Author: Frederic Friedel
Date: 10:18:15 05/08/00
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On May 08, 2000 at 12:09:31, Enrique Irazoqui wrote: > >All this is true, and nevertheless Fritz is being boycotted. Why. > >Don't misunderstand me: I am not taking sides for the players that refuse to >play Fritz, I find this boycott frustrating and I don't sympathize with a >general attitude that consists in refusing programs in human events. But what is >happening arises obvious questions about whether computer participation in >tournaments can be imposed upon chess players against their will. This is, I >think, a political issue more than anything else. > I do not believe that the majority is against the participation of the computer and the resulting doubling or more of the prize fund. The majority has agreed to play. The protest is being led and articulated by a few. I challenge you to take a poll in Rotterdam: should we withdraw the program any you play on for less than half the prize fund? The main problem in chess is that the spectators, the people who follow the games on the Internet, in the newspapers and chess magazines, all of these contribute less than 10% of the cost of staging the event. In some cases less than 1%. I know of no other sport in which this is the case. Chess has to be flexible in finding sponsors, or it must be willing to return to the old backroom days when prize funds were miniscule and the greatest players on the planet normally died in abject poverty.
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