Home * Tournaments * ACM North American Computer Chess Championship * ACM 1985
< Prev Next >

		The ACM's Sixteenth North American Computer Chess Championship (NACCC) took place from October 13-15, 1985, Radisson Hotel [1] [2] [3] , Denver, Colorado, USA. Special purpose hardware chess entity HiTech by a team from Carnegie Mellon University headed by Hans Berliner won its first official computer chess tournament conveniently with a perfect score of 4 out of 4, winning from Lachex, Phoenix, Bebe and Cray Blitz.
Denver Radisson, now the Sheraton [4]

Final Standing

^[5]

#	Name	CC	1	2	3	4	P	SOS	SoDOS
1	HiTech	US	7w1	4b1	2b1	5w1	4	8½	8½
2	Bebe	US	9b1	5b1	1w0	4w1	3	9	5
3	Intelligent Software	GB	6b1	9w1	5b0	7w½	2½	6½	3¾
4	Phoenix	CA	8b1	1w0	7b1	2b0	2	10	3
5	Cray Blitz	US	10b1	2w0	3w1	1b0	2	10	3
6	CHAOS	US	3w0	7b0	8b1	10w1	2	6	2
7	Lachex	US	1b0	6w1	4w0	3b½	1½	10½	3¼
8	SPOC	US	4w0	10b1	6w0	9b½	1½	5½	1
9	Ostrich	CA	2w0	3b0	10w½	8w½	1	7½	1
10	Awit	CA	5w0	8w0	9b½	6b0	½	6½	½

• CC Country Codes
• SOS: Sum of Opponent Scores
• SoDOS: Sum of Defeated Opponent Scores

Participants

^{[6] [7]}

Program	CC	Team	Hardware	Language	NPS
Awit	CA	Tony Marsland	Amdahl 5860/2	Algol W	10
Bebe	US	Tony Scherzer	Bit slice chess hardware	Assembly	20,000
CHAOS	US	Mike Alexander, Fred Swartz, Jack O’Keefe	Amdahl 5860	Fortran	70
Cray Blitz	US	Robert Hyatt, Albert Gower, Harry Nelson	Cray X-MP4	Fortran, Assembly	100,000
HiTech	US	Carl Ebeling, Hans Berliner, Gordon Goetsch, Andy Palay, Murray Campbell, Larry Slomer	Sun Workstation & special purpose hardware	C	175,000
Intelligent Software	GB	Mark Taylor, David Levy, Kevin O’Connell	6502 Apple IIe	Assembly	500
Lachex	US	Burton Wendroff	Cray X-MP 48	Fortran, Assembly	50,000
Ostrich	CA	Monroe Newborn	1 x Eclipse, 6 x Nova 4, 1 x Nova 3	Assembly	1,200
Phoenix	CA	Jonathan Schaeffer	4 x VAX11/780 6 x Sun Workstation	C	540
SPOC	US	Jacques Middlecoff	IBM PC	8086 Assembly	300

Photos & Games

Cray Blitz - Bebe

After three years without a loss, reigning World Champion Cray Blitz lost from Bebe in round two and HiTech in round four ^[8] :

[Event "ACM 1985"]
[Site "Denver USA"]
[Date "1985.10.13"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Cray Blitz"]
[Black "Bebe"]
[Result "0-1"]
 
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Bg5 Bg7 7.Qd2 Nc6 8.O-O-O O-O
9.Nb3 Re8 10.Bc4 Ng4 11.h3 Nge5 12.Bb5 a6 13.Be2 a5 14.Bb5 Be6 15.Nd5 a4 16.Nd4
Bd7 17.Nxc6 bxc6 18.Nxe7+ Rxe7 19.Bxe7 Qxe7 20.Be2 Qe6 21.Kb1 Rb8 22.b3 axb3
23.cxb3 Be8 24.Kc2 Nd7 25.f3 Ra8 26.Kc1 Nc5 27.Qc2 Qf6 28.Bc4 Qa1+ 29.Kd2 Qxa2
30.Qxa2 Rxa2+ 31.Kc1 d5 32.exd5 cxd5 33.Bxd5 Bb5 34.Rhe1 Nd3+ 35.Rxd3 Bxd3
36.Re8+ Bf8 37.g4 Kg7 38.Re3 Ba3+ 39.Kd1 Ra1+ 40.Kd2 Bf1 41.Kc3 Rc1+ 42.Kd2 Rc5
43.Ke1 Bxh3 44.Bc4 h5 45.gxh5 gxh5 46.Kf2 h4 47.Rd3 Bf5 48.Rd4 h3 49.Rh4 Rc7
50.Rh5 0-1

Game and short analyze on Lichess.org : https://en.lichess.org/suB7bcbA

HiTech - Cray Blitz

Mike Valvo, Hans Berliner, Murray Campbell and Robert Hyatt, Tony Scherzer watching after 51 ... Bf8 [9] [10]

[Event "ACM 1985"]
[Site "Denver USA"]
[Date "1985.10.15"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Hitech"]
[Black "Cray Blitz"]
[Result "1-0"]
 
