Eman 5.30

[matejst]

Carl,

I tend to think the opposite: a combination of comfortable, simple and polished tools does more for sales than anything else. Just look at Fritz, or Chessmaster, or how popular the Banksia GUI has become, although it is unintuitive and not finished yet. Komodo could be bundled with a modified ChessX, e.g., a free database, a good general book, and it could really become a well rounded and attractive product. Mark Uniacke went that way with Hiarcs, which he bundled with the gorgeous Sigma chess. SMK made an excellent interface for Shredder.

I am just an average consumer and an average chess amateur. What I need, like most chess players of my rank (1800-2100 elo), is an engine whose lines I can understand and use OTB, a sparring partner who will let me win when I play "well", a database with historical games and top level games to enjoy chess and imagine that one day, perhaps, before I am sixty, I could play as well. I used to buy software, but there is nothing really new in the last 15 years, and now when the market is global and much bigger that it ever was, good computer chess software has become an extinct species.

[carldaman]

I agree that polished GUI tools are a great selling point, but what to do about engines that lack learning ability, while several free ones do offer the feature?

Well, anyway, if you're in need for a sparring partner that appreciates spectacular attacking chess of a high caliber, who hates draws and takes all sorts of calculated risks to win, look here:

https://lichess.org/@/Nezh-BOT

[matejst]

I agree that learning is important for engines. It was quite current -- in diverse forms -- a decade ago. Among free engines, I saw that Shashchess and Sugar implemented some Kelly Kinyama ideas/code (I also like the Petrosian personnality in both engines, who plays a sneaky positional chess). My wish is an engine able to train itself: the more one analyze and play some kind of positions, the better it plays them.

About opponents: I like the ones I find in Lucas Chess. And I prefer to be the one making combinations...

[carldaman]

And I prefer to be the one making combinations...

re: opponents, yep, don't we all...

Sometimes we also have to be ready for combinative opponents. Before Nezh, sparring against most engines
was a less interesting experience. If I lost, and I usually did, it felt like I beat myself by playing some
stupid move overlooking something. The engine would just be there to cash in.

Not so with Nezh, as it feels like it is the one beating you, actively making things happen to bring it about.
I can't recall being defeated as badly before on a chess board by any other opponent. It is an amazing thing to actually feel challenged by a machine opponent in this way, one that brings the game to you, so to speak.

I have changed most of my opening repertoire as a result, for the better, and even the whole approach to chess.

[Ovyron]

Still waiting for a Nezh I can run at home...