WCCC 1980

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The Third World Computer Chess Championship took place from September 25 to 29, 1980, at Brucknerhaus, Linz, Austria, under the auspices of the ICCA. The championship was held as part of Linz's annual Bruckner Festival and was presented as one of the special events in the Ars Electronica activities, which included seminars on electronic and the arts, computer music, and a microcomputer chess exhibition .The tournament organizers were David Levy, Ben Mittman and Monroe Newborn. Special guests were Claude Shannon, the developer of the information theory, and Friðrik Ólafsson, President of FIDE. Commentary was done in German and English by German Grandmaster Helmut Pfleger.

It was a four round Swiss tournament, with both Belle and CHAOS finishing with 3½. The championship was decided by the most exciting game of the tournament, a playoff between Shannon's Type A versus Type B strategy in presence of its innovator, which was won by Belle, the type A brute force program with about 1000 times more nodes per second.

=Final Standing= 3rd World Computer Chess Championship 1980, Linz AT.
 * CC Country Codes
 * SOS: Sum of Opponent Scores
 * SoDOS: Sum of Defeated Opponent Scores

=Participants= 3rd World Computer Chess Championship 1980, Linz AT
 * CC Country Codes

=Photos= Special guest Claude Shannon just before round 4 starts, David Levy left

=Photos & Games=

Round 4
Claude Shannon, Tom Truscott and Ken Thompson, Duchess - Belle [Event "WCCC 1980"] [Site "Linz, Austria"] [Date "1980.09.28"] [Round "4"] [White "Duchess"] [Black "Belle"] [Result "0-1"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d4 exd4 5.O-O Nxe4 6.Re1 d5 7.Bxd5 Qxd5 8.Nc3 Qa5 9.Nxe4 Be6 10.Bd2 Bb4 11.Nxd4 Nxd4 12.c3 Be7 13.cxd4 Qd5 14.Rc1 c6 15.Bg5 Bxg5 16.Rc5 Qxa2 17.Nxg5 O-O-O 18.Nxe6 fxe6 19.Qd2 Rd5 20.Rcc1 Rb5 21.Re2 Rd8 22.Qc3 Rd6 23.Qc2 g6 24.Rd1 Rbd5 25.Re4 e5 26.Re3 Rxd4 27.Rde1 Rd2 28.Qc5 Qxb2 29.Rxe5 Qb6 30.Re8+ Rd8 31.Rxd8+ Rxd8 32.Qe7 Qa5 33.Rb1 Rd7 34.Qe3 Qb6 35.Qe8+ Qd8 36.Qe6 Qe7 37.Qg8+ Rd8 38.Qc4 h5 39.f4 Re8 40.Ra1 Qe3+ 41.Kf1 a6 42.Rd1 g5 43.f5 Qe5 44.Qd3 Rf8 45.Qd7+ Kb8 46.Kg1 Qc5+ 47.Kh1 Qxf5 48.Qd6+ Kc8 49.h3 g4 50.hxg4 hxg4 51.Re1 Rd8 52.Qh6 Qf2 0-1 Game and short analyze on Lichess.org :

Playoff
Belle vs CHAOS, Thompson, Friedel, Berman, Swartz, Donskoy [Event "WCCC 1980"] [Site "Linz, Austria"] [Date "1980.09.29"] [Round "5 (playoff)"] [White "Belle"] [Black "CHAOS"] [Result "1-0"]

