The organizers of the Gifu Challenge have announced that
they will use a new server-based protocol named SBCP
instead of the Modem Protocol in future tournaments.
A description of the protocol can be found here:
http://igo.bz/cgf/CGF2004-Protocol.txt
I am not happy that they did not choose GTP, it would have
been a good choice for all the requirements listed in the
their specification.
Programmers that already use GTP for regression testing and
interfacing the engine to a user interface will have to
support another protocol or use a program translating the
protocols.
I know that at least 4 Go programs which participated in
tournaments already support GTP: GnuGo, Explorer, NeuroGo
and Golois (anyone knows more?).
- Markus
