Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: Will all chess engine modules be free in the future?

Author: Uri Blass

Date: 06:08:32 08/17/02

Go up one level in this thread


On August 17, 2002 at 08:06:50, Peter Berger wrote:

>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

It can also mean that some of the new engines are going
to become commercial.

Uri



This page took 0 seconds to execute

Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700

Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.