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There are zillions of weight files for LC0 in the internet for free,

there are even zillions of free chess engines,
You could begin today to install them and would still installing them in 20 years from now because there are so many “different”
chess engines.

I have no idea if we need them or why. But they exist.

Why would you need to buy one ?

I play with many engines. And everything new arouses interest. And Fat Fritz is especially interesting.

Eduard wrote: ↑Wed Nov 13, 2019 8:28 pm I play with many engines. And everything new arouses interest. And Fat Fritz is especially interesting.

But no one has time to play around with every single NN weight file out there.

mclane wrote: ↑Wed Nov 13, 2019 8:14 pmWhy would you need to buy one ?

Long answer: This is unrelated to Fat Fritz, Stockfish has been #1 chess engine for years, and it has been free, yet people keepe buying other commercial chess engines like Komodo or Fritz. They need to buy it because others need to sell them. My computer is 9 years old yet I don't see the need for anything faster, yet people seem to have the need to buy the fastest thing even if they wouldn't notice the difference (or they have to play thousands of games to see it). I guess they follow the same concepts.

Short answer: Because it's for sale.

Ovyron wrote: ↑Thu Nov 14, 2019 6:09 am

mclane wrote: ↑Wed Nov 13, 2019 8:14 pmWhy would you need to buy one ?

Long answer: This is unrelated to Fat Fritz, Stockfish has been #1 chess engine for years, and it has been free, yet people keepe buying other commercial chess engines like Komodo or Fritz. They need to buy it because others need to sell them. My computer is 9 years old yet I don't see the need for anything faster, yet people seem to have the need to buy the fastest thing even if they wouldn't notice the difference (or they have to play thousands of games to see it). I guess they follow the same concepts.

Short answer: Because it's for sale.

Not really.

Recently when Komodo 13.2 came out, I saw the new "personalities" feature and since this is the area of computer chess that interests me most, and I can afford the small fee, I bought it.

We buy because our perceived value of a product offered exceeds the price being asked.

Or at least the value exceeds the weight of our yearning to hold on to our pennies.

Ovyron wrote: ↑Thu Nov 14, 2019 6:09 am My computer is 9 years old yet I don't see the need for anything faster,

Yes, my newest PC is an AMD FX8350 and unbelievably that was released 7 years ago. I have no need whatsoever to replace it, it does everything I need. Yes I've added an SSD which made a huge difference, other than that a couple of maintenance items - added a GTX1050 as the original GPU pre-dated this machine and was on its last legs, and replaced the PSU.

Ovyron wrote: ↑Thu Nov 14, 2019 6:09 am

mclane wrote: ↑Wed Nov 13, 2019 8:14 pmWhy would you need to buy one ?

Long answer: This is unrelated to Fat Fritz, Stockfish has been #1 chess engine for years, and it has been free, yet people keepe buying other commercial chess engines like Komodo or Fritz. They need to buy it because others need to sell them. My computer is 9 years old yet I don't see the need for anything faster, yet people seem to have the need to buy the fastest thing even if they wouldn't notice the difference (or they have to play thousands of games to see it). I guess they follow the same concepts.

Short answer: Because it's for sale.

No, it's mainly because of the GUI and the access to the Playchess server.
At least in my case.

BrendanJNorman wrote: ↑Thu Nov 14, 2019 6:56 amRecently when Komodo 13.2 came out, I saw the new "personalities" feature and since this is the area of computer chess that interests me most, and I can afford the small fee, I bought it.

I guess the question is: was it worth the asking price? Did it provide anything that the best Rodent personalities didn't?

My point was these things exist because there are people with some extra money and they don't know what to do with it, so they give them an option, and this would prove it

Not that I'm anything different, I'll be getting Fritz 17 because I've been wanting to be able to use private engine Ginkgo very badly for several years now, and I'll finally get my chance, even if I'll probably check it out and then leave it unused to gain dust like I did with Shredder 13. But at least I'm picking Ginkgo over Komodo 13 because I doubt I'll see the difference with K11, I just hope Ginkgo provides in the originality department

Ovyron wrote: ↑Thu Nov 14, 2019 8:26 am

BrendanJNorman wrote: ↑Thu Nov 14, 2019 6:56 amRecently when Komodo 13.2 came out, I saw the new "personalities" feature and since this is the area of computer chess that interests me most, and I can afford the small fee, I bought it.

I guess the question is: was it worth the asking price? Did it provide anything that the best Rodent personalities didn't?

My point was these things exist because there are people with some extra money and they don't know what to do with it, so they give them an option, and this would prove it

Not that I'm anything different, I'll be getting Fritz 17 because I've been wanting to be able to use private engine Ginkgo very badly for several years now, and I'll finally get my chance, even if I'll probably check it out and then leave it unused to gain dust like I did with Shredder 13. But at least I'm picking Ginkgo over Komodo 13 because I doubt I'll see the difference with K11, I just hope Ginkgo provides in the originality department

1. You know I'm in love with Rodent, so nothing can replace him. And I was a bit dissapointed with the Komodo 13 stock personalities to be honest... for example, the "beginner" personality is still stronger than Deep Junior....yeah right...beginner.

On the other hand, the "Human", "Positional" and one I made myself are pretty nice, although still not with as distinct a style as I've managed with Rodent.

2. I don't think people "don't know what to do with their extra money" - they simply have it - and they often use it (deliberately) to pursue hobbies. I bought Komodo 13.2 and will probably buy Fritz 17 too...mainly as someone else said though, for the GUI improvements and the engine.

The 7 man live tablebase access will be fun too for studying various endings.

3. About Ginkgo, what do we know about this engine at this moment? Style? Strength? Tunability? I know very little personally.

I buy chess engines often just to support the authors.
A pretty harmless hobby.

Edit: my buying chess hardware is criminally insane.
Shrug