Hiarcs at the World Championships in Tilburg

[IA]

Great news, he was playing to win, congratulations to the team Hiarcs and Deep Junior...



Regards...

[Mark Uniacke]

Thank you, a truly magnificant game by HIARCS on which to win the title.

Deep Junior certainly pushed us all the way with its inventive and challenging playing style throughout both tournaments.

For HIARCS to go through both Software and Unlimited tournaments without a single loss despite the odd suspect book line I fed HIARCS is a testiment to its ability.

This World Chess Software Championship has been won by a team effort.

I would like to thank Hans van der Zijden for kindly operating HIARCS and dealing with my book instructions at all hours of the day and night!

To Harvey for operating some games, taking lots of confusing book instructions from me and lots of background work, support and strategy discussions.

The rest of the HIARCS team, Eric, Christian and Rob for supporting me testing endless (often with no progress) test versions over the years and giving up their time and computers to help me.

Without all of you this title would not of been possible and I thank you all.

Now I can look forward to a celebration and then a nice sleep

[Harvey Williamson]

Hans van der Zijden with the prize alongside Amir Ban who came 2nd


The prize

[Harvey Williamson]

full report on all games in the WCSC is here http://www.digitalgametechnology.com/Ch ... SC2011.pdf The notes are by Jaap van den Herik.

[Hans van der Zijden]

Friday november 25
If I would go by train I would have to switch 3 times. Too dangerous. I could fall asleep and miss my connection. Then better go by car.

I forgot to mention that I was trying to figure out what Pandix means. After our draw in the WCCC I thought of something:

Plays
Always
Nice
Draws
In
X-moves

In the first game against Shredder, Hiarcs has a little advantage out of book, but not enough to convert to a win. Still, not a bad result with the black pieces. Everyone is feeling the strain of a tight schedule. First the TD makes the wrong pairing and Harvey forgot to mention it and today Amir put his shirt on inside out. Then I make my mistake by starting the game against Jonny. Harvey told me to wait because he was downloading a new book. It took so long I thought he had done it by now. Because Jonny opened 1.c4 for the first time, it probably wouldn’t have made a difference. Also the second game against the formerly using 800 cores program ends in a draw. A bit of a disappointment. In the other game Pandix tries to fight back to the top and beats Shredder with the black pieces.

Round 7 pairs us to Junior again. Junior gets a position with queen and bishop against 2 rooks and a knight. The program thinks it is well ahead by 0.70. Hiarcs thinks it is only about 0.20 to 0.30. When Junior is not making progress anymore, we know that we are in for a long game. When the 50-move rules approaches Junior has to do something. Some pawns are moved and after 129 moves Junior trades a bishop and a pawn for a rook. Both scores are rapidly dropping to 0.00 and Amir offers a draw. Seeing that Hiarcs agrees, I accept.

Next round Hiarcs has the bye so I drive home. My request to the players to wait with their last game of the day till I am home is not honored. When I turn on my computer Jonny and Shredder drew and Junior has almost won against Pandix. With 2 rounds to go Hiarcs leads with 4, Junior is 2nd with 3½ and shredder has 3.

I get a mail from Mark anouncing he is going to send me a little book later. I hope it is there before I have to leave, otherwise I have to bring my laptop again with me.

Saturday november 26
I wake up even earlier because of the things I have to do on the computer. My cat comes to me and I cuddle it a bit. I fall asleep again and wake up at 7:33. One hour and 27 minutes before the start of round 9. I switch on the computer and while it boots I feed the cat, go to the toilet and dress. No time for breakfast and a shower. I quickly put the book and instruction on a USB stick and run to my car. All this took about 15 minutes. Luckily it is saturday so there is not much traffic. There are 2 camera’s spotted already according to the radio and they are both on roads I drive on. But before the first Is there I took already the exit to another road and the second camera is on the other side of the road. So I lowered my speed for nothing. I reach the playing hall at 8:51!, with only 3 ticketworthy actions. Ok, 4 if you count the sms I sent to Mark while driving too fast. I arrive before all the other players.

I unpack the book and install it. Then when I start Hiarcs the program asks me to put the CD inside. I panic. Didn’t Harvey take it with him, or did I leave it at home? I press cancel and that also helps. Only it starts up with the wrong engine and another time control. But that is easily fixed.

We get a very good position against Pandix winning 2 pawns. But the pawns are isolated double pawns and when the attack is well defended by Pandix, the score goes down rapidly. We are still 2 pawns up on the board, when Pandix pondering a wrong move says he is up by 2 points. Luckily Hiarcs plays the right move, but still has to fight a bit for the draw. Junior easily wins against Shredder and ties now for first. In the last round Hiarcs playing Shredder and Junior has an easier task against Jonny. But Jonny manages to get a draw and Hiarcs is crushing Shredder in a very nice kingattack. So we are softwarechampion.

Hans
Is
A
Real
Chesscomputer
Star

Hiarcs didn’t lose a game in the tournaments wih longer timercontrols, although it came close a couple of times. While grabbing all my things together, I find the Hiarcs DVD. Harvey left it on a table after installing. On the way back I stop for some food. Tomorrow it is time to start living healthy again.

This concludes my journal. It is much shorter and less funny then the ones on the previous WCCC’s. That is because it was in my own country. Everything here appears normal to me. Better luck next time.

[Steve B]

For HIARCS to go through both Software and Unlimited tournaments without a single loss despite the odd suspect book line I fed HIARCS is a testiment to its ability.

This World Chess Software Championship has been won by a team effort.

Brilliant achievement Mark
Congrats to Hiarcs's 2nd World Championship title in three years
and a perfect way to celebrate the 18th anniversary of Hiarcs first World Championship in 1993

now thats ...

Staying Power Regards
Steve

[Harvey Williamson]

Amir Ban and I had a meal in a converted Windmill. This interesting couple were eating below a very nice picture of a Chess board.


Me enjoying a glass of wine!

[Harvey Williamson]

A report on the Hiarcs website http://www.hiarcs.com/Games/wcsc11/wcsc11.htm