Mission Control takes over in Freestyle Tournament

Sixth PAL/CSS Freestyle Tournament – "Mission control" takes over

Report by CCGM Arno Nickel

Only a few experienced human freestylers, among them three International Masters, succeeded in qualifying. But they were upstaged by a real computer monster – the UCI-engine Rybka 2.3.1 running on 32 processors, operated by Sujay Jagannathan alias "Mission control", who is lives in England.

About 20 FIDE titleholders and many high-end computer systems, which means four and even eight processor systems, guaranteed a strong competition. Yet, once again none of the grandmasters manage at least 5.5 points out of eight games, which was practically speaking the barrier for qualification (provided you also had a good progressive score). Czech GM Petr Hába and Georgian GM Baadur Jobava were for a long time close to the top group, but at the very end they lacked the crucial half point. Also Britain’s GM Tony Kosten, who lives in France, and Ukrain GM Yuri Solodovnichenko did not show enough punch to reach the goal.

The rate of play was 60min + 15sec. About half of the participants took the opportunity to let their engine play automatically, which is probably a new record. That, however, caused also – to TD Martin Fischer's chagrin – additional technical problems, mostly due to different client versions being used, either at the start of the game, when one side was unable to make a move, or later on, when a player got disconnected.

The tournament went on without too long breaks, but Martin had to decide on some results, when several tries to restart a game simply failed. A side-effect were long discussions in the chat or by e-mail. For this reason the organizers are now considering forcing people to manually execute their moves. There are a number of incidental advantages to this rule. For instance participants can avoid a loss of time in case of obvious or forced moves. The only "disadvantage" is that the particpant must remain in front of the computer during the game, instead of letting the engines play completely unattended. But that would seem reasonable in a $16,000 chess tournament.

Regarding the big number of engine-only players it does not surprise us to find five of them among the qualifiers. Just have a look on the following table in order check, who is a keen centaur (*) and who is an engine-only player.

No.	Participant	Ti.	Rtn	Name	Nat.	+	=	–	Pts	TB	Perf.
1.	Mission control		2481	Jagannathan	ENG	5	3	0	6.5	33.0	2840
2.	Flyingfatman		2587	Carlin	ENG	4	4	0	6.0	29.5	2746
3.	Rentner2 *	IM	2614	Blauert		4	4	0	6.0	29.0	2724
4.	Kreuzfahrtschiff *		2590	Kruse		4	4	0	6.0	27.5	2677
5.	Cato the Younger *		2620	Chen Yingheng	ENG	4	4	0	6.0	26.0	2706
6.	Ultra-d		2700	Evans	ENG	4	3	1	5.5	26.0	2697
7.	Klosterfrau *	IM	2606	Breder		3	5	0	5.5	24.5	2566
8.	Rajlich *	IM	2742	Rajlich, V.	HUN	3	5	0	5.5	24.0	2685
9.	PvP		2716	Kakirdakis	GRE	4	3	1	5.5	23.5	2670
10.	New Man		2630	Osterman	SWE	4	3	1	5.5	23.0	2628

The winners are of course the British – four finalists out of 11 participants! – and the Germans, as they got through three centaurs. To be more precise we have to add that IM Dennis Breder alias Klosterfrau this time could not afford time for more than two centaur games. BUT that will of course completely different in the final. The losers of the 6th Freestyle Main Tournament are, if I am right, for the first time the US players, as none of the 15 transatlantic participants could qualify. The Americans are usually the second strongest group behind the Germans.

As to the Freestyle rating, in the fourth column we sometimes used the rating a player had achieved with his former nickname: Mission control = formerly Hercules01 and Moto Guzzi, Kreuzfahrtschiff = formerly Dummkoller, PvP = formerly Nebula, New Man = formerly Kingcrusher. These figures were used for the pairings but not for the Elo evaluation.

In this tournament Mission Control took its opponents by surprise with a 32 processor system, which meant about 21 plys on average. Sujay Jagannathan, the man behind, was already known before to some insiders. Only later I found out that he had already played with his monster hardware in the previous Freestyle Tournament, as Hercules01, where he also qualified for the final, but came second last. I asked him, what was different this time, and this is, what he wrote in an e-mail:

“I ran on AMD dual core socket F CPUs 8216 2.6 x 32, which I have upgraded to 3 GHz x 32 now. Better preparation on book and less engine bugs compared to the last PAL final, where day one was a total disaster with two endgame bugs and opponents getting disconnected and restarting the whole game, which resulted in another loss, as the engine played a red book move. Last but not the least luck also plays its part.”

