Rybka 3 being sold by Chessbase

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turbojuice1122
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Rybka 3 being sold by Chessbase

Post by turbojuice1122 »

I figured I might as well post the news here, considering that it's the major computer chess news of the past weeks and the major chess news of the day.

Comments?

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Etc.?
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Steve B
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Post by Steve B »

personally i can understand the somewhat ambivalent feelings of the Rybka fans who were there from the beginning
the Maverick engine that came out of nowhere now suddenly part of the mainstream
as an aside i am personally happy to see Jeroen finally with his own product
in addition to being the worlds leading book author Jeroen is also a collector of the old computers and he been writing books for dedicated computers since the late 1980's
he deserves to be able to earn something for his craft
but again i can see the controversy from the buying public
i mean after all the full book should be included with the engine
one can look at all of this from a practical standpoint
if creative engine and book authors cannot maximize their income from their craft..they will only leave the field at the end of the day or just treat any further improvements on a part time basis
look at Cozzie and Fabien Letouzey..i would imagine that if they thought a comfortable living could have be made ,one decent enough to raise a family ,buy a home..etc etc they would still be in the field

Random Musings regards
Steve
Last edited by Steve B on Fri Jul 18, 2008 11:55 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Steve B
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Re: Rybka 3 being sold by Chessbase

Post by Steve B »

turbojuice1122 wrote:I figured I might as well post the news here, considering that it's the major computer chess news of the past weeks and the major chess news of the day.

Comments?

Opinions?

Etc.?
your link seems to be not working?
Steve
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Ted Summers
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Re: Rybka 3 being sold by Chessbase

Post by Ted Summers »

turbojuice1122 wrote:I figured I might as well post the news here, considering that it's the major computer chess news of the past weeks and the major chess news of the day.

Comments?

Opinions?

Etc.?
I wanted to post about this since 4:00 am EST, but was not sure if I should start the topic.
"Good decisions come from experience, and experience come from bad decisions."
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Ted Summers
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Post by Ted Summers »

Steve B wrote:personally i can understand the somewhat ambivalent feelings of the Rybka fans who were there from the beginning
the Maverick engine that came out of nowhere now suddenly part of the mainstream
as an aside i am personally happy to see Jeroen finally with his own product
in addition to being the worlds leading book author Jeroen is also a collector of the old computers and he been writing books for dedicated computers since the late 1980's
he deserves to be able to earn something for his craft
but again i can see the controversy from the buying public
i mean after all the full book should be included with the engine
one can look at all of this from a practical standpoint
if creative engine and book authors cannot maximize their income from their craft..they will only leave the field at the end of the day or just treat any further improvements on a part time basis
look at Cozzie and Fabien Letouzey..i would imagine that if they thought a comfortable living could have be made ,one decent enough to raise a family ,buy a home..etc etc they would still be in the field

Random Musings regards
Steve
Overall I agree with Steve. Sh!t happens, I am not sure what lead to this however I do understand. As they say "Business is Business". It was a BIG gain for Chessbase and a Great Lost for Convekta, Sales-wise that is. I only wonder what happened. At least Aquarium with be Linux Compatible. Good news for Linux.

I will give it to Chessbase when it comes to Marketing that is, just look at the covers for the two products. Chessbase wins, hands down. I will buy both, Deep Rybka and Book from Chessbase, and Aquarium GUI from Convekta.

PS: It should be my last putchase for a while. :roll:
"Good decisions come from experience, and experience come from bad decisions."
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Steve B
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Post by Steve B »

Ted Summers wrote:
Overall I agree with Steve. Sh!t happens, I am not sure what lead to this however I do understand. As they say "Business is Business".
yes but another point for me is the comparison to major league ball players as one example...these guys move from team to team motivated by nothing more than greed
by this i mean ..team A offers a 14 million dollar a year 5 year contract to a player and another a 21 million 4 year deal..so the player leaves or attempts to break his contract.
in Computer chess the money for those few even able to earn a living in it is ridiculously small by way of comparison
whatever they choose to do ..is not motivated by greed.. but motivated by the desire to at least make a decent living for their families
my guess...the premiere engine author in the world today does not even make a six figure income ..and some would say..he is more of an artist then some guy who can toss a fast ball 98 Mph
i guess my point is...there is a difference between being motivated by greed and being motivated by the desire to make a decent living for ones family

Best Regards
Steve
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Post by Uri Blass »

Ted Summers wrote:
Steve B wrote:personally i can understand the somewhat ambivalent feelings of the Rybka fans who were there from the beginning
the Maverick engine that came out of nowhere now suddenly part of the mainstream
as an aside i am personally happy to see Jeroen finally with his own product
in addition to being the worlds leading book author Jeroen is also a collector of the old computers and he been writing books for dedicated computers since the late 1980's
he deserves to be able to earn something for his craft
but again i can see the controversy from the buying public
i mean after all the full book should be included with the engine
one can look at all of this from a practical standpoint
if creative engine and book authors cannot maximize their income from their craft..they will only leave the field at the end of the day or just treat any further improvements on a part time basis
look at Cozzie and Fabien Letouzey..i would imagine that if they thought a comfortable living could have be made ,one decent enough to raise a family ,buy a home..etc etc they would still be in the field

Random Musings regards
Steve
Overall I agree with Steve. Sh!t happens, I am not sure what lead to this however I do understand. As they say "Business is Business". It was a BIG gain for Chessbase and a Great Lost for Convekta, Sales-wise that is. I only wonder what happened. At least Aquarium with be Linux Compatible. Good news for Linux.

