Author: Jeroen Noomen
Date: 08:36:59 04/28/01
Dear prof. Irazoqui, During the past few weeks all chess enthousiasts and chess computer fans were delighted to hear about the Braingames qualifier, to produce a ‘challenger’ to play Vladimir Kramnik in a serious match. Organisation was given to you, a pretty easy to understand decision as you have a lot of experience in organizing a chess computer tournament. I know you since several years as a fine person, unbiased and with a lot of understanding concerning chess programs. I always have been an admirer of your work, especially the famous Cadaques Tournament. Needless to say I was stunned to hear that Chess Tiger, currently one of the strongest chess programs, was not even invited to participate in this qualifier. I tried to get information about the ‘why’, but up till now nobody has given any specific argument why Chess Tiger could not play there. To exclude such a strong program is, of course, very strange (to say the least). Several people have asked me why Chess Tiger is not participating. I only could say ‘I don’t know, sorry’. Suppose there will be a qualifying event amongst human players to bring about a new challenger for Kramnik. Wouldn’t it be very strange if the organisers of such an event would say to Anand ‘sorry, you can’t compete’? Nobody would understand that. As in this case nobody understands your decision why you refrain from letting Chess Tiger play in these qualification matches. Therefore I want to ask you, publicly through this letter, to clarify matters and to present the chess enthousiasts the answers on the following questions: 1. Why wasn’t Chess Tiger invited to this qualifier? 2. Why did the Chess Tiger team only hear about this qualifier some weeks before the event started? 3. Why did you refuse to let Chess Tiger play, even though the Tiger team very willingly cooperated to make the participation of Chess Tiger possible? 4. Why didn’t you try to find a positive solution to this matter? 5. Why did you keep on saying ‘no’, even when it became clear Chess Tiger could play under the conditions you wanted? 6. Why did you refuse to believe that Chess Tiger could play under your conditions, the more because you haven’t checked this out yourself? 7. Do you think it is fair to exclude very strong chess programs from such an event? 8. What proposal was made to the IBM team: Could they play on their own hardware, or did they have to play on specified hardware? 9. What was the reason IBM declined the offer? 10. Knowing you as a fair person, unbiased and with great achievements for computer chess, can you now look into a mirror and say to yourself ‘I have been absolutely fair to all parties and I have been honest to all the other chess programmers who are not competing now’? 11. I am pretty sure that deep inside you, you will not feel happy about this. And that you know that programs like Shredder and Chess Tiger should compete as well. Am I correct in stating this? 12. Now there is a delay in the Fritz-Junior match, is there room for Chess Tiger in this event? I think everybody would appreciate it when you give a public statement and answer those questions in an honest way. Otherwise people will get the impression that this qualifier is a pre arranged event, that is not open to all the strongest chess programs, but only to some of them. It is up to you to clarify matters and to make clear why Chess Tiger is not playing here. I think you owe us an explanation. You made a clear mistake by excluding Chess Tiger from this event. That is my opinion and I know many people will agree with me. Still, making mistakes is human, it can happen to everybody. Truly great people are those people who admit they made a mistake and correct it. You are still able to correct this mistake, too. By allowing Chess Tiger to play in the qualifier. I ask you to give the answers to these questions, questions that many people are wondering about. And that you correct your mistake and let Chess Tiger play in the qualifier. Sincerely yours, Jeroen Noomen
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