Eternity2.fr

First of all a happy new year to all of you!

At the moment I made my solver public (the 22nd of September) I already submitted a score to the Eternity II adjudicators (see also http://www.fingerboys.se/eii/instructions.html). The very reason for making my solver public was that I was (and still am) not at all convinced that my submission would win the prize.

My theoretic estimates were that it would take about 10^16 nodes to beat that score. Therefore I was quite optimistic that with the help from all of you it would be possible to beat my already submitted score.

All of you together have searched a little bit more than 10^16 nodes, and many of you have found the same score as I have already submitted. But unfortunately no one has been able to improve the score. This is partly due to bad luck, and I think partly because my theoretic estimates turned out to be somewhat too optimistic; I do not know yet why.

For completeness: my submitted score was 1 point better than the one reached with royale's original solver. That means that unfortunately the eternity2.fr solver will most likely not be the winner (the only hope is that my original submission has got lost in the post, which is not totally impossible because I did not get the requested "proof of delivery").

I hope you are not too disappointed about this. I really think the eternity2.fr had a very good shot at the prize for the best score. From my point I must confess that I am a bit disappointed; I really wanted to win this competition for the sake of honour, and I am quite convinced that beating my original score would have done the job, but now I do not feel to confident.

I would like to thank all of you for using the solver, and also for the many positive reactions we have received!

Best regards,

Louis