1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3 dxe5 5.Nxe5 g6 6.g3 Bf5 7.c4 Nb4 8.Qa4+ N4c6 9.d5 Bc2 10.Qb5 Qd6 11.Nxc6 Nxc6 12.Nc3 Bg7 13.Qxb7 O-O 14.Qxc6 Qb4 15.Kd2 Be4 16.Rg1 Rfb8 17.Bh3 Bh6+ 18.f4 Qa5 19.Re1 f5 20.Qe6+ Kf8 21.b3 Bg7 22.Bb2 Bd4 23.g4 Rb6 24.Qd7 Rd6 25.Qa4 Qb6 26.Ba3 Bxc3+ 27.Kxc3 Rdd8 28.Rad1 Qf2 29.gxf5 Qc2+ 30.Kd4 gxf5 31.Qc6 Qf2+ 32.Ke5 Kg8 33.Rg1+ Kh8 34.Bxe7 Qb2+ 35.Rd4 Qg2 36.Qf6+ Kg8 37.Bxg2 Rxd5+ 38.Ke6 h6 39.Qxh6 Re5+ 40.fxe5 Rf8 41.Bf3# 1-0 Game and short analyze on Lichess.org :

= Book Issues= It was remarkable that in the round three game of CHAOS versus Nuchess, almost the same book-line occurred as six years before at WCCC 1974 in the game of CHAOS versus Chess, both programs with David Slate involved. In 1974 CHAOS already played 16 NxP!! - a move which has been acclaimed as the finest ever made by a computer of that time, as mentioned by Alex Bell. [Event "WCCC 1980"] [Site "Linz, Austria"] [Date "1980.09.27"] [Round "3"] [White "CHAOS"] [Black "Nuchess"] [Result "1-0"]

1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 e6 5.Bxc4 c5 6.Qe2 a6 7.O-O b5 8.Bb3 Bb7 9.Rd1 Nbd7 10.Nc3 Bd6 11.e4 cxd4 12.Nxd4 Qb8 13.g3 b4 14.Na4 Bxe4 15.f3 Bb7 16.Nxe6 fxe6 17.Qxe6+ Kd8 18.Rxd6 Qc7 19.Be3 Re8 20.Bb6 Rxe6 21.Bxe6 Bxf3 22.Rc1 Ra7 23.Rxc7 Rxc7 24.Bxc7+ Kxc7 25.Rxa6 Bc6 26.Ra7+ Kb8 27.Ra5 Kc7 28.b3 Kd6 29.Bxd7 Bxd7 30.Nb6 Kc6 31.Nxd7 Nxd7 32.Kf2 Nc5 33.Ke3 Kb6 34.Ra8 Ne6 35.Ke4 Kc5 36.Ra5+ Kb6 37.Re5 Nc5+ 38.Kd4 Nb7 39.Re7 Nd6 40.Ke5 Nb5 41.Rxg7 h5 42.Rf7 Nc3 43.Rf2 Kc5 44.Rd2 Nb5 1-0 Game and short analyze on Lichess.org :

The 1974 game : [Event "WCCC 1974"] [Site "Stockholm, Sweden"] [Date "1974.08.06"] [Round "2"] [White "CHAOS"] [Black "Chess 4.0"] [Result "1-0"]

1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 e6 5.Bxc4 c5 6.Qe2 a6 7.O-O b5 8.Bb3 Bb7 9.Rd1 Nbd7 10.Nc3 Bd6 11.e4 cxd4 12.Nxd4 Qb8 13.g3 b4 14.Na4 Bxe4 15.f3 Bg6 16.Nxe6 fxe6 17.Qxe6+ Be7 18.Re1 Qd8 19.Bf4 Kf8 20.Rad1 Ra7 21.Rc1 Ng8 22.Rcd1 a5 23.Bd6 Bxd6 24.Qxd6+ Ne7 25.Nc5 Bf5 26.g4 Qe8 27.Ba4 b3 28.gxf5 bxa2 29.Bxd7 a1=Q 30.Rxa1 Ra6 31.Nxa6 Qd8 32.Kf2 Kf7 33.Qe6+ Kf8 34.Qxe7+ Qxe7 35.Rxe7 Kxe7 36.Nc5 Rb8 37.Rxa5 Rxb2+ 38.Kg3 g6 39.fxg6 hxg6 40.Ra6 Rc2 41.Re6+ Kf8 42.Re5 Rc1 43.Rg5 Kf7 44.Be6+ Kf6 45.h4 Rxc5 46.Rxc5 Kxe6 47.Rg5 Kf6 48.Kg4 Kf7 49.Rc5 Ke6 50.Kg5 Kd6 51.Ra5 Kc6 52.f4 Kb6 53.Ra1 Kc5 54.Rd1 Kb4 55.Kxg6 Kc3 56.Rd8 Kb4 57.Rc8 Kb5 58.h5 Kb6 59.Rc1 Kb5 60.h6 Ka4 61.Rb1 Ka3 62.f5 Ka2 63.Rb8 Ka3 64.f6 Ka4 65.Rb7 Ka5 66.Rb8 Ka4 67.Rb1 Ka3 68.Rb7 Ka4 69.Rb8 Ka5 70.Kg7 Ka4 71.Rb7 Ka5 72.Rb2 Ka4 73.Rb8 Ka5 74.Kg8 Ka4 75.h7 Ka5 76.h8=Q Ka4 77.Qh4+ Ka5 78.Qb4+ Ka6 79.Qa4# 1-0 Game and short analyze on Lichess.org :

