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Subject: Re: Netherlands and Germany -- unusual proportion of good chess programmers

Author: Vincent Diepeveen

Date: 03:41:12 03/25/01

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On March 24, 2001 at 05:22:16, Tony Werten wrote:

But most important is that we have 2 tournaments a year,
one in germany, one in netherlands where computers play each other
and where programmers can talk with each other.

You learn most by going to such a tournament. Next one is
from 18-20 may in Leiden.

>On March 22, 2001 at 19:55:55, Dann Corbit wrote:
>
>>I am wondering something.
>>
>>For instance, for Israel and Russia, there is a very large proportion of
>>excellent chess players.  A cursory scan of the GM list will show that those of
>>Russian descent or Israeli descent have a very, very high proportion of GM's --
>>way out of proportion to the general population.  Now, I'm not going to ask
>>about that here, because it would only be topical on GCF.  On the other hand...
>>
>>It seems to me that there is a huge proportion of excellent chess programmers
>>from Germany and the Netherlands.  Considering the population of the countries
>>and the number of programmers writing excellent chess programs, the proportion
>>is as enormous as the previously mentioned GM proportions.
>>
>>Does anyone have any sort of explanation as to why this is so?  Educational
>>system?  Cultural focus on this topic?  What?
>
>I think it's a combination of things. The ones that come in mind are:
>
>- A lot of people in Holland know the chessrules. They may not all be able to
>play a decent game, but they know the rules. If you go to a bar, they probably
>have a chessboard behind the bar ( and a 10x10 checkersboard, and some dice )
>
>- A couple of years ago it was very easy to go to university ( and learn some
>programming skills, before you got kicked off ) Everybody who wanted to go to
>university got a scolarship.
>
>- Over 75% of all households have a computer (10% have 2 or more )
>
>- Over 50% of all households are connected to the internet.
>
>None of these things are a guaranty for good chessprograms but they all help. (
>Specially  the first 2 )
>For Germany it is/was about the same.
>
>cheers,
>
>Tony



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