OpenChess

As there's been some discussion recently about the behavior of sysops on PlayChess, this link might interest some.

http://talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37463

Jeremy

monopoly+power=corruption..interesting initiative from diosi but iam afraid chessbase has many "bodyguards" around. day by day is
more clear that chessbase feels "safe" from any competition and brings more and more 15th century-like methods.

ps. at least in the 15th century quasimodo was a kind and honest guy

stvs wrote:monopoly+power=corruption..interesting initiative from diosi but iam afraid chessbase has many "bodyguards" around. day by day is
more clear that chessbase feels "safe" from any competition and brings more and more 15th century-like methods.

With the unpredictable variable that customers actually have the power: to cease their memberships with Chessbase/PCC sysops. It may or may not make these uncivilized groups change their mentality & attitude towards other human beings (customers) but it definitely brings Chessbase + Chessbase bodyguards/Sysops/certain forum moderators down on bended knees.

Heck, based on the behaviors of PCC Sysops and Chessbase's general operation towards customer service, I'm convinced beyond doubt that Chessbase is not managed by intelligent and certified business people. A company cannot mistreat the very group of customers making their profits, salaries and the very reason the company exists in the first place, without getting stung. This goes against conventional wisdom.

Nothing is more pleasing than seeing the supposedly "all mighty and powerful but Rude" company/individuals on bended knees, begging for pennies for a cup of coffee and generally being at the mercy of customers that they mistreated during their "high positions" reign. But only IF customers, individually or collectively, decide enough is enough and decides to take some action.

Chessbase is not managed by intelligent and certified business people

No kidding. I found that out after 2 emails to ChessBase customer "support"...

Their software is also terribly buggy. It also seems to get more buggy over time.
I end up hacking Rybka 3 (Fritz 11) GUI configuration files just to do things like select the engines I want for a tournament, only to have it freeze after the 6th game.

Peter

Prima wrote:
Heck, based on the behaviors of PCC Sysops and Chessbase's general operation towards customer service, I'm convinced beyond doubt that Chessbase is not managed by intelligent and certified business people.

stvs wrote:monopoly+power=corruption..interesting initiative from diosi but iam afraid chessbase has many "bodyguards" around. day by day is
more clear that chessbase feels "safe" from any competition and brings more and more 15th century-like methods.

ps. at least in the 15th century quasimodo was a kind and honest guy

That are more 20th century totalitary methods Stalin, Lenin etc.

I concur. Unfortunately, Chessbase PlayChess has several unethical practices. I signed up with them back in '92 with their $50 membership, only to have it revoked after several days after they accused me of cheating. I asked for a refund, but they refused. At the time they were the best chess server available online and I needed an online server to improve my game, so even though I was quite angry, I opted to continue playing as a guest. One day after playing for several hours I logged off and shut down my computer. Upon restarting I found that my boot.ini was missing and I couldn't bootup my OS. What was worse is I could not even reinstall my OS! And as a result I had to buy a new hard drive. Now, I know it was them because I had not gone to any other websites before shutting down and my computer was clean of any malware as I check it daily with Malwarebytes. Further proof that it was them is that settings in both my Fritz and Arena chess programs were changed including games in my Fritz .pgn database were deleted. Chessbase has some shrewd tech personal and protecting yourself against their hacks requires some knowledge.

Here are some tips that I learned: Be sure to disable your access to your "Remote Registry" in your services.msc and also install a good boot.ini protection program such as the free "nProtect MBR Guard" to protect your Master Boot Record. And if you have a .pgn database be sure to back it up regularly by burning it onto CD. Never install their Playchess software, as this gives them full access to your computer. They just opened a web based playchess server online which is much safer to play at.

Finally, whether you are using software at chess sites online to build your repertoire or to simply cheat (a ridiculous waste of time) this doesn't give any website the rite to tresspass into your computer and cause damage.

Peace out, Sean.