I don't think there is much of a threat to people playing and keeping popular games such as Go and chess. Humans will accept that they can't defeat a computer program with or without AI. The problem is centered on how we as humans living and working in a variety of cultures (corporate, democratic, religious, etc) use or allow AI to be used. There is tremendous positive potential in many areas (medical research?), but also tremendous possibilities for mischief and, dare I say it, evil.
https://en.chessbase.com/post/the-future-is-here-alphazero-learns-chess
Thursday, December 7, 2017
Saturday, December 2, 2017
World Chess Championship in London or St. Louis?
"The actual venue has yet to be announced although the organisers say they have several short-listed options. The prize fund is the world body Fide’s minimum of $1m, which could yet present a problem if Fabiano Caruana wins the eight-man candidates in Berlin in March. In that case the billionaire Rex Sinquefield, who has made his home city of St Louis into a global chess capital and who could easily fund a much larger purse, may try to have the match switched to the US."--Leonard Barden
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/dec/01/london-confirmed-for-magnus-carlsen-title-defence
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/dec/01/london-confirmed-for-magnus-carlsen-title-defence
Thursday, November 30, 2017
Tuesday, November 28, 2017
Middlebury Quick Tournament This Saturday........
......in,,,,,drum roll, please......Middlebury, VT. Imagine that! Complete details can be found on the tournament page of this blog.
Wednesday, November 22, 2017
Agon, Ltd./World Chess and FIDE Attempting to Restrict Live Tournament Commentating
They've lost in courts from the US to Europe to Russia trying to restrict live transmission of the moves of FIDE tournaments. Now they are trying to restrict commentating on the moves live by FIDE GMs and IMs by suspending them for "ethical" violation. Here is the text of the Aon, Ltd./World Chess proposal to FIDE.
I'll comment on this further shortly.
FIDE LIVE MOVES BROADCASTING POLICY
I'll comment on this further shortly.
World Chess
To: Members of the Working Group to Study the Proposal of Agon Limited on Protection of Live Chess
Moves
Dear Members of the Working Group,
First of all, I would like to thank Mr Strydom, Mr Rivello
and Ms Sperdokli for their valuable comments to the Agon Limited proposal
presented at the last Presidential Board meeting in March, 2017. All of them
were taken into consideration when developing the wording of the draft FIDE
Live Moves Broadcasting Policy (“Draft Policy”) attached to this letter.
The Draft Policy recognizes the right of the World Chess
Federation to control the live dissemination of the FIDE events’ moves.
Furthermore, it provides for the measures to be taken against persons
interfering with this right.
Pursuant to the Policy there are two types of violators –
Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 includes the members of FIDE family, whereas Type 2
covers organizations and individuals, who are not part of the FIDE family.
The measures to be taken against Type 1 violators are
already previewed in the Code of Ethics – the Draft Policy merely introduces
the new rule that members of FIDE family shall comply with.
As for the Type 2 violators, the Policy provides for
indirect measures. Those persons are subject to inclusion to special FIDE list
(“Blacklist”) and members of FIDE family are prohibited from cooperating with
the blacklisted persons. Thus, the measures have an indirect effect – the
prohibition is obligatory for members of FIDE family, and its violation shall
be treated as the breach of FIDE Code of Ethics by the member of FIDE
family.
This method of restrictions on cooperation is similar to
the EU or US sanctions, even thought the scope of the prohibition and its
objectives are quite different from the political sanctions.
The main idea behind this prohibition is that chess
community shall make an effort to ban freeriders from using the infrastructure
provided by it. Individuals and organizations that do not respect the efforts
of the chess events organizers and federations and continue to profit on live
chess moves information without contributing to the staging of the events
reduce the value of chess as professional sport and, thus, hinder its
development and popularization.
The prohibition will serve as a measure aimed at:
•
making it possible for FIDE and FIDE events
organizers to use on exclusive basis or sell the rights to live move-by-move
broadcasting, thus providing an additional stream of revenue for FIDE events;
•
stopping the practice of organization of
unauthorized live move-by-move broadcasts by the third parties that only
free-ride on the efforts of FIDE and organizers of its events, without
contributing to the events themselves;
•
will prevent chess players and other chess
professionals from participating in these reprehensible practices.
Further, I would like to address the issues raised by Mr
Strydom and Mr Rivello in their comments to the initial proposal.[1]
Who will be the "proprietor" of
the broadcasting rights in the event of a tournament being held under the
auspices of a federation or if the tournament is privately staged?
FIDE will be the “proprietor” of the broadcasting rights.
The players will transfer this rights under the contracts for participation
together with other commercial rights. The said rights will form a part of the
TV and Internet broadcasting rights that are usually assigned to the organizer
of the FIDE event in order to make it possible for the organizer to
commercialize the event.
The FIDE Code of Ethics cannot be enforced
against the members of general public that cannot somehow be brought into the
notion of the "FIDE family".
