Author: Fernando Villegas
Date: 13:51:50 12/16/00
Finally I visited the Meca of chess computer fans in America: ICD. To get there and be another pilgrim you just must ride an hour in a train trought the suburbs of NY -a somewhat grim lansdcape of industries, railroads, stretchs of no-man-land covered with detritus and files and files of equally shaped homes of not very rich americans- and then to ride in a taxi for just five minutes. And you are there. And I was there with my daughter. And the first thing I saw was a CM8000 package with a shit of paper on it, all hanging from a knight three feets high. The paper proclaimed "reserved for Fernando and for nobody else but Fernando..." Later I knew it was, that day, last wennesday, the only one remaining in stock. I felt honoured... BTW it was around five and 30 minutes o'clock and Steven was still busy. ICD is not one of those stores where people is massed in great numbers; it is, more exactly, sort of a headquarter where the boss, with a telephone, a computer and a fax, handle his business receiving and sending orders all around the world. He equally could be located in Laponia. "Yep", he said to me when I asked about that, "I did not choose a place in the city because I hate the noise and the rest of the nasty style of life asociated with New York; for what I do, this quiet place is much better...". But in fact some people really goes there. Not people like you and me: not freaks, but common and sane guys looking for a computer or a board for his beloved, smart son. They are attended by Tim Mirabile or Jim, both of them nice guys that knows how to play a game and how to sell a machine that "will teach your boy a good deal...". There is, also, a tough pretty girl - not so much as MY daughter- that I saw for 10 or so seconds when she saluted me muttering something trought a pencil she kept in his mouth. And we must not forget a more aged lady, very sharming and lovely, that appeared and then disappeared with the evanescent gestures of a movie actress of a 30' vintage romantic comedy. Respect Steven: he is almost as tall as my 6 feets and several inches. In my case height is asociated with a 190 pounds payload of meat that almost destroyed my feets every time after just 30 blocks of walking in NY. Steven does not share that unpleasant feature, but he do has others I will keep in deep secrecy because I am a gentleman. You know what I mean, Steven.... Else: he is 50 something years old and has piercing eyes that looks with the shadow of a smile and an stationary smile with a hint of a laugh. Warm and patient -my english babbling is even more pathetic that my writting-, he took both my daughter Mariana and me to a luxurious italian restaurant where we ate -he too- an inexaustible amount of fetuccini and a civilized package of good californian Merlot. We talked about our lives and about you, guys, the troup of this site. He and me agreed that you all are a bunch of crazy and unbereable members of the human race. Obviously we agreed we are not.... Then, as if was not enough to feed visitors, he transported us to Manhattan in his soft, crisp, beloved car, a brand new Jaguar. In short, in a 57 thousand bucks kind of wheeled piece of iron. Now you all know where your money goes.... And now CM8000. In my home again afeter a pleasant flight, I have seen again the light. So I can say that it is a shame how such a splendid piece of software is currently labelled with a clearly derogative tittle as "mass market" software. Mass market just means or should mean that many people get it, but it tends also to say something nasty about the product itself. Nevertheless, IMHO, this is sheer nonsense. A Mercedes car probably is a "mass market" car in a place like Sillicon Valley, but that does not make of it a cheap and unreliable car. In fact CM8000 is so strong and offer so many features that is really one of the Mercedes of the industry. Or a Volvo if you prefer. Yes, this or that thing is lacking -always you will meet people complaning about what is lacking in the very best product- but what really gives is more than enough, I believe, to any "serious" chess player. Maybe there are personal reasons to see it in that low profile, but surely not product-related ones. I bet that many of us, many of those that considers themselves as experienced, mature, advanced chess players, could get more than one or two good lessons in even the intermediate tutorials. It is a fact we forget how much we have forgotten. Chess learning, as any other learning, is made out of steps forward and many unconcious steps backs. You learn, but at the same time you forget what you knew before. At least part of it. That's the reason even best piano performers expend a lot of time just trainning once and again the very same chords they played yesterday. So tutorials of middle class level are a real tool and not just a feature for "beginners". Of course more truth is with advanced titorials. The same could be said for every other aspect of the educative part of this program. Frills? That's another thing that tend to be considered as a feature of a despicable mass market program. Well, I cannot understand why a product that brings more options could be less valuable and lovely and praise-worthy that another one that brings less. You does not like pretty boards? Then You can use another, spartan kind of board. You does not like sound? You can put it off. And so and so. You have the choice. But what you cannot do is to have sounds, to load pretty boards or to do anything else with a program that does not bring nothing of it because it is "professional". Of course this is not a fault of the makers of this last kind of programs; they just do his job. And I am not saying that other top programs without so many features as CM are, then, less valuable. Nothing of it. My point is just this: CM8000 deserves to be considered in a complete different way as it has been until now. It deserves a more objetive judgement. To be seen as what it is and what it gives and not according as how proud WE feel making clasifications with not other purpose that to put ourselves in an special category, far ahead of the simple Joe. And nothing more by now, except publically express my feelings of gratitude fort steven for his wonderfull reception, witty talk and tasty meal and wine. Remember: Chile is waiting for you. Fernando
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