Database and Software Questions

So,

I think its safe to say its time for a serious upgrade for me.  I have Fritz 11 and I think a database that goes up to 2007.  I'm not that "keen" on the latest software so I figured I would ask the chess.com community.  It seems from the recent computer tournaments that Rybka 3 is the overwhelming recommendation.  As far as databases, I have never purchased a database.  It would be nice to have some updated games but I don't have a clue were to start.   (Are there any databases you can be that will let you continually update or something like that?)

Any suggestions?

I'm not sure. I have Chessmaster 10, and I need to update my database too.

Yeah, Chessmaster is fun, but I definitely wouldn't consider it for help with analysis.

Yeah, I don't like the analysis much either, so I'm getting Shredder 11.

I don't really know.

Pete, I just got chessbase 10 today, so I will let you know what I think. However, I have owned an older version previously and it was great. You can also download a free version called Chessbase Light from the chessbase website and it will give you an idea of the possibilities.

Cool.  I have heard that name floating around in some chess convo's "chessbase light." 

I will have to check that out.  Thanks for that.

chessbase 10 is great, the database is also filled with lots of fully annotated games and is surley worth it to orgenize your games on the computer.. the problem is that it comes without an engine (it comes with fritz 6 and crafty, but...).. I have also rybka 3 and after you load the engine through chessbase 10 you can analayze your game through it with lots of options (like adding comments/diagrams/variations...) and then save them to your database..

if you can aford both chessbase 10 and rybka then it's a winning combination.. chessbase 10 alone won't help you much with the analayze and rybka won't help you much with the openings mostly.. I don't know how easy it is to orgenaize your games using rybka's Aquarium (as i immidietly loaded the enginge to chessBase) so I can't say in this menner

but if you already have fritz 11 you can always buy chessBase and load fritz's engine into it, it will (probably) be strong enough for you analayze

Thanks!

For a database, there are good freeware options.  Chess.com has a section listing them:  http://www.chess.com/downloads/database+programs.

If you are operating under windows, you can get scid http://scid.sourceforge.net/ or chessDB (a scid descendant) http://chessdb.sourceforge.net/.  Scid also runs on the Mac OS.  You can get recent games for free (back to 1998) and update them from TWIC  http://www.chess.co.uk/twic/twic.html.  For a bigger collection and older games, chessDB has a download command that let's you download a few large databases.  There is a large collection of games available from ICOFY, http://sourceforge.net/projects/icofybase/.  Also, there is a huge database here http://squirrelchess.com/cms/downloads/task,cat_view/gid,20/ 

For amusement, you can study the controversy about who has the best version of scid and who stole whose code:  http://chessconfessions.blogspot.com/2007/09/chessdb-review.html.

You can probably also marry these guys with a good freeware engine for computer analysis.  You can check out the chess.com engines link under Resources.  I use Fruit under Exachess (Mac) (Exachess Lite is free) and use Crafty in Windows.

Thanks Eric!  I have to learn how to use the database.  All I know is that when I analyze, Fritz gives me similar games, but they are never past 2007.  I know how to search a database for positions, but that's about it. lol

Ill stick with masschester 10. I tried fritz and found it stressful. (the cbase lite is fantastic for live play tho) I'm weird like that. Besides I'm in such an amateur status i wouldn't know what to do with so much power. If it ain't broken don't fix it. I can barely beat the 1100s on masschester. So i still got tons to learn and play from it.

It was 30$