Sixth PAL/CSS Freestyle Tournament
The sixth edition of the PAL/CSS Freestyle Tournament will be played on the
two weekends: 1st–3rd June 2007 (main tournament), 22nd–24th June
2007 (final).
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The main tournament is open for everyone. In the final the ten top scorers
play a round robin tournament for their share of the US $16,000 prize fund.
All games are played on the Internet, in a special room on the Playchess server.
The entry fee is 10 Euros (= US $13.50). The regular time of applications ends
on 30th May 2007, 12 p.m. Late entries can pay an increased fee of 30 Euro in
Playchess "ducats" (electronic money) on the day of the main tournament.
To register for the Freestyle Tournament you (or your team leader) need to
fill out a registry form, giving your name, address and Playchess handle. One
day before the tournament starts you will receive an email with further details.
For better planning of further Freestyle events we created a poll addressed
to all active and prospective participants. We would be pleased to receive your
opinion, too. You
will find the poll here.
How to play in the PAL/CSS Freestyle Tournament
The
tournament begins on Saturday, June 1st, 2007 at 17:00h CEST, which is the time
in Berlin, Paris, Rome and Madrid. That translates to 16:00h London, 11 a.m.
New York, 19:00h Moscow. If you are uncertain about the time in your location
you can check this by clicking on times given in the schedule below.
The event will be staged in a special tournament room (“Hydra Chess –
CSS Freestyle Tournament”) of the Playchess
server. Note that you should set your playing mode to “Centaur”
when you are in the Freestyle room (this is done in the menu "Edit –
Playing mode" or by pressing Ctrl-M). If you leave “Human”
mode switched on you will not be able to start an analysis engine. “Computer”
mode is for people who want their engines to play automatically, without human
intervention.
Special rules
Due to the large number of participants it is necessary to enforce some additional
rules for this event. In summary: all participants are responsible for understanding
and being able to adequately operate the Playchess client software; they are
responsible for establishing an adequate and stable Internet connection to the
server; for finding the tournament room; for their punctual appearance on the
server in time for the start of each round; for not attempting to use unfair
methods to gain advantage over the opponent.
In particular we will be implementing the following rules.
1. All participants must be present in the tournament room of the server 30
minutes before the start of round one. Participants must stay connected until
the tournament director has included them in the list of players ("invited"
them). After a player has seen that he is on the participants' list he can leave
the room or log out, but must be present in the room at least five minutes before
the start of the game.
2. Each round starts on the hour. Players are required to be in the tournament
room and ready to start their games at least five minutes before the hour (e.g.
at 13:55h, 16:55h, 19:55h, etc.). The games will start punctually, and any player
who is not present in the tournament room at the time of the start will automatically
lose that game. It is not possible to start individual games at a later time
and include them in the tournament results.
Caution: do not use this button!
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3. VERY IMPORTANT: if at any stage of a game your opponent has technical problems,
e.g. communication lag or disconnects, you MAY NOT claim a win by clicking on
the “Claim win on disconnect" button on the top right of the board
window. You can consult the tournament director (by chat), but may have to remain
connected and at the board until your opponent's time runs out. Note that if
anyone claims a win by using the "Claim win on disconnect" button,
even if that player is awarded the win by the server, the tournament director
will change the result to a loss for player who has manually claimed the win.
Please remember that due to the very large number of participants we have to
rely on your cooperation to successfully stage this event. If you feel you have
been unfairly treated you can write to the organisers, who may offer you a free
place in the next Freestyle tournament to compensate for the injustice. As a
rule it will be difficult to find satisfactory solutions while the event is
under way. Remember: the decision of the tournament director is final.
One more request: please play the entire tournament, even if after some rounds
you feel that you do not have a chance to win the main money prizes.
Schedule of PAL/CSS Freestyle Tournament
All times given in the following schedule are in Central European Time (CEST),
which is used in most European countries, e.g. Germany, France, Spain, Italy,
Scandinavia, etc. CET is GMT + one hour. Click on the times given in the
schedule below to convert to your local time.
| Main Tournament (Fri.-Sun., June 1st - 3rd, 2007) |
| Round 1 |
Friday, 01.06.2007 |
17:00 CEST |
| Round 2 |
Friday, 01.06.2007 |
20:00 CEST |
| Round 3 |
Saturday, 02.06.2007 |
14:00 CEST |
| Round 4 |
Saturday, 02.06.2007 |
17:00 CEST |
| Round 5 |
Saturday, 02.06.2007 |
20:00 CEST |
| Round 6 |
Saturday, 03.06.2007 |
14:00 CEST |
| Round 7 |
Saturday, 03.06.2007 |
17:00 CEST |
| Round 8 |
Saturday, 03.06.2007 |
20:00 CEST |
Articles on Freestyle Chess
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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. |
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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!
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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?
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| 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!
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| 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
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| 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.
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| $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!
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| $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!
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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...
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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...
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| 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...
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