Computer Olympiad

The Computer Olympiad is a multi-games event in which computer programs compete against each other. For many games, the Computer Olympiads are an opportunity to claim the "world's best computer player" title. First contested in 1989, the majority of the games are board games but other games such as bridge take place as well. In 2010, several puzzles were included in the competition.

History

Developed in the 1980s by David Levy, the first Computer Olympiad took place in 1989 at the Park Lane Hotel in London. The games ran on a yearly basis until after the 1992 games, when the Olympiad's ruling committee was unable to find a new organiser. This resulted in the games being suspended until 2000 when the Mind Sports Olympiad resurrected them. Recently, the International Computer Games Association has adopted the Computer Olympiad and tries to organise the event on an annual basis.

Games contested

The games which have been contested at each Olympiad are:

6th–10th Olympiads (2000–2004)

After an eight-year hiatus, the Computer Olympiad was revived by bringing it into the Mind Sports Olympiad. The chess competition was a special event, since it was adopted by the International Correspondence Chess Association as the 17th World Microcomputer Chess Championship. The 5th Olympiad was in 2000 at London's Alexandra Palace; the 6th, in 2001 at Ad Fundunm at Maastricht University; the 7th, in 2002 in Maastricht; the 8th, in 2003 in Graz; and the 9th, in 2004 in Ramat Gan. The 7th Olympiad was adopted by the ICCA as the 10th World Computer Chess Championship, and the 8th was held in conjugation with both 11th WCCC and the 10th Advances in Computer Games Conference. Because of this, no medals were awarded for the two chess events. The 9th was held in conjugation with WCCC and the Computers and Games 2004 Conference; no medals were awarded to the two chess events. Jonathan Schaeffer and J. W. H. M. Uiterwijk were the tournament directors.

Game

2000
London, England

2001
Maastricht, Netherlands

2002
Maastricht, Netherlands

2003
Graz, Austria

2004
Ramat Gan, Israel

Abalone

AbaPro
Nacre

Amazons

8QP
Yamazon
Anky

8QP
Aska
Invader

Amazong
8QP
Invader

Amazong

10th–14th Olympiads (2005–2009)

The 10th Olympiad was in 2005 in Taipei; the 11th, in 2006 in Turin; the 12th, in 2007 at the Amsterdam Science Park; the 13th, in 2008 at the Beijing Golden Century Golf Club; and the 14th, in 2009 in Pamplona. The 10th Olympiad wasa held at the same time and location as the 11th Advances in Computer Games and its organizing committee was made up of J. W. Hellemons, H. H. L. M. Donkers, M. Greenspan, T-s Hsu, H. J. van den Herik, and M. Tiessen. Hand Talk, which won the gold medal in Computer Go, was originally written in assembly language by a retired chemistry professor of Sun Yat-sen University, China. The 11th Olympiad was held in conjugation with the 14th World Computer Chess Championship and the 5th Computer and Games Conference. Human FIDE 37th Chess Olympiad co-hosted this event; the 12th, with the 15th World Computer Chess Championship and the Computer Games Workshop; the 13th, with the International Computer Games Championship, the World Computer Chess Championship, and a scientific conference on computer games; and the 14th with the World Computer Chess Championship and a scientific conference on computer games.
Rybka was retroactively disqualified from all ICCC events due to plagiarism. Rankings were adjusted appropriately.

