Round 1 Adanac vs. naveed rd rank rather than the second. Also, although it would have been considered madness in 2007 to set up with four forward rabbits, Fritzlein did so in all eleven games in 2008, and the setup saw sporadic uptake among other players as well. Adanac set up with four rabbits on the second rank while naveed set up all of his rabbits in the back, so it was ironic that Adanac got a rabbit pull in the opening while naveed did not. Naveed used his lone elephant to pull Adanac's camel out to the fifth rank, but Adanac was able to retreat it to the safety of a home trap on moves six and seven, leaving naveed with nothing to show for his pains. The tactics got more complex around move 10. In compensation for his pulled rabbit, naveed used his elephant to get Adanac's dog offsides in the east, then used his camel to pull out Adanac's horse in the west. Faced with difficulty keeping all of his advanced pieces safe, Adanac chose attack over defense on move 11, leaving naveed with a critical tactical choice. Naveed could have captured Adanac's horse in c6 in exchange for losing a cat in f6 and allowing his eastern horse to be taken hostage. The situation was complex, but apparently Adanac's counterplay would not have fully compensated naveed's material advantage of horse for cat. In the heat of the moment, however, naveed declined the horse capture, and shored up his defense instead. Naveed's decision proved costly, as the ensuing piece shuffling allowed Adanac to regroup and use both his horses to frame naveed's cat in f6.
March 30, 2008
* 8:57pm Karl Juhnke edited FrontPage * 8:52pm Karl Juhnke edited FrontPage + 7:26pm Karl Juhnke edited FrontPage
Summary Combining the results of the preliminary and the final, Fritzlein's 11-0 performance was a convincing tour de force, including eight wins against the second through fifth place finishers. Chessandgo, apart from his three losses to Fritzlein, was 8-0 against the rest of the field for a clear second. Adanac was 8-0 against everyone but Fritzlein and chessandgo, losing once to the former and twice to the latter, so Adanac's claim to third place is clear. However, arimaa_master's came within an ace of knocking off Adanac for third place in the tournament's final game, and would probably have been third place finisher apart from an untimely disconnection; certainly arimaa_master was deserving of fourth place. the opening setup saw sporadic uptake among other players as well. Seed Participant
Arimaa_master then had threats around c6 to either use his camel to hold chessandgo's horse hostage, or to blockade chessandgo's elephant, but by move 46 chessandgo had disentangled and brought all his pieces to safety while threatening arimaa_master's lurking a-rabbit. While chessandgo captured the rabbit, arimaa_master finally got chessandgo's western horse held hostage by a camel, but at the same time gave up his eastern horse hostage to chessandgo's camel. Each side freed his hostage horse, but chessandgo emerged with the bonus of taking arimaa_master's camel hostage. On move 54, arimaa_master used his elephant to prevent chessandgo from maneuvering his camel hostage into a good position, but overlooked thereby that chessandgo's a-rabbit had a clear path to goal on the next move. Round 5 Fritzlein vs. chessandgo arimaa_master vs. Adanac Seed Participant Rd. 4 Rd. 5 3rd TB W-L Finish
Rd. 4 Rd. 5 Rd. 6 Wins3rd TB W-L Finish 1 G 2 W S 3 W 2 4 W 5-0 1st 2 chessandgo S 1 L G 4 W 1 3 L 3-2 2nd 3 Adanac G 1 L S 4 22-2 4 arimaa master S 2 L G 3 22-2 5 99of9 G 1 L G 3 L 11-2 t5th 6 G 7 W S 4 L 11-2 t5th 7 S 2 L S 6 L 00-2 t7th 8 S 1 L S 4 L 00-2 t7th WoodworksbyHoodworks
2008 Arimaa World Computer Championship the championship and earns the right to participate in the Arimaa Challenge? championship? It will certainly be exciting to find out! out! Correction from previous report: The winner of the Computer Championship does not automatically participate in the Arimaa Challenge. One of the top two finishers will represent the computers in the Arimaa Challenge, depending upon which performs better against human opponents in the two weeks leading up to March 16. Round 1 Bomb vs. Zombie
Adanac set up with his elephant on the b-file, and advanced elephant-horse in the west, but sent his horse home again when Fritzlein moved his camel to defend that wing. Indeed it was Fritzlein who was then probing for some action with his western horse, specifically threatening to take Adanac's western dog hostage. Adanac's elephant brought his dog to safety and pulled Fritzlein's a-rabbit, whereupon Fritzlein seized the opportunity to launch a full-blown swarm and seal Adanac's elephant on the a-file. On move 10, Adanac was faced with the critical decision of whether to free his elephant north and around the c6 trap, or south and through the c3 trap. He made the incorrect choice of heading north, which kept his elephant out of play for too long, and allowed Fritzlein to take control of c3. Fritzlein won a rabbit and stationed his horse on c2 before Adanac's elephant arrived on defense. goal there on move 24. chessandgo vs. arimaa_master Seed
