Hi everyone,
In my attempt to make sense of the whole spectrum of chess resources I am turning to Chess.com for clarification.
First of all what essentially IS the intended primary function of Chessbase and all it's rivals ? Are programs such as ChessAssistant,SCID and Chess Position Trainer only alternatives to ChessBase or do they bring something else to the table?
Chess Assistant, Chessbase and SCID are primarily about being able to go through collections of games in a database for instructional purposes and historic research. They are usefull for keeping track of one own's games as well. Quite a number of chess books are available in electronic format and many older books are available for free. "This Week In Chess" publishes all the important games played in the world each week, making it easy to update one's collection of games.
The capabilities of the tools are very different. But it boils down to some pretty simple factors:
1) SCID -- this is an open source program that has the features that would have been top of the line in a chess database 10 years ago. It is a solid program, easy to use, and free. But it isn't all that and a bag of chips. It is rather a case of "if you want a database but you don't have any money, you can use this and it's better than nothing." And, btw, that evaluation is coming from someone who uses open source tools for quite a few of my daily computing tasks.
2) Chess Assistant -- this database has the most advanced search capabilities of any of the options out there. It has a built in chess query language that allows for searches that can not be done in other systems. It is relatively easy to learn and is a very robust query language. CA has a dated, non-standard interface that feels old. While the program itself is responsive, the entire UI just sucks. SCID is better, and that's saying something. However, if you want your database for robust search capabilities, there isn't anything better. Additionally, CA is fairly inexpensive compared to ChessBase and might be a good choice on that basis alone.
3) ChessBase this is the most frequently used chess database. It does not have as good a search system as CA and many searches possible in CA are impossible in CB. However, the makers of CB spent quite a bit of time on the overall user experience and there is no doubt that the UI is much more pleasant to use. I personally like the way CB handles having a repertoire and reference database files. CB also integrats cleanly with all of the other products sold by the company.
And I'm also trying to figure out the relationship between all of this. From what I have gathered, the DVD's in the ChessBase shop require Chessbase and TWIC is a weekly update to CB's database. And I'm not sure where Fritz and all its features fit into this.
TWIC is published weekly in three formats: plain text pgn files, chessbase files and chess assistant files. No matter what databse system you use, you can download the weekly TWIC files to update your game collections.
Fritz is a playing engine with an interface. While it has some basic database functionality, most all of what Fritz does can be done with Arena and a free engine such as Stockfish. The DVDs in teh chessbase shop require either the full version of CB or the CB reader program that comes with the DVDs. The reader program is basically a stripped down version of CB. It is very rudementary compared to the full program, and the UI of the reader is based on a much older version of CB.
Help would be greatly appreciated, I am a high school student looking to break master ( 2200) before college as I am uncertain about my oppurtunites to develop my chess after. Fortunately, this year I still have reasonable time and if I don't reach expert by the summer of 2012, I most likely will give up competitive chess.
Depending on where you go to college you may have great opportuntiies for play. Giving up chess because you didn't make some arbitrary rating is silly, frankly. Either you enjoy playing and working on the game or you don't. If you do, play. If you don't, don't.
My opening study, as advised by the fantastic website of Mr. Carlos Pujol, will be comprised of mostly recent games from databases with my own preparation, aided by a strong program. Books will not be a big part of my preparation unless it is on a mainstream but unfashionable line as books are not a good source on rapidly growing theory.
Thanks in advance for any replies!
Hi everyone,
In my attempt to make sense of the whole spectrum of chess resources I am turning to Chess.com for clarification.
First of all what essentially IS the intended primary function of Chessbase and all it's rivals ? Are programs such as ChessAssistant,SCID and Chess Position Trainer only alternatives to ChessBase or do they bring something else to the table?
And I'm also trying to figure out the relationship between all of this. From what I have gathered, the DVD's in the ChessBase shop require Chessbase and TWIC is a weekly update to CB's database. And I'm not sure where Fritz and all its features fit into this.
Help would be greatly appreciated, I am a high school student looking to break master ( 2200) before college as I am uncertain about my oppurtunites to develop my chess after. Fortunately, this year I still have reasonable time and if I don't reach expert by the summer of 2012, I most likely will give up competitive chess.
My opening study, as advised by the fantastic website of Mr. Carlos Pujol, will be comprised of mostly recent games from databases with my own preparation, aided by a strong program. Books will not be a big part of my preparation unless it is on a mainstream but unfashionable line as books are not a good source on rapidly growing theory.
Thanks in advance for any replies!