OLYMPIAD NEWS
Issue 3 Tuesday 24 August 1999
Ask a Silly Question...
Contents
Ask a Silly Question... 1
Seoul Mates 2
Man vs. Machine II 2
Don't just stand there... 2
Word Perfect 2
MSO Title Awards 2
Game Boy 3
Results Section 4
Medals Table 4
Today's Events 4
Taste is the enemy of creativity. - Pablo Picasso 1881-1973
How can you measure people's creativity in a competition? 'I just ask
them silly questions and see who comes up with the silliest answers,' says
MSO's resident Creativity question setter, Bill Hartston. Here is Bill's
report on this year's event.
Measuring creativity is, of course, a little more scientific than just
asking silly questions, and the first round provided a good example of
how to separate the truly creatively gifted from the ordinarily creative.
Under the heading of 'Biological Creativity', we asked the contestants
to suggest specifications for a redesign of the human body and specify
changes in laws that would follow their alterations. There were plenty
of extra eyes, ears, limbs and some very curious relocations for genitals
among the more common responses, and chameleon skin was another popular
idea. David Bodycombe, the eventual gold medallist, went instead for a
second anus to expel fatty products as a slimming aid, and a ball-point
pen in place of the middle finger. His anally-connected law change took
place in France where all hotels would have to install an extra bidet.
Philip Bateman, who won the first ever Creativity event in 1997, relocated
our heads inside our chests, thus dispensing with necks altogether. He
pointed out, however, that it could lead to confusion between pairs of
spectacles and brassieres.
Round two, Millennial Creativity, put the contestants in the position
of archaeologists 100 years hence who have just dug up six chessmen. What
were they for? Then, a year later, they dug up a chessboard. How did this
change their view? One contestant had the chessmen as a set of orifice
cleaners for a baby, with the bishop used to de-wax ears. David Bodycombe
saw them as a cocktail-making set, centred on the knight as a bottle-opener.
Round three, Administrative Creativity, asked for a government White
Paper to regulate the spread of creativity. Lucy Broomfield insisted that
her White Paper be printed on the sort of tape the police use to cordon
off areas of the streets. They could thus use it to contain creative outbursts.
David Bodycombe's White Paper was bureaucratically pre-folded into a paper
aeroplane - for speedy delivery.
Round four, Creative Accountancy, began with government accounts and
ended by asking the contestants to account for their failure to win the
competition. The first part was suggested by a rather feeble sell-off of
government assets earlier this year, when the only items listed as having
been disposed of were a horse, a fork-lift truck (plus battery), a large
number of lawn-mowers and a landrover. What on earth had they all been
for? Maguy Higgs opted for a plan to turn the Channel Tunnel into a underground
racetrack (the fork-lift trucks were needed to lift up and dispose of the
rail tracks, the horse was a guinea pig, the landrover was needed to convey
personnel, and the lawn-mowers were held in reserve until the grass grew).
And finally the excuses: The winner was a mason. I'm allergic to gold.
It's more polite to come second. And the excuse David Bodycombe didn't
need: My third finger wasn't writing properly.
Seoul Mates
A contingent of Korean Mind Sport players, led by Go legend Cho Hoon-hyun
9-dan, arrives at the MSO on Thursday. Cho studied in Japan where the professional
game blossomed first, then returned home with the goal of lifting his countrymen
to top level, a task he accomplished with resounding success. His disciple
Lee Chang-ho is considered by many to be the strongest player in the world
today, and Lee's success has ignited an unprecedented wave of popularity
for the game.
Cho will lecture on the 26th from 2:30 to 3:30 pm on level 2. On Friday
the 27th he will give a ten-board simultaneous exhibition beginning at
2:30 pm, again on level 2. Spectators are urged to come along and experience
a truly top-level player.
Man vs. Machine II
Today one of the strongest Shogi (Japanese Chess) players in the West,
American Larry Kaufman, pits his wits against Jeff Rollason's Shotest,
bronze medal winner 1998 in the prestigious World Computer Shogi Championship.
The duel begins at 3:30 pm on level 2.
Yesterday, in the first Man vs. Machine challenge, silicon emerged triumphant
after an eerily human performance. Tom Eckersley-Waites, the reigning British
under-12 Champion, had the program on the ropes when the machine suddenly
embarked upon a series of strange moves which programmer Mick Reiss described
as 'designed to confuse'. The cyber-psychology worked - Go4++ turned the
tables and won in devastating fashion.
Don't just stand there...
Beware - not all of the pseudo-Roman trappings adorning the venue are
just show. You may suddenly find yourself jabbed by what appears to be
a bronzed statue. The living sculptures on exhibit are actually Richard
Yatkwan and Maurizio D'Apollonio. Richard, who is self-taught, has become
quite well-known after some months of posing in Covent Garden. Maurizio
is a mime - known best for his Bubbleman character - and they often work
together. For some reason, I am not surprised to discover that standing
stock still is interesting work.