Thanks, Sujay! Somebody in the chat said that his father was director of a mathematical institute and was granting him access to such powerful hardware. Surely he will tell us much more after the final, where many people will follow Mission Control’s games in order to see if, for the first time, an engine-only player will become Freestyle Champion. Of course it will be much harder for Suj this time, as everybody will be preparing for him.

The surprise factor is a very important thing in the main tournament. When I, Ciron, met Mission Control in the fifth round (I had 3.5 out of 4) I didn’t know anything about my opponent and was completely confused, because I couldn’t properly identify him as an engine or a centaur. There was simply no information in the players list, though it should be there. I will not go into details of why this might have happened, but people should understand that such a situation, which cannot occur in a round-robin tournament like the final, is rather confusing, especially when you had already played six hours before this happens. By the way, El-Shaddai alias Nolan Denson (place 25), experienced the same problem as me.

You might argue that freestyle means anything goes… And indeed, whenever such things happen people start discussions about what is allowed and what is not allowed in freestyle. Someone reported “hacker” attacks from his opponent, trying to disconnect him…

After the final some questions on the future of freestyle chess will be put into the focus, especially our plans for a tournament with longer time controls. The freestyle poll on CSS online shows that many players are interested in such a contest, mainly because it might offer better chances for human participation. The poll also shows some of the other questions in discussion. Probably we will opt for a tournament with 90min + 30sec rate of play. This allows to play 4-5 games on a weekend: 1st game Friday, 2nd + 3rd games on Saturday, 4the (+ 5th) games on Sunday. We could play a Swiss tournament on two weekends (9 or 10 rounds), this time without an additional final. If desired, we can continue with the freestyle events in intervals: next tournament with 60 min + 15sec rate of play and then again 90min + 30sec. So everybody can choose what he likes most.

Here is the rest of the final table and at the end you will find the download for the games:

