Originally posted by TJN22You must be a subscriber to rec a post. If you aren't the link won't appear.
Starting with the rec thing.....Where would the "blue link" be, I don't see one on my screen?
I'm not a subscriber so maybe that's not available to me.....
Chessmaster crashing while accessing the opening library is the issue I was refering to. This is something I would like to know more about.
Side note: I went back to the reviews I was reading to ...[text shortened]... . The more I get into this the more that seems like a pretty tall order.
Regards,
Tim 🙄
The best engines for analysis are the Fritz (Shredder/Junior/Tiger etc.) series by far. Chessmaster can't compete here.
The best way to learn openings is to play them. Find an opening that you feel would suit your style of play (positional vs. tactical, open vs. closed, aggressive vs. defensive etc.) and play it a few times. Then go back and look at the opening in more detail. Find a line or lines you like and play them. Repeat. You will make mistakes. You will lose games. But at the end you'll know your opening theory (not just the moves the theory and reasons behind moves which is the important bit).
Now I own chessbase and quite a few teaching cds. Some of these I found very useful. Others not so much. I've found they are especially good at teaching endgame techniques.
Originally posted by NostalJimfor the mac side, you can get Chessmaster 10, but with the unix core of Mac OS X you can get a number of chess engines that will work with Xboard. However, the best interface currently available on the Mac is Sigma Chess (sigmachess.com) Which has A UCI interface you can load many engines into. The Best currently available would be HIARCS 9.6
Quick question, none of those are compatible with macs, right? I'm considering buying an iBook and it would have been nice to be able to play chess on the go.
Originally posted by NostalJimOwning a TiBook 550, I use SigmaChess and ExaChessLite. SigmaChess is a master level chess program, very nice interface and very strong with multiple levels of strength. ExaChessLite is a chess database that I use to record all of my games for later analysis. Both are freeware and also offer a full feature version for a reasonable price. I recommend them highly. I remember reading that they are also working on an OS X version of HIARCS, but I don't know when (and if) it will be made available.
Quick question, none of those are compatible with macs, right? I'm considering buying an iBook and it would have been nice to be able to play chess on the go.
I think what you may want to go for is chessmaster then. Chessmaster has many drills and lessons to make you a better player in all of the areas you mentioned. Endgame, openings and middle game are all covered in a variety of ways. Chessbase has little to no training features besides what you can learn on your own. Chessbase does sell training disks, but they're usually an additional $50 a piece and I don't find them to be very helpful. In addition to being not very user friendly and somewhat difficult to use, they are a lot more practice than teaching. I think from what you said Chessmaster would benifiet you more.
On the side of engine strength: Chessmaster is a bit weaker than the Chessbase ones, but is still very strong, and will make a more than worthy opponent.
Analysis: Chessbase works better for analysis and database, but since you don't seem to have a need for that now, it makes no difference. I believe that you can use Chessmaster to analyise your games to check for errors. It's not as intuitive as Chessbase, but once you become a Chessmaster expert, you'll learn to use all of its tool. Right now I don't know as much about Chessmaster, so there is probably a lot of unlocked potential.
Once you get to the point where you'd like to analysise and store all of your games in a neat database, I'd suggest you consider purchasing a Chessbase program.