Welcome to the ICGA website: A welcome from the President.

This site, representing the ICGA community, aims to be a site of prime interest to computer-game enthusiasts across a wide spectrum of games. We hope you appreciate it and invite you to contribute to this site through the feedback channels, and consider joining the ICGA if you are not a member.

2023 ICGA Activities

1. World Computer Chess Championships

We are delighted to be holding the 2023 World Computer Chess Championships in beautiful Valencia, Spain over the period July 8-16. We are grateful to the  Polytechnical University of Valencia and the Valencia Community Chess Federation for their support.

The three events being contested are:

  • 2023 World Computer Chess Championship (no hardware limit)
  • 2023 World Chess Software Championship (all entrants use the same hardware)
  • 2023 World Computer Speed Chess Championship (Blitz)

If you are interested in competing in any of the events, you must enter here by May 31. For more information, contact Jonathan Schaeffer.

2. Computer Olympiad

The 2023 Computer Olympiad will be held online in August. August 8 is the registration deadline. Go for the gold (or silver, or bronze)! More information is available here. Register your program here.

3. Advances in Computer Games Conference

The 2023 Advances in Computer Games conference will be held online November 28-30, 2023. The program co-chairs are Michael Hartisch (University Siegen, Germany) and Chu-Hsuan Hsueh (Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Japan). The submission deadline is September 11.

The Call for Papers can be found here.

4. ICGA President Opportunity

Normally the ICGA President is appointed for a three-year period. I began my term in August 2019. Because of the pandemic, ICGA activities were minimal for a couple of years. Hence I stayed on beyond 2022 so that I could contribute three full years of service to the ICGA. It is my intention to end my term in July 2024.

The ICGA President oversees our (almost) 50-year-old organization. Annually the President initiates the World Computer Chess Championships, Computer Olympiad, and computer games conference (Advances in Computer Gamesand Computers and Games in alternating years). The President oversees the running of the ICGA, including attracting members, oversight of the ICGA Journal, and ensuring that the ICGA is financially responsible.

If you want more information on this opportunity, please contact Jonathan Schaeffer.

5. ICGA Treasurer Opportunity

After many, many years as ICGA Treasurer, Hiroyuki Iida would like to step down. The ICGA is a small organization and so the volume of transactions is not large. Further we have a part-time assistant who takes care of the day-to-day activities.

If you want more information on this opportunity, please contact Hiroyuki Iida.

6. ICGA Journal

As always we are looking for interesting articles for the ICGA Journal. Perhaps you’ve has some success with new ideas in your game playing program? Tell our readership about it! Don’t be intimidated by an academic journal. You may not be an experienced paper writer but we can help you. The ideas come first. The presentation is the easy part.

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2023 Events

The Advances in Computer Games conference will be held online November 28-30. The call for papers can be found here. We want to hear about your exciting, innovative work in game AI!

The Computer Olympiad will be held at the end of August through to early September. More details coming soon. Start preparing/tuning your program. Why resist the chance to become a World Champion?

We are still working on setting up the World Computer Chess Championships. Hopefully we will have exciting news soon. Don’t wait for the announcement; time to accelerate your plans for improving the program’s strength.

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Computers and Games 2022 conference

Our biennial Computers and Games conference is November 22-24. Registration is free (information is here). The conference is online and features four keynote talks and 15 research papers. The keynote speakers are:

  • Murray Campbell (IBM TJ Watson)
  • Matt Ginsberg (Google X)
  • Olivier Teytaud (Meta AI Research)
  • Tao Qin (Microsoft Research)

Join us for three days of research, education, and fun as we explore advancing the state of the art in AI applied to games.

 

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Computer Olympiad Results

The 2022 Computer Olympiad featured 18 games with 53 competitors. Thank you to all the participants for a successful event. The final results can be found here. Start planning for our 2023 Olympiad!

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Leela Chess Zero and Ginkgo share speed chess title

Due to time constraints on the Friday afternoon, the World Computer Speed Chess ended almost at closing time. This tournament ended with both Leela Chess Zero and Ginkgo on top of the ranking list. And therefore the decision was made to call both programs World Champion Computer Speed Chess 2022. Congratulations to both teams!

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Komodo Dragon is again World Computer Chess Champion

After a tense play-off on Friday, an Armageddon game between Komodo Dragon and Leela Chess Zero was necessary. As this game also ended in a draw, Komodo Dragon is the new (and old) World Computer Chess Champion. Congratulations to Mark Lefler, Larry Kaufmann, Erdo Gunes and the team!

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WCCC has started

Today the World Computer Chess Championships have started in Vienna, Austria. This tournaments lasts until Friday, with three games per day and one on Friday.

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Ginkgo is the new WCSC champion!

After the play-off with two games 10 minutes + 10 seconds per move everything was equal again. To find a winner of the tournament, an Armageddon game was played with white having 6 minutes + 10 seconds per move and black 3 minutes + 5 minutes per move. This game resulted in a draw by repetition and therefore the winner of this tournament is Ginkgo.

The organisation congratulates Ginkgo, his programmer Frank Schneider and operator Wolfgang Zugrav!

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Computer Olympiad Results

Posted daily here.

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WCSC started in Vienna

In the Messe Wien in Vienna, the World Chess Software Championship has started. All information can be found on the following page https://icga.org/?page_id=3539. You can also reach that page through the menu!

Live games: https://view.livechesscloud.com/#175173b0-40c4-4e33-8b23-a4e6d6ea0d92

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