11.	Rino-1			Stibi		4	3	1	5.5	22.0	2707
12.	Revelator		2591	Knowles	USA	3	4	1	5.0	28.0	2647
13.	Ciron		2622	Nickel		4	2	2	5.0	26.5	2630
14.	OpenFormula		2587	Osterman	SWE	3	4	1	5.0	24.5	2612
15.	Rodo		2691	Gallo	ITA	2	6	0	5.0	24.0	2598
16.	Petr Hába	GM	2505	Haba	CZE	2	6	0	5.0	23.5	2706
17.	The Wizard			Bennett	ENG	2	6	0	5.0	23.0	2690
18.	MjLvMj			Indoc	IND	2	6	0	5.0	23.0	2664
19.	Oligarckh	GM	2686	Jobava	GEO	2	6	0	5.0	23.0	2612
20.	Lasker#77			Bigler	SUI	2	6	0	5.0	22.5	2666
21.	Bychamp_II		2574	Monteiro	BRA	4	2	2	5.0	22.5	2648
22.	Fredi_z		2544	Zöllner	AUT	3	4	1	5.0	21.5	2626
23.	Krampak			Torroella	ESP	4	2	2	5.0	18.0	2553
24.	Equidistance		2591	Schoupal	CZE	3	3	2	4.5	24.0	2580
25.	EL-SHADDAI		2654	Denson	USA	3	3	2	4.5	24.0	2560
26.	Averell		2597	Eckhardt		3	3	2	4.5	23.5	2586
27.	Tatar		2612	Baron		3	3	2	4.5	23.5	2572
28.	Braincooler		2403	Osterman	SWE	2	5	1	4.5	23.0	2657
29.	Alansacount		2604	Sassler	USA	2	5	1	4.5	22.5	2536
30.	Sebi-chess		2568	Böhme		3	3	2	4.5	22.5	2535
31.	Engineer	GM	2595	Solodovnichenko	UKR	2	5	1	4.5	22.5	2475
32.	PAKman		2582	Pruitt	USA	1	7	0	4.5	21.5	2581
33.	Bogdansyg	IM	2302	Sygulski	POL	2	5	1	4.5	21.0	2650
34.	WindPower		2484	Wind	MAS	1	7	0	4.5	21.0	2616
35.	Rybusia	IM	2531	Rajlich, I.	HUN	2	5	1	4.5	21.0	2564
36.	GoLdEn-BoY		2703	Soney	USA	2	5	1	4.5	21.0	2562
37.	Tony Kosten	GM	2571	Kosten	FRA	3	3	2	4.5	20.5	2559
38.	Sonofluck		2447	Davalos	MEX	2	5	1	4.5	20.0	2649
39.	Gorleb		2442	Pillen		2	5	1	4.5	20.0	2644
40.	LazyBone		2500	Fuller	USA	2	5	1	4.5	20.0	2572
41.	Sergey_M		2604	Marinowsky		2	5	1	4.5	20.0	2408
42.	Xakru		2769	Dufek	CZE	1	7	0	4.5	19.5
43.	Ggg	GM	2148	Grigore	ROM	3	3	2	4.5	19.5	2585
44.	TheOrigin		2541	Baigi		2	5	1	4.5	19.5	2507
45.	Karadeniz Aslani		2549	Turgut	USA	3	3	2	4.5	19.5	2460
46.	Alexisco		2485	Koskoros	GRE	2	5	1	4.5	19.0	2643
47.	Bestteam			Moreira	POR	2	5	1	4.5	18.5	2467
48.	Akhtar		2488	Hashmi	UAE	4	1	2	4.5	18.5	2405
49.	Auryn		2541	Gallo	ITA	3	3	2	4.5	18.0	2435
50.	Footbolo		2389	Costa Serra	ESP	2	5	1	4.5	17.5	2525
51.	Pawntobewild		2525	Gray	AUS	3	3	2	4.5	17.0	2365
52.	Demian		2157	Greweling		4	1	3	4.5	13.0	2441
53.	Kitsune			Doane	USA	2	4	2	4.0	21.5	2579
54.	ZackS		2635	Zackary	USA	2	4	2	4.0	20.0	2475
55.	Heffalump		2551	Rades		2	4	2	4.0	19.5	2444
56.	TRAKA		2548	Weber		2	4	2	4.0	18.0	2424
57.	Qirco		2460	Kerimi	SUI	3	2	3	4.0	16.5	2563
58.	Wytiko		2313	Luppi	Ita	4	0	4	4.0	16.0	2523
59.	Jimliew	IM	2167	Liew	Mal	1	6	1	4.0	16.0	2521
60.	Hoshad		2502	Dabbaghyan	SWE	2	4	2	4.0	16.0	2396
61.	Kapaun		2247	Nettelbeck		2	4	2	4.0	14.5	2461
