Author: Larry Proffer
Date: 04:50:10 05/02/01
Go up one level in this thread
On May 02, 2001 at 06:29:56, Enrique Irazoqui wrote: >Brain Games Network, the organizers of the Man vs Machine match scheduled >for October 2001 in Bahrain, asked me to play a qualification event among the >strongest chess programs to determine which will play Mr Kramnik. One >important condition specified by BGN was that the programs should be able to >run on an eight processor machine which will be used in the match in Bahrain; >another was that the Qualifier must be concluded before the second week of >May, in order to meet contractual agreements with the BGN world champion >Vladimir Kramnik. Sounds right but muddled ordering gives a wrong impression. BGN wanted to make a Kramnik-program match. BGN wanted a pre-program match to generate publicity and interest. BGN do not know much about computer chess and they came from a particular direction that led them to first Ossi, and then Chessbase. Ossi didn't want any competition for 'his' program. 100% win chance. Chessbase wanted their programs in but no others. Win chances increased. Chessbase proposed using Enrique as 'Linares of Computer Chess' organiser. Somehow SSDF became involved. Enrique made a deal to autoplay the tournament and was told which programs would be in. He didn't choose anything. The choice of programs effectively became Chessbase's. BGN just relyed on what they were advised and were not too bothered which programs competed. Chessbase, as a result of being cooperative with BGN, with thanks to the Ossi temper tantrum, got a very attractive deal - a 100% winning chance before the event. > >After careful consideration and consultation with the sponsors and organizers, >it was decided that the two top programs on the International computer rating >lists, as well as the winner of the ICCA computer chess world championship >1999, should be invited. All three programs have SMP capabilities and have >played in competition running on multiple processors. It was very careful considered and consulted, but not by Enrique. This was done by Chessbase and presented as a neat and tidy deal to BGN who snapped it up. > >The programs Tiger and Rebel, distributed by the Rebel company of Mr >Schröder, have never been available in SMP versions, nor have they played >in competition on multi-processor machines. Rebel is a DOS program and as >far from multiprocessing capabilities as imaginable, while the author of >Chess Tiger, Mr Christophe Théron, had explicitly stated in public forums >that he did not intend to develop an SMP version in the near future. For this >reason they were not considered in the BGN invitation list. This is all irrelevant anyway. Whether they had or didn't have SMP versions. Other programmers have strong SMP versions, possibly better than Fritz and Junior. The key to it is that all the other possible contenders were simply ignored. And the moral of the story is that when it comes down to it, programs and programmers are mere pawns, to be used, licenced, dropped at will, flattered, or ignored by the real decision makers who make the actual beans. Programmers are disunited, their professional organisation doesn't represent them, they spend their spare time being rotten to each other anyway, they are a pool of talent for others to exploit. Woffle on about it until you are in blue in the face. You'll change nothing. Boom-boom. > >When the invitations were made public, Mr Schröder and Mr Théron were >understandably disappointed. Out of an old friendship with Ed Schröder, on >April 8th I wrote him an email explaining the SMP requirement. I told him this >message was personal. > >On April 20th, only four days before the starting of the Qualifier, Ed >Schröder suddenly stated in a group email that both Rebel and Gambit Tiger >had SMP implementations. This sounded extremely implausible, especially >since a few days previously Ed Schröder had stated in a public forum: "to >make a good SMP chess program you need to rewrite major parts of a chess >program from scratch. Before you have a reliable multi-processor chess >program it will cost you a full year. Why else do you think that nowadays >SMP programs do NOT dominate?" (at the time he was arguing that single >processor programs should be allowed in the BGN qualifier). And in another >public forum, Christophe Théron had described all the computers he owned, >and did not include a multi-processor machine. > >In spite of my doubts, I agreed to examine a copy of the SMP version of Chess >Tiger. However, when I asked Mr Théron to submit an SMP version of Tiger by >April 23d, 24 hours before the starting of the tournament, Mr Schröder replied >that "Christophe as I already suspected is not able to produce the FINAL SMP >version to your suggested dead-line." This was, of course, quite unacceptable to >the sponsors, organizers and Mr Kramnik, who had fixed all dates. It was also >impossible to include a program that was not only unknown to everyone until >April 20th, but not even completed and had not yet played a single game in any >public event of any kind. > >GM Raymond Keene and Byron Jacobs of BGN, as well as Thoralf Karlsson >and Bertil Eklund of the SSDF, were on the CC line of the above exchanges. > >As a personal matter I am convinced that neither an SMP Tiger nor an SMP >Rebel were ready for the Qualifiers. However, Mr Schröder and Mr Théron have >a chance to refute my conviction by playing with their SMP programs in the >International CSVN computer tournament in Holland in the second half of May >2001. > >Enrique Irazoqui
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