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Commentary & photos from 10th CSA, Tokyo 8-10th March 2000
Jeff Rollason
The article published with permission of author
Part IV: Day 2 - Round 2
Satoshi Todoroki and Yasushi Tanase watch Tancho battle it out with IS-Shogi.
Now things became more serious! Without the newbies and weaker programs, Shocky and SPEAR were facing much tougher competition, including the previous World champion IS-Shogi, KCC, Eisei Meijin and Kakinoki: all of which most observers must have assumed would progress to the next round. If this were true then the remaining single place would face 20 programs competing for it, including the strong Kawabata, KFEnd and Sougin; and the solid programs Tancho, Sakura and Sekita, any of which should be considered strong enough to qualify.
Reijer assumed that his SPEAR would not progress and many must have felt that Shocky would be unlikely to do so, but would be in the running. From my own perspective I was tipping that Shocky would be in with a chance. We had already started tests between Shotest and Shocky and, although Shotest won all its games, it was clear that Shocky was capable of causing serious trouble.
The initial rounds looked as if they might have already stopped Shocky as it lost its first two games. However this has the advantage under the Swiss system of giving you weaker opponents in following rounds, so Shocky started to win and by the final round it was clear that it had a real chance, although slender. Already Eisei Meijin and KCC Silver had eliminated themselves by failing to gain enough points. This was a shock. I would have put good money on both of these programs progressing.
The final round required 5 results to go the right way for Shocky to progress, and the gods must have been on Shocky's side as this is what happened. On reflection perhaps Pauli does have powers we cannot see: He was in France last year and met a Japanese couple. On arriving at Maihama he bumped into them again! ...( This is at least a little improbable...de-de de-de de-de.....time to contact Mulder and Scully I think.......! ).
Finally the qualifiers were IS-Shogi with a single loss, Kakinoki, KFEnd, Kawabata and finally Shocky. SPEAR played credably, with 3 wins, but should have had 4. One game was lost due to a defective pattern which generated an illegal move. These errors bite harder in the tournament than in testing, but most programs have such bugs lurking in there somewhere, waiting to appear when most inconvenient!
Part V: Day 3 - Introduction to the Final
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