2008: Rybka Retains Title at the 16th WCCC

Abstract

The 16th World Computer Chess Championship was held in Beijing, China at the Beijing Golden Century Golf Club from September 28, 2008 through October 5, 2008. Beijing had hosted the 29th Olympic Games only a few weeks before, dazzling the world with its opening and closing ceremonies and everything in between. Now, the greatest electronic brains would demonstrate their awesome talent there playing mankind’s ultimate mental game. The Beijing Longlife Group provided support for the event, as did the Northeastern University, the Beijing Institute of Technology, the Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications, the ICGA, the University of Maastricht’s ICT Competence Centre, and Tilberg University’s Centre for Cognition and Communication. Ten chess engines participated in the 9-round round-robin event, including three from Germany, two from Israel, and single entries from the USA, China, The Netherlands, Great Britain, and Belgium. The rate of play was 60 moves in two hours, followed by the remaining moves in 30 minutes. Deep Blue’s Feng-Hsiung Hsu attended the competition and gave a speech at the opening ceremony.