Author: George Speight
Date: 16:17:01 08/25/05
Go up one level in this thread
On August 24, 2005 at 16:01:04, Dann Corbit wrote: >On August 24, 2005 at 15:21:55, Christos Gitsis wrote: > >>On August 24, 2005 at 12:38:28, James Constance wrote: >> >>>http://www.chesscafe.com/mig/mig.htm >>> >>>"Some people asked me why they should spend forty or fifty bucks for a chess >>>program when they can download the top world championship programs free..." >> >>"...The marvelous Linux operating system, at least various versions of it, is >>free and offers many free and open source programs that cover most of what you >>do with your Windows machine. But as the saying goes, “Linux is free only >>if your time is worth nothing.” Windows is far easier to use and has >>countless features we have come to depend on, no matter how much we may resent >>making Bill Gates’ mountain of gold a tiny bit higher. >> >>So it goes with chess software..." >> >>There is some truth in that. I played in an open tournament last week and spent >>some time talking to some fellow chessplayers about free software, but most of >>them initially would not believe that it could be as good as commercial >>programs. >> >>In the end they were convinced, but I understood that most people have not yet >>heard that there are strong engines outside ChessBase and I realized that >>we, computer chess fans, are a small minority. In particular, I got the >>impression that most, if not all, titled players (IMs, GMs) will never give up >>their ChessBase software, with which they are familiar. Unless Fritz drops to >>being _much_ weaker that other engines, ChessBase need not worry very much. > >There are about 500 GMs, and so that part of the market is very much a tiny >niche. I don't think that the software companies target GMs except maybe for >endorsements or something like that. > >I guess what matters most is shelf space and advertizing (assuming that the >product doesn't stink). > >After shelf space and advertizing will come features and ease of use. > >Probably, most good pro software packages have one some significant tournament >somewhere like WCCC, WMCCC, Paderborn, French Championship, or whatever. So >they can always put that on their box and impress people. Or maybe they have >topped the SSDF at some point or won the CCT or something. So strength is good, >but you don't have to be the strongest to impress most people, I imagine. > >Probably any very strong chess engine could play in a few tournaments against >GMs on fast hardware and win one of them, and then put that on the box. > >At any rate, chess engine strength is a small part of the overall package. > >To a few geeks like the CCC crowd, it might be important. To the average chess >software buyer -- they would not know if a win at Paderborn was better than or >worse than WMCCC or topping the SSDF list or whatever. Hi, Dann. Right on the mark! Nothing left to be said. Regards, George
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