Author: pete
Date: 12:30:16 04/05/99
Go up one level in this thread
i just read some of your posts ; although i am not sure you expressed your/a serious opinion i want to answer to one aspect ... :) you said you couldn't believe fritz5 is better than genius5 and said you tested it on your 486 PC . Probably you are right here , on a 486 genius will be stronger ( applause that you were able to even install fritz there :) ) i notice people care a little too much about ranking lists like SSDF ; SSDF will only tell you something if you want to do exactly what they are doing : " playing 2 hours 40 moves games against other progs " . And you should have similar hardware to the one they have. I also have an "old" PC i use for chessprog tests sometimes against my more up-to-date-one. And although I own many progs I noticed that I will only use two progs on the slow one: genius5 and hiarcs7.01 ; i think the reason for both progs is different though : hiarcs7.01 just is the strongest IMHO , so it is weaker on the slower PC but still very strong ; genius is different: it produces very fine moves if it thinks about 1 minute on a "slow" PC and even is able to score well against up-to-date progs on faster ones; the problem with genius is ; if you give 5 minutes for every move it won't profit very much ; be sure for example fritz would ! but even more important is : what exactly do you want to do with the prog ? Use it for analyzing over-night ? play blitz-matches against it ? play excessive comp-comp matches ? learn something from it ? use it to play on internet server ? i think the often discussed question for the "strongest" prog will have a different winner in every category ! ok; as I am in talking mood :) when you want to play against it for yourself: playing strength simply has no importance at all unless you are at least an IM as simply ALL progs will kick your ass . You will probably play faster time controls so the SSDF does have no importance at all either. So you will choose the prog you think has the most impressive playing style or the nicest interface or ( if you hate to loose ) the nicest options to weaken it . It very much is a matter of taste : and it is a very bad idea to use SSDF as a hint ! [ I think I'd choose fritz interface with either prog , CM6000 , hiarcs7 or genius then ] Important here is to think about your hardware too : for example if you have NT4 and no soundcard genius5 will be much fun than genius6 :)), if you have the opportunity to test before you buy; even better :) analyzing over-night ? Well if you are interested in that you probably have fast hardware, and should choose progs that are reliable in their results [ maybe something like fritz/junior , hiarcs , shredder 3 ] comp-comp matches ? hmm, I won't add much to that as it is thoroughly discussed in this forum : if you have top hardware get one of the major progs ; they all are great , if not: think very much about genius5 :); if you are one of the fools who watch the games they produce on their puter in engine-engine matches it is a good idea to choose progs with different styles [ for example hiarcs-junior5 is fun ; i would have to be payed much money to watch a shredder-genius or a crafty-fritz match though :)) ] learning ? well here CM6000 really rules !! ( if only for the seirawan lesson or the waitzkin analysis ) ; I also like hiarcs ( though i don't understand much ) and some of the fritz ( with any engine ) options Internet Chess Server ? well depends: if you want to be adored and see grandmasters play at "your" board you will have some winboard prog running on fast hardware ( probably crafty, lggold 1.2 or phalanx ( or shredder as I found out this weekend) ); there is a new alternative though : I experimented with the CSTal-Interface this week end : with the metal2D piece set it is a perfect internet interface, allows you to play for yourself too ( although the kibitzing of the interface: " Hello, this is the CStal interface" might call for difficulties with enemies who think you are cheating with a prog. And well, as CSTal seems to score very well against the crafties maybe it is a great prog-prog chessengine too. And as I really love the option to watch a grandmaster game while the engine is running and analyzing and you having a big chat window still already gives the number 1 to Tal here :) ok, a lot of babble; but I read many posts with people argueing only because they have different hardware and/or different aims and just had to put my point too :) pete P.S.: sorry for bad english
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