The
7th annual World Computer-Bridge Championship
By Mike
Whittaker
The resort of Menton on the Cote d’Azur was the venue for the American Contract Bridge League's 2003 World Computer-Bridge Championship. The First European Open Bridge Championships were being held at the same time and as the human players suffered from the lack of air-conditioning in the playing areas, the computers sensibly tucked themselves away in a little room next to the bar in the nearby Menton Bridge Club. It was just the place to be in the middle of a heat wave. The tournament director was Al Levy, president of the ACBL.
The defending champion, Jack, was aiming for a third win in a row. The main challenge was expected to come from the French program, Wbridge5, who lost out to Jack by just one Imp in the 2002 final. In recent years the bidding and card play of these two, and the absent GIB, aided by extremely fast double-dummy simulations, has been too much for the others to live with. They were in for a surprise. This year a program considered by most judges to be an outsider had come to mount a serious challenge.
Let me get the bad news out of the way first. Poor Blue Chip Bridge suffered by not being able to understand its opponents’ bidding. The facility that allows us to enter the relevant information refused to work. We won two matches. One was against the 2000 champion, Meadowlark, currently undergoing a major re-write. The other was against the newcomer, Sabrina, a French program. Despite this setback, Blue Chip did manage to a few nice plays. Take a look at this 4© contract.
ª
A K Q 6 3 2
©
9 6
¨
4 3
§ J
9 7
©
A Q J 8 7 4
¨
Q 9 6 2
§ A
You win the club lead with the ace of clubs. What do you lead at trick 2?
I liked Blue Chip’s choice of the queen of hearts. You plan to win the return (losing two diamonds first maybe but no more), draw trumps and run the spades. Naturally, the king of hearts was singleton offside but the defense went astray and Blue Chip made ten tricks. I wonder whether West might have considered ducking if he had held ©Kxx?
The new program, Sabrina, is entirely rule-based. It does not calculate what to do next using simulations to guide it. It relies on the appropriate rule being used, such as ‘draw trumps’, at the right time. Although Sabrina was not close to being bug-free, the difficulty of this rules-based approach was evident in Sabrina’s performance. It was well beaten by every other program but this did not upset the charming Sabrina team of Pierre Cormault and Gerard Joyez who smiled their way through the week, taking each defeat with a shrug of the shoulders. I hope their work to improve Sabrina for future competitions will go well. As they found out, it’s a tough school to break into.
Take over the South cards on this hand from the round robin. I will give you the advantage of seeing all four hands but if you want to see the problem as the programs did, then cover the E/W hands. You have done well to reach four spades. West leads the ace of diamonds before switching to the six of spades. Over to you.
Board 16
ª 10
7
Dlr: West
©
A 10 8 4 3
Vul: E-W
¨
9 7 4 2
§ 6
3
West North
East South
ª
6
ª 9
5 3 2 BB
Wb5 BB Wb5
©
9 6 ©
Q J 7 2 1¨
Pass 1©
Dbl
¨
A K Q 8 3 ¨
J 6 5 2§
Pass 2¨
3ª
§
Q J 7 5 2 § K
8
Pass 4ª
All Pass
ª A
K Q J 8 4
©
K 5
¨
10
§ A
10 9 4
In the time it took you to examine the diagram, both Wbridge5 and Bridge Baron had negotiated the contract successfully. You must win the spade trick in hand, leaving the ten of spades in dummy. Now the king of hearts, a heart to the ace and then a club from dummy. East has no winning option. If he plays the king, South wins the ace and leads the ten of clubs. West can win but he cannot lead a second trump and South will eventually score a club ruff in dummy with that lovely ten of spades, East being unable to over-ruff. If instead East plays the eight of clubs at trick 3, as happened in both matches, South plays the ten of clubs, once again setting up the ruff without allowing a second trump lead.
From the original nine contenders, five were eliminated at the end of the round-robin: Sabrina, Meadowlark, Q-Plus Bridge and both UK hopes, Blue Chip Bridge and Oxford Bridge. The four successful programs were Wbridge5 (165 VPs), Jack (162), Micro Bridge (161) and Bridge Baron (141). Micro Bridge, always a reliable performer, surprised everyone with a 20-10 defeat of Jack in the round robin. It would play Jack again in the semi-final. Bridge Baron had also managed a good result, pipping Wbridge5 by an Imp but Wbridge5 was a warm favorite to take its revenge in a longer match.
The Jack v Micro Bridge semi-final proved to be a one-sided affair. Jack established a useful lead and moved steadily ahead, playing some high quality stuff. Micro Bridge had its moments but Jack never lets up. The Jack programmer, Hans Kuijf, commented that Jack’s defense was not as good as it might be. A bit like Real Madrid’s midfield, I suppose. The final Imp score was 167-81.
I decided to concentrate on the Bridge Baron v Wbridge5 semi-final. As it happened, this was one of my better bridge decisions because it turned out to be an absolute belter. I doubt if Menton saw a more exciting match all week and I had a ringside seat. After three of the four sets of sixteen boards, Wbridge5 had established a 47-Imp lead. Under normal circumstances this would be an automatic win for Wbridge5 against any program and many human pairs. However, we were about to find out that this was not a normal day. The Baron had had a good final set and Wbridge5 started to falter. One hour or so later and with one board remaining the Baron, remarkably, was 1 Imp ahead.
