Originally posted by Evil Pawn 666A chess 'engine' is a computer program. Fritz is an example - there are many others. If such programs are used to assist a game here - then that's cheating. There's not much point either - these programs come up with the best move (if they are good programs) - but they can't tell you WHY.
Excuse my ignorance please. What is a chess engin and what is a data base. I really don,t know, in spite of seeing the terms all the time. Please fill me in.
Surely there is a market out there for a program that will show you all the moves NOT to play? just a thought.
For databases - there are two kinds. The first is opening moves - nothing wrong (in correspondence chess) with consulting a list of moves that have already been made (by humans) in response to a given opening. Usually these take you to move 10 or so in a game - after that too many variations creep in to make a viable database.
Check out http://www.eudesign.com/chessops/ and of course the games explorer here http://www.timeforchess.com/gamesexplorer/
If you want to learn, then you'll use these as a reference AFTER moving - or at least AFTER nominating your move - blindly following suggested moves just because someone did so before is STUPID.
The second kind of database is a computer generated list of end-game moves - I've not used one so I'm a bit vague on the details, but I guess that they show some common end-game scenarios and which are the best moves to play in a certain situation. I think they're called tablebases and I know they are not allowed (here).
I'd prefer to understand WHY a move is good or bad, than to always make the perfect move in ignorance - and if you use engines or databases then this knowledge will always be elusive.