Dann Corbit wrote:Perhaps some different marketing might be helpful.
You might try partnering with ChessAssistant, ChessMaster or some other giant so that they will do some marketing for you.
Lots of little detail things:
maintenance
marketing
technical support
sales
etc.
tend to take up tons of time and they're not any fun.
That's not the main issue. Doing this stuff is mentally challenging. Takes lots of concentration and effort. And when you get to the GM level, 90% of the work you do is wasted in that it does not help even though you thought it would.
It is a grind. I have been asked several times to develop a chess engine for this or that company and I have always declined. My reasoning has been that I will probably continue doing this so long as it is fun. But release schedules, new feature requests, etc tend to make this anything but fun. This is probably the main reason I am still active after being involved in this stuff for 41 years now...
Different people are motivated by different things. I am motivated by whether or not I enjoy doing something. That's why I am still involved in drag racing both boats and cars, flying model airplanes, fishing, and of course computer chess. To some it is just a passing fancy. To others it represents a life-long challenge since a chess program project will never be "done".
Just take a little time off. Get a good paying job and keep busy. You will notice later that the craving to improve your engine will be back and your motivation will increase again. Never quit, just when the top is already a stone's throw away.
You don't have to do it full time. You will notice that the less time you devote to the engine the more motivated you''ll become to improve it. Looking forward to a stronger Naum.
That is really unfortunate as Naum was one of the few engines that could give Rybka some good hits. Naum probably has a lot to do with the new strength that new Rybka will achieve. It is unfortunate that there is not too much money in computer chess, and it will probably always be that way. Hopefully you will find a decent paying job that will still allow you to tinker with Naum and improve it.
I am getting a lot of inquires about the next version so I will answer them here.
Unfortunately I stopped working on Naum in January. Last 2 years I quit my job and dedicated all my time to the engine development. It became more of a job and less the hobby so I just burnt-out and completely lost desire to continue. This is the main reason why I didn't participate in CCT and have no plans to attend any of the tournaments this year. If one of the customers wants to enter some of them, this is fine by me.
I still plan to release an update this year, since there is a bunch of ideas waiting and hopefully I will get some motivation to work on them.
Since I plan to return to my regular job, there won't be much time left for the future development, but I may still be able to do some work from time to time. Future versions (if any) will most likely be distributed as free updates to Naum 4 customers. I doubt there will be a new commercial release unless I get lucky and get a big improvement with a little work.
I know this comes as a disappointment to some who hopped that Rybka domination can be stopped, but Vas is just too good
I have high hopes for Thinker based on its rapid rate of improvement and hope it continues. I also think SMK may still be able to pull a couple of surprises in the following years with Shredder. Wouldn't discount Sjeng too, since GCPs desire to win is bordering madness
Thanks a lot to all who have supported me over the years,
Alex
