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World Computer-Bridge Championship Returns to USA

Posted by simoniker on from the bridge-to-nowhere dept.

Stephen Smith writes "Computers are as good as (or better than) the best humans at such games as Othello, checkers, and chess. What game will computers conquer next? If it's not go or poker, it might be the card game bridge. The World Computer-Bridge Championship returns to the USA for the first time in six years, running from 13 July 2004 to 18 July 2004 at the Hilton New York (Concourse A, lower level) in Manhattan. Eight bridge programs are scheduled to compete; our program, Bridge Baron, will try to avenge its loss to Jack in last year's final. Spectators are welcome and admission is free."

19 comments

  1. Interesting... by saia · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    So we now are at the point where we got sick of watching boring games played by people so we instead watch boring games played by the computer? When does the announcer get replaced with MS Announce, maybe even followed with the open source Announix?

    1. Re:Interesting... by justkarl · · Score: 2, Funny

      Look, there has to be some way to teach old people how to use the Internet. Maybe watching Auto-Bridge may be the answer.

      Really though, I'll bet this will be a big hit at the retirement homes. It'll replace Movie Night.

  2. free admission! SWEET! by edrugtrader · · Score: 0, Funny

    i just finished writing my spectator bot...

    --
    MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
  3. Do you know someone who plays this? by SnoBall · · Score: 1

    I have a great grandmother that lives in Winter Haven, Florida, who plays this game frequently. I found this out when I traveled there to stay a few days in November 2003 (Right around Thanksgiving).

    If I knew how well she plays the game, I'd email this story to her. :)

    --
    Don't eat me ... *looks at nickname* ... okay, eat me.
    1. Re:Do you know someone who plays this? by hung_himself · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I played Bridge Baron a few years ago. It was the only decent program out there at the time. By decent, I mean playing like a human might at a casual bridge night.

      Don't worry about it being too good - it isn't by any stretch of the imagination (or wasn't then) but it was the only one that was worth bothering with..

  4. bridge eh? by gangien · · Score: 2, Interesting

    maybe Bill Gates will be interested in this more than /. apperently is.

    1. Re:bridge eh? by bridgeplayer · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Interesting that you should mention Bill Gates. We hope to have the chance someday to make him eat his words...

    2. Re:bridge eh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Actually, Gates is a really terrible bridge player. He pays pros to play with him, and definitely drags the team down. God I'm a nerd.

    3. Re:bridge eh? by gangien · · Score: 1

      lol please do. Offtopic, highest UID i've seen, wonder when /. will hit the 800k mark if it hasn't already

    4. Re:bridge eh? by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      Aren't we past 900k and closing in on 1M already? Or have we passed 1M, too?

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    5. Re:bridge eh? by gangien · · Score: 1

      dunno i haven't seen any 800k. Dunno if there's a way to check or anything like that. I hope we get to 1M and they become common soon so i have a respectable amount of digits in my UID :)

    6. Re:bridge eh? by Da+VinMan · · Score: 1

      Actually, if you look in the user info pages, you will see that a couple of the pages use the user id # as a URL parameter.

      For example:
      http://slashdot.org/zoo.pl?op=check&uid= 151940

      Change it to this:
      http://slashdot.org/zoo.pl?op=check&uid=800 000

      And you get an error message because that isn't a valid user. So my guess is that we haven't passed 800,000 yet.

      --
      Please mod this post only if you think others should/n't read this. I have enough ego^H^H^Hkarma. Thanks!
  5. Not bridge but Scrabble and backgammon by hung_himself · · Score: 2, Interesting

    In the last ten years chess programs have gotten to the point where routinely kick my butt. Never big on checkers and Othello but I do know that Go and poker programs still play worse than my baby sister. However, I think the poster is wrong about bridge being the next game conquered by computers - it's been a few years but the programs I saw were very weak

    Scrabble on the other hand is world class. You used to be able to beat the computer's vocabulary using strategy but not anymore.

    Backgammon is nearly there too. One shareware backgammon game - whose name I can't remember, now bundled with Hoyle's games, claimed to play world caliber and was very very good - much better than the other programs out there. However, it could be beat with the proper doubling strategy (after playing it a 1000 times you get to know your opponent...)

  6. Too bad by scot4875 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'd expect /. to be one of few places that might harbor people that respect games like bridge, but apparently I'm overestimating the readership.

    I've been playing for about 5 years. At this point I've learned that there's *so* much to learn about the game that I can never expect to know everything.

    It's a very refreshing change from, say, computer games of the multiplayer RTS/FPS variety, because ultimately there are a very finite set of strategies that work well. After playing for a month or two, it's mostly a matter of refining your play.

    I love video games, but bridge is the only game that's kept me playing continuously for the past 5 years. Not only for the mental challenge, but also for the social aspect. It's cool hanging around with some of my old college professors and beating them every once in a while.

    Whatever happened to intellectual hobbies? I find it frustrating that I can't find anyone my age (mid 20s) interested in picking up a deck of cards unless it's some mindless drinking game. I work with a lot of intelligent people, but the closest any of their interests come to bridge is Warhammer 40k.

    It's *so* much easier to deal a deck of cards (or 2, or 3, depending on how many people are playing) than setting up a LAN party. Why is it so much harder to find 3 people to play bridge than it is to find 10 to play Quake 3?

    --Jeremy

    --
    Jesus was a liberal
    1. Re:Too bad by the+morgawr · · Score: 1
      You didn't overestimate this reader. I go to an engineering school and ton's of people here who play including over half of the guys in my Fraternity, the Delta Chi Kettering A Chapter.

      I agree with you, it's a great, challenging game. It's also much easier to teach the basics to someone that say GURPS.

      --
      The policy of the United States is worse than bad---it is insane. -- Ludwig von Mises, Economic Policy(1959)
    2. Re:Too bad by Zangief · · Score: 1

      Bridge is a great game, but it is hard to learn, at least, compared to chess, or even quake. I guess that it is the problem with it.

  7. GIB by jbolden · · Score: 1

    I've notied that GIB is out. Have the ideas in GIB been incorporated in other products, or is there still some doubt as to how it would do if it were to play against today's programs?