Harvey Williamson wrote:
It was agreed at the players meeting BEFORE the tournament started in Pamplona that Sjeng should pay the Professional entry fee. It was discussed also at that meeting that Sjeng should be invited to make up the numbers at that point there was no operator. I suggested Johan should do this and that was agreed it was also agreed that no operator fee would be charged.
That is correct and confirms my point. Note:
1) At no point was I informed of this decision at the players meeting. In fact, I was only told this approximately a month after the tournament had ended, despite it obviously being pretty important to know for me. This is contrary to the decision that your team would be allowed to use 16 cores, which I was informed of immediately.
2) Given that you just confirmed I did not enter myself but was invited, this clearly cannot be aligned with asking me to pay a fee (that I didn't agree to pay and never would have, given that I even informed the ICGA of that restriction).
It is your responsibility to fill in the entry form honestly not that of the ICGA to presume some programmers will be dishonest.
I did fill out the form honestly: I am not a "employee or associate from a games-programming company". I'm sure I'm not the only one who interpreted it like that, unless you want to claim the authors of Gromit, ParSOS, Gandalf, Goliath, Diep, Ikarus, The Crazy Bishop and Loop were also intentionally misleading the ICGA. I think I can at most be faulted for misinterpreting the rules based on what I saw happen in past tournaments. From the feedback I got, the ICGA doesn't blame me for that, either.
Given that I have had discussion about my status with ICGA officials in the past, I was surprised to see the claim now they had no idea I was selling my program. Must have been quite some miscommunication there.
After your complaint, they've now reversed (or clarified, as they put it) this policy and stated that they would no longer allow any of the above programs to enter like that. It's worth pondering over the consequences of that for a while.
Why should Shredder, Hiarcs, Junior and Rybka pay 500 Euros to play and you 25?
Your counting is mistaken: if we strictly follow the rules, entering a tournament with Leela and Deep Sjeng would cost me at least 2500 Euro (500 x 2 + 500 x 2 + 500), not 500 Euro, just in entry fees. I'm not willing to pay that to enter, so the condition for me for entering is not having to pay that.
And why do you mention 500 Euro for Hiarcs anyway, given that you have an absentee programmer doubling the fees?
I think no amateur (in the sensible defintion, not the ICGA one) who happens to sell his program should have to bear such a burden, but maybe the case can be made for full-time professionals making a living of it. But actually, last time I asked around, ChessBase was the one paying all those fees which is also why nobody complains. Is that not the case for you?
My post in its entirety at Hiarcs Forum
I see that someone who proclaims to be a "Hiarcs Team Member" has reverted to posting pure slander and libel in your official forum. Maybe it's a good idea to ponder over the consequences of that too.