4 d9e8 4.e1e2 a5x 5.d2g5 d8g5
7 - - - - - - - 6.g4x f9e7 7.f1e3 e8f7 8.e3c4 e7d5 9.c4b6 d5f4 10.b6d7 c6x
6 - - - - - - - 11.c1c9 e9c9 12.e5x f7g6 (see diagram; at this point, the position
5 - - - - - - - is dead even, and both programs evaluate it as such. But almost
4 - - - - - - - immediately, Button goes astray) 13.e2e6 g6g5 14.b1d2 g5g4
3 - - - - - - - 15.d2e4 b9a7 16.e6e7 a7c6 (Pepper announces forced victory)
2 - - - - r - - 17.e7e8 (Button still thinks the position is even) c6d4
1 - n - k - - - 18.e4x c9c3 (now the strategy is clear) 19.d1e2 g4g3
_____________ 20.e8e9 g3g2 21.e9x g2g1 22.e2e3 c3e3 capturing the king.
A B C D E F G
2017 (Fall)
See the full event report here.
GAME: HiYa!
This is a chess-like game with a "Karate" theme. Each side starts with 3 samurai,
3 ninjas, 3 mini-samurai, 3 mini-ninjas, and a King. It is played on a 7x8 board,
and players "attack" opposing pieces by moving one of their pieces in front of
an opponents piece. When a piece is attacked, it is "demoted". When a "mini"
piece is attacked, it is removed from the board. The king cannot move, and if it
is attacked, then that side loses. The initial position is:
54 entries
1st place - "Sockfish" (Chris Swenson, sec.2) def "Threshold" (Chris Pulido, sec.1)
2nd place - "Fat Buddha" (Kevin Ludanov, sec.2), "Kami-Sama" (Chris Lowe, sec.1)
3rd place - "Panda" (Scott Gordon), "Icicle" (Vitalina Dub, sec.1)
"Sockfish" was written in C++, and utilized minimax, alpha-beta pruning, iterative
deepening, bitboards, and a lazy-SMP algorithm from the open-source "Stockfish",
in which multithreading is used to forward-fill transposition tables.
download "Sockfish"
(Windows executable)
Here is a wild game from the final showdown between the two section winners "Sockfish" and "Threshold":
8 - - - K - - - Sockfish vs Threshold:
7 J - - - - S S (Threshold, at top of screen, moves first)
6 s J*S - - - s 1...f6g5 2.b3c4 c6c5 3.a3b4 b6b5 4.c3b4 c7e5 5.e3e4 c5c4
5 - - - - s - s 6.f2e3 c4c3 7.e3b6 e6d5 8.e4d4 e7e6 9.f3f4 b7c6
4 - - - s*- s*- 10.b4c5 e6c6 -- Threshold has hung on well, but Sockfish
3 - - S - - - j* has maneuvered to having a straight shot at Threshold's king --
2 S*S*s*- J*- J* 11.e2c4 c3b3 12.c4e6 b3c3 13.e6d7 capturing the king.
1 - - - K*- - -
_____________
A B C D E F G
2017 (Spring)
See the full event report here.
GAME: Morph
This is a chess-like game in which each time a piece moves, it turns into another
piece. For instance, when a knight moves, it becomes a rook. When a rook moves,
it becomes a bishop, etc. It is played on a 6x8 board, and each side starts with
2 pawns, 2 knights, 2 bishops, 2 rooks, and a king. The king is confined to the
back row, and can only move in one direction. Pieces can only move backwards if
the move is a capture. Otherwise, the pieces move similarly to chess pieces.
Players win by capturing the king, or if the opponent cannot move. The initial
position is:
- K - - - - (COMPUTER)
N B R R B N
- - P P - -
- - - - - -
- - - - - -
- - p p - -
n b r r b n
- - - - k - (HUMAN)
35 entries
1st place - "S/K" by Theodore Dubois
2nd place - "Aleph" by Trevyn Currie
3rd place - "Darwin" by Michael Schmid
"S/K" was written in C, and utilized minimax, alpha-beta pruning, iterative
deepening, and a huge hash table for storing previously encountered positions.
Also of note, is that "S/K"'s author, Theodore Dubois, was still in high school
at the time of the tournament.
play against "S/K"
(reduced Javascript version)
Here is an interesting game between "S/K" and the instructor's program "Paul".
