Michael Adams

Dear Mark,

I had not at first intended to prolong the discussions about the Deep Junior match as I felt it rather detracted from what I still I still believe was an interesting and innovative event but given some of the extremely inaccurate things that have been written both on the internet and in print, I feel I should state the facts from the Bermuda side.

In general I agree with the comments by Michael Greengard (Mig) on the Club Kasparov site and on the computer chess club newsgroup. I was however quite shocked to read the unwarranted accusations by Shay Bushinsky and Amir Ban. It is clear that in a situation where the two opponents are in two different countries that it is not possible to fully understand exactly what is happening at the other side. In view of this it is especially surprising that they have made such serious accusations without making any attempt to find out the facts.

For some reason on the newsgroup Shay Bushinsky has directly stated that I exhibited "very poor sportsmanship". Amir Ban also accuses me totally without foundation of having demanded that the computer be defaulted in the first game, in fact I did not demand that the computer be defaulted at all - it was the decision made by Mig and obviously only applied to the second game. Amir goes on to conclude - "Adams may have missed here a golden opportunity to demand being declared winner of the entire Grand Prix". Indeed whilst this match did nothing to change my high opinion of Deep Junior, unfortunately I am unable to say the same about its programmers and operators.

Here are the facts as I am aware of them:

The start time of the match was not changed at my request: whilst he was in Bermuda Mig offered that - as I was playing the computer - I could play at a time of my choosing and offered to bring the match forward one day (i.e. to the 15th). Had Mig not made this offer I would of course have played my game at the original time as I did all my other rounds. I accepted this offer as it was much more convenient for my match with Yasser and the Bermuda organisers but it turned out that Mig had not consulted with my opponents who refused to make the switch. As some kind of compromise Club Kasparov put the match time back to 13.00 (all times Bermudian) as this was nearer to the start time of my match games with Yasser.

It was of course unfortunate that Mig was unable to remain in Bermuda for the full extent of my participation in the Grand Prix as I had understood would be the case. Everyone in Bermuda expressed concern that it would be difficult to resolve technical problems if they arose but Mig assured us that all would go smoothly. When I reminded him of this conversation after the Deep Junior incident he stated that his presence in Bermuda would not have helped to solve the problems as they were all caused by the internet provider in Israel.

Equipment was a bit of a problem anyway as Mig had taken his laptop with him and my laptop is too old to be used (obviously if the tournament had been on its original dates it would have been very easy for me to play at home on my PC or possibly at the Chess and Bridge Centre). We had also borrowed Jill Faulks' mobile phone, as there was only one phone line in the playing hall which was connected to the internet. I was playing using Nigel Freeman's internet account as the account Mig had opened did not work in Bermuda. Yasser and I were very grateful to everyone in Bermuda for their help not least that of Nick Faulks, the sponsor of the Adams-Seirawan match, who agreed for the schedule to be altered and also, reluctantly, for the match be reduced to 8 games from 10. Nick was especially understanding as the Seirawan-Adams match had been scheduled for over a year and Club Kasparov were only able to contact him with details of the Grand Prix less than a month before the start of the match when due to other commitments and the fact that plane tickets had been booked it was impossible to schedule extra days to complete the match. It seems a poor reward for their considerable efforts to be accused of having technical problems when all delays were the responsibility of either the internet provider in Israel or Club Kasparov.

On the day of my game with Deep Junior, Carol Jarecki was already working on the software, which had been successfully tested the day before, from 09.00 although we were only able to acquire Jill Faulks mobile phone at 11.30 more than an hour and a half before the official start time of the match. As it had taken Mig only twenty minutes to get everything running for my match against Gulko this would seem to be ample for a prompt start (the delay to the start of my match against Gulko was actually due to Mig arriving late to the playing hall).

It was suggested by Aviv Bushinsky (Shay's brother) that maybe there was a problem with Carol's computer and that using Yvette's might solve the problem but it seems unlikely to me that this was the problem as Carol's computer had been tested the previous day and was also used throughout my match with Kasparov without any problems and I hence believe that the switch was unnecessary. Naturally due to the switch of the computer it was also necessary to switch my mouse.

By this stage the delay was approximately one hour, now everything was more or less ready to go but I noticed that the verify button was not on the screen and asked Aviv where it was, Aviv said that it was not available although Mig had already offered me the use of it in my first round match against Gulko. Mig had also assured us by email that it would be available for this match and that it would take only five minutes to install. After about 25 minutes had passed I had become quite frustrated with the delay and said that I just wanted to play as soon as possible with or without the verify button, we were actually ready to start at about 14.40 Bermuda time.

At this stage Aviv said that the verify button might be working but they hadn't tested it yet and suggested that instead, as I was playing the computer, if I made a mouse slip Carol Jarecki who was acting as my operator, should ring up Aviv and the move would be retracted. I wasn't very happy with this solution and was very thankful that it did not occur during the game as I felt that this would leave me open to all kinds of accusations which some of the people involved have seemed all too happy to throw around.

