Zappa by Anthony Cozzie wins CCT7!!

Updated 02.13.2005

CCT7 is in the books and was a huge success.

I would like to take a moment and thank International Master Jon Schroer for providing commentary throughout the entire event, and National Master Dan Heisman for providing commentary and conducting interviews via Chess.fm. Both provided comments that were on point the entire time. I hope both decide to help us in the coming years, as their level of expertise is greatly appreciated.

From all the participants and myself, I would like to thank the Internet Chess Club (ICC) and in particular Andy McFarland for the incredible support they provided to us. With this being the seventh year in a row that the CCT tournament was conducted on ICC, they have shown a level of commitment that has surpassed all expectations.

We look forward to a continued friendship with them, and honestly can not say enough about the individuals that are committed to providing the best possible resource for online chess.

I want to give a special thank you to Will Singleton, the author of Amatuer. When there was help needed, or advice to be given, Will was there day or night. He is a credit to his sport, and I for one am grateful. I hope next year that he will be around in the event that I am again the Tournament Director, as without him, I don’t know if I could have completed the job. Thank you Will!

This year we crowned a new champion in the program Zappa by Anthony Cozzie. It played brilliantly the entire tournament and deserves to be called a champion. Finishing with a 7.5/9.0 score in a field that International Master Jon Schroer called the strongest chess he has seen from the CCT tournaments, surely deserves it’s just rewards.

Ikarus by Munjong & Muntsin Kolss finished with a superb effort of 7.0/9.0. I will guarantee this program will one day become a champion in any tournament. It played solid, fantastic chess and was rewarded with a second place finish.

ChessThinker by Lance Perkins was the only undeafeated program in the tournament. With four wins and 5 draws for a total of 6.5/9.0 was remarkable. With a bit more luck it could have easily won the event. It has progressed in fine form, and we look forward to seeing it participate again.

Also with 6.5/9.0 was SOS by Rudolf Huber and DanChess by Dan Shawul. Both played very well, and top honors are justly deserved.

Last year’s champion Crafty by Robert Hyatt finished with a strong 6.0/9.0. With no preparation and little warning Crafty played as well as it could have. There were issues with the operator, so Robert had to use the same program, book, and hardware that is normally playing on ICC under the account “Crafty”. Considering all it faced, Robert should be very pleased with the result, and I am positive will come out next year guns a blazin’.

Pharaon by Franck Zibi also managed a 6.0/9.0 score. It played some of the best tactics seen at this event, and will be pleased with the result. It came in seeded sixth, and finished for a tie of sixth. Look for it to be seeded higher next year, and it’s opponents to prepare for it more. It is a dangerous program with sharp tactics, and a solid all around game. Personally I thought it might finish slightly higher, but it’s final result should be nothing to scoff at.

All the programs at this year tournament were classfied as amateurs. With the results and the level of chess played one has to wonder why. When you match up terrific chess, and incredible sportmen like the participants this year, there is little doubt these these gentlemen are professionals at what they do.

I am looking forward to watching all the programs progress in their efforts, and would like to thank each of them for providing all of us with two incredible days of excitement. Next year should only be better, and will continue with the same level of participation.

As the Tournament Director this year, I was able to sit back and watch all the games in progress. It was fun, funny, exciting, and inspiring all at the same time.

CCT is an event for the authors, but more importantly it is about the people watching. This year we had a level of specators never seen before. CCT as a whole is getting better each year, and more attractive to the average chess player. The coverage is improving steadily, and must continue to grow. This year was only another stepping stone in that direction.

Thank you to everyone involved that had the confidence in me to TD the event. I look forward to talking with you all in the future, and I hope the event was to your liking. I would be honored to do it again.

Good luck in the future is whatever your life challenges you with.

Peter Skinner (Tournament Director CCT7)

RULES:

Site:
The Internet Chess Club (as always)

Rounds:
9 round swiss.

Round Times: (based on ICC’s “date” command Eastern Standard Time)

February 12 : 9:00 am 11:00 am 1:00 pm 3:00 pm 5:00 pm

February 13 : 9:00 am 11:00 am 1:00 pm 3:00 pm

Please be sure to check for time zone differences!

Time controls: 50 + 3

All games to be played in one weekend:
5 games on Saturday
4 on day Sunday

In the event of a tie situation:

There will be co-winners awarded.

1. No manually operated programs, and all programs must kibitz their evaluation, and book moves/TB hits if possible. Providing as much information as possible for the viewers and participants is key here. It should also be noted that 1-3 lines of text is sufficient. No need to scroll out an entire page :)

2. In the event of a disconnection, the party will be given 5 minutes to return to complete the game and no more than 2 disconnections per game will be allowed. On the third time, the game will be a forfeit.

3. Only the author or an approved operator (Author must email the TD in such case to grant approval). There will be no clones allowed.

4. Participants can use any hardware they can bring. Participants choosing to use remotely located hardware are recommended to have a suitable back up solution in the event there is an uncorrectable malfunction.

5. No entries will be accepted 2 days prior to the start date of the tournament. This is to ensure that advertising, web sites, and any promotional tools are accurate at start time. This is also to ensure participants have enough time to test their program on the ICC servers to ensure it is able to play.

5a. In the event that there is a late withdrawal or uneven amounts of players, the TD can substitute a program in place of the departing entrant to keep the numbered entries the same. And to avoid a bye round.

6. Seeding. The below formula will be used to determine seedings:

6a. A panel of 5 people will be polled where they would seed the list of entrants. These people will be from the Computer Chess Club, and are active/knowledgeable individuals. This group of people will also be anonymously selected, and results will only be known by final seedings. An average of these 5 polled people will determine the seedings for the tournament.

7. Any account that enters into the CCT will be given a 1 month account. If the author is operating the program for the entire tournament the account will be grant “free” status.