Super fast machine needed for two days

[NeoGen]

No... it's not for me :lol:
It's for the Chess960@Home admin


In August 17th-18th will take place the 2nd World-Championship in Chess960 for computer engines.

The author of the free engine "Glaurung" we use, Tord Romstad, reached the 2nd place last year.

In the talkchess.com forum he asked for using a strong computer during the tournament.

Here is his text:

"Glaurung will play in the second Chess960 Computer World Championship in Mainz at August 17-18. Most of the top programs will probably play with super fast hardware, and I am hoping to find a fast multi-processor machine for Glaurung as well. Is someone with a fast machine willing to let me use your computer those two days in August? Of course, the machine will not have to be physically present in Mainz. I will connect to it remotely from my notebook computer. I am mainly interested in a quad Opteron, a quad G5, or one of the fastest AMD X2 processors."


It would be a great help for him if somebody from the community will allow him to use a very strong machine.
Some other (most commercial) programms will play on strong multi-processor computers.

For the user who is able and willing to help we offer 1000 exta credits in Chess960@home. :-)

http://www.chess960athome.org/alpha/forum_thread.php?id=91

[daddygeek]

I wish i could help, but my two fastest are a 3700+ and a 6 x 700mhz HP

[Beerknurd]

I don't think my X2 4200 is fast enough...

[Strongbow]

I've got loads of demo ones at work but there's no way they would allow him to have full access to them over the net! ...if they gave me a client to run on them then it may not be too much of a problem but that is not what he is asking for unfortunately!

[BlackAdder]

I know my xp3200 isn't fast enough.....would love to upgrade to an X2 soon..... :D

[Brucifer]

I've got loads of demo ones at work but there's no way they would allow him to have full access to them over the net! ...if they gave me a client to run on them then it may not be too much of a problem but that is not what he is asking for unfortunately!

How about if you make a drive image before the machine was turned over to him for the weekend, then it wouldn't matter what he did with it since you could just restore the drive image and wipe off everything he did??? And also of course locate the machine off a separate firewall outside of any corporate stuff so he wouldn't have any access to the inside net.

A lot of work though for a thousand points. :) That's what I'd do anyway if I had a really really fast system.

[Anonymous]

What will the machine be doing?

If someone wants to participate in a competition, why not use their own hardware? That's like me wanting to run a 10second 100metres, but asking Linford Christie to do it for me because i'm not fit enough...

[spikey_richie]

^ sorry, that was me. I hadn't logged in. :oops:

[AMD-USR_JL]

Too bad Mitro died or w/e happend to him. I always use't to be pissed because his 3800 was faster than my 4800. Even after i joined the team and he showed me how to overclock it mine still wasn't near as fast as his. His newest dually was prolly faster than some quad cores, didn't he get it up to 3GHz? I'm hopin to get a water coolin kit for my birthday :D, but it'd be too late for the competition.

[Jeff]

He wants it for a chess tournament

[spikey_richie]

He wants it for a chess tournament

My comment stands then. If you want to compete in a competition and you want to do well, why not spend the £/$ and buy the kit yourself? Surely winning with someone else's PC is like an athlete taking dope?

[NeoGen]

I understand the guy's point of view...

I don't know how good his chess algorithm is, but even if it was a ground breaking chess algorithm, it can't match those who have brute machine power available, even if they're not half as good. :roll:

The only way to prove his claim (that the algorithm is really good) is to put it to the test on the same level as the others. (and win)

[Brucifer]

My comment stands then. If you want to compete in a competition and you want to do well, why not spend the £/$ and buy the kit yourself? Surely winning with someone else's PC is like an athlete taking dope?

Uhmmm, not to start a war, but what's the difference of him barrowing someone elses system, and the corporate guys using corporate assets to build up their personal points??????????? Absolutely none. If some entity (person or corporation/school) gives someone a computer to use for crunching, then that computer is effectively that person's. I'm a home farmer, so I compete against the corporate guys. That's just the way those road apples fall --- unless the competition is specifically limited to privately and personally owned computers. The general thing in all DC projects is just that the person has permission to use the computer.

The athlete in this case isn't taking dope................. he's using someone else's equipment.

[JonasD]

Hello AMD users,

it was not my intension to initiate such a discussion.

I posted Tord Romstad's wish in my forum on chess960athome.org without to ask him.

It's definetely not a kind of doping to play on a fast multiprocessor computer.

His engine is one of the best free engines and of course without a good chess algorithm you won't win on the best maschine.
Engine is more than 95 %, the rest is the fast computer.

And it's not simply a chess960 tournament, it's the 2nd World Championship in Chess960 in Mainz / Germany. The organizer of the event will give each partitipant a good computer to play on it. But the top commercial engine programs will play on own very fast multi-processor computers. Thats allowed by the rules and not "computer doping".

If you can really help , please email him (tord at glaurungchess.com)

Btw. we have launched Linux applications today.

[AMDave]

Welcome JonasD to our Forum :wave:

Wouldn't it be terrific if a business could come forward with two such identical machines for the contest to take place on? Then we would be able to see an even keel competition of the programmer's concepts. Ah well.

I suppose that the contest organisers allow the resourcing of one's own machine to test the strength of the contestants Public Relations skills (?)

Hopefully now that the copy of your post is in the open forum someone with the means and wherewithall will see this and come forward.

I wish it were me (I really do), but I will have to make to with encouraging words.

Thanks for taking the time to visit, and also for the clarification.
I hope that we will see you again soon.

How would we go about watching this contest when it takes place, btw?

/ed-
Linux clients everyone!
Get 'em while they're hot!

Thanks for that tid bit, JonasD :D
-ed/

[JonasD]

More details about the event on http://www.chesstigers.de/ccm6_index.php?lang=0&kat=6

But only in German.

The event will take place on 17th (10 am - 8 pm) and 18th August 2006 (10 am - 5 pm) (9 round tournament).

[AMDave]

Excellent. We'll have a crack at the translation later.

When the Computer-Vs-Computer competition is on do they run a web-based monitoring applet that we can see or do you have to be there and pay at the door?

I'm in the southern hemisphere & I have not yet mastered teleportation, so I guess I'm hoping for the web-app display ;)

[JonasD]

As I know they plan to show matches live on the internet for free.