Game	2005 Taipei, Taiwan	2006 Turin, Italy	2007 Amsterdam, Netherlands	2008 Beijing, China	2009 Pamplona, Spain
Amazons	8QP Invader TAS	-	8 Queens Problem Campya	Invader 8 Queens Problem Campya	Invader 8 Queens Problem Campya
Backgammon	-	GNU Backgammon BGBlitz	Bgblitz GNU Backgammon MCgammon	-	-
Chess	-	-	Zappa Loop	HIARCS Cluster Toga	Rybka
Chinese Chess	XQMASTER SHIGA NEUCHESS Shiga Deep Elephant	NeuChess XieXie	Intella Cyclone EThinker	TMSK HaQiKi D ) Chimo
Clobber	MILA ClobberA	Pan Mila ClobberB	-	-	-
Computational Pool	-	-	-	CueCard PickPocket Elix	-
Connect6	-	NCTU6 X6 EVG	X6 MeinStein Kavalan	NCTU6-Lite Bitstronger NEUConn6	Bit MeinStein Bit2
Dots and Boxes	Deep Beige Beige Watch Qiyi Matadots	-
Draughts	-	-	-	-	TDKing Tornado Rocky
Go	-	-	-	The Many Faces of Go MoGo Leela	Zen Fuego MoGo
Go 19x19	Hand Talk Go Intellect Aya	GNU Go Go Intellect Indigo	MoGo Crazy Stone GNU Go	-	-
Go 9x9	Go Intellect Aya Indigo	Crazy Stone Aya Go Intellect	Steenvreter MoGo Crazy Stone	The Many Faces of Go Leela MoGo	Fuego MoGo Yogo
International draughts	-	TDKing SJENDE BLYN Dam 2.2	Dam 2.2 TDKing Sjende Blyn	TDKing Rocky	-
Havannah	-	-	-	-	Wanderer Shakti
Hex	-	Six Wolve Hex Krieger	-	Wolve MoHex Six	MoHex Wolve Six
Kriegspiel	-	Darkboard Kbott	-	-	Darkboard KriegExpert Bit
Lines of Action	-	MIA YL	-	-	Mia 4.51 Bit
Phantom Go	-	-	GoLois InTheDark	GoLois Chinese Deep BitStronger	GoLois Bit
Pool	UofA PoolMaster Elix	PickPocket SkyNet Elix	-	-	-
Shogi	Tacos YSS Spear	YSS Bonanza Tacos	Tacos Reiki HIT+SS	Tacos BitStronger HIT+SS	Tacos BitStronger
Speed chess	-	-	-	Sjeng HIARCS Shredder ''	-
Surakarta	-	-	SIA Incognito	SIA BitStronger	-

15th–18th Olympiads (2010–2015)

The 15th Olympiad was held in 2010 in Kanazawa, Japan along with the 18th World Computer Chess Championship, and a scientific conference on computer games. The 16th Olympiad was held in 2011 at Tilburg University at the same time as the 19th WCCC. The 17th Olympiad was held in 2013 at Keio University's Collaboration Complex on the Hiyoshi Campus, and was at the same time as the 20th WCCC and a scientific conference on computer games. The 18th Olympiad was in 2015 at Leiden University and was organized by the International Computer Game Association, the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science, and the Leiden Centre of Data Science.

Game	2010 Kanazawa, Japan	2011 Tilburg, Netherlands	2013 Tokyo, Japan	2015 Amsterdam, Netherlands
2048	-	-	-	2048-khyeh 2048-ghung 20486
Amazons	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Backgammon	-	Unknown	-	-
Chinese chess	Shiga TMSK Chimo	Unknown	Unknown	Shiga Chimo Shark
Chinese dark chess	Unknown	Unknown	DarkKnight Yahari Observer	Unknown
Chu Shogi	-	-	HaChu Deep Nikita	Unknown
Clobber	Pan.exe No other competitors	Unknown	Pan McClobber Deep Nikita	8QP Deep Nikita
Connect6	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Diplomacy	-	-	-	D-Brand DipBlue Super Bot
Dots and Boxes	The Shark Rocky	Unknown	BITDB Railgun	Scan Damage JDraughts
EinsStein würfelt nicht!	-	Unknown	Prophet_WT VS_WTN Cloud	Hanfried Deep Nikita Chinese Program
Go	Erica Zen The Many Faces of Go	MyGoFriend Fuego Erica	Unknown	Unknown	Zen Abakus CGI
Go	The Many Faces of Go MoGo	Unknown	Unknown	Zen Nomitan Abakus
Go	-	Unknown	Unknown	Zen Abakus Nomitan
Havannah	Unknown	Unknown	-	-
Hex	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Light Up	Cpuzzler PCCU	-	-	Unknown
Lines of Action	-	-	MC-LOA Deep Nikita	SIA Deep Nikita
Mahjong	-	-	ThousandWind Majo Longcat	VeryLongCat ThousandWind Take
Minishogi	Clair 1/128 Shokidoki 0.8 55TACOS	-	-	-
NoGo	-	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Nonograms	Cpuzzler	-	Unknown	Unknown
Nurikabe	Unknown	-	-	-
Phantom Go	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Quoridor	Unknown	-	-	-
Shogi	Gekisashi Shueso GPS Shogi	Unknown	Unknown	-
Shogi	-	-	Shokidoki 1/128 Rigan Mattari Yuuchan	Unknown
Surakarta	SIA Qiyi BITPanda	SIA BITSKT Deep Nikita	Unknown	-

