Author: Ed Schröder
Date: 10:32:04 05/02/01
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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. > >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. > >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. > >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 Enrique, I am shocked to read that it all comes down on mistrust from your side. To say it with a grain of black humor, when was the last time I lied to you? For me the open questions are: #1. When Christophe proposed a working solution IM Raymond Keene (BGN) said, "okay this seems good enough" meaning Chess Tiger should play. You overruled BGN. Why was that? #2. You informed me on April 8th about the SMP requirement. This was as a reaction on a posting of mine here on CCC. If I not had written that public posting is it true you would not informed me and Christophe at all? This question was asked you in email. So far we have not received an answer. Why? #3. Christophe has asked you, "why did you forbid Ed to talk about me about the SMP requirement? Was there something I was not allowed to know?". Also no reply from you. We would like to know the why? #4. Looking at the fact you and I got on unfriendly terms with each other exactly one month before you were offered the Qualifier job by BGN (mid March) would you say you were the right person for the job? I picked a couple of questions from the open letter of Jeroen Noomen I am interested to hear your comments: 1. 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? 2. Why didn't you try to find a positive solution to this matter? 3. Why did you keep on saying 'no', even when it became clear Chess Tiger could play under the conditions you wanted? 4. Why did you refuse to believe that Chess Tiger could play under your conditions, the more because you haven't checked this out yourself? Some facts: #1. On April 20 the current SMP Tiger was offered to you. You could have checked its existence. You did not. In stead you indirectly label us as a couple of liars, first in email and now in public. #2. On April 22 you demanded a final SMP Tiger before April 23 11:00 while the Qualifier was planned for April 27. Your offer is considered as a faked offer because: a) to make a version ready to play a tournament in just less than one day is impossible and as an expert you know that. b) you already knew Christophe needed a couple of more days. #3. Christophe promised to deliver the final SMP Tiger before or on April 30. He suggested to start the match DF-DJ as planned on April 27. You would have had the final SMP Tiger well-off in time before the match DF-DJ was finished. IM Keene of BGN said yes, you said no. #4. On April 8 you have forbidden me to speak with Christophe about the SMP requirement. As a result Christophe had to learn about the SMP requirement on April 15 from a public posting here in CCC. Without your information boycott SMP Tiger would have been on time. Last fact: Based on all the above data I regret my decision to reward your information boycott to Christophe. I just should have told him. Ed Schroder
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