Letter and Report
University at Buffalo State University of New York Department of Computer Science and Engineering January 13, 2013 Emil Sutovsky, President BartlomiejMacieja, General Secretary Association of Chess Professionals Dear Emil, Bartek, and ACP Board Members: I am writing out of general concern at the increased spectre of cheating at chess, and from particular concern about issues of due process. It is prompted by current reports [1,2,3] and public discussion of the allegations against Mr. Borislav Ivanov from the 2012 Zadar Open, which was held last Dec. 16{22. In these reports, and in posts by other bloggers and commenters [4,5,6,7], the main evidence comprises tests of moves with computer chess programs, and assertions about the frequency of the played move `matching' the program's first choice (or first few choices), alongside ideas about unlikelihood of rating-performance fluctuations. None of these tests so far presented meets scientific needs of regular methodology, reproducibility, bases for comparison, or confidence intervals for conclusions. However, the need for such tests is recognized by many, no less the esteemed Leonard Barden, in his comments to the ChessVibes story [1] which appear immediately afterward at the top. Barden called for a test of Mr. Ivanov's nine games at the 2012 Zadar Open with \Houdini or another top program." I have worked on meeting these needs since October 2006, in co-operation with others including Guy Haworth of Reading University (UK) [8,9,10]. My appended report shows the workings and significance of my procedure. There has been wide concern about due process [11].
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