19th–25th Olympiads (2016–2022)

The 19th Olympiad was held 27 June – 3 July 2016 and the 20th Olympiad was held 1–7 July 2017, both at Leiden University and organized by the International Computer Game Association, the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science, and the Leiden Centre of Data Science. The 21st Olympiad was held 7–13 July 2018 in Taipei, Taiwan alongside the 10th International Conference on Computers and Games. The World Computer Chess Championships took place from 13–19 July in Stockholm, Sweden. The 22nd Olympiad was held 11–17 August 2019 in Macau, China and the 23rd, 24th, and 25th Olympiads were held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Game	2019 Macau, China
Amazons	SherlockGo BIT_Amazons Queen
Block Go	NDHU-Polygames miny_blockgo
Breakthrough	Deep Nikita TakeABreak BT
Chinese checkers	Jump NDHU-Polygames Negentropy
Chinese chess	BugCChess SHIGA Xiexie
Chinese dark chess	Yahari PupilDarkChess Yanyu 2.0
Connect 6	BIT_Connect6 Kavalan Zeta
Dice-shogi	Nyanpass Deep Nikita NDHU-Polygames
Draughts	Bit_Draught
Einstein Würfelt Nicht	EWIN VSWTN BIT_Einstein
Fighting Landlord	I'm a Famer Knight-Landlord JAIST_landlord
Go	CGI Go Intelligence EzGo
Hex	BIT_Hex11 Calainosaur
Hex	DeepEZO BIT_Hex13 Calainosaur
Kyoto Shogi	Deep Nikita CrazyWa
Mahjong	MahjongJr ZONST Tree SimCat
Shogi	Nyanpass Shokidoki EVG1.5
NoGo	CZF Deep Nikita Noeven
Nonogram	Requiem The Heir Uncertainty
Othello	Othello LTBeL Royal Curiosity10
Surakarta	Deep Nikita FuChou VSSurakarta

Summary by game

Abalone

Abalone is a strategy game using a hexagonal patterned board with 14 marbles for each of two players. The objective is to push six of the opponent's marbles off the edge of the board.

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
1989	1990	1991	1992	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2013	2015

Amazons

Amazons is played on a 10×10 chessboard by two players each with four amazons. Moves are made to block squares and the winner is the last player able to move his pieces to an unblocked square.

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
1989	1990	1991	1992	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2013	2015

Awari

Awari is an abstract strategy game among the Mancala family of board games.

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
1989	1990	1991	1992	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2013	2015

Backgammon

Backgammon is a board game for two players where the checker-like playing pieces are moved according to the roll of dice; a player wins by removing all of his pieces from the board before his opponent.

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
1989	1990	1991	1992	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2013	2015

Bridge

Bridge is a trick-taking card game for four players.
Bridge participation in the Computer Olympiad was largely discontinued when in 1996 the American Contract Bridge League established a new official World Computer Bridge Championship, to be run annually at a major bridge tournament. Starting in 1999, that event is now co-sponsored by the World Bridge Federation.

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
1989	1990	1991	1992	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2013	2015

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a checkered game-board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. Each player begins with 16 pieces of varying characteristics, the objective being to capture one's opponent's king piece.
Many computer-versus-computer events are held beyond those of the Computer Olympiad.

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
1989	1990	1991	1992	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2013	2015

Chinese chess

Chinese chess is a strategy board game for two players from the same family as western or international chess. Known primarily as Xiangqi internationally, the game is referred to as Chinese chess in the Computer Olympiad competitions.

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
1989	1990	1991	1992	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2013	2015

Chinese dark chess

Chinese dark chess is known as Banqi in Chinese.

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
1989	1990	1991	1992	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2013	2015

Clobber

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
1989	1990	1991	1992	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2013	2015

Connect Four

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
1989	1990	1991	1992	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2013	2015

Connect6

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
1989	1990	1991	1992	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2013	2015

Dominoes

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
1989	1990	1991	1992	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2013	2015

Octi

Octi is an abstract strategy game designed by Donald Green, with similarities to checkers and chess but allowing for multiple jumping, capturing, and special movement of pieces. The object of the game is to move one's pieces into the opponent's starting points.

Pool

Also known as computational pool.

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
1989	1990	1991	1992	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2013	2015