Chessbase it's a great tool for organizing your games personally i find it really really useful for researching lines, looking for games, analising variants, etc. you can run any chess engine on it, for game analisis you have to use the own Fritz GUI.
Now for how to do it you can help yourself using the help function on fritz (usually F1)
for game analisis you have to use the own Fritz GUI.
Now for how to do it you can help yourself using the help function on fritz (usually F1)
Yeah, problem is that I'm still waiting for Fritz 11 to arrive (and I was under the impresion that ChessBase was the tool for analysing the games, so I guess I was wrong).
I probably don't need ChessBase the.
What would be a good tool for organizing your games ? (I guess keeping track of the played games is helpfull to see if there is any progress and offcourse to analyze).
cloudywizzard> I was under the impression that ChessBase was the tool for analysing the games, so I guess I was wrong
Chessbase is the tool for serious game analysis.
(1) Chessbase will find where you find where left your opening repertoire and help you grasp opening, early middlegame, and endgame positions using (a) your brain, (b) relevant master games, (c) engine analysis, and (d) game statistics.
(2) In the deep middlegame you will only have your brain and engines. CB comes with Fritz and Crafty but you can insert stronger engines like Rybka or Toga.
(3) Chessbase also comes with rich tools for describing and storing your analysis, storing your repertoire, automatically being updated with new games relevant to your repertoire, researching opponents, storing your games, searching for patterns in your games, etc.
The Fritz interface is much better if you want to scan your games for blunders and errors... Chessbase doesn't have that functionality.
The whole product line is indeed confusing. The Chessbase Light software that you downloaded is primarily for managing a small database of your own personal games. I seem to recall that it had a very old version of Fritz 5.32 included with it that you could just as a basic kibitzer but I might be wrong about that. If so, you can download one of the free chess engines like Toga II 1.4.1SE and use it to analyze within Chessbase Light. Here's a link to a great series of tutorials on how to use CB Light. It'll walk you through installing a new engine and tell you all about the basic features etc.
-Roy
Thanks both for the reply !
I'll have a look at those tutorials on CB Light.
I use the BabasChess interface to play blitz and it's great. It also features blunder-checking like Fritz. But it doesn't hold a candle to Chessbase in the analysis department.
LOL !I guess you mean "Play" against 
Offcourse you need to "Pay" for Fritz first before you can play against it 
Also to be completely correct with Fritz you can also mean the "GUI" right ? since there are people who use the Rybka, Hiarcs, or whatever UCI engine instead of Fritz in the GUI.
There are also some free alternatives.
Arena for example or BabasChess (and if you run Linux there are also a few)
This is an old thread -- This is a common question and still relevant now:
1) Fritz is a chess engine (more on that later) and a chess program.
2) Chessbase is a chess database program and a company that sells Fritz.
3) A chess engine is the brains or personality that calculates the chess moves. Examples are: Fritz, Houdini, Stockfish, Komodo, Crafty, Gull, and the list goes on and on... All engines need a User Interface or a GUI - Graphic User Interface for you to use them.
The Chess Program sold as Fritz is also sold with other chess engines, this changes over time, currently you can purchase Fritz 15, Houdini 5, Komodo 11, and a few others. All are the same program, often referred to as a GUI, with a different chess engine. This program is excellent for playing chess against the compute, analyzing your games, and includes a simple database program to save and lookup games. These are all sold by Chessbase the company.
Chessbase the database program is also sold by Chessbase the company. This is primarily a powerful chess game database program. You can analyze games as well with this program. This is for the advanced chess player who will be analyzing games in great detail, not just looking for mistakes. This program is sold with several different package options from starter to premium.
The two programs (Fritz and Chessbase) are similar in ways and different in others.
To make it simple:
Fritz the chess program is for beginners to grandmasters.
Chessbase the database program is for very strong club players to Grandmasters.
Hope this clears it up.
I'm a bit confused about what to use for analysis.
I thought Chessbase was the tool for this (I downloaded their free Chessbase Light) but I don't really see an option to "analyse" the game, just to replay and check their Database for other players who made that opening and such.
The only option to analyse is to load the game into Fritz and have that analyse the game (or open the PGN in another GUI I guess).
So what is Chessbase used for and is it good for a newbie like me ?
Also what is the best way to analyse ? Since I don't have the knowledge to do it myself I guess a engine like Fritz, Rybka, Hiarcs, ... is the best option ?
And finally annotation ? How does that work ? (how can I add someting like !! for a great move if I don't know it's a great move ??).