Yves Costel, the programmer of Wbridge5, knew well how it felt to lose out at the final hurdle. He actually thought that he had already won this match, believing it to be played over forty-eight boards, only to be told that a further sixteen remained. He sat shaking his head in disbelief as the Imps leaked away. The Baron team could hardly hold themselves together as the last board appeared on the screen. West was the dealer and the board had been passed out in the first round. A repeat would see the Baron through to the final:
Board 64 ª K
J
Dlr: West ©
K Q 9 8 4
Vul: E-W ¨
10 7 6 2
§ Q
6
ª
A Q 10 8 4
ª 9
7 6
©
J 10 7
©
6 5 3
¨
J 5
¨
K 4 3
§
K 7 4
§ A
10 9 5
ª 5
3 2
©
A 2
¨
A Q 9 8
§ J
8 3 2
Wbridge5 passed as West but the Baron, North, opened 1©, prolonging the tension. It now had to make whatever contract it reached. It raced up to 2NT, had a think about things and passed. Wbridge5 led the eight of spades and it was clear that the Baron was destined to make his way into the final. As the cards were lying, 2NT was as cold as my beer.
Bridge Baron had been an aggressive bidder all week and this had served it well. Things changed in the final. The Baron bid three slams in the first eight boards but made only one of them. Jack bid one of them, the good one, and quickly opened up a 53 Imp lead after the first of four sets of sixteen boards.
I wonder how many of you would have found the same bid as Jack did on this board from later in the match. You, South, hold:
ª
A K Q 10 9
©
A K 9 2
¨
6
§
10 5 4
Your side is vulnerable and East, the dealer, passes. You open one spade, partner bids one no-trump and you rebid two hearts. What do you do next over partner’s rebid of two spades?
As I understand things, Jack’s simulator moved into action on the third round of bidding and decided that a jump to three no-trumps was best here. Partner’s known length and expected high card or two in the minor suits were deemed enough to make the vulnerable no-trump game worth bidding. For once, dummy held the perfect hand - ªJ and the two missing aces! Thank you, partner.
It wasn’t always like that. Baron’s aggressive bidding streak surfaced again on board 7 of the second set. Having bid impressively to a cold six hearts contract, as Jack did, it decided to add a seventh for the road. This time the simulations were wrong. The opponents held four trumps including the king and queen. And who says that machines don’t have emotions? Clearly disgusted with the sight of the dummy, the Baron needlessly chucked away a second trick during the play as if to make partner feel even more miserable.
Bridge Baron had a good fourth quarter, in part due to board 53 where Baron looked to be in a very tricky 4ª contract. West led the ¨J, ducked to South’s queen:
Board 53 ª J
7 6 5 4
Dlr: North ©
A J 8 4
Vul: N-S
¨
K 5 4
§ 9
ª
9
ª Q
1 0 8 2
©
K10 3 2
©
9 7 6
¨
J 10 8 7
¨
A 9 6
§
K Q 10 5
§ 8
4 3
ª A
K 3
©
Q 5
¨
Q 3 2
§ A
J 7 6 2
Another well played hand by the Baron occurred in Board 11 of the first saw Jack reach a tricky three no-trump contract after West, the dealer, had opened one heart. Jack had managed eleven tricks in four spades and the Baron did not appear to get off to the best start after West led the king of diamonds:
Board 11
ª K
6 4 3 2
Dlr: South
©
K 10
Vul: None
¨
A 9 6
§ 9
7 3
ª
10 ª Q
8 7 5
©
Q 9 8 7 3 2 ©
5
¨
K Q J 2
¨
10 5 4 3
§
K 10
§ J
6 5 2
ª A
J 9
©
A J 6 4
¨
8 7
§ A
Q 8 4
The Baron ducked the lead and won the ¨Q continuation. The ª2 was led to the ace followed by a heart to the ©10. Declarer had a think before leading a low club to the ace and then a heart to the King. A further pause and then the §9, ducked to West’s King. West led a diamond to East’s ten (South discarding the ©J) and East played back another diamond. West was back on lead with only hearts left:
ª K
6 4
©
-
¨
-
§ 7
ª
-
ª Q
8
©
Q 9 8 7
©
-
¨
-
¨
-
§
-
§ J
6
ª J
©
A
¨
-
§ Q
8
Notice that the Baron had already discarded what would have been a winning card in this position, the ©J. No, it’s not the sort of thing that you or I might do but this is routine stuff for the better bots. The ©Q squeezed East on the next trick. Note the lead of the §9 earlier to set up a possible finesse position in the suit.
Despite some good play by the Baron, there was no way back after the first sixteen boards, with Jack up 81-26. Jack moved further into the lead and this time it really was all over with one set to play. Again the Baron finished strongly, winning back 39 Imps to go out in style but it was not nearly enough. Jack had his third win in a row but both teams had reason to celebrate.
Congratulations once more to the Jack team and to their impressive program. Thanks to all of the contestants for another competition played in the best of spirits, and to Al Levy for taking the trouble to make sure everything ran smoothly.