62.	Lukulus		2668	Lüttke		3	2	3	4.0	14.5	2333
63.	Amadeus Chess		2509	Bauer		2	3	3	3.5	20.5	2472
64.	MASLAKKOSTIA	IM	2480	Maslak	RUS	1	5	2	3.5	18.5	2480
65.	Kidambi	IM		Kidambi	IND	2	3	3	3.5	18.0	2483
66.	Supermichi		2481	Enderle		3	1	4	3.5	18.0	2441
67.	Poweronoff		2625	Märtens		0	7	1	3.5	17.5	2362
68.	Knilch hi		2502	Wellmann		1	5	2	3.5	17.0	2357
69.	Don Juan			Calero Cardador	ESP	2	3	3	3.5	16.5	2467
70.	Noritano		2585	Gutsche		2	3	3	3.5	16.5	2348
71.	John Higgins		2279	Zatko	SVK	2	3	3	3.5	15.5	2516
72.	Gomez		2320	Gomez	USA	2	3	3	3.5	15.5	2478
73.	ChessChryssy		2485	Ludwig		2	3	2	3.5	15.5	2414
74.	AlterEgo		2465	Vuckovic	SCG	1	5	2	3.5	15.0	2429
75.	Mk1264			Kolss		2	3	3	3.5	15.0	2408
76.	Croberson		2330	Roberson	USA	2	3	3	3.5	15.0	2388
77.	Mberggren		2397	Berggren	SWE	3	1	4	3.5	14.5	2407
78.	Dom_	IM	2457	Pedzich	POL	3	1	4	3.5	14.5	2373
79.	Siciliane5			Jegels		2	3	3	3.5	14.0	2348
80.	Badbishop1			Dixon	USA	2	3	3	3.5	14.0	2428
81.	Alfilferoz	IM		Alvarez	ARG	1	5	2	3.5	13.5	2416
82.	Mateen			Hashmi	UAE	2	3	3	3.5	13.0	2362
83.	Intagrand		2649	Williams	ENG	2	2	3	3.0	19.5	2380
84.	WoDra		2525	Draeger		0	6	2	3.0	14.5	2262
85.	Pandini		2373	Delport		0	6	2	3.0	13.0	2428
86.	CumnorChessClub		2162	Plant	ENG	2	2	4	3.0	11.5	2321
87.	TommyM39			Mahling		1	4	3	3.0	11.5	2262
88.	Big MC			Söhnlein		1	4	3	3.0	10.0	2452
89.	Toothlessbishop			Fabri	ENG	1	3	4	2.5	16.5	2414
90.	Walden	IM	2560	Noble	NZL	0	5	3	2.5	15.0
91.	Brain-damage		2360	Chaplin	ENG	1	3	4	2.5	11.0	2208
92.	Simplicissimus		2464	Bruening		2	1	5	2.5	11.0	2128
93.	LUBüWy		2317	Bürgin		2	1	5	2.5	10.5	2199
94.	Albitexm			Oggero	ITA	0	5	3	2.5	10.0	2221
95.	Fireonline					1	3	4	2.5	10.0	2216
96.	RybkaKiller		2371	Singh Jai Prakash	Ind	0	5	3	2.5	8.5	2160
97.	Dudi		2036	Schloegl	ENG	2	1	5	2.5	6.5	2188
98.	Otto der erste		2175	Zielasko		2	1	5	2.5	5.5	2060
99.	Katzenmaier		2549	Kleinert		2	0	6	2.0	14.0	2170
100.	Chichirivichi			Cohen-Revivo	ISR	1	2	5	2.0	12.5	2221
101.	Shallow Yellow			Kolss	SWE	1	2	5	2.0	10.5	2280
102.	Ibermax			Richards	ENG	1	1	6	1.5	11.5
103.	Angelo Dundee			Akat	TUR	1	1	6	1.5	11.0
104.	Formula-Open			Abdelrahim	USA	0	3	5	1.5	9.5
105.	Pepekan	IM	2068	Candela	ESP	1	1	6	1.5	8.0	2033
106.	Dragonfg7	IM		Canda	USA	1	1	6	1.5	8.0
107.	El_cuco_tuyo			Ortiz	USA	1	0	7	1.0	8.0
108.	Lord Vader			Lopatka	POL	0	1	7	0.5	4.0	1896
109.	Littleprince			Prüfer		0	1	7	0.5	4.0
110.	HydraAssasin		2449	Naar	KOL	0	1	1	0.5	0.5	0
111.	Pantani	GM		Jaracz	POL	0	0	8	0	0
112.	Sinaigarak			Karagianis	USA	0	0	8	0	0

