Author: Peter Berger
Date: 05:06:50 08/17/02
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On August 17, 2002 at 07:26:31, Uri Blass wrote: >On August 17, 2002 at 07:10:59, Eran wrote: > >> >>More and more free chess engine modules (freeware) have come up in the Internet. >>Some chess programmers will have a harder time selling their chess engine >>modules. No one will be willing to buy any cheapest chess engine module if there >>will be so many strongest free chess engine modules already in the Internet. >> >>How will it affect ChessBase? I am wondering. If all amateur chess engines will >>be free and some of them will be as strong as commercial ones, Will ChessBase >>make their commercial chess engine modules such as Fritz free in the future? Why >>buy Fritz if there will be several free chess engines as strong as Fritz? Will >>ChessBase's survival depend on selling chess interfaces alone? >> >>What do you think? What will happen to chess business in the future? >> >>Eran > >You can also ask why to release free chess programs if you can >sell them? > >The simple facts are that the free chess programs are weaker than >the commercial programs and the the amateurs do not reduce the gap. > >The amateurs get better but the same is for >the commercial programs. This is obviously true currently. I think the gap was probably closest with Crafty 17.11-14 when it was first released. It has become bigger again recently. On the other hand the number of engines surpassing or reaching Crafty level has increased very much. A few of them are quite new and seem to improve fast. This could mean that the gap might decrease somewhat in the near future. Peter
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