2 edits
Originally posted by zebanoI knew the guys who did one of the original db's 15 years or so ago that had about a million games in it including 3 of mine, thousands and thousands and thousands were from local tmts all over the country with games by players worse than me. I made my own downloaded from various sources and have 1.3 million games in it all by masters. I started by converting Chessmaster games to pgn. Why buy one when there's so many free games for download? Why do I need to have a db with 1.3 million games? Because I can.
Remember Quality > Quantity. Chessbase came with their "big" database with tons of games. Many of them are rapid games, many are by unranked players or experts. Some have missed tactics etc. It is important to prune what you get and supplement it with current games....
Originally posted by rotkFirst you need to distinguish between the databases themselves and the software used to access them. SCID is a program into which you can load any database that you can find in PGN format. The same is true of ChessBase, which I use, and Chess Assistant, which is comparable. SCID is free, but no longer maintained (or so I've heard). CB and CA cost ~ $150 each.
I've heard of a couple databases like chessbase and SCID, but which one is the best, and what other ones are out there?
I have hundreds of databases that I access through ChessBase. Some have nearly everything; one that I created on Tuesday contains only the games of Boris Spassky.
Originally posted by more guinnessyes you can
Can one create a new, separate database on Fritz for one's own games? If so, is this an easier or better route than downloading or purchasing one of these stand-alone programs?
easier, no
better is in the mind of the beholder
You might try the free version of ChessBase, ChessBase Light, for your own games. It is slightly easier to enter games in the DB program than in Fritz.