=Quotes= From Michael Hauben's netbook Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet : Truscott and Wright continued to participate in the Chess Tournaments and in 1980 they competed in the 3rd world Computer Chess Championship held in Linz, Austria. Thompson and Joe Condon, who was a researcher at Bell Labs, were also in the competition. Truscott notes that Thompson and Condon "had completed their hardware chess machine and snagged first place. Duchess came in third. And Claude Shannon was in attendance, and even handed out the trophies at the awards ceremony. Afterwards we all went over to a TV studio to watch a West German TV special on computer chess and the championship. Claude Shannon and his wife were very engaging people. Someone took a photo of all of us, I have a copy buried somewhere".

Chess pioneers in Sacher Hotel Vienna, Austria 1980: Ben Mittman, Monty Newborn, Tony Marsland, Dave Slate, David Levy, Claude Shannon, Ken Thompson, Betty Shannon, Tom Truscott

=See also=
 * ECCC 1979
 * ACM 1980
 * WMCCC 1980

=Publications=
 * Ben Mittman (1980). 3rd World Computer Chess Championship. ICCA Newsletter, Vol. 3, No. 2, Special Issue
 * David Levy, Ben Mittman, Monroe Newborn (1980). 3rd World Computer Chess Championship. ICCA Newsletter, Vol. 3, No. 3
 * David Levy, Ben Mittman, Monroe Newborn (1980). 3rd World Computer Chess Championship. Communications of the ACM, Vol. 23, No. 11
 * Kevin O’Connell (1980). More Championships. Personal Computer World, December 1980
 * Editor (1980). World-Championship Tournament. Personal Computing, Vol. 4, No. 12, pp. 71
 * David Levy, Ben Mittman, Monroe Newborn (1981). Belle Wins Championship. Personal Computing, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 105
 * David Levy, Monroe Newborn (1982). All About Chess and Computers. 2nd edition, Springer, Postscript 1978-80 and Belle

=External Links=
 * 3rd World Computer Chess Championship from the ICGA Tournament Database
 * 3. Computer-Schachweltmeisterschaft (German), Ars Electronica 1980
 * Die Teilnehmer an der 3. Computerschach-Weltmeisterschaft (German), Ars Electronica 1980, pdf
 * Dritte Weltmeisterschaft der Schachcomputer in Linz:: Analogfunktion unterstützt "brutale Gewalt", Computerwoche, October 24, 1980 (German)
 * Sargon immer noch Marktführer:: Mikros noch ohne Großmeister-Format, Computerwoche, November 28, 1980 (German) » Chafitz ARB Sargon 2.5, Chess Challenger
 * Report in Spanish
 * Klaus Schulze - Ars Electronica 1980 - Linzer Stahlsymphonie, September 08, 1980, YouTube Video

=References= Up one Level