Chess software - where to start?

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Date: 08 Mar 2006 18:38:01
From: 42N83W
Subject: Chess software - where to start?

Windows XP Pro SP2

I posted in rec.games.chess.analysis last night, and they suggested I might
get better recommendations here. Anyway, I just got back into chess with
some office mates but I don't own a single piece of chess software. So if
one is not new to chess but is new to chess software, where should I start?
I'm not against spending some money on software (eventually), but for now
I'd like to get familiar with a typical setup. From lurking and surfing
I've surmised that I'll need an interface, an engine, some database
capabilities and perhaps some analysis features. I've seen all of these
available as freeware/shareware. I guess I'm interested in knowing what
people like, what they hate, what is considered standard, what products are
intuitive, which aren't, etc. I'm also interested in any sites or articles
that can explain what all the acronyms stand for. I deal with large
datasets daily, but not databases, so I can get around a computer just fine,
it's just that I have no idea what the typical files and file extensions are
for the various software components. I do know what PGN is, but I'm still a
little unsure of how all software pieces fit together. If anybody could
care to sum up briefly, in layman's terms, what a typical chess software
setup consists of and how the different parts interact it would be greatly
appreciated. Suggestions are obviously welcome as well.

Thanks!

-gk-

Date: 11 Apr 2006 17:31:21
From: nobody
Subject: Re: Chess software - where to start?

Most chess programs are ugly. There are only a couple of non-ugly ones.

1. On Mac OS X, ChessPuzzle looks decent: http://www.applepi.com/chesspuzzle/
2. On Windows XP, Mayura Chess Board looks good: http://www.mayura.com/chess

Both are free, and both use sjeng as the chess engine.

Some people like the ui of ChessMaster 9000, personally I find it repulsive.

--
NewsGuy.Com 30Gb $9.95 Carry Forward and On Demand Bandwidth

Date: 04 Apr 2006 01:38:39
From: matt -`;'-
Subject: Re: Chess software - where to start?

"42N83W" <gkammerer@sunflower.com > wrote in message
news:120uu7c25j65h45@corp.supernews.com...
> Windows XP Pro SP2
>
> I posted in rec.games.chess.analysis last night, and they suggested I
might
> get better recommendations here. Anyway, I just got back into chess
with
> some office mates but I don't own a single piece of chess software.
So if
> one is not new to chess but is new to chess software, where should I
start?
> I'm not against spending some money on software (eventually), but for
now
> I'd like to get familiar with a typical setup. From lurking and
surfing
> I've surmised that I'll need an interface, an engine, some database
> capabilities and perhaps some analysis features. I've seen all of
these
> available as freeware/shareware. I guess I'm interested in knowing
what
> people like, what they hate, what is considered standard, what
products are
> intuitive, which aren't, etc. I'm also interested in any sites or
articles
> that can explain what all the acronyms stand for. I deal with large
> datasets daily, but not databases, so I can get around a computer just
fine,
> it's just that I have no idea what the typical files and file
extensions are
> for the various software components. I do know what PGN is, but I'm
still a
> little unsure of how all software pieces fit together. If anybody
could
> care to sum up briefly, in layman's terms, what a typical chess
software
> setup consists of and how the different parts interact it would be
greatly
> appreciated. Suggestions are obviously welcome as well.
>
> Thanks!
>
> -gk-
>
>
Hi -gk-,

I think the best free chess playing software interfaces is Arena. You
can get free chess engines that can easily be setup in Arena for playing
some good games of chess. I really like the design, you can customize
the appearance and have your choice of computer opponents/engines. Its
easy to install Arena and the chess engines, afterwards just run it and
play chess. You can save your games to PGN.

For engines: Crafty, Ruffian are great, and there are many more to
choose from. You can get some commercial/paid software cheap, like try
to find an old version of Fritz (the best for analyzing your games), but
you should analyze yourself also - a link below to the best program for
that: ChessPad, by Mark Van Der Leek.

With Fritz you can save to a Chessbase format database which is a
collection of data files (but only seen as a single file from within
Fritz). Or you can also just save to a PGN database file, which can
store 1 or more games, and can be opened by other software easily.

If you do buy a commercial chess program or 2 then definitely Fritz for
game analysis, and second ChessMaster which has an excellent 2nd cdrom
full of visual training, a boatload of computer opponents from low to GM
levels, and you can make your own custom opponents. It provides a
numerical form of analysis, which is good in its own way, but not as
informative as Fritz. Both programs can be got cheap and are a great
value.

I recommend getting a book or 2 containing master games - and reading
them, playing over the games - try to see their plans on the board -
learn. I picked up one recently with 300 Morphy games and it is great!
I like a couple of Leonid Stein books also - he sure could play some
radical chess - I hope to learn some tactics. Learn to read both new
and old notation because there are some older book out there that are
still awesome. If you get in depth later, take a look at Kasparov's
predecessors (red books) - they are outstanding.

