[gnugo-devel] Re:World Computer Go Championship

[Arend Bayer]

For everyone's information: We have applied for volunteer support,
and it seems that this will work.

Among other things, they wanted to know:

> You mentioned in your application form that GNU Go is able to operate on
> the windows platform but could you please let us the specific system
> requirements of the software

According to the rules of the tournament, the program has to follow
the "SGMP", which is Go Modem Protocol with the following changes:

1. Only Black will send the NEWGAME command. White shall only wait for the
   NEWGAME command before game starts.
2. On receiving the NEWGAME command, White shall send QUERY(11) and
   QUERY(8) and proceed to send OK after receiving ANSWER(2) and ANSWER(1)
   respectively.
3. Black should send his/her first move using the MOVE command after
   receiving OK from White.
4. On receiving first move from Black, White should respond OK immediately
   to confirm the move.
5. Subsequently, White will send the second move and Black will return OK
   immediately.
6. Game will then be proceeded by repeating the above procedures(Step 3-5).
7. MOVES should only be resent when the program fails to receive an OK for
   that move after 20 seconds passed.

I am not exactly familiar with GMP. Assuming we also want to provide
the operator also with a graphical board, does that mean we'd have to
patch jago? (Would the above be easier with cgoban?)

Alternatively, they provide a go board with GMP-connection, so that
the operator could run gnugo in a DOS-terminal and type in the commands
by hand -- which is of course prone to errors.

Arend