ACM 1985

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The ACM's Sixteenth North American Computer Chess Championship (NACCC) took place from October 13-15, 1985, Radisson Hotel , Denver, Colorado, USA. Special purpose hardware chess entity HiTech by a team from Carnegie Mellon University headed by Hans Berliner won its first official computer chess tournament conveniently with a perfect score of 4 out of 4, winning from Lachex, Phoenix, Bebe and Cray Blitz.

=Final Standing=
 * CC Country Codes
 * SOS: Sum of Opponent Scores
 * SoDOS: Sum of Defeated Opponent Scores

=Participants=
 * CC Country Codes

 =Games=

Cray Blitz - Bebe
After three years without a loss, reigning World Champion Cray Blitz lost from Bebe in round two and HiTech in round four : [Event "ACM 1985"] [Site "Denver USA"] [Date "1985.10.13"] [Round "2"] [White "Cray Blitz"] [Black "Bebe"] [Result "0-1"]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Bg5 Bg7 7.Qd2 Nc6 8.O-O-O O-O 9.Nb3 Re8 10.Bc4 Ng4 11.h3 Nge5 12.Bb5 a6 13.Be2 a5 14.Bb5 Be6 15.Nd5 a4 16.Nd4 Bd7 17.Nxc6 bxc6 18.Nxe7+ Rxe7 19.Bxe7 Qxe7 20.Be2 Qe6 21.Kb1 Rb8 22.b3 axb3 23.cxb3 Be8 24.Kc2 Nd7 25.f3 Ra8 26.Kc1 Nc5 27.Qc2 Qf6 28.Bc4 Qa1+ 29.Kd2 Qxa2 30.Qxa2 Rxa2+ 31.Kc1 d5 32.exd5 cxd5 33.Bxd5 Bb5 34.Rhe1 Nd3+ 35.Rxd3 Bxd3 36.Re8+ Bf8 37.g4 Kg7 38.Re3 Ba3+ 39.Kd1 Ra1+ 40.Kd2 Bf1 41.Kc3 Rc1+ 42.Kd2 Rc5 43.Ke1 Bxh3 44.Bc4 h5 45.gxh5 gxh5 46.Kf2 h4 47.Rd3 Bf5 48.Rd4 h3 49.Rh4 Rc7 50.Rh5 0-1
 * View this game on Lichess.org

Bebe - Hitech
Bebe vs HiTech [Event "ACM 1985"] [Site "Denver USA"] [Date "1985.10.14"] [Round "3"] [White "Bebe"] [Black "HiTech"] [Result "0-1"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O b5 6.Bb3 Bb7 7.Re1 Bc5 8.c3 d6 9.d4 Bb6 10.a4 h6 11.axb5 axb5 12.Rxa8 Qxa8 13.Na3 exd4 14.cxd4 Ba6 15.e5 dxe5 16.dxe5 Ng4 17.Bxf7+ Ke7 18.Kf1 b4+ 19.Nc4 Rd8 20.Qc2 Kxf7 21.Qf5+ Nf6 22.Qc2 b3 23.Qe2 Nd4 24.Nxd4 Rxd4 25.Kg1 Bxc4 26.Qf3 Qxf3 27.gxf3 0-1
 * View this game on Lichess.org

=Photos & Games=

 HiTech - Cray Blitz
Mike Valvo, Hans Berliner, Murray Campbell and Robert Hyatt, Tony Scherzer watching after 51 ... Bf8 [Event "ACM 1985"] [Site "Denver USA"] [Date "1985.10.15"] [Round "4"] [White "Hitech"] [Black "Cray Blitz"] [Result "1-0"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nxc6 bxc6 6.Bd3 d5 7.Qe2 Bg4 8.f3 Be6 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Bf5 Qh4+ 11.Kf1 Qf6 12.Bxe6 Qxe6 13.c4 Qxe2+ 14.Kxe2 Nb6 15.b3 Bd6 16.Nc3 O-O 17.Be3 Be5 18.Rac1 Rfe8 19.Kf2 Rad8 20.f4 Bf6 21.Rhd1 Rxd1 22.Nxd1 h5 23.Nc3 Kh7 24.Ne2 Rd8 25.Kf3 Kg6 26.Ng3 h4 27.f5+ Kh7 28.Ne4 Be7 29.Kg4 Re8 30.Bf2 Nd7 31.Kh3 a6 32.Rd1 Nf6 33.Re1 Nxe4 34.Rxe4 Kg8 35.Bd4 Kf8 36.c5 f6 37.Rxh4 Rd8 38.Rh8+ Kf7 39.Rxd8 Bxd8 40.Kg4 Be7 41.h4 Ke8 42.Kf4 Bd8 43.g4 Be7 44.Ke4 Bd8 45.Be3 Be7 46.a4 Kd8 47.Kd4 Kc8 48.g5 fxg5 49.hxg5 Kd8 50.Ke5 Kd7 51.f6 Bf8 52.a5 g6 53.Bd4 1-0
 * View this game on Lichess.org

Aftermath
A few months later, during the WCCC 1986 in Cologne after the loss in round 2 from Bobby, Robert Hyatt found some suspicious pawn hole code in Cray Blitz, already implemented in summer 1985 after test games versus a Super Constellation, scoring better against that particular opponent, but apparently causing Cray Blitz to play passively against tactical stronger programs. After removing the few lines of pawn hole code, Cray Blitz could take revenge versus Bebe and finally HiTech to defend its title.

=Tournament Director=
 * Mike Valvo

=Publications=
 * The Sixteenth ACM North American Computer Chess Championship, Denver Colorado, October 13-15, 1985, pdf from The Computer History Museum
 * David E. Welsh (1985). ACM's Sixteenth North American Computer Chess Championship. ICCA Journal, Vol. 8, No. 4
 * Hans Berliner (1985). HiTech wins North American Computer-Chess Championship. ICCA Journal, Vol. 8, No. 4
 * Danny Kopec, Monty Newborn (1986). ACM's Sixteenth North American Computer Chess Championship. from The ACM's Seventeenth North American Computer Chess Championship and The Sixth World Microcomputer Chess Championship, pdf from The Computer History Museum
 * Larry Kaufman (1986). ACM's North American Computer-Chess Championship. Computer Chess Reports 1986 Fall/Winter Edition pp. 25
 * Carolyn Kelly (1986). Chess Playing Computer Wins Championship. The Tartan, pdf from The Computer History Museum
 * Alexander Keewatin Dewdney (1986). The King (A Chess Program) Is Dead, Long Live The King (A Chess Machine). Scientific American, 1986-02, pdf from The Computer History Museum

=Usenet Posts=
 * ACM Computer Chess Championship by Stuart Cracraft, Usenet, November 2, 1985

=External Links=
 * ACM 1985 CSVN site

=References=

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