chess programmer benefits

[Daniel Shawul]

I am sorry but you sound rather narrow minded to me. You can get this and this with it but not this. I belive skills are useful everywhere if you can communicate it well and explain how it can be of help to them (and not just for bragging). You are probably accomplished enough not to need it, but I believe it can be helpful and certainly not something that deserves an emphatic 'zero'. The specific job I am targeting concerns HPC software development in my field. Ofcourse it is not related to chess at all but we all know it hard to parallelize chess programs than pde solvers. So I thought well this can be helpful but not sure how to communicate it to them.

[Daniel Shawul]

Thanks Fermin. It is good to read such stuff and even if it doesn't help that much, it will keep the ego intact. Oh btw I am missing the elephant in the room, commercial chess programs!

[Daniel Shawul]

Thanks for the input. I have a solution for the google issue when the need arises. Luckily I use my middle name here, or ask Gerd to take that page down for a while. I am sure talkchess is un-googlable and probably no one will employ a single person here if that was the case

[dchoman]

I started chess programming while a graduate student in Physics (astrophysics), and it really helped me to develop my programming skills. A direct benefit is that I frequently write scripts and simulations to do many research tasks that otherwise would take a long time (or simply couldn't be done at all). I remember talking to a colleague early on in my career, and he was working on a simulation that was taking the better part of a day for a single run. After asking a couple of questions about his design, I saw where the bottleneck was, made a suggestion that took him 5 minutes to implement, and it sped up his simulation by a factor of 10. I like to think that I have saved more research time in my own career due to my programming experience than I have invested in chess programming as a hobby... not sure if that is really true, but overall it has been a big benefit for me. Maybe I could have developed those skills in other ways, but probably not with as much fun.

In terms of job seeking, it isn't something that would go on my CV as an academic, but I have occasionally brought it up as an intellectual discussion with colleagues. Physicists tend to like talking about such things, so it can make for a fun conversation.

- Dan

[Gerd Isenberg]

For me, it was more important to have skills in C, C++, windows api, and ugly mfc in 1997, when I started my current job after a few years as freelancer and "professional" chess programmer. Chess programming and bit twiddling skills may be considered suspect. Otherwise it depends a bit on the attitude of your future chief. I think AI skills, general game playing, UCT, and monte-carlo methods might be more advantageous to mention than pure chess programming.

[Daniel Shawul]

A bit surprised at your response. I am sure all of chess is useful and not just a specific stream, so there is really no need to classify stuff like you did. I think this thread has served its purpose by now. A question will be asked ,and some will take it at face value and some attach a second meaning to it.

[Daniel Shawul]

Thanks Dan. I think every experience is beneficial in some way but probably not a good idea to put it in CV. But I believe there are situations where doing that may be justified.

Thank you all for your input. I won't be here to avoid personal motives/enquires but ofcourse I will read good experiences you had.

Daniel

[Rein Halbersma]

For me, it was more important to have skills in C, C++, windows api, and ugly mfc in 1997, when I started my current job after a few years as freelancer and "professional" chess programmer. Chess programming and bit twiddling skills may be considered suspect. Otherwise it depends a bit on the attitude of your future chief. I think AI skills, general game playing, UCT, and monte-carlo methods might be more advantageous to mention than pure chess programming.

OTOH, your chess programming wik most likely developed your skills at documentation / explanation and depth of programming expertise. I often find that explaining it on paper (here or on Stackoverflow) to someone else makes you really understand things. Those skills are transferable to any kind of technical work.

[michiguel]

I am sorry but you sound rather narrow minded to me. You can get this and this with it but not this. I belive skills are useful everywhere if you can communicate it well and explain how it can be of help to them (and not just for bragging). You are probably accomplished enough not to need it, but I believe it can be helpful and certainly not something that deserves an emphatic 'zero'. The specific job I am targeting concerns HPC software development in my field. Ofcourse it is not related to chess at all but we all know it hard to parallelize chess programs than pde solvers. So I thought well this can be helpful but not sure how to communicate it to them.

Why do I sound narrow minded? You asked about our experiences and expected an honest answer. In my case it was zero and that is just a fact, not my opinion of how things should be. Then I elaborated why and gave you a glimpse of what you can expect in my field.

Miguel

[bob]

This is a Henk style question. But I was wondering if any of you programmers have benefited from the skills you developed here elsewhere in your jobs or life. I don't mean the bare satisfaction you get from chasing some obscure objective, I mean money, house or impressing the opposite sex. Scratch that last one ain't gonna happen Is it even safe to mention this in a resume. What does it convey if you did so? That you are some looser who probably will spend work time chasing stupid stuff or that you have something you are passionate about (meaning good). I know some of you 'smart guys' will probably try to extrapolate this , and throw some cheap shots so i say this beforehand to extinguish that satisfaction. Be honest and try and recall if something good came out of your experience here.
Daniel

It caused me to learn Cray Assembly Language. Parallel programming concepts. Programming efficiency. Even C. It's had a positive effect.