Rybka dethroned?

[benstoker]

Does Houdini 1.5 kill Rybka? Information in computer chess world probably travels very quickly. Everybody who purchases Rybka products, now knows about the superiority of Houdini.

I would guess there are 2 classes of people who buy Rybka. The professional / serious chess player. And then the hobbyist. For a hobbyist, spending money on chess software comes out of his discretionary income. I would think a hobbyist has very little incentive to purchase Rybka now that there's a freebie out there that is clearly dominant. A professional chess player is probably more inclined to purchase a variety of chess engines, but, still, the incentive to purchase Rybka is surely diminished in light of the superior Houdini that has tablesbases, etc.

Are chess engine purchasers very fickle? I would guess yes. In other words, I bet your average chess engine purchaser would readily refrain from purchasing Rybka if a clearly superior freebie was out there. And this is because ELO criteria probably accounts for 95% of the reason of the purchasing decision.

There are those that just like to spend a lot of money buying numerous engines; but, how large is that consumer segment?

Surely, being suddenly demoted to a minus 60 ELO second place directly hits Rybka in the pocketbook. Comments?

[alpha123]

Elo counts for about 8% of the reason for the purchase. 90% of it is fame and publicity. Fritz still sells quite well, not because it's strong, but because ChessBase promotes it a lot.
The remaining 2% is style.

Peter

[MikeB]

Does Houdini 1.5 kill Rybka? Information in computer chess world probably travels very quickly. Everybody who purchases Rybka products, now knows about the superiority of Houdini.

I would guess there are 2 classes of people who buy Rybka. The professional / serious chess player. And then the hobbyist. For a hobbyist, spending money on chess software comes out of his discretionary income. I would think a hobbyist has very little incentive to purchase Rybka now that there's a freebie out there that is clearly dominant. A professional chess player is probably more inclined to purchase a variety of chess engines, but, still, the incentive to purchase Rybka is surely diminished in light of the superior Houdini that has tablesbases, etc.

Are chess engine purchasers very fickle? I would guess yes. In other words, I bet your average chess engine purchaser would readily refrain from purchasing Rybka if a clearly superior freebie was out there. And this is because ELO criteria probably accounts for 95% of the reason of the purchasing decision.

There are those that just like to spend a lot of money buying numerous engines; but, how large is that consumer segment?

Surely, being suddenly demoted to a minus 60 ELO second place directly hits Rybka in the pocketbook. Comments?

I sort of agree with your comments regading the hard core chess computer enhthusiasts who just want one engine, but there are many like me, who enjoy mutiple engines and they do not have to be top ranked or strongest. For the masses , its all about marketing - Fritz, Chessmaster etc.

[gerold]

It really depends on Rybka. Rybka needs to be improved within a
short time to keep its sells up.
I like a lot of different engines weak and strong. However i will always
pick the strongest one i can get over all the others.

Best,
Gerold.

[JAMerolle]

not true , F12 is selling becuase they have a killer GUI with Free lectures on playchess.


There is no interest in the engine any longer , the best engine sells because its the best engine. Rybka is in trouble now if they dont pull something together , especialy after the bull crap treatment they gave their clients.

[LaurenceChen]

not true , F12 is selling becuase they have a killer GUI with Free lectures on playchess.


There is no interest in the engine any longer , the best engine sells because its the best engine. Rybka is in trouble now if they dont pull something together , especialy after the bull crap treatment they gave their clients.

Agreed... especially since DR4 has bugs and it is useless in Infinite Analysis mode with Multi-PV. Vas should be happy that a lot of the clients are very forgiving and patient to wait a fix of the major bugs.
A class action suit could be made because of the false adverstisement of the engine, it has bugs.