Chess

[tomfon]

Hello. I'd like to restart playing chess on my PC. Do you guys have any good suggestions? I've done a small market search but i'm not so sure.:oops: Chessmaster maybe? Oh, i'm running win7 x64.
Thanks.

[Skybird]

Global market leader is Chessbase. The GUI is called Fritz, it has several engines of top class to offer. The latest versions offer superb 3D boards, plenty of options and seconadary features. actual engines avalabole for it include Fritz, Hiarcs, Rybka, Shredder and junior. Many free engines also run under the Fritz/Chessbase GUI.

Together with any Chessbase chess engine you buy a 1-year abo for the chessbase server which is the biggest there is, there you can also play online, kiebitz, and they have many live courses, tournament reports and live coverages that combine the GUI's capabilities with TV pics from the event. They claim to be the biggest chess playing server in the world. I have never heared anyone objecting to that. So if internet playing is your thing, Chessbase is the most decent and visually stunning way to do it. I used it all longer time ago, but never extended it when the 1 year period I got when buying a new engine was used up.

Engine strength is not a criterion as long as you are nbo absolute master player, so this program comes most recommended becasue it offers oyu the latest Fritz GUI version with moe features and boards than any other software you can get. I use these boards myself and confirm they work superbly.

http://www.chessbase.com/shop/product.asp?pid=467&user=&coin=

Take note of the many videos at the end of the link.

Some pics of how the virtual boards do look like on a 21" wide screen, you find in this threat, 2nd page:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=159775&page=2

Also, the Chessbase standard is compatible with any serious software thing on the PC market. Over here in Europe, and in russia as well, Chessmaster plays almost no role, and that has reasons. ;) It is pretty much an American market-only thing. This must be taken into account especially when you plan to run engine matches on different, linked machines via autoplayer. A certain data format and interface is needed for that, and as far as I know Chessmaster does not support that format and I think it even does not offer such a (different) interface.

Chessbase also is the world's leading chess database software (do not mistaken that with the engine software). Their engines usually come with small databases, offering you databases of 0.5 to 1 million matches. Chessabse databses are practically without any competition worldwide. All professional players use Chessbase standard since a very long time now.

We have had many chess matches in General Topic forums over the past years. I used the Fritz GUI there to give match diagrams and match updates there. Run a search, limit it to General Topic only, and search term should be something like "chess match" and the thread healdines only. that should give you the links of most of the matches. Plenty of screenshots in huge format.


If you do not want to spend money, use this legally free GUI and the acording, legally free engines:

http://www.playwitharena.com/

But it does not look as beautiful as Fritz GUI.

Modern engines are killers if let loose in full strength. But do not be intimidated, Fritz offers oyu several options to artificially lower the engine's skill, and the auto-adaption levels work wonderful. Players of any skill level can get the most out of it.

P.S. I use Fritz 11 GUI myself, with Fritz 11 and Hiarcs 10 engines. The menu system in Fritz 12 GUI has changed, I cannot comment on that. They say it is more windows-standard now, and more intuitive.

[tomfon]

Wow! You've been more than helpful.:up:
So, i paid a visit to the sites you posted and i think i'm going for the Fritz gui. I believe it is worth its money. I will try to find if there is anything else available. You never know but for the time being the Fritz gui looks wonderfyl to me. Thanks again.

:salute:

[Skybird]

:DL