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Subject: Re: Shredder - Ferret playoff at WCCC

Author: Heiko Mikala

Date: 16:09:28 06/21/99

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On June 21, 1999 at 14:38:17, Bruce Moreland wrote:

>In case anyone is wondering, the only changes to Ferret that I made before that
>game were opening book changes designed to maximize winning chances.
>
>I did not change the contempt factor, for two reasons:
>
>1) I have never tested with a contempt factor other than which I normally use.
>
>2) I forgot to do it.
>
>It was absolutely my intent to win that game, and I did nothing before or
>during that game that was in any way an attempt to steer the game to any other
>result. If Stefan's program had cracked, he would have gone home withone
>trophy less, you bet.
>
>Stefan and I are friends, and I'm happy that if someone other than myself had
>to win that title, that it was Stefan, and I congratulate him.  However,
>anyone who thinks that I didn't want to win that game, and that I was happy
>with the result of that game, was obviously not present for my reaction
>immediately after the game, has little understanding of me, or is of a
>mentality that I don't understand and don't want to.

Hi Bruce!

I was there, I saw your reaction and I made a photo of it:

http://www.online-club.de/~rp45195/wccc99/b6.jpg

And I can assure everybody, that you were definitely *not* happy with the
result. More than that, I am absolutely sure, that of all the programmers at
Paderborn you were the one, who took this championship most seriously and who
most definitely wanted to have the title. With Stefan beeing second on this
list, I guess.

There were some other situations, which proved how seriously you wanted to
have the title.

For example, when, during the playoff, Stefan asked Jaap van den Herik, if he
could stop writing down the moves on the scorecard, because the speed chess
phase had begun. Immediately after Jaap saying Yes, you threw your pencil and
your block to the ground. You should have seen Jaap's face in that moment :-)

Or, when, during your game against Fritz, Ossi Weiner wanted to make a photo
of you and asked you, if you could look into his direction, while you were
looking very concentrated on your screen. Your answer was a short, but definite
"No!". Wow. I guess, you are the only chess programmer in the whole wide world,
who could have the heart to say no at that moment to Ossi. A man, who could
make you rich, if he would offer you to market your program as part of the
MCS, in a line with Chess Genius, Shredder, Nimzo, WChess, Zarkov and MChess.

There were more of these situations. I'm sure, that everybody who saw you at
Paderborn knows, that you really, really wanted to have that title!


By the way, on my homepage at http://www.online-club.de/~rp45195/wccc99/
there are many more photos of you and of most of the other programmers.
Have a look at it, if you like.

And, hmm, sorry, but I can't resist: If Ossi or Chessbase offer you a contract
to market your program, please don't say no. We all want to have your great
program, you know? ;-)


Regards,

Heiko.



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