Dear Chesslovers,


....but never dared to ask...


1) Is it still possible to import games with pawns on 1st/8th rank and other
illegal positions into your program and let the engines analyse them ?
2) Is it now possible to display games longer than 270 moves ?
3) The old ChessBase database format has been decrypted, is this also
possible for the new database format in your opinion ?
4) Do you think it is possible to decrypt the native engine protocol so one
could use those engines in the interface of ones choice ?
5) How about hiring some competent beta testers so such bugs do not get
through to the end user ?
6) Are the sysops on the ChessBase server as competent as the beta testers ?
9) If Rybka is a lousy program, as stated by one of your sysops, why do you
sell lousy programs ?
10) Why do you need snippets of the users hardware ? Are you moving towards
total control ?
11) Can you tell us why Stefan Meye Kahlen, Amir Ban, Chirly Donninger left
ChessBase ?
12) Why do you promote Monte-Carlo methods as something new when those are
beeing used for instance in the game of GO for many years now ?
13) Do they work at all for chess ?
14) If you say that your anti-cheating software is reliable why don't you
prove this releasing reliable chess software ?
15) Why do you send review copies only to people and magzines who write
positive reviews ? Do you pay them and are those magazines dependent on
advertising payings from your company ?
16) Why doesn't your software have full DGT support and why has the support
for TASC, UCB, Mephisto Board and the RS232 board been stopted ?
17) Rybka, now a ChessBase program is goint to participate at the WCCC in
Beijing, what do you think about promoting such an event regarding the human
rights situation in China ?
18) Do you see any pararllel bewtween the above issue and people beeing
banned from your server because of mentioning bugs or stating their opinion
?
19) One has the feeling your are selling completly untested programs and
throw them on the market just at the same time as the Convekta company, is
this true ?
20) How long do you think yor company will be on the market when selling
such products and behaving like it does towards paying customers ?


As ChessBase didn't answer thhose questions for you the customeres we
thought we should make this a public interview. This will be published soon
on the Arena page also. Feel free to add questions to this list. At least
one about the high qulaity of their database comes into my mind. ...

Best,
Michael
Web: http://www.playwitharena.com
Mind the Base. Join the Arena