Finally the game started. Obviously the game was a bit of a disaster from my point of view and shortly after move 20 I had very little hope but as I tried to resist in a lost position the computer started to consume large amounts of time - at one stage I believe it took over a quarter of an hour on one move and in the final position the times on my monitor were approximately 00:08:20 for myself and 00:01:40 for Deep Junior. After Deep Junior's last move the message "game adjourned" immediately flashed up on the screen. Shortly thereafter the mobile phone rang and Aviv said that there was a problem and the game would continue shortly. As the computer was taking so much time the idea of lag had already occurred to me and I asked Carol to confirm with Aviv that the times on my computer were correct. Aviv said that he could not see the times on his computer as his screen was blank but assured me that the times at our end would be accurate. I had earlier been told that any lag would be corrected on a move by move basis so I can only assume that the times we had were correct. The times that the ICC had for the game seem to be quite similar to the ones we had.

Given the speed that Deep Junior was moving it is impossible to say if it would have forfeited on time had the game continued but obviously we were denied the possibility of finding this out due to technical difficulties I believe with the internet connection at the Israeli end. It is also surprising to me that as much has been made of the importance of the match to Deep Junior that it's operators did not ensure that the venue at which it played had either a very reliable internet connection and or backup connections and other facilities available.

Next Mig rang from New York to suggest some solutions to the problem. His first solution was that the match be restarted from scratch the next day. I explained this was completely impossible as there were no longer any free days built in to the schedule of my match against Yasser ( I actually played 13 games over a period of 12 days during this time, obviously had the tournament taken place in December when my schedule was completely free then this would not have been a problem). Mig rang off to consult with Aviv.

He rang back again at about 17.00 Bermudian time, already over half an hour after the adjournment of the game, he said that he did not consider it fair to continue the first game after such a long break so I said that I was happy to abandon it to a draw, which he seemed quite happy with. Mig then said that if the Deep Junior was not ready to start the second game by 17.15 it would be forfeited - this was in no way my suggestion - I only indicated that I wanted to proceed with the second game as quickly as possible.

I notice that several people have commented that Mig was not qualified to make this offer - indeed in TWIC you stated "I pretty much only have the Deep Junior team's view on this matter which can be summed up as they accuse Adams of being too quick to take a default from someone he knew had no official role in the match". I find this most unfair. I understood, and still believe, that Mig was more than qualified for several reasons: on my Club Kasparov contract under the space organisers signature Mig has signed, (there is no mention of Aviv on the official contract although I later received emails and letters from him where he is listed as Event Co-ordinator), also Mig is a vice president of Club Kasparov and he was also the operator for my previous round match against Gulko. Furthermore if Mig had no authority I have no idea why he was speaking on the phone to both me and Aviv or as to why his decision was eventually upheld.

As regarding this particular situation the contract simply states that problems should be dealt with on a case by case basis. So to me in this case the ruling was pretty clear - the first game was a draw and if Deep Junior was not ready to start by 17.15 Bermudian time it would be forfeited. Mig phoned again at about 17.20 and I pointed out the deadline had passed, he said he would ring Aviv and ring me back in five minutes. The next person we heard from was Aviv who rang at 17.42 ( 27 minutes after the deadline) to say that the decision was that the first game was a draw and that they were ready to start the second game which should begin immediately. I imagine by this stage Aviv knew about the forfeit as he did not even offer me five minutes warning after a delay of an hour and a quarter. We asked for a delay until 18.00.

Having thought about the situation I felt that there should be some clarification as to why Deep Junior had not been forfeited as was stated and asked for an explanation prior to the second game. Aviv then had a lengthy conversation with Carol Jarecki who fully supported my position. Of course Carol is an extremely experienced arbiter who officiated at both Kasparov- Deep Blue matches so she also has some experience of man-computer matches. This conversation went on for quite some time but no progress was made.

At this stage Aviv decided to turn to the arbiter. This introduced a rather comic side to the proceedings as Aviv said that he had to wake him up to do so. This was apparently not an easy task but Aviv succeeded after more than one attempt to reach him by phone. I find it hard to see how someone who is asleep while the games are going on can make any kind of considered decision and obviously he had not been party to any of the phone conversations throughout the day. Aviv explained the situation to him briefly in Russian and translated his decision which was in total agreement with Aviv's opinion. I said that I did not feel that the arbiter could make a reasonable judgement and asked why Mig's earlier statement was being disregarded. At this stage (it was shortly after 19.00) Aviv said that he would ring Mig and someone would call me back within five minutes. Finally at about 20.10 Mig rang me back to say that his decision had been upheld and to apologise for all the problems and confusion.

I feel after the problem Mig behaved very decently by accepting much of the blame and also attempting to defend me against the unwarranted accusations that have been thrown at me. Obviously I think that this kind of event is interesting for Chess players and fans everywhere and hope that Club Kasparov will continue to be able to put on events of this nature as the future of Chess seems to be heading in this direction. Clearly however in the early stages it will be necessary for all sides to be understanding to deal with any teething troubles and I find it a great shame that the Deep Junior team has been unable to do this.

Sincerely,

Michael Adams