I found an interesting way to analyze some of my games against my
portable Excalibur is to get a spiral bound graph notepad (the one with
the squares) - I write down the game moves, then go back and try to pick
apart my/and the computer's weak moves, look for missed opportunities
and tactics. Its easy to write the moves vertically and there is a lot
of space for annotation to the right. I have tried other notepads, but I
like the squares - its easy to draw a board position if I want. Hope
this helps, matt

Cool links:
Arena:
http://www.playwitharena.com/

Engines (see the Engines selection on the left):
http://wbec-ridderkerk.nl/

more engines:
http://www.aarontay.per.sg/Winboard/ucihistory.html

A free database program (Scid):
http://scid.sourceforge.net/download.html

A nice PGN database chess game viewer/move writer/annotator, my fav
(ChessPad):
http://www.wmlsoftware.com/download.html

I want to talk chess:
http://chess.about.com/library/glossary/blglossary.htm

chess symbols:
http://scid.sourceforge.net/help/NAGs.html

Date: 06 Apr 2006 07:30:28
From: bluecub22
Subject: Re: Chess software - where to start?

I personally like Fritz 9. It has good features in so many differen
respects. Visual, beginners, internet play, analysis, database, etc.
think Fritz 9 is a good starter program. yes, Chessmaster is wel
known, but for any serious chess player Fritz is more robust. I own a
least 15 different playing programs including Chess Tiger, Fritz
Hiarcs, Junior, etc.

Stuar

--
bluecub22

Date: 07 Apr 2006 03:16:00
From: matt -`;'-
Subject: Re: Chess software - where to start?

"bluecub22" <bluecub22.25tzkm@chessbanter.com > wrote in message
news:bluecub22.25tzkm@chessbanter.com...
>
> I personally like Fritz 9. It has good features in so many different
> respects. Visual, beginners, internet play, analysis, database, etc. I
> think Fritz 9 is a good starter program. yes, Chessmaster is well
> known, but for any serious chess player Fritz is more robust. I own at
> least 15 different playing programs including Chess Tiger, Fritz,
> Hiarcs, Junior, etc.
>
> Stuart
>
>
> --
> bluecub22

I like Fritz also, it is great for analysis and playing against a GM
level. I am still using 7, thinking about upgrading to 9. I think
ChessMaster is good for adjustable strength gameplay (good when you want
to be able to win sometimes) and it has a nice training cdrom. I think
that both programs complement each other.

I too have way more chess programs than I have time to play: Shredder,
Hiarcs, Junior, CM3/6/7/8/9, Rebel, Deep-Sjeng, Gandalf,
Tiger/TigerGambit, Arena/Ruffian/Crafty, and about 60 engines in
Shredder, collectables: Kasparov's Gambit, PowerChess98, Sargon4,
RebelCentury4, GNU-chess4, PerfectChessmate, KasparovChessmate; CB9,
CA6. Still, variety is fun.

The one thing about most of the top level programs is that they don't
adjust to lower strength game play by much - so you have to be very
strong to win - but CM is the exception because you can dial in any
strength level and playing style. My thoughts for: actual gameplay with
varied strengths/styles: CM, Analysis: Fritz, Training: CM Training
cdrom (included with CM). Both CM and Fritz together offer much. -matt

Date: 09 Mar 2006 09:45:24
From:
Subject: Re: Chess software - where to start?

It probably mostly depends on how good you already are at chess. If you
aren't particularly good (or don't really know how good you are), then
I strongly suggest Chessmaster (either 9000 or 10th Edition, which are
both very much worth the price).

If you are good at chess (and by "good" I mean at least Class A, or an
1800 USCF rating), then you might want to pick up one of the Chessbase
programs. I'm not too familiar with their entire product line, so
somebody else should recommend something here. If you don't want to
spend any money, then I suggest downloading WinBoard (GUI), Crafty
(excellent freeware engine) and SCID (shareware database). With those
three, you'll get pretty much everything you need to at least get a
start.

jm

Date: 10 Mar 2006 13:50:41
From: Thomas T. Veldhouse
Subject: Re: Chess software - where to start?

JVMerlino@aol.com wrote:
> 1800 USCF rating), then you might want to pick up one of the Chessbase
> programs. I'm not too familiar with their entire product line, so
> somebody else should recommend something here. If you don't want to
> spend any money, then I suggest downloading WinBoard (GUI), Crafty
> (excellent freeware engine) and SCID (shareware database). With those
> three, you'll get pretty much everything you need to at least get a
> start.
>

Don't forget to download tablebases as well! 5-man on down if you have
the space (~7GB IIRC). Crafty will benefit greatly from the tablebases.

--
Thomas T. Veldhouse
Key Fingerprint: 2DB9 813F F510 82C2 E1AE 34D0 D69D 1EDC D5EC AED1
--

Computer programmers do it byte by byte.

Date: 09 Mar 2006 16:46:42
From: 39N 95W
Subject: Re: Chess software - where to start?

<JVMerlino@aol.com > wrote in message
news:1141926324.218613.57650@e56g2000cwe.googlegroups.com...
> It probably mostly depends on how good you already are at chess. If you
> aren't particularly good (or don't really know how good you are), then
> I strongly suggest Chessmaster (either 9000 or 10th Edition, which are
> both very much worth the price).
>
> If you are good at chess (and by "good" I mean at least Class A, or an
> 1800 USCF rating), then you might want to pick up one of the Chessbase
> programs. I'm not too familiar with their entire product line, so
> somebody else should recommend something here. If you don't want to
> spend any money, then I suggest downloading WinBoard (GUI), Crafty
> (excellent freeware engine) and SCID (shareware database). With those
> three, you'll get pretty much everything you need to at least get a
> start.
>
> jm
>

Excellent!

Thank you, JV.