FIDE Ethics Commission ruling on ICGA/Rybka complaint

[syzygy]

Whatever happened about Loop, which was purported to be a clearcut non-original engine (if I recall you correctly)?
I see it benefitted from a promotion in placings in at least one tournament after Rybka was removed from the records. That makes a further mockery of what happened over Rybka.

Dear Graham,

You are aware that the ICGA disqualified all of Loop's results until the matter was addressed, right?

I mean, I would not want to think that you were not diligent in your postings simply to make a point.

Later.

What I read is that the authors were given more time to respond than Vas asked for (but did not get). In the meantime they were not disqualified but suspended (it seems). Not a real difference I guess.

They got until 31 December 2014. Four more months have passed. Was there a decision?

[Harvey Williamson]

What I read is that the authors were given more time to respond than Vas asked for (but did not get). In the meantime they were not disqualified but suspended (it seems). Not a real difference I guess.

They got until 31 December 2014. Four more months have passed. Was there a decision?

If either or both of these programmers fail to do so by December 31st 2014, or refuses to do so, the ICGA will disqualify them from all their results in ICGA events.

I guess this will be formally announced in Leiden.

[syzygy]

Why do you think this a 'surprising interpretation' of ICGA rules?

The interpretation that anyone who contributed something to SF could enter it without the permission of at the very least the 3 main authors. That would be quite ridiculous. Interpreting the GPL as giving the permission that Rule 2 requires is an insult to those authors.

Of course the authors cannot prevent the ICGA from letting SF enter. The GPL allows it. But Rule 2 requires permission (it has always been said).

Pretending to the outside world that Marco, Joona and Tord agreed to participation in an ICGA tournament would in fact appear to be an illegal form of misrepresentation to me and possibly criminal. So the ICGA would have to act very carefully, making clear that SF was being entered behind the backs of Marco, Joona and Tord. And they'd have something to explain to the actual competitors.

[Harvey Williamson]

Why do you think this a 'surprising interpretation' of ICGA rules?

The interpretation that anyone who contributed something to SF could enter it without the permission of at the very least the 3 main authors. That would be quite ridiculous. Interpreting the GPL as giving the permission that Rule 2 requires is an insult to those authors.

Of course the authors cannot prevent the ICGA from letting SF enter. The GPL allows it. But Rule 2 requires permission (it has always been said).

Pretending to the outside world that Marco, Joona and Tord agreed to participation in an ICGA tournament would in fact appear to be an illegal form of misrepresentation to me and possibly criminal. So the ICGA would have to act very carefully, making clear that SF was being entered behind the backs of Marco, Joona and Tord. And they'd have something to explain to the actual competitors.

I think at least one of the 3, main, authors would have to be directly involved with an entry.

[Terry McCracken]

Whatever happened about Loop, which was purported to be a clearcut non-original engine (if I recall you correctly)?
I see it benefitted from a promotion in placings in at least one tournament after Rybka was removed from the records. That makes a further mockery of what happened over Rybka.

This has been on the ICGA website for months https://icga.leidenuniv.nl/?p=919

I get an untrusted connection message.

Really?

https://icga.leidenuniv.nl/?p=919



Complaints against the Chess programs LOOP and THINKER



David Levy : ICGA President


The ICGA has received formal complaints against the Chess programs LOOP and THINKER, both of which have participated in the World Computer Chess Championship. LOOP was entered by Fritz Reul into the 2007 WCCC in Amsterdam. THINKER was entered into the 2010 WCCC in Kanazawa.

The nature of the complaints is the same in both cases, namely that the programs violated ICGA Tournament Rule 2, which states:

“Each program must be the original work of the entering developers. Programming teams whose code is derived from or including game-playing code written by others must name all other authors, or the source of such code, in their submission details. Programs which are discovered to be close derivatives of others (e.g., by playing nearly all moves the same), may be declared invalid by the Tournament Director after seeking expert advice. For this purpose a listing of all game-related code running on the system must be available on demand to the Tournament Director.”

As is now well known, the ICGA takes breaches of Rule 2 extremely seriously. In each of these two cases, in the first instances, the ICGA attempted to make contact with the programmers concerned in order to ask for their comments on the allegations against them. In neither case were we successful – emails to their last known email addresses were unanswered, similarly emails sent via known friends and/or colleagues.

The ICGA then asked an independent expert, Mark Watkins, to investigate both programs. Mark is a member of the Computational Algebra Research Group at the University of Sydney. He had previously carried out comprehensive examinations for the ICGA of the program Rybka and other programs. Mark’s findings are reported on the ICGA investigation wiki at: http://icga.wikispaces.com/Thinker+Controversy and at http://icga.wikispaces.com/Loop+Controversy

Here we present extracts from the first section of each of Mark Watkins reports.

Loop “The version examined here is Loop 2007 (64-bit), which was released at approximately the same time as the WCCC. There is notable similarity to Fruit in the evaluation function (other components were not examined).”

Thinker “The versions examined here are Thinker 5.4d Inert (March 2009), and Thinker 5.5.4, entered into Leo Dijksman’s WBEC tournament in January 2011. The first appears to derive from Strelka 2 (thus Rybka 1, and relating to Fruit 2.1). The second appears to derive from IvanHoe (thus partially Rybka 3).”

Based on the above mentioned reports by Mark Watkins the ICGA is convinced that, at the very least, both Fritz Reul and Kerwin Medina have a case to answer. Depending on how Reul and/or Medina respond to these allegations the ICGA might decide to conduct further investigations and/or take some form of strong sanctioning action against the programmers. However, the ICGA does not intend to proceed further along the route to strong sanctions for the time being, in order to give these programmers more time in which to make contact with the ICGA President and present their defence to the allegations. If either or both of these programmers fail to do so by December 31st 2014, or refuses to do so, the ICGA will disqualify them from all their results in ICGA events. In the meantime the ICGA has decided to suspend both Fritz Reul and Kerwin Medina from participation in all ICGA events until such time as they have made contact and offered a defence.

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© 2011 ICGA | The ICGA website is essentially factual: expressed opinions are those of contributors rather than the ICGA.

[Graham Banks]

Whatever happened about Loop, which was purported to be a clearcut non-original engine (if I recall you correctly)?
I see it benefitted from a promotion in placings in at least one tournament after Rybka was removed from the records. That makes a further mockery of what happened over Rybka.

This has been on the ICGA website for months https://icga.leidenuniv.nl/?p=919

I get an untrusted connection message.

Really?

Yes - really.
Otherwise I wouldn't have posted as such?

[Harvey Williamson]

I get an untrusted connection message.

Really?

I think it means the ICGA website does not trust Graham

[Graham Banks]

I get an untrusted connection message.

Really?

I think it means the ICGA website does not trust Graham

[Roger Brown]

I get an untrusted connection message.

Really?

I think it means the ICGA website does not trust Graham

Hello Graham,

I am in your corner on this one.

I received that untrusted connection message initially as well.

Harvey is just too evil...



Later.

[Terry McCracken]

I get an untrusted connection message.

Really?

I think it means the ICGA website does not trust Graham

Hello Graham,

I am in your corner on this one.

I received that untrusted connection message initially as well.

Harvey is just too evil...



Later.

Nah, your IP was forced through very sucky routes and you wound up at a bad destination before you could view past that line.

But really it's the fault of Firefox! Where is the evil laugh emoticon?