Richard concentrates on the physical aspect of his unusual calling.
In particular, he informs me, you need to be especially strong in the legs.
Spectators quite often amuse themselves by trying to topple living statues
with a sudden slap to the thigh from behind. Other hazards for the professional
statue are people who get a laugh out of putting foreign objects in an
outstretched hand or using a 'statue' as an ashtray.
Maurizio makes voluntary paralysis sound like remarkably like a Mind
Sport. 'It's really all in the head, all concentration. You have to
believe you can do anything, and then you can. You can keep your eyes open
an hour and a half without blinking - it's all in the mind.' And don't
feel safe from surprise now, either. Richard and Maurizio are planning
to change their disguises later in the week.
Word Perfect
Mark Goodliffe, a finance director from West London making his first
appearance in a championship final, won the annual Times Crossword Championship
held at the MSO.
The winner's average time was an amazing 8½ minutes per puzzle. The
conquered field of 21 included two former champions and 17 contestants
who advanced from the semi-final without committing a single error.
MSO Title Awards
Congratulations are due to the following who have achieved MSO titles.
(Please note that this list does not include those who have achieved titles,
but still have the opportunity to upgrade them before the end of this year's
Olympiad.)
Grandmaster Awards
Femi Awowade (Nigeria) Scrabble
Bruce Birchall (England) Creative Thinking
Anatoli Gantvarg (Belarus) Draughts 10x10 (10 min)
Zuan Guo (Holland) Go 19x19
Anne Jones (England) Speed Reading
Ron King (Barbados) Draughts 8x8
Ron King (Barbados) Draughts 8x8 (10 min)
Michael Sandeman (England) Shogi (15 min)
Guntis Valneris (Latvia) Draughts 10x10
Shutai Zhang (China) Go 13x13
Shutai Zhang (China) Go 19x19
Makota Suekuni (Japan) Othello
International Master Awards
Michael Adams (England) Chess (5 min)
David Bodycombe (England) Creative Thinking
Eric Cheymol (France) Shogi
David Howell (England) Crosswords
Michael McDowell (England) Chess Problems
George Miller (England) HexDame
Leo Springer (Holland) HexDame
Alastair Sutherland (Scotland) Crosswords
Guntis Valneris (Latvia) Draughts 10x10 (10 min)
Candidate Master Awards
Paul Smith (England) Intelligence
Game Boy
Demis Hassabis is one of the stars of the Mind Sports Olympiad, having
won medals in numerous events in all three Olympiads to date. As well as
being a games afficionado, Demis has recorded impressive academic achievements
and runs Elixir Studios - a highly successful company that writes computer
games.
Have you always liked games?
Yes. My first love was chess which I learnt when I was four years
old, going on to become the world's highest rated 12-year-old player. However,
during my early teens I started concentrating on my schoolwork - I took
my A levels three years early - and also became interested in computer
game programming. Chess therefore began to take a back seat and to be honest,
my chess strength has not improved all that much since I was 12.
At the age of 16 I took a year out before going to university, during
which I co-wrote a computer game, Theme Park, which went on to sell four
million copies and became one of the top 20 selling games of all time.
I then went to Cambridge where I graduated with a Double First and became
interested in many other Mind Sports besides chess.
Overall, I represented Cambridge in seven different games, including
Chess and Go. Cambridge actually has the strongest Go players in Europe
as there is a large Japanese and Chinese student population. I learnt a
great deal about Go there and managed to win a few events.
Are you interested in physical sports or do you concentrate exclusively
on mental challenges?
No, not at all. At Cambridge I represented my college at five physical
sports: badmington, table tennis, football, squash and volleyball. However,
my best event was probably table football - I was Cambridge champion three
years in a row and finished fourth in the UK Championship. Table football
is a great game, similar in technique and skill to table tennis in that
it requires excellent hand-eye coordination. It is a huge game in the US
and they even have professional players there.
Which, in your opinion, are the best Mind Sports?
I think there are five great games. Firstly, chess which I think
is the best arbitrary game. It has evolved over a period of more than a
1000 years and is a truly beautifully balanced game. The interplay between
the pieces is perfect and the complexity is at a level which is finely
tuned to the human mind.
Go is the purest game. Despite its incredibly simple rules it generates
fantastic complexity. There is only one idea (to capture territory) and
there is really only one artifical rule, 'ko'.
The third great game is Shogi, which is also the most fun to play.
It is not as well balanced as Chess but makes up for it with the energy
of the play. Chess can sometimes be a very static game due to the nature
of the pawn structure, but Shogi is a tremendous fight, with vicious attacks
and counterattacks; and draws are almost unknown. Also to become strong
at Chess you need very good knowledge of the openings. In Shogi this is
not the case - theory is less important as the two armies start some distance
apart and do not collide for many moves.
