Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: CCT4: almost all the top programs are there!

Author: Dann Corbit

Date: 15:19:04 01/02/02

Go up one level in this thread


On January 02, 2002 at 18:09:01, Gian-Carlo Pascutto wrote:
>On January 02, 2002 at 18:00:06, Dann Corbit wrote:
>>On January 02, 2002 at 16:56:46, Dan Andersson wrote:
>>>Fear of what? There are some issues here:
>>>The possibility of human intervention in this online tournament;
>>
>>Someone might cheat.  That could happen at any tournament.  But cheat with what?
>> Is Kasparov going to sit around and give advice?  Against (for instance)
>>Shredder on a 1.x GHz machine, kabitzing is risky and stupid.  If you are in
>>fear of that, then you are a true coward.  Lame excuse negated.
>
>Come on Dann, there are excellent ways to cheat at an event like this.
>
>I could operate Sjeng as an advanced player, or worse, use Fritz 7
>with slighly different settings instead. That would certainly boost
>my winning chances.

Very easily detectable, if the program you use is available.  That should be a
precondition to the contest.  At another tournament where you show up in person,
I could get a copy of Chessmaster, change the parameters a bit, and call it my
own program.  Or in a human tournament, I could walk in and cheat with a
hand-held device hidden somewhere or through an rf link.  I would be pretty
astonished if the winner of an event cheats if the binary is made available.
Even so, if they refuse to enter it is because they are in FEAR of cheaters.  An
illogical fear, if the conditions of the contest are made such that the binary
must be available on request or be the one that is "bought off the shelf"

>>>Preparation for other events;
>>
>>Use the current engine and have someone else run it for you.  No preparation or
>>even action is needed.  Lame excuse negated.
>
>Huh. This comes from someone who has never prepared a tournament
>openings book I guess?

They don't write them from scratch each time.  If they had any sense, they would
update them when theory advances or a bust is found.  If not, use the one that
was used for the last contest.  If you can only win by book-cooks, then that's
pretty sad anyway.  If you refuse to enter for this reason (that is, you have
not been able to make a killer book and you think you will lose because of that)
then again that is FEAR.  Fear that your engine is not really strong enough and
that someone else's book is better than yours.

>>>A conflicting shedule...
>>
>>Well, you do have to give up 2 weekends.  But you could surely find someone to
>>run the program for you (as others have done).  Lame excuse negated.
>
>True.
>
>>Me too, but I doubt it.  Look at companies who try to legally forbid the use of
>>any publication of the performance of their engines against any other engine
>>right on the box.  These people are seething with fear.
>
>Hmm, are you thinking about anybody in particular here?

There are several companies that did that[1].  I don't know if any of them still
do or not.  I find such behavior reprehensible, but it is what I have come to
expect.  It is nice to find a refreshing exception now and then.

[1] At least 3 that I can think of.



This page took 0.01 seconds to execute

Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700

Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.