Round 4 Adanac vs. Fritzlein Adanac set up with his elephant on the b-file, and advanced elephant-horse in the west, but sent his horse home again when Fritzlein moved his camel to defend that wing. Indeed it was Fritzlein who was then probing for some action with his western horse, specifically threatening to take Adanac's western dog hostage. Adanac's elephant brought his dog to safety and pulled Fritzlein's a-rabbit, whereupon Fritzlein seized the opportunity to launch a full-blown swarm and seal Adanac's elephant on the a-file. On move 10, Adanac was faced with the critical decision of whether to free his elephant north and around the c6 trap, or south and through the c3 trap. He made the incorrect choice of heading north, which kept his elephant out of play for too long, and allowed Fritzlein to take control of c3. Fritzlein won a rabbit and stationed his horse on c2 before Adanac's elephant arrived on defense. Fritzlein's attacking camel then darted back home to take Adanac's dog hostage on a6, where it had been exposed in the melee. Adanac could have given up his dog and hunkered down to a long defense with a material disadvantage, but instead he played to defend c3 with little pieces while protecting c6 with his elephant and eventually generating a counter-attack on c6. This plan proved catastrophic, for by the time Adanac freed his camel for attack and won a rabbit in c6, Fritzlein had captured two rabbits, a cat, and a horse in c3. Having wiped out Adanac's western corner, Fritzlein marched a rabbit to goal on move 24. chessandgo vs. arimaa_master Seed
99of9's delay enabled Adanac to threaten to fight for control of c3 in the early twenties, but before engaging the fight, 99of9 opted to re-arrange the east yet again, maneuvering the framed dog from f3 to be a hostage on g2 instead. This lost him so much additional time in the fight for control of c3 that Adanac was able to untangle in the east a bit and win a second rabbit. However, on move 32 Adanac conceded control of c3 and gave back a rabbit in order to nip 99of9's looming western goal threat in the bud. With threats to Adanac's pieces in both c3 and f3, 99of9 seemed poised to begin winning material. However his choice on move 34 to threaten a cat rather than a camel was questionable, and Adanac fought tenaciously to either take complete control of f3 or generate a goal threat. It wasn't until move 42 that 99of9 finally made a capture, namely a dog in f3, and that came at the price of a monster goal threat around c3 involving Adanac's still-on-the-loose camel. 99of9 defended the threat only at the cost of losing a cat and giving up his own camel hostage. move. The This was the second elephant capture of the World Championships, quite bizarre considering their rarity. 99of9 is eliminated by his loss, while Adanac advances with one life left. arimaa_master vs. naveed Round 4
99of9's delay enabled Adanac to threaten to fight for control of c3 in the early twenties, but before engaging the fight, 99of9 opted to re-arrange the east yet again, maneuvering the framed dog from f3 to be a hostage on g2 instead. This lost him so much additional time in the fight for control of c3 that Adanac was able to untangle in the east a bit and win a second rabbit. However, on move 32 Adanac conceded control of c3 and gave back a rabbit in order to nip 99of9's looming western goal threat in the bud. With threats to Adanac's pieces in both c3 and f3, 99of9 seemed poised to begin winning material. However his choice on move 34 to threaten a cat rather than a camel was questionable, and Adanac fought tenaciously to either take complete control of f3 or generate a goal threat. It wasn't until move 42 that 99of9 finally made a capture, namely a dog in f3, and that came at the price of a monster goal threat around c3 involving Adanac's still-on-the-loose camel. 99of9 defended the threat only at the cost of losing a cat and giving up his own camel hostage. supporting rabbit, rabbit from b3, capturing 99of9's elephant, and brought a rabbit to goal on the following move. move. The was the second elephant capture of the World Championships, quite bizarre considering their rarity. 99of9 is eliminated by his loss, while Adanac advances with one life left. arimaa_master vs. naveed Round 4
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99of9 vs. Adanac arimaa_master vs. naveed Round 4 Adanac vs. Fritzlein chessandgo vs. arimaa_master Seed Participant