"S/K" gets off to a slow start, even by it's own analysis. Suddenly, despite
being an entire piece behind, it finds a winning sequence and announces victory.
8 - K - - - - S/K vs PAUL
7 - B - - B - 1.f2e4 f7e5 2.c3c4 e5e4 3.b2c3 e4f3 4.e1d1 f3d2 5.c2d2 b7a6
6 - - P P - - 6.c3a4 a6c5 7.d3d4 a7b5 8.a2c3 b5b2 9.e2d3 b2c3 10.d2c3 c5f5
5 - - - p - - 11.d3b4 c7b7 12.d4d5 f5d3 13.b4b7 d7b7
4 r - p - - - (see diagram) Paul is a piece up and the position looks solid.
3 - - n N - - However, S/K is about to secure victory.
2 - - - - - - 14.d5c6 d3b2 15.c6b7 (S/K announces it has a guaranteed win)
1 - - - k - - ...b2c2 16.d1c1 c2a4 17.c3a4 e7f6 18.a4a7 b8c8 19.b7c8 winning.
_____________
A B C D E F
2016
See the full event report here.
GAME: Trench Run
This is a chess-like game with a sort of "Star Wars" theme, in which each player
tries to capture the opponent's Death Star. It is played on a 7x7 board, and each
side starts with a set of pieces consisting of 1 Death Star, 2 walls, 4 tie-fighters
(they move roughly like rooks), and 4 x-wings (they move roughly like bishops).
Pieces can only move backwards if the move is a capture, and players cannot make
two tie-fighter sideways moves in succession. The Death Star can only be captured
by a backwards move, and because of its initial position along a row of "wall"
pieces, capturing it requires maneuvering along a back "trench", reminiscent of the
climactic scene in the first Star Wars movie. The initial position is:
- T T - T T -
- - ~ * ~ - -
X X - - - X X
- - - - - - -
x x - - - x x
- - + @ + - -
- t t - t t -
32 entries
(0th place - "Tarkin" by Scott Gordon)
1st place - "Mom" by James Womack
2nd place - "HAL" by Oscar Solarzano
3rd place - "Bane_AI" by Daniel Bergstrom
In this tournament's 14-year history, this was the first time that the instructor's
entry was the winner. "Tarkin" was written in C++.
"Mom", the 1st-place student entry, was also the very first champion written in C#.
It utilized multi-threading, along with a sophisticated evaluation funtion, and a
very nice-looking GUI.
download "Mom"
(Windows executable)
Here is a, strange, see-saw battle between "Mom" and "Tarkin", in which "Tarkin"
takes a huge early lead after a weak opening by Mom. But Mom fights back and
Tarkin's position dissolves in amazing fashion.
7 T - - - - T - TARKIN vs MOM
6 - X ~ * ~ - - 1.b3d5 b7b6 2.a3c5 c7a7 3.g3e5 f5d3 4.f3g4 b5c4 5.c5b6 a5b6
5 - - - - x - - 6.f1f7 g7f7 7.b1b6 g5e3 8.d5c4 e3b6 9.c4d3 (see diagram)
4 - - - - - - x Tarkin is ahead by two x-wings, yet within a few moves, his
3 - - - x - - - position crumbles. 9...b6f2 10.g4f5 a7a5 11.f5g6 f7f3
2 - - + @ + - - 12.d3e4 f2g1 13.c1g1 f3f2 14.e4d5 a5b5 15.g6f7 b5b4 16.g1c1
1 - - t - - - t ...f2f7 17.e5f6 f7f6 18.c1a1 f6f1 19.a1a2 f1d1 20.a2a3 d1d2
_____________
A B C D E F G
2015
See the full event report here.
GAME: GasTank Chess
This is a chess-like game in which each player tries to capture the opponent's King.
It is played on an 8x7 board, and each side starts with a set of pieces consisting
of 1 king, 1 queen, 2 bishops, and 2 knights. The queen moves like either a knight
or a bishop. Initially, every piece has a full tank of gas, equalling 3 moves.