I will give it to Chessbase when it comes to Marketing that is, just look at the covers for the two products. Chessbase wins, hands down. I will buy both, Deep Rybka and Book from Chessbase, and Aquarium GUI from Convekta.

PS: It should be my last putchase for a while. :roll:
I am not sure that it was a big loss for convekta.
You assume that less people are going to buy the Aquarium GUI from convekta.

It is not clear for me.
I guess that more people are going to hear about rybka thanks to chessbase and it also means that more people are going to hear about
the Aquarium GUI.

Uri
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Re: Rybka 3 being sold by Chessbase

Post by Harvey Williamson »

turbojuice1122 wrote:I figured I might as well post the news here, considering that it's the major computer chess news of the past weeks and the major chess news of the day.

Comments?

Opinions?

Etc.?
I heard about this a few months ago but managed to keep the Secret. I exchanged emails with Jeroen yesterday and he was saying how difficult it has been to keep it a secret. An interesting idea to sell the book separately and CB releasing UCI versions.
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Post by Ted Summers »

Uri Blass wrote:
Ted Summers wrote:
Steve B wrote:personally i can understand the somewhat ambivalent feelings of the Rybka fans who were there from the beginning
the Maverick engine that came out of nowhere now suddenly part of the mainstream
as an aside i am personally happy to see Jeroen finally with his own product
in addition to being the worlds leading book author Jeroen is also a collector of the old computers and he been writing books for dedicated computers since the late 1980's
he deserves to be able to earn something for his craft
but again i can see the controversy from the buying public
i mean after all the full book should be included with the engine
one can look at all of this from a practical standpoint
if creative engine and book authors cannot maximize their income from their craft..they will only leave the field at the end of the day or just treat any further improvements on a part time basis
look at Cozzie and Fabien Letouzey..i would imagine that if they thought a comfortable living could have be made ,one decent enough to raise a family ,buy a home..etc etc they would still be in the field

Random Musings regards
Steve
Overall I agree with Steve. Sh!t happens, I am not sure what lead to this however I do understand. As they say "Business is Business". It was a BIG gain for Chessbase and a Great Lost for Convekta, Sales-wise that is. I only wonder what happened. At least Aquarium with be Linux Compatible. Good news for Linux.

I will give it to Chessbase when it comes to Marketing that is, just look at the covers for the two products. Chessbase wins, hands down. I will buy both, Deep Rybka and Book from Chessbase, and Aquarium GUI from Convekta.

PS: It should be my last putchase for a while. :roll:
"I guess that more people are going to hear about rybka thanks to chessbase and it also means that more people are going to hear about
the Aquarium GUI."


Uri
Thats what I would hope for, not sure that it will happen. It is not clear for me either, and you are right I do assume that less people are going to buy the Aquarium GUI from convekta.
"Good decisions come from experience, and experience come from bad decisions."
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Vas: Summary

Post by Ted Summers »

Vas wrote:My mailbox is getting swamped with questions. Everyone can expect to go to www.rybkachess.com early next week for all relevant Rybka 3 business & marketing information.

The basic overview is:

1) Rybka 3 will be carried by three parties: Convekta, ChessBase, and rybkachess.com.
2) ChessBase will carry Rybka + Fritz interface on DVD. rybkachess.com will carry standalone Rybka UCI for download. Convekta will carry (up to) six combinations - with & without interface, Chess Assistant 10 & Aquarium interfaces, download & DVD.
3) The three releases are intended as equal in principle - equal dates, equal Rybka version, approximately equal prices. Obviously, the interfaces will differ.
4) All Rybka versions will be UCI. UCI extensions will be open and published after release.
5) 32-bit & 64-bit versions are included in all packages. Default, humanized, dynamic and Chess960 versions are also included in all packages.
6) Rybka 3 is a one-time release, ie. no engine updates. The next Rybka versions will be Rybka 4 in the summer of 2009. There may be interface updates - this is up to Convekta & ChessBase.
7) Jeroen's opening book will be carried exclusively by ChessBase. In the interest of interoperability and point #3 above, it will be sold as a separate entity.
8) A free Rybka package will also be available for download from rybkachess.com. It will include Jeroen's RybkaII.ctg and Rybka v2.2n2.

Those of you who wait for email responses, please don't be offended by the delays. I'll answer everything next week.