Another favourite of mine is Diplomacy, which is very different from
other Mind Sports, as it relies almost entirely on pure human interaction.
You all start off completely equal and the object is to use your powers
of persuasion to do deals to get what you want. It is almost a game version
of capitalism.
Finally, I would choose Poker to complete my set of great games.
There is obviously much luck in Poker but it also has a fine balance of
psychology, reading your opponents and bluffing.
Do you think games are important?
Yes. You often hear metaphors used, with people saying things such
as 'business is like war' or 'politics is like war'. However, I think everything
can be related to games. Different Mind Sports encompass all of the methods
of human interaction that occur in the real world.
How do you think the best Mind Sports computer programs match up against
the best humans?
In fact, what I find really amazing in this context is the incredible
power of the human mind. Computers can be programmed to do some clever
things, but the achievements of the human brain are so much more impressive.
Although Deep Blue famously beat Kasparov in a Chess match in 1997, Chess
is almost the ideal game for the kind of brute force lookahead that computers
do so well. However, with games that rely more on intuition, the standard
of computer play markedly deteriorates.
For example, Shogi is much more difficult for computers as pieces
can be 'dropped' onto any square on the board and the level of complexity
vastly increases. Go is in a different dimension altogether and relies
hugely on intuition. Not surprisingly, computers are currently hopeless
at it.
Can you see how this might change?
Yes, it's possible - and I actually have some ideas myself about
this with regard to Go, though I would like to get better at it first.
The technology that made Deep Blue so strong is not portable to Go and
is, in fact, not terribly useful in any other areas. I think that when
a successful approach to the problem of Go is found, this will be of tremendous
value as a new technology which could be used in many different environments.
Day Three Medal Winners
Mind Mapping World Ch
1 E. Colliar (Scotland) gold
2 J. Goldstein (USA) silver
3 D. Holloway (England) bronze
Poker Razz
1 M. Haytack (England) gold
2 G. Lee (England) silver
3 C. Harris (England) bronze
Poker Razz Junior
1 C. Harris (England) gold
2 T. Niccoli (England) silver
3 G. Hassabis (England) bronze
Speed Reading World Ch
1 A. Jones (England) gold
2 A. Baron (England) silver
3 K. Wilshire (Wales) bronze
Speed Reading World Junior Ch
1 P. Rivera (Puerto Rico) gold
2 R. Cordero (Puerto Rico) silver
3 A. Kothari (England) bronze
Medal Table after Day Three
|
Gold |
Silver |
Bronze |
Total |
| England |
25 |
26 |
26 |
77 |
| USA |
2 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
| China |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
| France |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
| Japan |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
| Netherlands |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
| Puerto Rico |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
| Jamaica |
1 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
| Scotland |
1 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
| Germany |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Korea |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Israel |
0 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
| Nigeria |
0 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
| Grenada |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
| Austria |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Czech Rep. |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Latvia |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Lithuania |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Wales |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
MSO Records
The numbers at this record edition of the MSO continue to grow. There
are now over 2850 entries from 1350 players, representing 53 nations.
www.msoworld.com
To coincide with the Third Mind Sports Olympiad we are delighted to
announce the launch of a very much upgraded web site. The address is: http://www.msoworld.com/
When you visit the new site you will find, amongst other things, that
you can play other users at approximately 50 different games from six different
game categories. These games are from the 'Zillions of Games' collection
and we are delighted to be working with Zillions Development Corporation
on the creation of the site. Using the site is absolutely free!
Other features of the new site include a Mind Sports 'webzine' which
will bring you news and feature articles, regularly updated. Our news editor
is Jonathan Tisdall, an International Grandmaster at Chess and a professional
Mind Sports journalist. (Please send him news and articles to: jtisdall@usa.net).
Today's Events
Abalone World Ch am
Backgammon pm/eve
Bridge for Beginners am
Bridge Multi' Teams am/pm
Chess MSO Masters pm/eve
Chess Olympiad Ch am
Chess 25-minute eve
Chinese Chess am/pm
Countdown pm
Draughts 10x10 Rapid pm
Entropy World Ch pm
Intelligence World Ch am
Japanese Chess am
Mastermind pm
Mental Calculations pm
Othello Olympiad Ch pm
Oware eve
Poker Canadian Stud am
Scrabble Weekday am
Scrabble Evening eve
Olympiad News Team
Editor: Jon Tisdall
Production: Byron Jacobs and Andrew Kinsman
(First Rank Publishing)
Mind Sports Olympiad
PO Box 13388,
London NW3 2ZF
Fax: 01707 659080 http://www.msoworld.com/
MSOWorld.com