Help! Chessbase / Fritz etc

Hi Guys,

Please could you help. I'm looking looking to buy a chess program to help me improve at chess. The main thing I want is something that I can plug games into after I've finished, and get the engine to analyse the whole game, showing where mistakes and inaccuracies were made.

There are so many different products, deep fritz, fritz, chessbase etc I have no idea how they are all different.

Please could someone help?

Thanks in advance!

Originally posted by KingoftheRink
Hi Guys,

Please could you help. I'm looking looking to buy a chess program to help me improve at chess. The main thing I want is something that I can plug games into after I've finished, and get the engine to analyse the whole game, showing where mistakes and inaccuracies were made.

There are so many different products, deep fritz, fritz, chessba ...[text shortened]... I have no idea how they are all different.

Please could someone help?

Thanks in advance!

Good question, I have been meaning to ask the same thing. My old engine is too convoluted to get anything done. I would really just like an engine where I can plug a game in and find where the large swings were tactically.

Hopefully someone has a good engine they can rec.

You can get crafty for nothing with babaschess. You can analyse whole games fairly easily if you run it in chesspad (there is an old thread on here about how to do that; sorry, I don't know how to post a link but check my old forum posts). Mostly, though, I just click through games on babaschess and let it run on each move for a few seconds. It's simpler and that is all you need to spot missed tactics. I don't bother all that much to be honest and other people will probably have better ideas. But might be worth a try before you spend any money.

Fritz is mainly a playing program whereas Chessbase is a database. I fell out with chessbase about ten years ago when, having spent a fair bit on their product I found that they did not maintain compatibility with the various windows updates so that by the time Windows XP was established my chessbase no longer worked. It had lasted four years! Since then I have used the freeware chess database SCID. I have used it in both Linux and Windows versions and the files have crossed over fine. I store them in a cloud now anyway. It has an engine (Toga/fruit) that 2500 which can run over the positions for you. It will do many of the search types that chessbase can do but you will have to find a free database to download if you want to compare your opening play with that of the grandmasters. I have one of about 65,000 GM games from 2006-2011 that I downloaded free. They are out there. I use it to store and analyse my OTB games, compare suspect RHP opponents games to software recommendations, and to nose through GM games where the opening interests me.

One thing I did learn as a result of my experiences with chessbase and that is to store all your games as PGN files AS WELL as SCID or chessbase or other brand's pet system because you can then read them with any program you subsequently try when the one you used originally goes base up for whatever reason.

I'm an average strength club player. I see no reason to spend large amounts of disposable income on chess software, I'd rather use some of it on tournament entry fees, bicycle parts/clothing, or good music. Yes SCID is a slightly "clunky" compared to the pro stuff, you wouldn't win a GM tournament (or an ICCF tourney 😉 ) using it but it is more than adequate for casual use with limited funds.

ChessX is a reasonable tool. Free, doesn't look too horrible and runs on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Plug in a free engine such as Critter or Stockfish (I think Stockfish is integrated in ChessX) and away you go.

now that I look again, you can actually get the engine to analyze the whole game in babachess. quite straightforward.

Originally posted by scubily
now that I look again, you can actually get the engine to analyze the whole game in babachess. quite straightforward.

On your recommend I downloaded babas, and got the crafty plugin. How do I initiate a game against crafty?

Oops, I got an error message saying crafty was not installed properly. Hit uninstall in the configure plugins window but now cannot get it to even start the crafty download.
I looked in 'add or remove programs' in the control panel (XP) and crafty is not listed there so it should start a download. Help!

Hmm. Not sure. I don't remember having to get a plug in (what's that?). The engine was just there when I downloaded babaschess, I think. Then load a pgn and click analyze below the board (to analyze a particular position) or analyze game from one of the drop down menus to (to analyze the whole game). Maybe try reinstalling babaschess. I got rybka with the Tarrasch GUI last night (again, just download the GUI and the engine should be there). You can also run that through babaschess quite easily; the babaschess FAQs tell you how. I'm not sure it's possible to analyze whole games in Tarrasch, but you can certainly play the engine or analyze positions.

Originally posted by scubily
Hmm. Not sure. I don't remember having to get a plug in (what's that?). The engine was just there when I downloaded babaschess, I think. Then load a pgn and click analyze below the board (to analyze a particular position) or analyze game from one of the drop down menus to (to analyze the whole game). Maybe try reinstalling babaschess. I got rybka with ...[text shortened]... analyze whole games in Tarrasch, but you can certainly play the engine or analyze positions.

He has got his head up his arse again. 😏
Just kidding.