I hope Fabien Letouzey dont play their game

[Kevin Frayer]

Wild speculation, lol. I think not. At the supermarket down the street, store managers get tickets to Broadway plays from soda distributors in order to get prime display space for their product. (These are very big name soda companies, how do you think they got so big and stay that way?)

Your naivety is quaint, but I am not going to do the research for you. At this very moment many posters on other chess forums are discussing engine rating lists skewed by the men producing them, receiving gratuities. If you would read the link provided above, you may come to understand this is just the dark side of capitalism. In the business world these are not called bribes they are called incentives and are part of a marketing strategy.

I don't know what link you are talking about, but I have been following the threads and I don't see ChessBase being involved in this anywhere. Just because your local supermarket does things like that doesn't mean ChessBase and ChessOK are paying off forum members of tiny internet forums to say positive things. They don't have to, they would rather give free copies of their software to people that actually matter or have sway in the chess world, like Anand or Carlsen or Kasparov. If you want to say those people are bribed to say good things about ChessBase, or to influence them to say good things, you would be dead right. But my point wasn't that businesses don't give incentives to influential buyers, it was that they don't give incentives to people on these boards. There would be nothing in it for them. Do you understand the difference?

In the case your reluctance to understand is based in naivety and I am beginning to have my doubts. Please have a look at these threads.

Albert, such a nice looking young man with a beautiful family. 1612+ posts on TalkChess forum, if you did not know you might think he was just a hobbyist like yourself.
http://talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37807

You may also wish to read and or post your skepticism on this thread. Its not only CB and Rybka that have an interest in posting through their agents on chess forums. Many commercial entities have a dog in the fight.
http://www.open-chess.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1034

[Kevin Frayer]

Wild speculation, lol. I think not...Your naivety is quaint...many posters ... are discussing engine rating lists skewed by the men ... receiving gratuities.

mon Dieu, this evidence is crushing.

This is not what I wrote, please do not add emphasis, punctuation or remove words when you quot me.

Thank you.

[orgfert]

Wild speculation, lol. I think not...Your naivety is quaint...many posters ... are discussing engine rating lists skewed by the men ... receiving gratuities.

mon Dieu, this evidence is crushing.

This is not what I wrote

Feel free to restore any words you think would have contaminated your post with evidence.

[BB+]

if you did not know you might think he was just a hobbyist like yourself.

The fact that Albert Silver frequently(?) writes for ChessBase (not only on computer chess, see this for example) is of marginal import until you can show that this actually colours his views on TalkChess. Even then, it would be hard to term him a "stooge" rather than just someone with possibly distorted opinions (and don't we all have such?). You might reasonably question his impartiality (the standard for recusal of a judge, I think), but beyond that it is getting hazy.

[Kevin Frayer]

if you did not know you might think he was just a hobbyist like yourself.

The fact that Albert Silver frequently(?) writes for ChessBase (not only on computer chess, see this for example) is of marginal import until you can show that this actually colours his views on TalkChess. Even then, it would be hard to term him a "stooge" rather than just someone with possibly distorted opinions (and don't we all have such?). You might reasonably question his impartiality (the standard for recusal of a judge, I think), but beyond that it is getting hazy.

Yes of course you are correct. I would never go as far as calling him a stooge. Albert was just used as an example of someone who may exhibit a particular type of bias in forum discussions. (Somewhat like a politician towing the party line.)

Now that being said, those with known links to commercial interests, who have used blacklisting, censorship and arbitrary banning to maintain a monopoly should not be allowed too escape the Clone War with reputations unscathed.