This is a very valuable point that was brought up by Mr
Strydom. As it was mentioned earlier, the Draft Policy is only enforceable
against the members of the FIDE family. Nevertheless, it effectively excludes
the non-FIDE-family violators from the cooperation with the FIDE family chess
community. I believe that this resolves the issue of freedom of commercial
association and pursuit of commercial activity as well as the restrictions only
apply to the members of FIDE family.
Finally, there are still several questions that need to be
addressed once the wording of the Policy is finalized.
The first one being the possibility of implementation of
similar policies on the national federation level and their recognition and
enforcement by FIDE. I see the development of Model Broadcasting Policy for
national federations as a perfect tool to address this.
The second question is the temporary application of the
Broadcasting Policy for the period after its approval by the working group and
the Presidential Board/the Executive Board and its approval by the General
Assembly. The point here is that at least FIDE can apply the prohibition on
cooperation for this period, providing the idea to all the interested parties
on how the Policy should work. However, in such case it is still to be decided
which FIDE body or commission will take responsibility for updating the list of
violators and who will have the final decision when it comes to establishing
the fact of violation during this temporary period.
I am looking forward to receiving your comments and
suggestions on both this letter and attached Draft Policy. Thank you for your
consideration on this matter!
Sincerely,
Matvey
Shekhovtsov
Matvey Shekhovtsov
Member of Agon Limited/FIDE Interface Team
Agon Limited
10th of April 2017
FIDE LIVE MOVES BROADCASTING POLICY
1. Introduction
1.1. This
section describes the Live moves broadcasting policy of FIDE (“Policy”).
1.2. This
Policy shall govern what action may be taken against any person (meaning either
an individual or organization) that deliberately or through gross negligence
violates the exclusive right to organize live move-by-move broadcast of FIDE
events.
1.3. The
FIDE Ethics Commission is responsible for any actions to be taken in accordance
with this Policy.
2. Right to organize live moves broadcasting
2.1. FIDE
shall have the exclusive right to organize the live move-by-move broadcast of
FIDE events (“Broadcasting right”). FIDE may at its sole discretion assign this
right to third parties, including the organizer’s of FIDE events and/or its
appointed commercial agencies.
2.2. The
exclusivity of the Broadcasting right shall only extend for the whole duration
of the broadcasted game. After the end of the game the notation can be used
without any further restrictions.
2.3. Use
of up to 10 consecutive moves in one piece of communication (e.g. on one
web-page; in one video piece) shall be regarded as fair use which does not
interfere with the Broadcasting right.
3. Violation of the Broadcasting right
3.1. The
following actions shall be regarded as violations of the Broadcasting right:
a) unauthorized
live move-by-move broadcasting of FIDE events via any means of communication
including, but not limited to Internet, Radio and Television;
b) participation
in the unauthorized live move-by-move broadcasting as commentator or author;
c) advertising
and/or promoting unauthorized live move-by-move broadcasting.[2]
4. Violators
4.1. Type
I violators («Violators I») include persons listed in item 1.4 of the FIDE Code
of Ethics that performed actions listed in item 3.1 of this Policy.
4.2. Type
II violators («Violators II») include persons who are not listed in item 1.4 of
the FIDE Code of Ethics that performed actions listed in item 3.1 of this
Policy.
4.3. The
fact of the violation shall be determined by the FIDE Ethics Commission upon
the complaint of the Broadcasting right holder
5. Measures to be taken in respect of
Violators I.
5.1. Violation
of the Broadcasting right by Violators I shall be considered to be a breach of
the FIDE Code of Ethics.
5.2. The
general procedure previewed by the FIDE Code of Ethics and respective
punishments shall apply.
6. Measures to be taken in respect of
Violators II.
6.1. Violators
II shall be added to the special list (“FIDE Blacklist”) for the period to be
determined by the FIDE Ethics Commission on the basis of the severity of
violation. Such period in any case shall not exceed 10 (ten) years.
6.2. Persons
listed in item 1.4 of the FIDE Code of Ethics are prohibited from entering into
any commercial or other cooperation, partnership or any other contractual
relationship with the persons listed on FIDE Blacklist. Violation of this
provision shall be considered a breach of the FIDE Code of Ethics.
6.3. FIDE
Secretariat shall be responsible for updating the FIDE Blacklist in accordance
with the decisions of the FIDE Ethics Commission and publishing it on the FIDE
website.
6.4. Person
may be excluded from the FIDE Blacklist if it reaches an amicable agreement
with the Broadcasting right holder and undertakes to abstain from violating the
Broadcasting right in future.
Tuesday, November 21, 2017
VT Fall Scholastic Tournament and Dave Carter Simul a Great Success
Here are the results from Saturday's Berlin, VT event. Bravo to all who participated.
