Author: Mig Greengard
Date: 14:37:19 09/09/05
Go up one level in this thread
Instead of being snide and proving my point about pointless and unfounded bashing, perhaps you could explain exactly what ChessBase, a for-profit company, has to gain by continuing to invest resources in winning 11-round tournaments against other programs. Why is it bullshit for a company to move into something more profitable, like interface design and making an engine that is a more useful training tool for amateurs? What would they have gained had Fritz 9 entered and won with a Fischerian score of 11/11? They would put a nice story bragging about it up on their site, put "2005 world champion!" on the box, and sold three more copies than they otherwise would have. Of course the rise of so many strong programs has something to do with this; the engine market has become commoditized to the point where there is little profit left in competing. Note the word "profit." When there were two or three top engines it made sense to tout their power. When Junior and Shredder did so well, ChessBase brought them in because having the top engines was important. But when there are five or ten that all play at a similar level, it is pointless to keep running such races. It requires massive amounts of work to stay near the top and you get very little in return, hence my comment about diminishing returns. This does not require a translation unless you don't speak English. ChessBase (for which I do not speak) is obviously interested in maintaining engine excellence. There is a nice supply of new engines that they can cherry-pick when they like. This is good for everyone. They may well be interested in a deal with Zappa or Fruit. Is having seven programs better than five? What about 10? It's a marketing decision. Do you dump a known brand like Junior because it finished fifth this year? Do you go running after every new hot program without knowing if the programmer can deliver on time and continue the project? Crafty has been plenty strong enough for years to substitute for Fritz or Shredder for anyone who's not an international master. Last I checked it was still free, even distributed by ChessBase, and it hasn't put the guys in Hamburg out of business. 50 or 100 Elo points is not the relevant difference now that all the programs are over 2500. In my other Daily Dirt comments I compared all this "ass kicking" hot air to people who want to buy a car because it has a higher top speed than another. You think 2780 is so much better than 2765 that you fail to realize this puts you in the sub-1% of the market for ChessBase products. Do you think the hordes of people who buy ChessMaster are worried about where it is on some obscure rating list? If ChessBase can have it both ways, I'm sure they gladly will. If you win, you brag, if you don't win, you don't brag. </obvious> But if it comes down to choosing between another few dozen rating points and GUI, features, training utility, and fun, it's not much of a choice if you have to sell products to pay the rent. That's also an interesting direction, a profitable direction, and with the engine field so glutted and balanced, (and with Hydra on the scene), the logical direction.
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