Author: Roger D Davis
Date: 19:48:42 11/29/03
I have to wonder how the latest screw up should be interpreted in the total history of the tournament. One perspective is that the Law of Karma is finally kicking in. In this scenario, the tournament committee handled the List affair awkwardly by being too rigid and authoritarian in their interpretation of the rules. Ironically, they essentially quote the charter on the Chessbase site to excuse themselves for having to disqualify List. Even when there were dissenting opinions on this board, with some of the programmers themselves saying that they wouldn't reveal their own source, that circumstantial evidence wasn't enough for the committee to act upon, etc., there was no subsequent clarification of the circumstances of the disqualification. The rules are the rules, as they say (and said). But...the List decision being BS, and there being balance and fairness in the Universe, the Law of Karma kicked in as a means of showing us exactly how hypocritical the tournament is: The rules are the rules when it's convenient to excuse the behavior of the committee, but are open to interpretation in another circumstance where they should apply. The effect of the Law of Karma is seen in the consequences of this behavior, which is to undermine, if not invalidate, the meaning of the IGCA world championship title. The Law of Karma interpretation has a lot to recommend it, because it proposes that even if tournament committees act hypocritically and unfairly, at some level there is justice in the universe, and that if fairness is flaunted, then while the Universe may not be able to correct the result, it will at least render the result completely absurd and meaningless. By this reasoning, the latest snafu is actually required in order for Karmic balance to be achieved. Unfortunately, the Law of Karma interpretation also supposes the operation of unseen forces, and cannot be called the most parsimonious interpretation. Maybe fairness, unlike matter and energy, is not conserved. Maybe there are only events that happen, and while it's possible to chronicle them and note strange coincidences, these coincidences are just nothing more than statistical aberrations, with meaning imposed upon them. By this explanation, the latest snafu with Shredder is simply history repeating itself. The causality at work is not the causality of Karma, but the causality of stupidity, the fact that if you screw up once in a critical situation (e.g., with List), you're likely to screw up again, no matter how much egg you already have on your face. For the tournament committee, the problem is that the Shredder snafu puts the List issue in a completely different light, because it shows us how incompetent the committee really is. At it's maximum, it means that the List issue becomes more significant, because the issues involved must be reevaluated in the context of the committee's latest faux pas. Take your pick. Roger
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.