Grades K-2
# Name Grade Round
1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Total
1 Alexander
Collins 2 W6 W7 W2 W3 4.0
2 Roland
Ekstrom 2 W9 W5 L1 W6 3.0
3 Willard
Peabody 2 D4 W9 W7 L1 2.5
4 Jace
Grayson 1 D3 W10 L6 W8 2.5
5 Tomas
Hynes 2 W11 L2 D8 W10 2.5
6 Elias
O'Donald 1 L1 W11 W4 L2 2.0
7 William
Kimberley-Stridsberg 1 W8 L1 L3 W11 2.0
8 René
Simakaski 1 L7 B--- D5 L4 1.5
9 Jonathon
Sicard 2 L2 L3 D10 B--- 1.5
10 Quincy
Moreno 1 B--- L4 D9 L5 1.5
11 Trent
Loftus 2 L5 L6 B--- L7 1.0
Grades 3-4
# Name Grade Round
1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Total
1 Sullivan
Staff 3 W12 D5 W6 W2 3.5
2 Misha
Chirkov 3 W14 W3 W4 L1 3.0
3 Jack
Staff 4 W8 L2 W9 W5 3.0
4 Malachi
Ogden 4 W11 W14 L2 W8 3.0
5 Emma
Malroux 3 W9 D1 W7 L3 2.5
6 Tucker
Hessel 4 W13 D7 L1 W10 2.5
7 Tessa
Gordon 3 W10 D6 L5 W12 2.5
8 Jack
White 4 L3 W13 W11 L4 2.0
9 August
Simakaski 4 L5 W10 L3 W11 2.0
10 Flynn
Moreno 4 L7 L9 W13 L6 1.0
11 Jacob
Law 4 L4 W12 L8 L9 1.0
12 Archer
Beth 3 L1 L11 W14 L7 1.0
13 Rowan
Moran 3 L6 L8 L10 W14 1.0
14 Kealan
Gottshall 3 L2 L4 L12 L13 0.0
Grades 5-6
# Name Grade Round
1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Total
1 Jacob
Graham 5 W19 W9 W8 W3 4.0
2 Kareem
Schmidpeter 5 D15 W17 W4 W8 3.5
3 Mason
Asaro 5 W10 W12 W5 L1 3.0
4 Graham
Resmer 6 W14 W15 L2 W7 3.0
5 Hudson
Grimes 5 W18 W7 L3 W11 3.0
6 Cade
Jung 5 L7 W18 W9 W10 3.0
7 Charles
Garavelli 5 W6 L5 W12 L4 2.0
8 Andrew
Best 6 W13 W11 L1 L2 2.0
9 Tristan
Gottshall 5 W17 L1 L6 W18 2.0
10 Bennett
Moreno 5 L3 W19 W16 L6 2.0
11 Grace
Best 5 W16 L8 W13 L5 2.0
12 Sawyer
Cleary 5 B--- L3 L7 W16 2.0
13 Donovan
Sicard 5 L8 B--- L11 W19 2.0
14 Savannah
Staff 6 L4 L16 B--- W17 2.0
15 Thomas
Sheehan 6 D2 L4 L17 B--- 1.5
16 Max
Derby 6 L11 W14 L10 L12 1.0
17 Griffon
Beth 5 L9 L2 W15 L14 1.0
18 Samuel
Sanderson 5 L5 L6 D19 L9 0.5
19 Aiden
Collins 5 L1 L10 D18 L13 0.5
Grades 7-8
# Name Grade Round
1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Total
1 Kai
Jenkins-Mui 7 W6 W2 W5 W4 4.0
2 Simon
Cafiero 7 W12 L1 W8 W6 3.0
3 Jack
Brandon 8 W9 W11 L4 W5 3.0
4 Zakaria
Arshad 8 D11 W9 W3 L1 2.5
5 Benjamin
Parker 8 W10 W7 L1 L3 2.0
6 Christopher
Dukeshire 7 L1 W12 W7 L2 2.0
7 Noah
Sanderson 7 W8 L5 L6 W10 2.0
8 Thomas
Garavelli 7 L7 W10 L2 W9 2.0
9 Marcus
White 7 L3 L4 W12 L8 1.0
10 Uma
Chirkova 8 L5 L8 W11 L7 1.0
11 Leo
Brown 8 D4 L3 L10 D12 1.0
12 Timothy
McHugh 7 L2 L6 L9 D11 0.5
Grades 9-12
# Name Grade Round
1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Total
1 Ragulan
Sivakumar 10 W10 W1 D4 D3 3.0
2 Michael
Cafiero 10 W7 L2 W3 W4 3.0
3 Sasha
Kagle 11 W5 W6 L1 D2 2.5
4 Danis
Ly 11 W6 W8 D2 L1 2.5
5 Noah
Howe 10 L3 W10 D8 W9 2.5
6 Aedan
Taylor 11 L4 L3 W7 W8 2.0
7 Curtis
Johnson 11 L1 W9 L6 W10 2.0
8 Zac
Hinds 11 W9 L4 D5 L6 1.5
9 Koby
Sol Cruz 9 L8 L7 W10 L5 1.0
10 Bruce
Pandya 9 L2 L5 L9 L7 0.0
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