Author: Ross Boyd
Date: 02:02:18 07/15/04
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On July 14, 2004 at 21:56:40, steven blincoe wrote: >it seems that not very many countries take a strong interest in computer chess >The US ,Germany,Holland seem to be the ones with the most interest >then perhaps Great Britian ,Israel,France ,Canada and Ireland > >we see very little from Austraila ,Eastern Europe,Spain ,Portugal,Mexico and >South America in general I'll bite. :-) Speaking from an Australian POV I agree there is not a huge interest in chess in general here. I can think of only two newspapers which sport a regular chess column. "The Bulletin" discontinued its column AFAIK some years ago. We have, I think, 2 GMs Ian Rogers and Daryl Johansen. And surprisingly enough we had the 1st World Correspondence Champion in C.J Purdy who btw, wrote some great instructional chess literature. As far as computer chess goes we are not a force (yet). And yet there are some individuals here who are highly motivated towards bridging the gap to the elite programs. But its not easy... ;-) There have been some innovations... Thomas McBurney wrote Tom's Live Chess Viewer which is a great utility for watching live chess matches. Also, Andrew Tridgell et al. wrote Knightcap which re-weights its evaluation based on experience. Steve, I know you're a collector - strangely enough it was dedicated chess computers which caught my interest in the mid 80's. I've owned quite a few and this was the impetus to learn programming so that one day I could write a chess engine... and what a buzz it is to finally get one out there... and who could have predicted the power of the internet to fuel our hobby. But getting back OT, Australia isn't backward in computer technology. Most households here own one. Holy smokes, I own three! :-) Traditionally though, we have not had a huge electronics manufacturing export industry here. We tend to export raw materials like wool, steel, beer and meat-pies. You know, the stuff that people really need. :o) I'm not sure this has spread any light on your question but, heck, it sure was fun waffling on for a bit.... BTW, I have a Hanimex HCG1900 Computachess in full working order. Very nice rare 80's machine with magnetic sensory board. Want to make me an offer? The shipping could be prohibitive. :-) Best Regards, Ross Boyd
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