This is my answer to the following thoughts of Sumerian which were put on feature request board but we were asked to discuss it here:

"to reza: I am surprised finding me being a subject of a cheating discussion here. Why not simply ask me directly?

a) Before participating in a tournament I am asking its creator under which conditions I would be welcomed or not. If not accepted I am simply not participating. Concerning the most actual GC tournament I have been explicitly invited.
b) If I would use the assistance of my unready and still error containing growing Smirf engine, it is merely a form of organizing my own experiences. Others will use databases of their commented game notations, books or take help from third persons or use unmentioned bought programs. But instead I am relying simply only on MY OWN means.
c) It is no secret what I am doing. I have it openly documented in my profile, that I will mostly be testing a self written engine.
d) Moreover I am mostly waiting to be invited for to play a game, thinking the invitor will have seen and read my profile.

What more can I do than to make those details open and clear for everybody instead of preferring a secret use?"

Dear Sumerian,

First of all, I really don't know what I should have asked you directly. Perhaps why you use a computer to help you?

You have been explicitly invited by Mr. Trice?
Well then I personally don't think he has acted fairly enough. He has offered a big prize and I think it is fair that all the participants of the tournament are in the same situation and use their own abilities alone.

What I giv eyou as my answer to part b of your comments is that using "others" is not the best choice. What I get from that word is that you mean all other people here while it's not true. many of those others do not use notations or help from a third person. Yes, you are using your own means but that Gothic chess tournament isn't the proper place for it. You can use your own means bu putting tens of invitaions on the waiting games page mentioning that those who pick up the invitation are going to play with your "unready and still error containing growing Smirf engine."

Let me put it this way. You are the biggest brain and most qualified person in the world of computers, just pretending. You have with help from no one else created a program that can play gothic and janus chess. Still if you use it to challenge others, I think you are cheating. You can challenge others to make a better program than yours but you cannot challenge them to win your program. That has been a gothic chess tournament and the object is to play gothic chess with no help and to finally determine the one who is able to play gothic chess the best of all not the one who is able to make a program that playes Githic chess better than humans.

Yes, it's no secret what you are doing. You have honestly put your secret on your profile but in this particular case, others have no choice but to play with you. many of those who have lost to you in the tournament and many others who WILL lose to you later, may not choose to play you if you put invitations on the site. But here, they simply have to. I myself will never play you a game of Gothic chess fo two reasons. I am not that much interested in that game since regular chess is still quite challenging for me and second for the "assisstence" you are using. In the tournament it is different. If I can manage to win all in my group, I'll have to play you finally and test my abilities against a machine assissted person. I think you see how different these are. To choose to play you willingly and to be forced to play you by the system controling the tournament.

Finally, yes I admit that putting your secret on your profile is still a lot better than those who have the same secret but never reveal it. But I think you yourself must decide when to join a tournament and when not to. This very tournament, you shouldn't have taken a part in.