Download games

Articles on Freestyle Chess

Freestyle Chess –Teaching an Engine how to Fly
28.04.2007 – The 5th PAL/CSS Freestyle Tournament on Playchess.com is already history and the 6th issue is coming soon: Main event June 1-3, Final June 22-24. Freestyle Chess allows players to form a team and use any software and hardware they like. The main sponsor, the PAL Group in Abu Dhabi (UAE), has provided a $16,000 dollar prize fund for each online tournament. CC GM Arno Nickel reports.

Fifth Freestyle Tournament Final this weekend
22.03.2007 – The 5th PAL/CSS Freestyle Main Tournament, staged on the Playchess server, ended in a dead heat of 17 players. None of the 131 participants from 32 countries, including 20 titled players, managed to achieve six points in eight games, which is the magic barrier for qualification. The final, with ten players, will be held as a round robin tournament this weekend. Come and watch.

$16,000 Freestyle tournament starts on March 2nd
23.02.2007 – The Fifth PAL/CSS Freestyle Chess Tournament begins on March 2nd on the Playchess server. The main tournament is an eight-round Swiss, with time controls of 60 min + 15 sec per game. You probably know that in Freestyle any kind of assistance is allowed: computers, friends, books, anything. The starting fee is 10 Euro. GMs and IMs are free. You can still join the fun!