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nxc6 bxc6 6.Bd3 d5 7.Qe2 Bg4 8.f3 Be6
9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Bf5 Qh4+ 11.Kf1 Qf6 12.Bxe6 Qxe6 13.c4 Qxe2+ 14.Kxe2 Nb6 15.b3
Bd6 16.Nc3 O-O 17.Be3 Be5 18.Rac1 Rfe8 19.Kf2 Rad8 20.f4 Bf6 21.Rhd1 Rxd1 22.Nxd1
h5 23.Nc3 Kh7 24.Ne2 Rd8 25.Kf3 Kg6 26.Ng3 h4 27.f5+ Kh7 28.Ne4 Be7 29.Kg4 Re8
30.Bf2 Nd7 31.Kh3 a6 32.Rd1 Nf6 33.Re1 Nxe4 34.Rxe4 Kg8 35.Bd4 Kf8 36.c5 f6
37.Rxh4 Rd8 38.Rh8+ Kf7 39.Rxd8 Bxd8 40.Kg4 Be7 41.h4 Ke8 42.Kf4 Bd8 43.g4 Be7
44.Ke4 Bd8 45.Be3 Be7 46.a4 Kd8 47.Kd4 Kc8 48.g5 fxg5 49.hxg5 Kd8 50.Ke5 Kd7
51.f6 Bf8 52.a5 g6 53.Bd4 1-0

Game and short analyze on Lichess.org : https://en.lichess.org/mNYqMYKy

Aftermath

A few months later, during the WCCC 1986 in Cologne after the loss in round 2 from Bobby, Robert Hyatt found some suspicious pawn hole code in Cray Blitz, already implemented in summer 1985 after test games versus a Super Constellation, scoring better against that particular opponent, but apparently causing Cray Blitz to play passively against tactical stronger programs. After removing the few lines of pawn hole code, Cray Blitz could take revenge versus Bebe and finally HiTech to defend its title ^[11] .

Decisive game for tournament victory

Bebe vs Hitech : https://fr.lichess.org/HJh5jjFO

Tournament Director

• Mike Valvo

Publications

• The Sixteenth ACM North American Computer Chess Championship, Denver Colorado, October 13-15, 1985, pdf from The Computer History Museum
• David E. Welsh (1985). ACM's Sixteenth North American Computer Chess Championship. ICCA Journal, Vol. 8, No. 4
• Hans Berliner (1985). HiTech wins North American Computer-Chess Championship. ICCA Journal, Vol. 8, No. 4
• Danny Kopec, Monty Newborn (1986). ACM's Sixteenth North American Computer Chess Championship. from The ACM's Seventeenth North American Computer Chess Championship and The Sixth World Microcomputer Chess Championship, pdf from The Computer History Museum
• Larry Kaufman (1986). ACM's North American Computer-Chess Championship. Computer Chess Reports 1986 Fall/Winter Edition pp. 25
• Carolyn Kelly (1986). Chess Playing Computer Wins Championship. The Tartan, pdf from The Computer History Museum
• Alexander Keewatin Dewdney (1986). The King (A Chess Program) Is Dead, Long Live The King (A Chess Machine). Scientific American, 1986-02, pdf from The Computer History Museum

Usenet Posts

• ACM Computer Chess Championship by Stuart Cracraft, Usenet, November 2, 1985

External Links

• ACM 1985 CSVN site

• North American Computer-Chess Championships, complete History of Tournament Results by Theo van der Storm
• Important games hosted by Ed Schröder
• ACM COMPUTER CHESS by Bill Wall

References

1. ^ Opened in 1959 as the Denver Hilton, designed by Araldo Cossutta and I. M. Pei, was also a Radisson before joining the Adam's Mark chain (1995). It has since been reflagged as a Sheraton Hotel - Adam's Mark from Wikipedia
2. ^ I. M. Pei Hilton, Denver :: Western History
3. ^ I. M. Pei Paraboloid, Denver :: Western History
4. ^ Image Denver Hilton from Zeckendorf Plaza | The Denver Eye, the former Hilton is now operated as Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel
5. ^ ACM 1985 CSVN site
6. ^ David E. Welsh (1985). ACM's Sixteenth North American Computer Chess Championship. ICCA Journal, Vol. 8, No. 4
7. ^ ACM Computer Chess Championship by Stuart Cracraft, Usenet, November 2, 1985
8. ^ Alexander Keewatin Dewdney (1986). The King (A Chess Program) Is Dead, Long Live The King (A Chess Machine). Scientific American, 1986-02, pdf from The Computer History Museum
9. ^ Image by David E. Welsh, from David E. Welsh (1985). ACM's Sixteenth North American Computer Chess Championship. ICCA Journal, Vol. 8, No. 4
10. ^ Other Image by Carl Iwasaki, Time & Life Pictures/Getty, "Hans Berliner with his Hitech computer and Robert Hyatt with Cray X-MP 48 computer using his 'Blitz' program during a computer chess tournament in which Hitech won"
11. ^ Re: Did Cray Blitz really have a win? by Robert Hyatt, rec.games.chess.misc, March 12, 1999

What links here?

Up one level