Re: [computer-go] how to have a computer go tournament?

[Don Dailey <drd@xxxxxxx>]

> why did people complain? can you recall some of their reasons for being upset?

Let me try to answer that, even though I can't tell you their reasons
because I wasn't there.  I have had a lot of experience playing my
chess program in human tournaments.

Generally, there was always some resistance to this, but it greatly
increased when chess programs starting getting really strong.  Now
no one wants to play the computer.

But back when reasonably strong players had a chance, here are the reasons
usually given:

  1.  I came to play humans, not computers.
  2.  I can't get psyched up to play a computer.
  3.  Or a variation of this:  I play terrible against computers.

The last 2 things are probably not very relevant for most GO players
who can beat program easily unless they are fairly weak.

>From conversations with others, it's easy to deduce that in many cases
the TRUE reason is not given, just an excuse that isn't really being
candid.  Here are some of the REAL reasons based on my speculation
(which you can take with a grain of salt but I believe are often the
case.)

  1.  Some players are lazy.  Tournaments are stressful and amazingly
      some players would prefer to avoid the stress of playing even
      though they have already expended money and effort getting to
      the tournament.  It's kind of like skipping work when the
      weather is really bad even if you generally love your job.  It
      is related to "approach avoidance" in phychology.

      Even when I played tournament chess which I truly loved, I
      noticed that just before the games, depending on my mood, I
      would often wish I was somewhere else until I actually got
      involved in the game.  It's a natural human reaction to avoid
      stress.

      It's pretty far fetched to complain about having to play a game
      against a human since that is why you are there, but it's pretty
      easy to raise a stink over having to play a computer and perhaps
      not having to play the game since it is percieved as being a
      unique or odd situation having a computer present.

  2.  I don't know about tournament GO, but in chess a full point BYE
      is given if you do not play due to an odd number of players.
      Again, if you can complain your way out of having to play a
      computer you are rewarded with a "free win."

      Of course this reason is NEVER the one actually given.

There is an easy solution which kind of annoys me, but works
unbelievably well.  OFFER MONEY to anyone who can beat the computer.
At one tournament years ago, the rules were that no one had to play
the computer unless they wanted to, they just had to specify
beforehand.  Almost zero people wanted to play.  The next year, we
offered $5.00 for a draw and $10.00 for a win.  This tiny amount of
money was enough to induce almost EVERYONE to put their name on the
list to play.  So the amount you offer almost doesn't matter, as long
as you offer something.

Go players may be a different breed.  I got real sick of chess due to
the Las Vegas atmosphere.  It was all about winning and money.  Unless
you were a very strong player, there was little chance of recovering
your expenses but during the whole tournament people were counting
their chickens and calculating how much money they might win if things
went just so.  Only at the fairly big tournaments could you win enough
to even cover your expenses even if you were one of the best players.
What annoyed me was that tournament fees were very high to support
this kind of atmosphere and provisions were made to hand out many
prizes.  Of course realistically I realized that there would be no
tournaments without all of this, since this is what motivated most
players to come to the tournaments.   

I like to win as much as anyone else, but I never came to win money
because that was a fools errand, usually the best you could hope for
was to recover SOME of your expenses.  But it was so bad there were
known cases of people "sacking" their ratings at home (losing on
purpose) for the sole purpose of "cleaning up" at these tournaments.
The irony is that even playing a class down against a large number of
players gave you small odds.  As I said, tournaments are stressful so
the ones doing this were basically working their tails off for little
expected gain.  But the idea of winning was too much of a thrill to
them (similar to the gambling greed disease many people suffer from.)

Another thing that can be done is to have tournaments designed
specifically for computer/human play like they used to do in computer
chess.  Or, have tournaments where you are required to play a computer
if you happened to get paired against one, no exceptions.

- Don

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