Thomas Mayer wrote:Hi Uri,
it definitely wasn't as they stated afterwards (?). It seems that they even used a commercial book for some of the games at Paderborn. And I do not know whether it was already clear in the beginning that it is a fruit/toga/crafty clone. Maybe Gerd can enlighten us here.
But to me it seems to be sure at least that neither Bob nor Fabien or Thomas were informed about participating there. And as far as I know usually Paderborn follows ICGA rules. Well, what shells. For me that is finally the end of competition in computerchess - when the ICGA starts this nonsense now this will soon be followed in all other tournaments.
You know, do you like to run 100 meters flat against someone who cloned Carl Lewis body just using his own head ? That's what cloning in competitions like WCCC is all about and that's why I don't like it. And that's the question where I want to have an answer from you personal.
Greets, Thomas
Lion would not have been disqualified in Torino, if they had mentioned "original work based on fruit" in the entry-form with the permission from "co-author" Fabien Letouzey. They had mentioned it in a readme-file and had no explicit permission. They thought it would comply with all formalities and complained issues with english language afterwards.
On GridChess:
I was not aware that GridChess used Crafty-code already in Paderborn, but only Fruit iirc. Kay, with his "academic naivity" was a kind of shirty by the protest there, at least the book was changed for the two last rounds. I don't know who made the protest and whether it was only about the book issue and/or using Fruit.
I second that no clones or patchwork programs should be allowed in future ICGA events. But is it that simple? For instance if Bob or Fabien (or any other programmer, not necessarily open source) really likes to cooperate in a team, building a huge chess cluster like GridChess - rather than only giving the permission to use the programs - should that been forbidden? I don't think so.
The discrepancy between "I don't participate with my own program - if the ICGA chose to allow such entries, then I would have no objection, but that I personally strongly disagree with the idea in general..." and "Yes, I am a cooperating team member" is a bit vague to specify, imho.
Don't be so pessimistic, Thomas. You can choose life and Computerchess
Cheers,
Gerd