Vas
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforu ... l?tid=5020
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Post by Harvey Williamson »

A summary from Vas:

The basic overview is:

1) Rybka 3 will be carried by three parties: Convekta, ChessBase, and rybkachess.com.
2) ChessBase will carry Rybka + Fritz interface on DVD. rybkachess.com will carry standalone Rybka UCI for download. Convekta will carry (up to) six combinations - with & without interface, Chess Assistant 10 & Aquarium interfaces, download & DVD.
3) The three releases are intended as equal in principle - equal dates, equal Rybka version, approximately equal prices. Obviously, the interfaces will differ.
4) All Rybka versions will be UCI. UCI extensions will be open and published after release.
5) 32-bit & 64-bit versions are included in all packages. Default, humanized, dynamic and Chess960 versions are also included in all packages.
6) Rybka 3 is a one-time release, ie. no engine updates. The next Rybka versions will be Rybka 4 in the summer of 2009. There may be interface updates - this is up to Convekta & ChessBase.
7) Jeroen's opening book will be carried exclusively by ChessBase. In the interest of interoperability and point #3 above, it will be sold as a separate entity.
8) A free Rybka package will also be available for download from rybkachess.com. It will include Jeroen's RybkaII.ctg and Rybka v2.2n2.

Those of you who wait for email responses, please don't be offended by the delays. I'll answer everything next week.

Vas
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Post by Graham Banks »

Harvey Williamson wrote: 8) A free Rybka package will also be available for download from rybkachess.com. It will include Jeroen's RybkaII.ctg and Rybka v2.2n2.
Wow!
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I am quoting Jeroen

Post by Ted Summers »

Jeroen wrote:
Dear Rybka fans,

The Rybka 3 and Rybka 3 book announcement yesterday also surprised me (as I didn't know when it would be coming!), so it is time to give some information. I have tried to be as complete as possible, forgive me if this doesn't answer all the questions.

Rybka 3 book info

Credits
- Vas and Larry: for the brilliant Rybka 3 engine that found so many novelties, nice ideas and refutations.
- Dagh Nielsen: for the very inspiring preparation sessions and all the great stuff you found in the Najdorf.
- IM Merijn van Delft: for the breath taking Petroff novelty I was allowed to use.
- IM Iweta Rajlich: for providing me with some nice analysis and exciting opening material.
- My Q6600: no good book without good hardware
- Playchess engine room: without all you guys this book would never exist!
- ChessBase: for selling my book and giving me this opportunity.

What can you expect
- The Rybka 3 book is a combination of the best GM games and computer games of the past few years.
- I worked on it for 6.5 months, on average I put around 4 times more hours and effort in this new book when compared with RybkaII.
- It contains a lot of novelties, original analysis and new ideas.
- It is thoroughly computer checked.
- Improvements were made on a daily basis, with the help of 8000 test games being played and analysed.
- The book has been tested against a wide variety of other books.
- You will find improvements on Playchess theory in it, as well as refutations of some popular Playchess lines.
- Although I have a private book, I have made no concessions with the Rybka 3 book, i.e. all the good stuff I found during testing and analysing is in the book.

Availability
- The Rybka 3 book is in ctg-format and will be exclusively available through ChessBase.

Why stand alone
- With the Rybka 3 book I want to reach a very broad chess audience:

A) Hobby players
B) Club players
C) Correspondence players
D) Tournament players
E) International masters and grandmasters
F) Chess enthousiasts who like to play engine-engine matches
G) ChessBase 8/9/10 users
H) ChessBase engine users who don't want to have Rybka, but are interested in updating their books
I) Aquarium users
J) All other people interested in the latest opening theory

- Once it was clear to me that this was my goal and greatest wish, I verified the possible options.
- As the book was in ctg-format, the agreement with ChessBase was by far the most logical step for me.
- A stand alone product will put more emphasis on the book and its pro's, this would not have been the case when incorporated in the Rybka 3 package.
- Only with a stand alone product I can reach the audience mentioned above.
- For me earning a little extra is nice, but I must confess that the PR and the exposure generated are far more thrilling for me .

Of course I fully understand that people expected Rybka3.ctg to be in the Rybka 3 package. I hope that I made clear what my considerations were and why I made the step. In any case I can tell you that I gave my very best to make Rybka3.ctg possible and that the ChessBase agreement was a huge boost to make it even better. I hope you will enjoy the new Rybka book
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforu ... l?tid=5028
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Post by Dark Horse »

so my decision to go for the Chessbase GUI some time back seems to have paid off! I can go for Rybka 3 standalone UCI and the .ctg book separately
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Post by Fernando »

If -only IF- I purchase the thing, it will be the convetka stuff due to Aquarium GUI. I cannot bear the idea of just another engine running in just CB gui. I want novelties. Certainly I will not purchase the bare engine in Rybka site. No more bare engines for me, ever.
In fact probably I will prefer expend the same money in any dedicated unit, no matter how much plastic and how much weaker it is.

Loyalty has its duties regards
Fernando
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