Komodo 4.1

[MM]

There are practical constraints for a commercial chess engine that is sold as DVD version in shops throughout the world, too frequent updates would be inconvenient for the dealer network.
A yearly release seems a good compromise.

That's not the case of Houdini and Komodo.

Best Regards

[melajara]

Hi Don,

I fully respect your work but Larry or you, already said that you have version(s) with more than 20 ELO improvement over Komodo 4.0

I think when commercial interests interfere with the pursuit of progress at true pace, this is when the chess community at large starts to suffer as every author is locked (or shall I say thread deadlocked) to everybody's else first move.

As for the political answer from Robert, I don't buy it either. Of course burning DVDs, advertising and distribution takes time but, hey, we live in a global internet village. Updates, as you do, can just be uploaded and fetched from a website (with possible mirrors). People can have a base version shipped on DVD and upgrade to the latest subversion as soon as one is ready. As for billing, each subversion could be priced to say $9.95 over the base (yearly) version for a 20Elo increase update or half a buck per ELO point!

The real burden is on rating list maintainers as more releases will make their testing more demanding. It will make watching the lists much more funny too as for months there were no remarkable change at the top.

On the gentleman agreement proposal, I think it will benefit everyone, provided it is genuinely observed. Larry rightly pointed that part of the problem for accurate progress assessment was the availability (or lack of) of strongest engines to test against, hence my post.

I'm just proposing a scheme to climb the ladder with "easier" steps than the effort mandatory for "giant" (50 ELO) strides

[melajara]

Well Larry, it seems you have trouble admitting Houdini 3 DEV is actually circa 50 ELO stronger than Houdini 2c and I can imagine why, it makes very implausible to have Komodo 5 catching up with the new Houdini

Or maybe it is Houdart's ploy to entice you to get out of the wood and release, at least, Komodo 4.1 to use the rapidly closing marketing window of opportunity to offer the TOP engine in the world!

I think such tactics to hide and carefully wait for the opposition to declare its next move is negative for the community at large. I explained it in a former post which got ignored.


Mr Houdart, Dailey, Vida and other chess engine authors just behind this trio, IMHO you should publish updates to your engines as soon as having say 20 ELO improvement and not delay.

Of course it will make the competition's job easier as each top opponent would adapt and leverage on your new version, but so will you do against them for your next move!

By abiding to this gentleman agreement policy, the computer chess community would witness much more rapid progress toward what really matters: better and better chess!

I think the most you wrote is extremely logical and i subscribe it.

Thank you.

Best Regards

Thank you.

Last but not least, I don't think my proposal would have a negative impact on commercial chess engine authors income, quite the contrary

[Houdini]

There are practical constraints for a commercial chess engine that is sold as DVD version in shops throughout the world, too frequent updates would be inconvenient for the dealer network.
A yearly release seems a good compromise.

That's not the case of Houdini and Komodo.

Best Regards

That's not the case of Houdini?
What do you mean?

[MM]

There are practical constraints for a commercial chess engine that is sold as DVD version in shops throughout the world, too frequent updates would be inconvenient for the dealer network.
A yearly release seems a good compromise.

That's not the case of Houdini and Komodo.

Best Regards

That's not the case of Houdini?
What do you mean?

I mean that you don't sell via DVD .

Best Regards

[Houdini]

I mean that you don't sell via DVD .

All ChessOK dealers sell Houdini on DVD, either as stand-alone engine, in Houdini Aquarium or in Chess Assistant with Houdini.

[MM]

I mean that you don't sell via DVD .

All ChessOK dealers sell Houdini on DVD, either as stand-alone engine, in Houdini Aquarium or in Chess Assistant with Houdini.

I'm sorry Robert, i forgot about it being so far from my thoughts.

Thank you for clarifying.

Then i have to basically agree with you although some updates (like you did with ''b'' and ''c'') can be easily done without (i think) any problem, even in the case of DVD. I remember i received an update for a DVD of Rybka 4 to Rybka 4.1.

Thank you.

Best Regards