Author: Adam Oellermann
Date: 08:43:55 05/29/02
Go up one level in this thread
I like the way colleagues look at me like I'm a bug-eyed monster when I casually shoehorn a comment about "my chess engine" into a conversation. It's just about impossible to outgeek that (unless of course you're one of the legion of chess programmers who can toast Blikskottel in 20 moves ;) ) Adam On May 28, 2002 at 14:47:17, K. Burcham wrote: > > >I have been curious about what motivates chess programmers. What do they really >want from their creation? > >1. Money >2. Number one on SSDF list >3. To Win most games against human GM >4. To gain more Fans >5. To be looked at as number one programmer >6. Attention & fame >7. Only to beat their last version >8. could care less about any of the above---just a casual hobby > > > >I have often wondered who is buying these programs. I have a large family. >If I ask any of these people who Fritz7 is, they would not have a clue. If I ask >someone I work with who Century 4 is, they would not have a clue. 95% of the >people on the street have not heard of Shredder 6 Paderborn. No one I work with >has ever heard of Chessbase. No one in my family has ever heard of chessbase. I >wonder what the income is for the top programmers. Not to know their salary, but >I am curious if the income from their programs is enough to motivate them to >pursue a better program than their last. Of course we are talking about the top >selling commercial programs. > >Also I have noticed in playing GM, most programs could care less if the GM is >closing all files. If there was an expensive program that had been tuned and >tested to play humans, I would buy this. But i would assume there is no market >for the work that it would take to produce this. maybe also this human program >would be weak against other programs on SSDF list. also if there was a "tuned >for programs only book", that was expensive, I would buy this. > >I wonder how some of the programmers test their changes as they decide to work >on another version. This would be very critical to decide to make changes to a >strong program that is already top five on SSDF list. Maybe some have test >positions that they trust to use as a standard. maybe they play other programs >in different time controls and see what results are compared to version before >changes. I cant believe that beta testers give accurate feedback for program >strength adjustments. (except maybe Sarah, Jonas, etc.) it would seem from some >posts and program releases, beta testers are not giving the type of feedback >necessary to prevent bugs being released to public. One of the top programs was >released last year, and it was very unprofessionally managed before release. as >soon as it was released, a huge list developed for patches and complaints. I >laughed at that one, but I bought it anyway. > >If there was an expensive program that was optimized for smp, that was stronger >than other smp commercial programs, I would buy it. But only if the price was >high enough to keep the casual program buyer from purchasing it. > >If a single processor program was released, that proved it was much better than >any other top program, and if it was expensive, I would buy it. > >You have seen what some chess program buyers will spend on hardware. It would be >the same with an expensive program. If a new program was released, and sold for >$350 to $500, became number one on SSDF list by the largest margin. This same >program everyone says is beating all programs, most of the time. At game >servers, there is small group of members that win most games using this program. >Would this sell? I think there is a market for this level of program. >But it would seem that one or more GM would have to be on payroll for helping >programmer with new version. if three 2600 GM were on Chess tiger 16 payroll for >one year full time working on book, knowledge and playing 1000's of games, with >feed back to programmer----seems this would be very strong. also it would seem >if a programmer could employ 20 Sarah types, to test matches with new changes to >program, playing 1000's of games against other top programs to give feedback to >programmer so that he can decide on final changes to make to program. > >Just some thoughts I have. >kburcham
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