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Subject: Re: What programmes a CC player should not buy :-)

Author: Mark R. Anderson

Date: 03:47:58 01/12/06

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Alex,

OK, we all agree that Rybka, when it's fully ready, will be a wonderful analysis
engine.  I have no argument with that.  However, I disagree with at least two of
the engines you mentioned.  Hiarcs 10 does understand positional play quite well
and is a very good analysis engine, as well as having an active, human-style of
play and also is very sharp at tactics.  Hiarc's PVs and values are really quite
good IMHO.

As far as Fritz 9 goes, all of the top Grandmasters in the world, including the
World Champion (and ex-WC Kasparov) use Fritz for their analyses, and also to
find opening TNs.  Don't these people perhaps know just a *bit* more than us
about chess?  I think so.

Yes, Shredder 9 is also a good analysis engine.  If you have Rybka, Fritz 9,
Shredder 9, and Hiarcs 10, (as I do) you are definitely "good to go" for
analysis.  One thing that I've learned from my tournament practice and also from
reading such fine works such as Drazen Marovic's very excellent books ... there
is no substitute for YOUR OWN knowledge of chess!  True, our bots are a
wonderful tool for playing, analysis and general fun, but we should use our own
heads too.  That's what makes Vaz so good at developing Rybka ... he is an IM,
as well a being a wonderful programmer.  Do you really think he would be quite
so good without extensive chess knowledge and experience?  I doubt it.  Just my
2 cents worth.

Mark

On January 12, 2006 at 04:16:34, Alex Shalamanov wrote:

>Fritz 9, Junior 9, Zappa (if there's ever going to be a commercial release),
>Fruit, Hiarcs 10. They may be all right for the sake of testing or playing with
>but using them as an analysis tool is not a big deal.
>If you ask me, the best ones for a CC player are Rybka (even betas are much
>better than the aforementioned commercial ones) and Shredder 9UCI. These
>understand complex positional games much better than the CB-based products.
>Rybka is only lacking some endgame knowledge, but it's only a matter of time
>when it can have it. The best of all is to use them both searching in parallel
>under one GUI like Shredder GUI.
>
>Best wishes,
>Alexander



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