The 
11th Computer Olympiad took place
in Turin (Italy). The location was the Oval Lingotto,
were the Speed Skating events happened at the recent
Winter Olympic Games but the Backgammon event was
considerably hotter than that. After a hiatus of two
years the same competitors as in 2002 and 2003 found
their way to Italy:
GNU-Backgammon (a collaborational effort of programmers
from all over the world, this time operated by Massimiliano
Maini) and naturally BGBlitz.
Best-of-five 15 point matches were agreed upon. Time limits
were not regarded as necessary and the atmosphere between
the competitors was friendly and relaxed as usual.
Match 1 was largely determined by the dice. After two fast
wins of GnuBG, BGBlitz won every following game. With the
exception of game three they were unspectacular games.
In the second match BGBlitz quickly built a lead of 6-1.
The following games had several strong turnarounds and
BGBlitz went on to a 12-8 lead. In the next three games the
dice didn’t leave BGBlitz many chances, so GnuBG won
16-12 and equalized.
BGBlitz had crashed in the first moves of the first match
and wondering about some peculiar moves I found out, that
due to the crash, BGBlitz played with a wrong configuration
and the old AI! This was immediately fixed so BGBlitz
played only match 3 and 4 with the AI intended for this
event. Later analysis has shown, that the new AI would have
omitted some weaker plays in match 2, but it is impossible
to say, whether this would have had an influence on the
final outcome.
Game 2 in match 3 proved to be an exciting game with
excellent game play on both sides. Game 11 was crucial.
BGBlitz doubled a little early, but the game went well
until move 13 where BGBlitz's position was ruined by an
unlucky roll. In game 13 BGBlitz doubled a little early
again. The game went well for BGBlitz for some time, but
GnuBG was able to save itself in a favourable running game.
Very interesting are the moves 11 to 14 where BGBlitz left
a blot intentionally to increase the amount of contact. It
looks strange at move 14, where BGBlitz could have easily
saved the checker, but BGBlitz, GnuBG and Snowie agree on
8-5 and on move 14 GnuBG denied to hit which suggests that
BGBlitz’s decision to stay was correct.
BGBlitz to play 2-1. Astonishingly 8-5 is the best move and not the "natural" 15-13, 8-7.
Finally the checker got hit on move 15. There was to be no return hit for BGBlitz and GnuBG won the third match 15-8 and led 2-1. BGBlitz hadn’t won a point in the last 6 games.
Match 4 started with a lucky 4 point win by BGBlitz. BGBlitz led 9-3 and 13-9 but similar to match 2 and 3 GnuBG did make up the leeway and although BGBlitz had several chances to equalize the match, it didn’t get the right dice and GnuBG won the fourth match and the whole event.
Congratulations to an excellent program and a worthy winner.
| The whole match at a glance: | ||
| BGBlitz 2.0.1 | vs. | GNU-Backgammon 0.15 |
| 15 | - | 3 |
| 12 | - | 16 |
| 8 | - | 15 |
| 13 | - | 17 |
| Here are some photographs from Turin 2006: | |
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| The Oval Lingotto, where all the action took place. | Max and me at "work" |
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| The atmosphere in Turin | Max and me after the competition with Prof. v.d. Herik |
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| The Mole Antonelliana, the landmark of Turin | 30 km of arcades, another landmark. And chocolate, the coffee houses, the ice cream....... |
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| Nightly impression of a bride | The kings palace |
match 1 , match 2 , match 3 , match 4 .