Each time a piece moves, its tank is reduced by 1. If its tank reaches zero,
it can no longer move. But, when a piece captures another piece, its tank is
"refilled" -- that is, it is brought back up to full. Players ARE allowed to
capture their own pieces. The initial position is:
- - B3 Q3 K3 B3 - -
- - - N3 - N3 - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - n3 - n3 - -
- - b3 q3 k3 b3 - -
35 entries
1st place (tie) - "Diesel Wolf" by John Hill and "Buggy" by Scott Gordon
3rd place - "Alter Ego" (Stephen Ly)
4th place - "Sneaky" (Guraj Atwal)
"Diesel Wolf" and "Buggy" were both written in C++ and utilized minimax, alpha-beta
pruning, and iterative deepening and many other search techniques. Diesel Wolf
benefitted from a well-tuned and efficient evaluation function, whereas Buggy
focused on additional search optimizations.
download "DieselWolf"
(Windows executable - may require Visual C++ Redistributable)
Here is a game between "Diesel Wolf" and "Buggy" that went all the way down to
the very last possible move:
7 - - - - K0 - - - DIESEL WOLF vs. BUGGY
6 - - - - - - - - 1.c1b2 c7a5 2.b2c3 d7b6 3.c3f6 e7f6 4.f2g4 f6e7
5 - - - - - - - - 5.d1f3 f7a2 6.g4e5 e7f6 7.f3g4 f6e7 8.g4e5 a5d2
4 - - B3 - - - - - 9.e1d2 d6c4 10.f1c4 b6c4 11.e5c4 a2c4 (see diagram)
3 - - - - - - - - now both the white king and black bishop have 3 moves
2 - - - K3 - - - - in the tank. But the white king must move first.
1 - - - - - - - - 12.d2e1 c4b3 13.e1f1 b3a2 14.f1e1 a2b1 and black wins.
______________________
A B C D E F G H
2014
See the full event report here.
GAME: Refusal
This is based on a chess variant invented by Fred Galvin, which he
called "Refusal Chess". In refusal, when someone makes a move, the
opponent has the option of "refusing" the move. If a move is refused,
a different move must be played - that one must be accepted.
This version of Refusal is played on a 5x8 board containing pawns,
knights, rooks, and kings. Unlike regular chess, pieces can only
move forward, pawns don't have a double-move option, kings can only
move if it is a capture and are confined to the back rank, and rooks
are either "left" or "right", meaning they can only move one direction
when moving laterally. The initial position is as follows:
R - - K L
- - - - -
N P P P N
- - - - -
- - - - -
n p p p n
- - - - -
r k - - l
25 entries
1st place - "Nibbles" by Ben Botto
2nd place (tie) - "Minimaxploitation" (Timothy Shea)
and "Intuition" (Nick Clayton)
4th place - "Rocky 4" (Ethan Weidman)
"Nibbles" was written in C++ and utilized minimax, alpha-beta
pruning, iterative deepening, and many other search techniques.
What set it apart was its launching of predictive threads to think
on the opponent's time, and its superior evaluation function.
download "Nibbles"(32-bit)
download "Nibbles"(64-bit)
Here is a dominant win by "Nibbles" over the instructor's program:
8 R - - K L DECIDER vs NIBBLES
7 - - - - - 1.a6c4(r) e6c5, a3c4(r) e3c4 2.a6b4, c3b4 3.c5a4, c4d6
6 - P P n - (see diagram - Decider thinks it has attacking chances,
5 - - - - - but Nibbles is already in control) 4.a4c3(r) a8a7, d6e8
4 N p - - - 5.a7d7, b3a4(r) a3c4 6.a4c3(r) a4b2, c4d6 7.d7d6(r)
3 n p - p - b6b5, a1a7 (Nibbles announces that a win is guaranteed)
2 - - - - - 8.d7d6(r) c6c5, a7d7(r) b4c5 9.d7d6(r) b5b4, a7d7(r)
1 r k - - l e1e2 10.d7d6(r) b2d1, a7d7 11.d8e8, d6e8 winning.
_________
a b c d e
2013
See the full event report here.
