Chess software

Chessmaster. Chessbase. Chessassistant. Fritz. Probably others. Are these software programs more or less comparable? If one were to buy one, is one usually considered "the way to go"? How to decide which way to go? Thanks for all your expert opinions.

Fritz 9 would be your best bet. One of the strongest engines around (much better than say Chessmaster), comes with a database to get you started and 5 hours of lessons.

I have found Chessmaster most useful. There is more than 5 hours of tutorials and lots of drills. My next engine may be Fritz, but right now, Chessmaster is giving me all that I need at my level, and it has been very useful in helping me learn the game...when I actually take time to use it.

Originally posted by basso
Chessmaster. Chessbase. Chessassistant. Fritz. Probably others. Are these software programs more or less comparable? If one were to buy one, is one usually considered "the way to go"? How to decide which way to go? Thanks for all your expert opinions.

I just got ChessAssistant which is primarily a database-handling application (and a very good one at that), with 2.7m games pre-loaded. It comes with several built-in engines for analysis including Tiger & Crafty; others can be added. It has a huge range of features and is much cheaper than ChessBase. Depending on your needs, I recommend it highly.

Of course if you just want to play and analyse specific games, go for something like Fritz.

Originally posted by basso
Chessmaster. Chessbase. Chessassistant. Fritz. Probably others. Are these software programs more or less comparable? If one were to buy one, is one usually considered "the way to go"? How to decide which way to go? Thanks for all your expert opinions.

Chessmaster is geared towards beginners. It has the best lessons, but cannot compete with the others in most respects.

ChessBase and Chess Assistant are database programs. They are comparable to one another, and each has their advocates. Both have light versions that you can download for free. ChessBase comes with an old version of Fritz, and Chess Assistant comes with Tiger. Both also come with a few additional engines. There are many free engines available on the web that are compatible with these programs.

Fritz is an engine and that comes with an interface (GUI). The interface supports other engines from the Chess Base family, as well as UCI engines. It has limited database functions, but the best computer generated analysis available.

I used several versions of ChessMaster from 1989 through 2001. ChessBase has been my primary database since then. For analysis, I have close to 100 engines, including Fritz 8 and Hiarcs 9. Some of these engines are Winboard engines and do not run in the Fritz interface. For these, I use Arena.

http://www.playwitharena.com/

I found this to be excellent. It comes with several UCI engines. You can also load other UCI or Winboard type engines into it. You can analyze games with any engine you have, and if you get totally board you can hold an engine tournament.

Pro Deo http://members.home.nl/matador/prodeo.htm I also recomend installing, it is also a real good engine that will give shredder a real run for it's money.

The best thing of all is that it is free. It comes with a database and is really an excellent GUI that is easy to understand and use.


RTh

can you buy Fritz in stores or is it only availiable on the internet?

Originally posted by Darth Sponge
can you buy Fritz in stores or is it only availiable on the internet?

You can buy it in stores, but it might be cheaper on the internet. I bought Fritz 8 in a store when it was on sale.

Originally posted by basso
Chessmaster. Chessbase. Chessassistant. Fritz. Probably others. Are these software programs more or less comparable? If one were to buy one, is one usually considered "the way to go"? How to decide which way to go? Thanks for all your expert opinions.

I bought Fritz on ebay. Ebay is probably your best bet (price wise) for a lot of this kind of stuff. Honestly, I found Fritz to be very difficult to use. The instructions weren't clear, and the interface is confusing. Sure, I can play a game or analyze a game, but I know it's capable of a lot more and I just couldn't figure it out. I'm in the software business too, and pretty good at what I do, so it's not like I'm some kind of technophobe or something. You'll hear a lot of talk about the fact that Fritz has a stronger engine. Unless you're Kasparov or something, I don't see how that would really benefit you. My next purchase will be ChessMaster.

I have Fritz 8 and Chessmaster 10. I bought Fritz first but ended up getting Chessmaster also because I was looking for much more instructional material and Chessmaster was highly recommended for that by friends. Now that I have Chessmaster, I find Fritz almost useless except for annotating games. Fritz is harder to use, and seems unable to dumb itself down enough to play at my level in a reasonable way. It seems that it either plays so strongly that it crushes me effortlessly, or it usually plays strongly, but deliberately drops pieces here or there so that I win sometimes, but it doesn't do this at all like a human player does. I find the opponents in chessmaster much more realistic near my level and so it is much more fun to play them. So, if you're not a very strong player already, I would recommend Chessmaster over Fritz.

Go to be Fritz 9, no doubt about it - a total re-hash of the algorithms it uses from previous versions.

I only have Fritz 7 :'( but will be getting Fritz 9 soon 😀

(Note:- it's a DVD not a CD as with previous versions, so CHECK your PC CD/DVD drive compatibility if you intend purchasing it)

Originally posted by rbmorris
I bought Fritz on ebay. Ebay is probably your best bet (price wise) for a lot of this kind of stuff. Honestly, I found Fritz to be very difficult to use. The instructions weren't clear, and the interface is confusing. Sure, I can play a game or analyze a game, but I know it's capable of a lot more and I just couldn't figure it out. I'm in the softw ...[text shortened]... omething, I don't see how that would really benefit you. My next purchase will be ChessMaster.

I have chess master 9000 and its really good i think. It has like, what is it, i think the cd case says 150 cp opponents. It also has a bunch of tutorials. Now fritz on the other hand, it has a database and people say its got learning mateiral, but its so hard to use. I have had the thing for 2 weeks and still cant figure out how to access half the stuff. As far as games go, they both have a major negative abouut them. On chess master 9000, if you play one person, like say you play darcy. If you save the history, and make the same moves the next time you play her, she will make the same moves she did last time. I'm not sure if that works on higher rated people, but rating 750 & less always do that. The major con for fritz is (this may not be all versions, maybe just the one i got. i would like to include the version's name i got, but i cant remember it) When ever you play a game, the cp will still have a 50% chance of winnin just like you, and it will resign 9 outof 10 times. Well i hoped i helped you rbmorris. out of the 2 i prefer chess master
-trallphaz

Originally posted by trallphaz
the cp will still have a 50% chance of winnin just like you, and it will resign 9 outof 10 times.

Fritz permits you to set both resign and draw threshholds at "early" "late" and "never". As I recall, Chessmaster also permits you to tweak these settings, but with fewer options.

If Fritz is difficult, read the T-notes at http://www.chessbase.com/support/index.asp or ask your questions at The Chess Exchange http://www.chessexchange.com/forum/. You might also ask specific questions here at RHP, as there are many experienced Fritz users online here at all hours.

If you have difficulty with Chessmaster, you can visit the forums at UbiSoft as well (it can take awhile to find them). However, in my experience, help there is slower, less informed, and I had to use Explorer because the site is not compatible with Firefox.

Originally posted by trallphaz
I have chess master 9000 and its really good i think. It has like, what is it, i think the cd case says 150 cp opponents.

Fritz and family supports UCI, which opens the door to well over 100 additional engines, most free. Chessmaster does not support UCI, so the "personalities"--all tweaks of the playing style of The King (CMs engine)--are the only variety possible.