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Subject: Re: Fair conditions for human vs. computer play

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 14:24:26 07/30/98

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On July 30, 1998 at 09:38:28, Bruce Moreland wrote:

>
>On July 30, 1998 at 04:26:18, Guido Schimmels wrote:
>
>>The most elegant way to do this of course would be a laptop with your favorite
>>database installed. Otherwise we are quickly running out of opponents -
>>remember how pissed Anand was after the match with Rebel, and there were others
>>as well !
>
>I know this is not your main point, but why was Anand pissed at Rebel after
>their match?
>
>bruce


For the record, I've played in a few human tournaments with a strong program,
starting in 1981.  And *every* tournament I played in ended with some humans
that were "pissed".  We can discuss this for those that are interested, but
the biggest part of the problem is some total morons at USCF that came up with
the "you can sign a list and not be paired against the computer."  That is the
single greatest example of total stupidity I have ever seen.  The USCF has done
other stupid things too (action chess ratings for computers, without really
explaining how these games were played is another).

One example, from the famous 1981 tournament Cray Blitz won:

We agreed, before starting, that we would *not* take the cash prize.  Nor any
of the trophies.  "The list" was also set up, and this caused a problem...
There were two strong players there, Joe Sentef, 2260, and another player just
over 2000.  Joe had won the trophy the previous 2 years and one more win would
have retired the trophy to his house permanently.  He elected to not sign "the
list" because as the two-time winner he thought it was "chicken".  The other guy
elected to sign the list and never played us.  We beat Joe, joe and the "other
guy" played and drew... and the other guy finished at 4.5 and was the highest
rated "human" in the event (Cray Blitz was first there).  This really wrecked
the event, as the best player didn't win because he elected to play the computer
and lost a tactical slug-fest.  And the bitterness and complaining made this the
last Mississippi closed championship tournament we ever played in.  Not by our
choice either, we were never invited back, after playing in 4 in a row prior to
that event (but not on a Cray and not finishing in the top-10).



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