GAME: Borgo Pass
This is a chess-like game with a vampire theme, in which each player
takes turns moving their pieces on a 7x8 board, trying to capture
the opponent's vampire. Other pieces include bats, wolves, and
mirrors. Wolves move like knights in regular chess, bats move like
bishops, and the vampire can move in either manner. Mirrors are
limited in their movement, but can capture any vampire on the same
vertical column. The initial position is:
B M - V - M B
W W - - - W W
- - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
w w - - - w w
b m - v - m b
28 entries
1st place - "Ramathorne 3" by Matt Rojas
2nd place - "Honest Abe" by Nick Pearson
3rd place - "Adamas" by Kyle Matz, and "Van Helsing" by Manuel Sabin
"Ramathorne 3" was written in C++, utilizing minimax and alpha-beta
pruning, iterative deepening, bitboards, history tables, multithreading,
and a clever prediction mechanism to search 8 or 9 plies at each move.
Given that Borgo Pass has a branching factor approaching that of chess
- around 30 - "Ramathorne 3" is thus able to analyze on the order of
two billion moves within the 5-second time limit.
download "Ramathorne 3"
(Windows - requires Visual C++ 2012 32-bit runtime)
Here is an exciting win by "Ramathorne 3" over the instructor's program:
8 - b - - - M - RAMATHORNE3 vs ORLOCK
7 - - - - - - - 1.f2d3 b7a5 2.g1b6 (the bat is defended by the mirror)
6 - - - - W - - d8e7 3.f1e1 e7g5 4.g2e3 f7d6 5.b6a7 g8b3 6.d1e2 a8f3
5 W - - - - V - 7.e2g3 d6e4 8.g3e1 (capturing its own piece to survive)
4 w - - - W - - b3a2 9.b2a4 g7e6 10.a7b8 a2b1 (see diagram - at first
3 - - - w w B - Orlock appears to be ahead, but actually it is already
2 - - - - - - - running out of moves) 11.d3f4 a5b3 (up to now, every
1 b B - - v - - one of Orlock's moves has been predicted by Ramathorne)
12.a1c3 e6c5 13.a4c5 b3c5 14.c3e5 c5d3 15.e1f3 d3e5
16.b8e5 e4g3 17.e3d5 f8e8 18.d5c7 g3e2 19.f4e2 winning.
2012
See the full event report here.
GAME: PaoQi
This game is inspired by "Chinese Chess", or "Xiangqi", considered
by many to be the most popular board game in the world. PaoQi is
a considerably simpler game. Players take turns moving their pieces
on an 7x7 board, and try to capture the opponents' king. Other pieces
include pawns, helpers, and cannons. The kings and helpers are
confined to a 6-quare region called the "palace" (similar to Xiangqi).
Pawns move and capture in a manner similar to western chess. The
cannon moves like a "rook" in western chess, but captures only by
jumping over another piece, and only when it is "loaded" (defined as
having just moved sideways). The initial position is:
C C H K H C C
- P P P - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - p p p -
c c h k h c c
20 entries
1st place - "Batty" by Mike Vollmer
2nd place - "Lion" by Josh Eilers
3rd place - "TuoLaJi" by Scott Gordon
4th place - "Prime" by Chris Liberatore
"Batty" was written in C, utilizing minimax and alpha-beta pruning,
iterative deepening, sophisticated move ordering, killer move heuristic,
and most notably, transposition tables with Zobrist key hashing to
search 10+ plies deep right from the opening position.
download "Batty"
Here is a wild tactical win by "Batty" over the instructor's program:
7 C - c*k h - - BATTY vs. TUOLAJI
6 - - h p - - - 1.e2e3 f7f5 2.d2d3 g7f7 3.a1a4 f5d5 4.e1d2 a7a5
5 - p - c*- P - 5.b1a1 a5b5 6.f2f3 b5b4 7.f1e1 c6c5 8.a4a6 c5c4
4 - - - C*c - - 9.f3f4 b4b3 10.a6a7 c7c6 11.a1a2 c4c3 12.a2a4 f7f6
3 - c - P P - - 13.e1e2 f6e6 14.a4d4 c3c2 15.c1xc2 e6e4 16.f4f5
2 - - H H - C*- (note that if 16.d3xe4, then 16...b3d3 wins because
1 - - - K C*- - kings can only move if its a capture) 16...b7c7
A B C D E F G 17.g1e1 b6b5 18.e2f2 (see diagram - Batty reports
here that its opponent can win, but TuoLaJi misses
the winning line) 18...b5b4 19.e1xe4 b3a3 20.d4xd6
e7xd6 21.e4c4 c7xc4 (Batty is behind by a cannon, but has
calculated a guaranteed victory) 22.e3e4 b4b3 23.e4e5 b3xc2
24.d1xc2 c4g4 25.e5e6 a3a2 26.e6xd7 winning the king.
