I would like to add something here, since "some" are trying to keep various types of "bitterness" alive and well.
Computer chess went through three really distinct phases.
Phase 1 started in 1970 and continued into the early 90's, where we had annual ACM computer chess tournaments (and every three years a WCCC event). These were "in person" events where the programmers showed up with either a computer or a terminal to access their remote machine. They were about the tournament, AND the paper presentations from the authors. This was what I would call "the fun times" of computer chess. This was the "run whatcha brung" and included everything from $50m Crays to basic microprocessor systems to custom designed chess hardware including Belle, HiTech, Deep Thought, and even a few not-so-custom things like ChessMachine Schroeder and such. Clusters - welcome. Supercomputers - welcome. Z80's - welcome. Etc.
Phase 2 started in the middle 90's after the annual ACM events ended (last was 1994). At that point we were organizing online events using the original computer chess club (which morphed into the Internet Computer Chess [ICC] most of used for many years (no relationship to the current computer chess club message board). These events were more fun, because they could have more rounds, required ZERO travel/expenses, but we lost the "meetings" and "papers" part of the old ACM era. Yes, we had channel 64 discussions, but while those were often interesting and useful, they were not quite the same. There was much less exotic hardware used with one notable exception that clusters were working their way into the mix. They are really "poor man's supercomputers" at some level, but there was very little additional effort expended in custom hardware design once deep thought put away Kasparov.
Phase 3 is where TCEC currently is. Here NO programmers are involved in operating for the games or anything. NO limits on what programs are allowed (near 100% clones are apparently OK) and such. Obviously, TCEC is "the lowest common denominator" from a hardware perspective. They have seen fit to add some GPU hardware, but everyone gets the same basic hardware, whether they can use it all or not.
As we have progressed, the programmers were slowly fading away from the competition. Just a matter of technology changing the way things happen. I won't begin to say things are worse (or better) than they were 20 and 40 years ago. But they are most definitely different.
I will close with a short story to show how things have changed. When I won my first WCCC (1983) we used a dual-cpu Cray machine. It took a LOT of effort to use two processors in a parallel search. The next year we had 4 processors. When the 1986 WCCC event came along, and we won our 2nd consecutive title, we were running on an 8-cpu Cray YMP. People used to talk about how much time I wasted working on the parallel part of the search rather than the alpha/beta part of the search (and I actually did a LOT of work on both parts). Their complaint was "who cares? that hardware is too expensive and will never become "main stream"". After the 1994 ACM event in Cape May, I decided to do a complete re-write of Cray Blitz. Converting from Fortran to C, but more importantly converting from a vector-based super computer to a micro-computer (initially the Intel Pentium, and then the pentium pro). But interestingly, our local computer store dragged a new dual-cpu pentium II box out to my office (most of the employees there had taken classes under me at UAB). So, a brief detour to make Crafty a parallel search program. I remember comments on ICC at the time, "Wow, nice NPS, but who cares? that will never become main stream..." I gave my usual "never is a really long time..." A few years later, when the dual/quad CPU machines were becoming common, the next comment I heard was "who cares about these multiple CPU micro-computers? The future is the hand-held cell phone market and they will never be multiple CPU versions of those, they don't need the power." Need I mention how long "never" is.
So what I was doing in 1983 is STILL being done today (parallel search). If we had been "uniform platform" in the 80's, what a different world computer chess would be today.
The ACM events have become pretty much irrelevant, NOT because of the Rybka controversy. NOT because of the ACM leadership. But because of the evolution of world-wide computing. Makes no sense to travel and take two weeks, spend thousands of dollars on travel, hotels and food, when you can compete from your recliner in your living room, and not miss a single day of work.
THAT is what has happened to computer chess over the years. I competed in them from 1976 until 1994 when the last ACM event was held. I played (using an operator) in a few WMCCC events but they were just not the same thing. Technology has changed things. The ACM event simply got passed up by technology and is but a shadow of the old events. Sad, but then many things have changed in computing. Most always for the better.
Way past time to get off the old anti-ACM bandwagon, the old anti-anti-Rybka bandwagon, and move on. What has happened is over, and can't be undone. Time to grow up and move on.
As a last point, many STILL complain about various ACM tournament rules. What most don't understand was that the rules were NOT just handed down from on high. We the programmers wrote and rewrote the rules many times trying to address issues we saw (cloning attempts more than once, stolen hardware/software more than once, etc.) Those events were driven by the programmers, for the programmers. Not for the spectators. Not for the computer chess fans. Not for the sponsors. For the programmers. The CCC online tournaments were run exactly the same way, with the programmers creating the rules. Now, we are at a point where the programmers have little input other than to say "you can't enter my program." Which way is best? Jury is still out. I STILL think of the old days of computer chess as being the most memorable. My wife and I are fixing to take a month-long trip in our RV up into New England. Plan on stopping in Washington DC for a few days and plan on taking her to the Smithsonian to show here the 1983 version of Belle we beat in New York to win the WCCC that year (Ken donated it to the Smithsonian as the first official electronic chess master (USCF) many years ago). To those of us that participated, those were special days that will not be forgotten until we return to room temperature...
Lots of old quotes are around, but the one I remember best was from somewhere in the early 1980's. Monty Newborn was speaking at one of our panel discussions we had, and made the statement, "15 years ago, grandmasters came to our computer chess tournaments to laugh. Today they come to watch. It won't be that long before they come to _learn_. We are there.