The Freestyle Champion is Xakru, dammit! 07.11.2006 That's what happens when you choose a flippant name on the chess server: you win a major event and wish you hadn't called yourself "Damn it" (in Czech). Jiri Dufek and Roman Chytilek won the first prize, $8,000, in the fourth computer assisted tournament on Playchess.com. Find out what transpired in the final of this Freestyle event in this report by Arno Nickel.
Fall of the Favourites in PAL/CSS Freestyle 19.10.2006 A "Freestyle tournament" is one in which computer assistance – or any other form of help – during the game is allowed and encouraged. The 4th PAL/CSS Freestyle tournament, which reaches its final this weekend on the the Playchess.com server, saw many of the favourites falter. Now the ten qualifiers will play a round robin for the US $16,000 prize money. Come and watch.
Rajlich Team won the third Freestyle tournament 31.08.2006 The third 3rd PAL/CSS Freestyle Tournament was held in the middle of July. With considerable delay we bring you a report by correspondence GM Arno Nickel on the results of this event, which had a prize fund of US $16,000 and was conducted on the Playchess.com server. Also a reminder that another $16,000 Freestyle tournament begins soon. Like to join the fun?
Freestyle Tournament final begins today 14.07.2006 Are you interested in seeing chess played at the very highest level? It involves grandmasters and experts selecting their moves with computer assistance. The final of the 3rd PAL/CSS Freestyle Tournament begins today at 17:00h CEST on the Playchess.com server, and ends on Sunday evening. The prize fund is $16,000. Come and watch the fun!
Who will be the next Freestyle Champion 05.07.2006 Neither the summer weather nor the Soccer World Cup stopped more than 100 players from all over the world from enter the 3rd PAL/CSS Freestyle Tournament, which ended last weekend with the tie-breaks for the Final in July 14-16. About 20 titleholders were attracted by the opportunity to win one of the money prizes: $8,000, $4,000 or $2,000 dollars. Report by Arno Nickel
Brilliancy in computer assisted chess 16.06.2006 The Third PAL/CSS Freestyle Chess Tournament starts today. In this form of chess, originally proposed by Garry Kasparov, the human players may use computers – or any other assistance they can muster. It is not OTB chess as we knew it, but it does produce a lot of very high-level games. Here, from the Second Freestyle Tournament, are the three most brilliant examples.
$16,000 Freestyle tournament begins on Friday 14.06.2006 The Third PAL/CSS Freestyle Chess Tournament begins on Friday, June 16, on the Playchess server. In the previous edition, won by Zor_Champ of the UAE, there were a number of grandmasters participating. One was Tony Kosten of England, assisted by the program Hiarcs 10, who gives us his assessment of such computer-assisted tournaments. You can still join!
$16,000 up for grabs in computer-assisted play 11.05.2006 The Third PAL/CSS Freestyle Chess Tournament on the Playchess server is coming up in June, once again with a substantial prize fund. This time the time controls for our Advanced Chess competition have been increased to 60 min. + 15 sec., in order to give the human component more opportunity for analysis. Like to play? It's lots of fun!
Zor-Champ wins Freestyle Tournament 16.04.2006 In a very exciting final the team of Zor-Champ, located in the United Arab Emirates, took first place and the $8,000 prize money in the Second PAL/CSS Freestyle Tournament. The team was driven by the program Hydra, which runs on multi-processor speical-purpose hardware. Second was IM Vasik Rajlich, assisted by his own program Rybka. Report and games.
Freestyle tournament: Finals this weekend 03.04.2006 After tiebreak matches the eight qualifiers of the Second PAL/CSS Freestyle Chess Tournament are ready to battle it out for the $16,000 prize fund. At the faster time controls this time four pure engines made it to the final round. You can come and watch the action at 14:00h CEST on Saturday and Sunday, when the tournament director says: Gentlemen, start your engines.
Freestyle tournament: Vvarkey wins with 7.5/8 24.03.2006 The first leg of the second PAL/CSS Freestyle Chess Tournament, which carries a prize fund of $16,000, was won by an unknown player with the Playchess handle Vvarkey. He scored 7.5 points from 8 games (before the last round his score was 7/7). Six other players qualified for the final behind him. For the final, eighth place there will be a tiebreak tournament tomorrow. Details.
Freestyle tournament: advice from an expert 16.03.2006 Are you one of the over 150 participants that have registered for the second $16,000 PAL/CSS Freestyle Chess Tournament, starting this weekend? Do you have your computer assistant or your GM advisor booted up and ready to play? For novices in computer assisted play we have some tips and tricks by correspondence chess GM Arno Nickel.
The $16,000 open-to-all chess tournament 28.02.2006 Would you like to play in a grandmaster tournament? From your home and for a substantial prize fund? With a guarantee that you will not disgrace yourself? Then think about joining the second PAL/CSS Freestyle Chess Tournament, where anything goes. Where computer assistance is not forbidden, but is positively encouraged. Full details.
Dark horse ZackS wins Freestyle Chess Tournament 19.06.2005 The computer-assisted PAL/CSS Freestyle Chess Tournament, staged on Playchess.com, ended with a shock win by two amateurs: Steven Cramton, 1685 USCF and Zackary Stephen, 1398 USCF, using three computers for analysis, defeated teams of strong grandmasters all the way to victory in the finals. We bring you a first flash report with games and results.
Scintillating chess in the PAL-CSS Freestyle tournament 15.06.2005 This unusual event, in which players may use computer assistance during the games, is turning into a milestone experiment. After the main event and the quarter-finals (and with four players left) we can draw first tentative conclusions. One is that the most powerful chess playing entity on the planet is a GM armed with a computer.
Hydra misses the quarter-finals of Freestyle tournament 11.06.2005 It was the shocker of the event: the massive Hydra machines, running on 16 and 32 processors and special FPGA chess hardware were both knocked out in the main section of the Freestyle chess tournament. On the other hand a dark horse named ZackS qualified with consummate ease. Today there will be tie-breaks, tomorrow the quarter-finals. Come and watch...
Eleven qualify for main Freestyle Tournament 31.05.2005 48 players from 20 different countries got together on the Playchess server last weekend to play in the PAL/CSS Freestyle Chess Tournament. Using computer assistance, which is not forbidden in Freestyle, eleven qualified for the main tournament starting on Friday. There they will have to battle it out with scores of computer-assisted GMs.
The $20,000 free-for-all chess tournament 24.05.2005 Like to play in a grandmaster tournament? From your home and for a substantial prize fund? With a guarantee that you will not disgrace yourself? Then think about joining the first PAL/CSS Freestyle Chess Tournament, where anything goes. Where computer assistance is not forbidden, it is positively encouraged. Here are all the details.
Freestyle tournament for $20,000 09.05.2005 It's a new kind of chess tournament, with a substantial prize fund. $20,000 in all, $10,000 for the winner. Top grandmaster conditions. But with a difference. In the PAL/CSS Freestyle Chess Tournament on the Playchess.com server anyone can play. Even you. And anything goes. Anything! (In fact computer assistance is encouraged). Here are the details.
Anyone – or anything – can play! 07.08.2004 Anything goes in our freestyle tournament on the Playchess.com server this Saturday, August 7th. Participants can use computers, visiting grandmasters, slime beings from other planets – whatever they want. The games start at 15:00h server time (GMT +2), time controls are 7 min + 2 sec/move. Watch the fun...
Freestyle Blitz Tournament August 7 25.07.2004 Winning Internet chess games with the assistance of computers is quite despicable. People who are caught get stripped of rights and privileges. Not so in the August 7th "Freestyle Tournament" on Playchess.com. There you can use anything you want to win your games. Details...

SHOP

SHOP

Mission Control takes over in Freestyle Tournament

ONLINE SHOP

ChessBase Magazine 219

Sixth PAL/CSS Freestyle Tournament – "Mission control" takes over

Report by CCGM Arno Nickel

Articles on Freestyle Chess

Discuss

ChessBase 18 Premium-Package

ChessBase 18 Mega-Package

Mega Database 2025

Big Database 2025

Fritz Powerbook 2025

ChessBase 18 Starter-Package

ChessBase 18 - program only

ChessBase 18 Upgrade from ChessBase 17

Pop-up for detailed settings