The second game in this match was even crazier:
7 - - h k - - - TUOLAJI vs. BATTY
6 c - - - h - - 1.b1b3 f7f5 2.g1g4 f5f4 3.e2e3 g7g5 4.b3d3 g5d5
5 - - p C P - - 5.e3e4 (PaoQi is a very tricky game. Presumably
4 - - P c c*- C e3xf4 falls to a7a3 followed by c6-c5-c4) c6c5
3 - - - - - P - 6.c1c2 d5d4 7.a1c1 d6d5 8.e4e5 e7e6 9.e1e2 a7a6
2 - - H - H C*- 10.f2f3 a6a5 11.f1g1 a5a4 12.g1g2 a4c4 (the game
1 - - - K - - - has been pretty quiet so far - now things get crazy)
A B C D E F G 13.c1xc4 b7a7 14.d3xd5 (blacks cannon on d4 isn't
loaded, so this move appears safe. TuoLaJi appears
to be winning, but Batty predicts victory) a7a6
15.d2d3 b6b5 16.g2f2 b5xc4 17.d3xc4 f4e4 (see diagram; an
amazing move that appears to simply sacrifice a canon for
nothing. But white doesn't capture - the calculations are
too difficult to enumerate here) 18.f3f4 a6c6 19.f4f5 d4d3
20.f5xe6 d7xe6 21.f2f3 c6xc4 (and now the combination that
white was trying to fend off is apparent - and there is no
defense) 22.f3e3 c4d4 23.g4f4 d4xd1 winning the king.
2010
See the full event report here.
GAME: SCHMESH
This game is inspired by the 1960s Milton Bradley game of "Smess",
where a piece's mobility is determined by what square it is on.
Schmesh uses an 8x5 board, players take turns moving their pieces
according to rules somewhat like chess. Each time a player moves, the
piece that just moved changes to another type of piece, depending on the
row that the piece lands on. Rows 1-8 correspond to the following chess
pieces: rook, pawn, knight, bishop, bishop, knight, pawn, rook. Pieces
are a bit simplified: rooks can only move one square side-to-side (and
only to capture), pawns can only move forward one square diagonal, bishops
and knights can only move forward, kings move like rooks. It is LEGAL
to capture your own pieces. A player wins by capturing the opponent's
king, or if the opponent cannot move. The initial position is:
- R K R -
P P P P P
- - N - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - n - -
P p p p P
- r k r -
26 entries.
1st place - "Chubs" by Mitch Heer
2nd place - "Numbskull" by Scott Gordon
3rd place - "a.out" by Michael Braden
4th place - "Saternine" by David Bettencourt
"Chubs" was written in Java, utilizing minimax with alpha-beta
pruning, iterative deepening, aspiration windows, Killer Move
heuristic, and sophisticated move-ordering techniques.
download "Chubs"
Here is a solid win by "Chubs" over the instructor's program:
8 - R K R - CHUBS vs. NUMBSKULL
7 - - p - - 1.e2d3 d7e6 2.b2a3 e7d6 3.a2b3 a7b6 4.b3c5 e6c5
6 - - - - - 5.d3c5 c6b4 6.a3b5 d6b5 7.c3b5 b4d2 8.c1b1 b7a6
5 - - b - - 9.b5a6 d2c1 10.b1c1 b6a4 11.a6c7 (removing
4 B - - - - the king's ability to capture its own rooks,
3 - - - - - and therefore its ability to flee) - see diagram -
2 - - p - - 11...a4c2 12.c5d6 c2d1 13.d6c8 wins.
1 - - k r -
A B C D E
2009
See the full event report here.
GAME: CATNAP
7x5 board, players take turns moving their pieces according to rules
similar to chess. A player wins by capturing the opponents' king,
or if the opponent cannot move. The name "Catnap" refers to the
unusual rule that the king can never move twice in succession.
That is, the king is like a typical housecat - whenever it exerts
itself, it need to immediately take a nap before it can move again.
