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Subject: Re: some questions about chess programs and money

Author: Steve Maughan

Date: 07:15:22 04/07/03

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Uri,

I'll have a bash,

>How much money (s)he can get from it in the following cases:
>
>1)The program is at similiar level to Crafty

Not much.  As a winboard engine (i.e. no GUI) then I'd expect you'd sell at most
50 copies.  The price is not that important as long as it is less than $20 per
copy. Basically on 'collectors' would buy it.

>2)The program is at similiar level to Ruffian

This is probably the Gandalf 4 scenario.  I'd expect you'd sell about 200 copies
(in total) as long as the price is $15 - $30

>3)The program is at similiar level to Fritz8

You will not have the brand equity of Fritz but I expect you'd sell about 500 to
1000 copies depending upon marketing.  I doubt the price point can be any more
than $25 - $35

>4)The program is 100 elo better than Fritz8

You'd need good marketing but I think you could sell 3000 copies at this
strength - I recon you could also get $50 a copy.  Of course if it was really
this strong your best bet would be to get someone like ChessBase to sell it.
Then I think you could sell 8000 copies at $45 i.e. quite serious money.

>when the author of smarthink claims that he earns only 100$ per month:

Maybe he is demonstrating his programming skill and hopes to get a job in the
West for a higher salary?

Regards,

Steve



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