nTCEC

Some Personal Reflections on nTCEC

nTCEC is simply the highest quality computer chess tournament staged.   It is run on big harware with slow time controls which gives rise to good quality chess.   For a tournament it has an awful lot of games making the results less prone to statistical randomness and therefore more meaningful (sure we would all like 1000s of games to make the results more robust but that is not realistic at this time control).  It is not surprising that nTCEC is often referred to as the de facto world computer championship.   As far as I can see it is a better tournament than any "official" world chess championship has ever been.

I look forward to season 3 greatly but also with a few concerns.

Firstly time controls.   The time limit was speeded up between season 1 and 2.   Some people watching wanted it even faster.    I am sure if it is speeded up again there will still be people wanting it faster still.   Will we eventually end up with a tournament at 20 mins per game because the majority of people find that the most entertaining?   I am sure fast games are the way to get more interest and will gradually win out in any poll for time controls.    However, we would lose what makes nTCEC special and distinguishes it from so many other tournaments.

Popularity breeds.....?   The quality of chat on nTCEC season 1 was overall pretty good.    The quality of chat on nTCEC season 2 was IMHO overall pretty dire with some notable exceptions and by and large I did not participate in it.    I am not sure that anythnig can be done about this.    

Tablebases.   There are two things aobut TBs that concern me re nTCEC.   For engines that use them I would very much like to see 6 man TBs reintroduced.   Its the same theme for me as the time control - quality of play.   I understand that there is a cost issue here as more SSD space would be required, so it will entirely understandable if we have to go without 6-man TBs.   The other thing is the GUI using TBs for adjudication when the engines don't use them.   This seems bizarre as it could give rise to results that the engines would not reach without adjudication.   Perhaps with 5 man TBs only this is less of an issue but it would be more risky with 6 man TBs.  
  
Openings.    This is a difficult topic and it is perhaps impossible to keep everyone happy on this one.    I am not going to write much on this at this point as my jury is out on the new more systematic approach to selecting openings that was used in the Superfinal of season 2 and which is apparently going to be extended into season 3.   Maybe it will be a good way of throwing light on where engines most need to develop or maybe it won't.   Maybe it will give rise to interesting chess or maybe it won't. 

Regardless of these concerns I am sure nTCEC season 3, expected to start late January 2014, will be superb once more.   It looks like it remain the de facto world computer championship for some time :)