The other pieces are 3 pawns, 2 knights, and 2 bishops. Pieces can
only move forwards, but they are allowed to capture either backwards
or forwards. Pawns move as in regular chess (there is no 2-move rule),
and if they reach the back rank they are stuck and can no longer move.
The starting position is as follows:
B B K N N
- P P P -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- p p p -
n n k b b
20 entries.
1st place (tie) - "Hairball" by Levi Stanley
"ONYX" by Josh Christanelli
3rd place - "Chairman Meow" by Scott Gordon
Both "Hairball" and "ONYX" were written in C++, utilizing minimax
with alpha-beta pruning, iterative deepening, and sophisticated
move-ordering techniques. "Hairball" used bitboards, "ONYX" used a
variety of cross-referencing tables. Both searched over 10 plies deep.
download "ONYX"
Here is a quick win by ONYX over the instructor's program:
7 B - - N N ONYX vs. Chairman Meow
6 b - K - - 1.d2d3 b7a6 2.d3d4 c7b7 3.c2c3 b6b5 4.b2b3 b7c7
5 - - p P - 5.b3b4 d6d5 6.a1b3 c7b6 7.b1a3 (in a nearly
4 - - - p - symmetrical position, Meow is already in trouble)
3 P n p - - ...c6c5 8.b4c5 b6c7 9.d1e2 b5b4 10.e2a6 b4a3
2 - - - - - (see diagram) 11.c3c4! (a devastating move)
1 - - k b - ...a3a2 12.e1a5 d7b6 13.c5b6 a7b6 14.a5b6 c7b6
A B C D E (other moves also lose) 15.c4c5 e7c6 (remember,
the king can't move twice in a row!) 16.c5b6 wins.
2008
See the full event report
here.
GAME: SIDESTEP
6x5 board, players take turns moving their pieces according to rules
similar to chess. A player wins by capturing the opponents' king,
or if the opponent cannot move. The name "sidestep" refers to how
the kings can move -- they are limited to a simple sidestepping move
in one direction only. The other pieces can only move in the forward
direction (except when capturing which can be done backwards as well),
and consist of soldiers (similar to the "queen" in regular chess) and
pawns. Pawns are the same as in regular chess, but when they reach
the back row they are stuck and can never move again. Starting position:
6 K S S S S computer
5 P P P P P
4 - - - - -
3 - - - - -
2 p p p p p
1 s s s s k human
------------
A B C D E
26 entries.
1st place - "Time Bender" by Tim Bender
2nd place - "Surgeon" by Scott Gordon
3rd place - "Fiend" by Sterling Schulkins
Time Bender was written in Java, and was the first time that a program
written in Java has won this event. Time Bender utilized minimax with
alpha-beta pruning, iterative deepening, and a unique variation on
history tables that allowed it to search 8-10 plies deep within the
5 seconds allotted per move.
download "Time Bender"
Here one of "Time Bender"'s wins:
6 K S - S - Time Bender vs. Fiend
5 P P - - - 1.b2b3 d5d4 2.c2c3 c6d5 3.e2e3 d4e3 4.d2d3 e5e4
4 - - P - S 5.c1e3 e4d3 6.d1d2 e5e4 7.e3e4 e6e4 8.e1d1 c5c4
3 - p p P - (hard to imagine that Time Bender has the advantage,
2 p - - s - but watch what happens) 9.b3c4 e4e2 10.d1c1 b5c4
1 s s - k - 11.b1b6 a6b6 12.a1b2 d6b4 13.c3b4 e2d1
A B C D E 14.b2d4 b6c6 15.b4b5 d1d2 16.b5c6 winning
2007
See the full event report
here.
GAME: LEMMING CHESS
8x4 board, players take turns moving their pieces according to standard
rules for chess pieces (pawn, knight, bishop). However, pieces can only
move forward, unless they are capturing, wherein they may capture either
forwards or backwards. Capture is compulsary. Pawns become immobile
when they reach the back rank. A player wins if he has no legal moves.
8 N B B N
7 P P P P
6 - - - -
5 - - - -
4 - - - -
3 - - - -
2 p p p p
1 n b b n
A B C D
17 entries.
1st place - "Judgment" by Andrew Redden.
