From tony@cs.ualberta.ca Tue Mar 29 23:02:37 EST 1994 Article: 21371 of comp.ai Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.ai:21371 Path: honeydew.srv.cs.cmu.edu!fs7.ece.cmu.edu!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!tribune.usask.ca!kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca!quartz.ucs.ualberta.ca!alberta!tony From: tony@cs.ualberta.ca (Tony Marsland) Newsgroups: rec.games.chess,ai,comp.ai,rec.games.chinese-chess Subject: Automated Annotations Date: 28 Mar 1994 00:18:08 GMT Organization: Computing Science, U of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada Lines: 72 Message-ID: <2n57o0$bf4@scapa.cs.ualberta.ca> NNTP-Posting-Host: sundog.cs.ualberta.ca In the interests of stimulating wider use of chess-playing computers, the International Computer Chess Association has created a new prize to be awarded annually for the best computer-generated annotation of a chess game. Each competing program will be given the same game (or short suite of games) to annotate. The program's output will be examined by a panel of independent experts (these will be internationally known chess players) who will assess the analysis based not only on the correctness and depth of the variations proposed, but also on the quality of the computer's written comments. Author's have full freedom with their output, but it should be reminiscent of that appearing in newspaper chess columns. An algebraic notation is preferred, with the following English letters (or a figurine notation) being used to represent the pieces: P = Pawn (always redundant) Q = Queen K = King R = Rook (Castle or Tower) B = Bishop N = Knight (to avoid confusion with King) A general description of a move is: [] [] [=] where is one of the letters P, Q, K, R, B or N and is one of Q, R, B or N. The and are the normal algebraic coordinates of a square, for example, e2 or e4. To eliminate the possibility of operator interference the programs should be capable of reading an ASCII file of a full game. It should generate an output file that will be given to the review panel for examination. For input the programs will receive the full score of a game, in simple algebraic form, consisting of lines of input as follows: . The following nonsense game illustrates Castling on moves 5 and 7, en passant captures on moves 6 and 9 and capturing promotions on moves 10 and 11. You are NOT asked to analyze this game, but it could serve as a test piece. 1. e2e4 d7d5 2. e4e5 d5d4 3. g1f3 b8c6 4. f1b5 c1g6 5. e1g1 d8d7 6. c2c4 d4c3 7. f1e1 e8c8 8. h2h3 c3b2 9. e5f6 c3b2 10. f6g7 b2a1=Q 11. g7h8=B NOTE: It is not necessary for authors of the annotation program to create their own chess program. The aim here is to write an automatic annotator which uses some chess program in the background to do the analysis of variations. The annotation program invokes the chess program as it wishes, but must automatically interpret the information it receives and must decide what to output as its annotation. Deadline: Participants should submit by 31 December 1994 a diskette containing an executable version of their program to one of the following: Tony Marsland David Levy ICCA President ICCA Vice President Computing Science Department 89 Constantine Road University of Alberta London Edmonton NW3 2LP Canada T6G 2H1 England Further information or clarification can be obtained by Phone: +1-403-492-3971 +44-71-485-9146 Fax: +1-403-492-1071 +44-71-482-0672 email: tony@cs.ualberta.ca