Hi all, and thank you for letting me join this exciting group!  

I have a question. I've read that some not-so-highly rated players (without the engine) are doing very well in advanced chess. Does anyone know the names of some of these people? 

Thanks! 

Do you mean on this site or the World in general?

In the world. I read that among some of the best advanced chess players in the world are some who are not very highly rated in traditional chess. I find this interesting, and would like to know more about these players. Thanks. 

I recall reading about two players with Elo 1700-1800 who worked as a team and won a freestyle (advanced chess) tournament a few years ago (conducted on-line), beating some IM and GM CC players.  They had several powerful computers each running different software engines (Rybka, Fritz, Shredder I think) and they had good familiarity with the relative strengths of these engines in different types of positions.  This gave them a feel for which engine to use in any given situation on the board.  How they gained this knowledge is unclear, perhaps from using test positions (Bratko problem set) or from looking at many engine v engine games.  Sorry I don't recall their names though I believe they were from Vermont or New Hampshire in the U.S.

Aha! Yes, it's people like that I'm looking for. I find this very interesting. If anyone knows their names, or the names of other sub-2000 players who do well in advanced chess, please let me know. Thanks! 

PAL/CSS Freestyle Tournaments, sponsored by the PAL Group in Abu Dhabi (UAE), had a high level of play and the winners, in chronological order, were: Zacks (Stephen Zackery, USA), Zorchamp (Zorchamp, UAE), Rajlich (Vasik Rajlich, Hungary), Xakru (Jiri Dufek, Czech Rep.), Flying Saucers (Dagh Nielsen, Denmark), Rajlich (Vasik Rajlich, Hungary ) Ibermax (Anson Williams, England) and Ultima (Eros Riccio, Italy).

Lately, people with the money to set up a large array of CPUs have been taking over the top spots. Rajlich (the man who stole code to make Rybka), used an entire room FULL of desktops hooked together to simulate a super-computer in order to win the event.

Human intuition is still important in opening preparation and guiding moves away from known drawish endgames, but gone are the days of needing to be a GM to pull this off. Now a decent club player with experience in computer chess can perform just as well as a GM, often better since the GM may be more used to OTB preparation.

Fire..., I asked for sub-2000 players. The man behind Rybka is a master. Not exactly a weak player. If looking for lower rated players, who do well in advanced chess.

I'm rated 1960 FIDE OTB and I am unbeaten over eighteen months of centaur play (W32 D1 L0)

Check this engine tournament:

http://www.chess.com/tournaments/pairings.html?id=33993&round=1

Eureka! We need to talk, PEP!  

First, I have some Q's for you, I hope you will kindly answer: 

1. What engine(s) do you use? 
2. What hardware do you use? 
3. Can I join these tournaments?

1. I've always used the strongest software available.... at the moment I'm using Houdini 2.0 PRO.

2. Hardware:

i7 970 overclocked to 4.25 GHz (Fixed loop water cooler)

RAID0 SSD's

24GB DDR3 1600MHZ RAM overclocked to 1704..... gives a 16GB Hash table.

Full specs here:

http://www.chess.com/groups/forumview/post-your-beast

3. Of course you can, keep you eyes peeled... engine tournaments often get posted in this group.

Here's one that I am currently hosting:

http://www.chess.com/tournaments/pairings.html?id=28874&round=1

Thanks! What does a machine like that cost today? 

My machine is a year old now and no longer the flagship build. 1366 socket has been superseded by 2011 socket.

The parts cost me around £1800 back then (cheaper now, especially so for Americans living on the mainland).

I was looking at a flagship 2011 build and it went like this:

2011 Extreme Hexa core processor £800

64GB of 2400Mhz RAM £600

Motherboard £300

SATA III RAID0 SSD's £300

The rest of the bits (power supply, graphics card, water cooler, fans, data drive), I can scavenge from the present system. I'm going to make a custom case from mesh for the next build.

£2000 ($3000) for me to upgrade..... happily, my build fund has its own bank account (true), so it won't be too much longer.

Nice.  

I just read in another thread that you recommended someone to wait 6 months (that was in September). So, should I not buy a machine now, but wait until spring? 

Oh, and how important is RAM and harddisk space?

They've brought out the new stuff a little earlier than expected... good time to buy, get the latest stuff early in the cycle.

If you are building a monster then you want SSD's for the OS and programs. 2x120GB SATA III SSD's will be sufficient. Use a cheap HD for data only.

If you have funds, then don't stint on the RAM, make sure you get at least 24GB (some of the mobo's can take 128GB these days) of 2000MHz+ RAM.

It's an arms race.

Neat. 

Can chess engines use GPUs, like this: http://www.nvidia.com/object/GPU_Computing.html?

I don't know about that.

I'm guessing that chess engines are not that sophisticated.... they only release a few versions, to cover the mass market.

That's a shame. GPUs can be much faster than CPUs. 

I'll keep asking, tell me if you want me to stop. 

Intel i7 or Intel Xeon? Or something else? 

Twin Xeon build, if you've got big bucks.

Why are Xeon's better than i7's? I think I'll spend about $1,000-1,500. I could spend more, but isn't this enough to get a powerful machine. Or rather: what kind of kn/sec can I expect on such a budget?