Torch - Request to testers

[dkappe]

I urge testing groups to NOT test and NOT report any results...

Who would have thought? Chris W. is the chessqueen.

Ooh, that left a mark.

[Rebel]

I urge testing groups to NOT test and NOT report any results...

Who would have thought? Chris W. is the chessqueen.

That was unnecessary.

[chessica]

It's the same thing as Rybka Cluster? Only with other persons and several programmers?

[RubiChess]

I urge testing groups to NOT test and NOT report any results...

Who would have thought? Chris W. is the chessqueen.

That was unnecessary.

Maybe you are right. But it indirectly reflects my opinion about the post.

[marsell]

So much hype for a private engine that is a hundred elo away from Stockfish. No commercial engine developer will be able to match the Stockfish framework. They have failed individually and will fail as a group.

[Gabor Szots]

What? Private engines are hardly a new thing

Correct - at the moment, I count three private engines in the CCRL: Stoofvlees II, Deep Sjeng 3.6a16, and Onno 0.12.0.

Onno is a bit different because it did become commercial which was always Onno's intention.

But I agree with you that it is debatable if it makes sense to include engines which cannot be owned and played with.

[Rebel]

I urge testing groups to NOT test and NOT report any results...

Who would have thought? Chris W. is the chessqueen.

That was unnecessary.

Maybe you are right. But it indirectly reflects my opinion about the post.

I have mixed feelings about the whole thing, on one hand it's great to challenge SF as competition is the base of progress. OTOH like Chris I am an ex-commercial and I am wondering about the motives of chess.com. And one thing is sure, no company invests without a commercial goal. For the mainstream chess player (thus not us) it's currently still SF, SF and SF only and within 6-12 months it will be replaced by Torch, Torch and Torch only, not necessarily because Torch is stronger than SF but because Torch exclusively is tied with chess.com. And resistance is futile, they have become way too powerful.

[Steve Maughan]

<snip>And resistance is futile, they have become way too powerful.</snip>

They’re successful but they have zero “power”. What can they do? There’s always LiChess. They can’t stop anyone playing chess. How can they abuse their “power”? What can they do that you’d object to?

— Steve

[Rebel]

<snip>And resistance is futile, they have become way too powerful.</snip>

They’re successful but they have zero “power”. What can they do? There’s always LiChess. They can’t stop anyone playing chess. How can they abuse their “power”? What can they do that you’d object to?

— Steve

I did not say anything about "about abusing power", I hope they won't, but it's quite well possible the programmers at certain moments can be faced with unethical requests they don't like and then what? Do, or don't?

Some info

.They have more than 100 million users, and 10 million games are played on the platform daily. They have grown to over 400 employees, all of which have worked remotely from day one, and it's estimated that the company finished 2022 with about $100 million in annual revenue.6 jan 2023

. The Play Magnus Group is worth around $80,000,000. Given that chess.com is so much larger, it is a fare estimate to guess $175,000,000.

Who is the richest chess com?
. Christopher Hikaru Nakamura is a chess grandmaster and the reigning World Fischer Random Chess Champion. When he earned his grandmaster title at the age of 15, he was the youngest American to do so. With a net worth of $50 million, Nakamura is the richest chess player in the world as of 2023.8 jun 2023

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Chess has become big business.

[chessica]

Some info

.They have more than 100 million users, and 10 million games are played on the platform daily. They have grown to over 400 employees, all of which have worked remotely from day one, and it's estimated that the company finished 2022 with about $100 million in annual revenue.6 jan 2023

. The Play Magnus Group is worth around $80,000,000. Given that chess.com is so much larger, it is a fare estimate to guess $175,000,000.

Who is the richest chess com?
. Christopher Hikaru Nakamura is a chess grandmaster and the reigning World Fischer Random Chess Champion. When he earned his grandmaster title at the age of 15, he was the youngest American to do so. With a net worth of $50 million, Nakamura is the richest chess player in the world as of 2023.8 jun 2023

Where did you get the numbers? Did you hack the tax accountant?
Hmmm. Very doubtful these statements.