INTERNATIONAL PADERBORN COMPUTER CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP 2005

Final standings IPCCC 2005 

1

Rybka

USA

27

2

Gandalf

DEN

29½

3

Zappa

USA

28½

4

Spike

GER

25½

5

Shredder

GER

22½

6

Fruit

FRA

4

21½

7

Ikarus

GER

29

8

Jonny

GER

21½

9

SOS

GER

3

21

10

Argonaut

GER

2

23½

11

Isichess

GER

21½

12

Neurologic

GER

1

23

 

The birth of one little fish.

In the beginning of December 2005 computer chess community met with surprise, the program Rybka. It was very astonishing when this engine that nobody had heard of before, had suddenly started to take a clear lead in every major computer rating list. The question how strong is really this new beta program was asked in all computer chess forums. This had happened only few weeks before a very prestigious computer chess event International Paderborn Computer Chess Championship.

The champion of 7 round Swiss…

Of course to prove which program is the best it is not enough to play 7 rounds like in Paderborn, but lets face it, it happens quite often that “rating lists based on statistics” are ignored or forgotten because it is much more fun to watch who win a one time event, but very prestigious and strong one. Even if it happens that a “weak” engine win such an event with a lot of luck (very low probability), so be it – we like to call it a Champion J.

Let’s join the great company!

In the last minute Rybka and Zappa entered the tournament but Hydra Paderborn winner from last the year had to withdrew cause of technical reasons. It was not clear to the end who will win the championship, this time there was Shredder and Fruit, the two strongest programs from rating lists and of course Zappa with its fabulous hardware which let this engine won:

 Computer World Champion in Reykjavik in 2005.

How dare you bet against your own engine Vasik?

After Rybka Beta version had lost in the second round due to rather unclear and interesting pawn sacrifice

(see: comments by GM Bartlomiej Macieja) and had to win last four rounds to take clear first place, her creator Vasik Rajlich took 5$ bet there is no way she can win tournament at that point… and he gladly lost his money to me J.  The key game was played in 4th round - Rybka against Zappa, which was the fastest engine in the tournament and in the world because it played on 128 processors! Rybka sacrificed a pawn and got a very quiet position, so high speed could not save Zappa from losing

 (see: comments by GM Piotr Bobras).

In a style of drunk glorious Word Champ.

Funny, Rybka did sacrifice pawns in this tournament like former Word Champion Michal Tal: in very original way, very often and not always completely soundly, but somehow it worked out in the end in her favor. “She” I mean “little fish” had serious problems in the last round against Ikarus and objectively speaking should have been lost this game and as a result of that tied for first place with 4 other engines, but Ikarus was too “impatient” when having two pawns more and Rybka manage to got excellent conterplay in the rook against two knights endgame (see: comments by GM Wlodzimierz Schmidt).

A flattering conclusion J

It looks like International Paderborn Computer Chess Championschip

was an excellent start of equally excellent carrier of Rybka engine J !

RYBKA EXCLUSIVE COMMENTED GAMES!

DOWNLOAD RYBKA COMMENTED GAMES IN:

 PGN format

 Chess Base format

 Chess Assistant format

Report by WGM Iweta Radziewicz

Budapest, June 2006