Author: Christopher R. Dorr
Date: 10:46:43 11/02/99
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You hit on what I believe is the key issue: features. Crafty is a wonderful program (my favorite opponent), and Winboard is a wonderful contribution, but together they cannot do a fraction of the things Rebel, Fritz (and I assume) Chess Tiger can. This is not a slight; they are not designed to be databases, and tutorials...they are designed to play chess well and present an attractive interface...which they do admirably. Where the commercials shine is in their feature sets. Honestly, I get crushed by Crafty just as badly as I do by Fritz5...but with Fritz5, I can immediately look things up in the database, look at a graphical analysis of the game...these things are important. If you combine a strong program with a good feature set, you have a winner. Part of my earlier point is that I think we get focused on strength too much when evaluating chess programs for actual use by the average player...I would much rather have a 2500 opponent with wonderful features, than a 2600 opponent without. As long as programmers keep adding features, and making their programs more friendly, and useful, and attractive, I will keep buying them. If they are getting stronger (which they are) so much the better. I will keep using the new versions of Crafty, and keep buying the new versions of Fritz (and hopefully Chess Tiger). Chris
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