2nd place - "Know Hao" by Hao Le
3rd place - "Pwnage!!1" by Derek Goering
"Judgment" used iterative deepening and transposition tables with
Zobrist key hashing to search between 12 and 22 plies deep. It won
a close contest, scoring 15-5 and was the clear winner of the final
round robin, with a score 4-2.
download "Judgment"
Here is one of "Judgment"'s solid wins:
8 - - - N Pwnage!!1 vs. Judgment
7 - P N B 1.a2a3 a7a6, 2.a3a4 d7d6, 3.b2b3 c7c6, 4.d1c3 a8c7
6 P p - P 5.c3d5 c6d5, 6.a4a5 b8a7, 7.b3b4 a7b6, 8.a5b6 c8d7
5 - - - P (see position - despite material equality, Judgment
4 - p - - has already predicted victory) 9.b6c7 d7b5, 10.c7d8
3 - - - - a6a5, 11.b4a5 b7b6, 12.a5b6 b5d3, 13.c2d3 d5d4, 14.b6b7
2 - - p p d6d5, 15.b7b8 Judgment has no move and therefore wins.
1 n b b -
A B C D
2006
See the full event report here.
GAME: RABBIT RACE
8x5 board, players take turns moving their "rabbits" one square
forward (straight or diagonal). Captures are jumps similar to checkers,
but jumping directly forward is also allowed. Jumping is compulsary.
The first player to get a piece in the "rabbit hole" in the middle of
the opposite side of the board, is the winner. The starting position is:
8 - - * - -
7 X X X X X
6 X X X X X
5 - - - - -
4 - - - - -
3 O O O O O
2 O O O O O
1 - - * - -
A B C D E
26 entries
1st place: "Prophet" (Phuong Nguyen)
2nd place (tie): "Sgt Schultz" (Jake Henriet) and "Harvey" (Scott Gordon)
4th place: "Velvetine" (Christian Burns)
"Prophet" (C++) used iterative deepening, killer move, and quiescent extensions
to search between 11 and 20 plies deep. More importantly, it had a terrific
evaluation function. It won every game it played, scoring a flawless 24-0.
download "Prophet"
(note - only runs on the machines in RVR-5029)
Here is one of "Prophet"'s nifty wins:
8 - - * - - Harvey vs. Prophet
7 - - X X - 1.a6b5 d3c4, 2.b5d3 d2d4, 3.b6a5 a3a4,
6 O - - - - 4.a5a3 a2a4, 5.c6b5 a4c6, 6.b7d5 b3a4,
5 - - - - X 7.d5d3 e2c4, 8.e6d5 c4e6, 9.e7e5 a4b5,
4 - - X - - 10.d6d5 c3c4, 11.d5b3 c2a4, 12.a7a6 a4a5
3 - - - - O 13.a6c4 a5a6 and there is no stopping
2 - O - - - the rabbit on A6.
1 - - * - -
A B C D E
2005
See the full event report here.
GAME: MINI-CHECKERS
6x8 board, players take turns moving their "checker pieces" one
diagonal square at a time. Capturing by jumping is compulsary.
No multiple jumps. When a piece reaches the back rank, it can no
longer move. A player can win either by (a) getting two checkers
to the back rank, or (b) the opponent is unable to move.
The initial position is:
1 X - X - X - X -
2 - X - X - X - X
3 - - - - - - - -
4 - - - - - - - -
5 O - O - O - O -
6 - O - O - O - O
A B C D E F G H
16 entries
1st place: "Sleeper" (Hong Nguyen)
2nd place: "Slasher" (Deixong Zhang)
3rd place: "Snow Princess" (Alex Loret deMola)
4th place: "Bitwise" (Tyler Karaszewski)
"Sleeper" (C++) used a 12+ ply search with iterative deepening and killer heuristic.
"Bitwise" used transposition tables and bitmaps and searched even deeper.
Here's an example of "Sleeper" winning a very close one:
1 - - O - - - - - Sleeper vs. Bitwise
2 - - - - - O - - 1.h2g3 c5d4, 2.b2c3 d4b2, 3.a1c3 g5f4,
3 - - - - - - - - 4.g3h4 b6c5, 5.d2e3 f4d2, 6.c1e3 e5d4,
4 - - - - - - - - 7.c3e5 d6f4, 8.e3g5 h6f4, 9.f2e3 f4d2,
5 - - - - - - - - 10.e1c3 c5d4, 11.c3e5 f6d4, 12.g1f2 a5b4,
6 - - - X - X - - 13.f2g3 b4c3, 14.g3f4 c3d2, 15.f4e5 d4e3,
A B C D E F G H 16.h4g5 e3f2, 17.g5f6 d2c1, 18.e5d6 wins
2004
See the full event report here.
