The 2012 Seventh Annual ACCA Americas' Computer Chess Championships

The tournament will take place on Nov 17 & 18, 2012. It will utilize G/45+10 time controls. The tournament will be held on ICC's server.

RULES:

1. Standard rules of chess apply: Three fold repetition, 50 move rule .....

2. Allowed Entrants:
   • Only the author of the program or an approved operator may enter.
   • All programs must be authored by a citizen or current resident(non-citizen) of the Pan-American region: North, Central and South America including Greenland and Antarctica.
   • Entering programs must be by an established author with a tournament track record. Completely new programs from unknown authors will not be allowed. There are numerous online/offline tournaments to establish a track record: HGM's monthly, WBEC, CCRL, Open War, ....
   • Only one program allowed per author.
   • Programs by differing authors are NOT allowed to use the same opening book. Violation of this gets a warning then disqualification upon second violation. To prove your books authenticity, it must be sent to the tournament organizer upon claim of violation.
   • In the event of a odd number of entrants, an alternate program may be entered to avoid byes.
3. Program Operation:
   • Programs must be logged in 10 minutes before each rounds start time.
   • Any program arriving more than 15 minutes late for a round will forfeit that round.
   • Any entrant that completely misses the first round is dropped from the tournament. That means that showing up late for the first round, but before the second round starts keeps you in the tournament.
   • Programs must run in an automated fashion. You can start them but they must run by themselves and make all decisions themselves (including resign/draw).
   • Changing versions of the program between rounds is allowed.
   • Programs must kibitz their PV and (if possible) a message that the move is a book move. If possible, kibitz only on your turn not during pondering. You may kibitz a few plies before the final ply, but keep it to a minimum as too many will block all that chatter amongst the participants which most of us want to participate in.
   • Participants are allowed 2 disconnects due to accidents. A disconnect is not counted if it doesn't interrupt the match. On the third disconnect, the match is forfeit. A 5 minute allowance is granted for each disconnect. The third disconnect must be reported to the TD. The TD and Organizer will make the ruling.
   • Programs must be able to resume a match after a disconnect. This is part of the Winboard & UCI protocol so it should be already handled.

4. Programs must be logged in 10 minutes before each rounds start time.

5. Initial seedings will be based on ICC (standard TC).

6. In the event of a dispute, the TD & Organizer decision is final and the spirit of this tournament will be considered in all disputes.

7. Each program must be the work of the author. Entrants may not copy the work of others.

   • (A) The exception to this is any work that uses the LesserProphet1.0.1 as its base, but it may not use other code from other sources.

   • (B) Clone accusations will be handled privately so as not to unduly harm reputations.

   • (C) The entrant accused of cloning is considered innocent until proven guilty.

   • (D) The reuse of concepts/ideas is allowed. The reuse of code/parameters/frameworks is not allowed.

   • (E) If an entrant is accused of cloning, the accusation and data will be reviewed first.

   • (F) The entrant accused of cloning may be required to submit compilable source code and the executable being run in the tournament for review. If the accused fails to provide the information, the entrant is dropped from the tournament.

   • (G) The accused entrant will be able to defend his/her work.

   • (H) If the accused entrant is found to be a clone, it will be dropped from this tournament.

   • (I) The TDs and a knowledgable review committee will be created to review the case.

8. If an entrant makes several unsubtantiated claims of others being clones, that entrant will be dropped from this tournament.

9. In case of a tie, there will be a G/10+1 playoff after a small break (long enough for the orgainzer to verify results). The higher finisher gets white first. The higher finisher is decided by the running sum of points gained (a win in Rd 1 counts as 5 pts, a win in Rd 2 counts as 4 pts.....)

Technical Rules/Specifications

Thanks and Credits

Thanks go to the ICGA and the sponsors of the CCT's. I reviewed their rules as guidelines for our rules.
Special thanks to ICC for supporting this tournament!
Special thanks to Peter Skinner for his donation of web space.