GAME: PAWNSTOP
6x8 board, players take turns moving their pawns forward one square
at a time. As in regular chess, they capture on the diagonal. When
a pawn reaches the last rank, it can no longer move. When a player
has no more moves, he/she loses. The starting position is:
1 - - - - - - - -
2 X X X - X X X X
3 - - - - - - - -
4 - - - - - - - -
5 O O O O - O O O
6 - - - - - - - -
A B C D E F G H
20 entries
1st place: "Dead End" (Jason Chang)
2nd place(tie): "Hannah" (Joshua Bettencourt) and "Muncher" (Scott Gordon)
4th place: "Lil'Brudder" (Kevin Hjelden)
download "Dead End"
"Dead End" (C++) used a 10 ply search and a sophisticated eval function.
"Lil'Brudder" used transposition tables and searched even deeper.
Here's an example of "Dead End"'s efficient style of play:
1 - - - - - - - - Hannah vs. Dead End
2 O - - - - - - - 1.a2a3 h5h4, 2.b2b3 g5g4, 3.c2c3 f5f4,
3 - - - - O - X - 4.g2g3 h4g3, 5.f2g3 f4g3, 6.h2g3 a5a4,
4 - - O - - - O - 7.b3b4 c5b4, 8.a3b4 a4a3, 9.e2e3 a3a2,
5 - X - - - - - - 10.c3c4 b5c4, 11.e3e4 d5e4 12.b4b5 e4e3 and wins.
6 - - - - - - - -
A B C D E F G H
2003
See the full event report here.
GAME: 4-IN-A-ROW
(same as in 2002 below)
33 entries
1st place: "Headstrong" (Jeb Crouson)
2nd place (tie): "Evolution" (Adam Ruggles) and "Dark Cloud 2" (Scott Gordon)
4th place: "Hello World" (Robert Lapanja)
download "Headstrong"
"Headstrong" was written in C, using iterative deepening, history tables.
"Hello World" used bitmaps and searched deeper, but had a bug.
I took the liberty of playing a 2-game match between "Headstrong" and
the 2002 winner "Mr.X". Amazingly, both games ended in a draw!
Here is one of their games - quite a seesaw battle:
Headstrong vs. Mr.X -- 1.d5 c5 2.d4 d3 3.c4 b4 4.c3 b3 5.e4 f4
6.d6 d7 7.c2 c1 8.b2 d2 9.c6 e6 10.b6 a6 11.b5 d1 12.b7 b8
13.b1 c8 14.d8 e7 15.f7 f3 16.f2 a5 17.a7 a8 18.e5 c7 19.f6 f5
20.f1 e1 21.g3 e3 22.g8 e2 23.h6 e8 24.h5 h4 25.a4 g4 26.a3 g5
27.g6 h3 28.f8 h2 29.h1 g2 30.h7 h8 31.a2 a1 32.g7 g1 DRAW
2002
See the full event report here.
GAME: 4-IN-A-ROW
8x8 board, players take turns placing a piece on any square.
First player to get 4 in a row, diagonals NOT counting, wins.
Game unsolved, but probably a win for the first player.
21 entries
1st place: "Mr. X" (Jonathan Pullen)
2nd place (tie): "Lien" (Jason Lien) and "Dark Cloud" (Scott Gordon)
4th place: "Holden" (Meg Holden)
"Mr.X" was written in C++, using iterative deepening and history tables.
Here is an interesting win by Mr.X over an experimental version
of DarkCloud:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 DarkCloud3 vs. Mr.X
A - - - - - - - - 1. e5 d5
B - - O - - - - - 2. e4 e3
C - - O - - - - - 3. f4 d4
D - X O O O X - - 4. e6 e7
E - - O X X X O - 5. g4 h4
F - - X X - - - - 6. d6 d3
G - - - X - - - - 7. d2 c3
H - - - O - - - - 8. f3 b3wins