| I have been asked to write an article for Michigan
chessplayers regarding software to improve their chess ability. Many
of you know me from my 27 years as a tournament player. I also dabble
in Internet and computer play. I’ve been studying chess programs
for the past 20 years and I am convinced that today’s serious chessplayer
cannot compete without the assistance of a computer and chess database.
But which database is best for you!? |
| There are currently over a dozen strong chess programs
and several good databases, along with even more stand-alone chess tutorial
programs. I can’t possibly cover all the chess programs on the market,
but I do know something about some of them. Perhaps I can offer some
assistance by making a comparison between databases and chess programs
that I have used. I will try to use some objectivity as to the advantages
and disadvantages of these programs. |
| |
| Rebel 10 |
| I purchased this program the 1st of this year. The reason I bought
the program at the time was because it claimed to be the strongest chess
program in the world. Here’s a cut & paste right off the Internet: |
|
|
REBEL10 comp-comp tournament victory
|
| REBEL10 (in Germany) recently won the strongest
computer - computer event held ever. In 14 games REBEL10 scored 10
points without losing one single game. |
| All participants were in agreement, that REBEL10
played the best chess and won well-earned. The tournament was played as
a seven round swiss system tournament with three hours each side for the
whole game. |
| Final Ranking |
| 1. Rebel 10 |
10/14 |
| 2. Fritz 5.32 |
9,5 |
| 3. Hiarcs 7 |
8,5 |
| 4. Nimzo 3.5 / 99 |
8 |
| 5. Chessmaster |
7,5 |
| 6. Zarkov 4.3 |
7 |
| 7. M-Chess Pro 8 |
7 |
| 8. Virtual Chess |
7 |
| 9. Junior 5 |
7 |
| 10. Shredder 3 |
6,5 |
| 11. Chess System Tal |
6,5 |
| 12. Genius 5 |
6,5 |
| 13. Kallisto II |
6 |
| 14. Gandalf 3 |
5,5 |
| 15. Tasc R30 Vers.2,5 |
2,5 |
|
| We can’t mention another chess program (with the
exception of Deep Blue) that comes even close to the results of Rebel and
especially not in respect to Rebel’s performance against strong human chess
players like Arthur Yusupov and world’s second best chess player
Vishy Anand. |
| • Rebel
10.0 - Vishy Anand 5-3 |
| • Rebel
9.0 - Arthur Yussupov 10½-6½ |
|
|
| Naturally I was quite impressed with this awesome
chess program and it sold from the internet for only $59.00 Rebel
is so strong that when I set up a position from one of my games (to see
where I missed the win) Rebel will show me the crush I missed… but when
I switch sides and have Rebel play the other position it will crush me
from the lost position! GEEZ, and I was a USCF expert years ago. |
| Ok, a few other good points about Rebel 10 and then
I’ll point out some of the bad ones. Rebel comes with a database
but what’s really great is that as an owner of Rebel you are granted free
access to their subscription page on the Internet. There, you will
find entire databases to D/L FREE! Databases dedicated to a particular
opening, and/or databases from master games from all over the world.
These databases are constantly being upgraded. Since the 1st of the
year Rebel 10 has beaten quite a few Grandmasters in match games.
These and other interesting tournament games are also available for free
D/L’s. |
| So what are the bad things about Rebel 10?
Well, Rebel 10 and its immediate successor, Rebel Century, are both DOS
programs made to run under Dos or Windows. But, as every programmer
knows, code written for DOS when run thru a Windows environment is handicapped.
You can only generate a 16 bit fetch compared to a 32 bit chunk under Windows
95/98/NT. Not only are you losing coding advantages you’re still
under the Windows environment so now Windows is robbing the program from
the power it needs. If someone were to run Rebel 10 or Rebel Century
thru Windows on a mere 233 mhz Pentium they would discover major quality
losses. |
| Ok, what else? The search routine these programs
have is one of the greatest features a chessplayer can use to improve his
game… for example, you study & study the white side of the Najdorf,
and when Black is supposed to play his Queen’s Knight to d7 he (instead)
plays it to c6. I can’t find that move in my Najdorf opening book;
but I know I can do a search of the position thru the database and find
several games. Then I can use both those games and the chess engine
to show me the best line of play. However, if you’re planning on
using Windows to run either of the above chess programs and you have a
slow computer, you might as well go eat dinner while the computer searches
the game database for matches. |
| Also, the program is a little hard to understand…
things like “How the heck do I print out my game to the printer?”
Took me awhile to figure that one out. And Rebel has a tendency to
crash during deep analysis if you only have 32 Megs of memory. With
32 Megs of memory I had to set the hash tables to use only 8 Megs.
Of course you can get away from this stuff by booting up under DOS; that’s
what the manual suggests you do – in my case I increased my RAM to 128
and upgraded to a P-3, 600 MHZ. |
| Maybe Rebel Century is a bug-fix for Rebel 10… I
don’t know, but not to leave this company with a sour note regarding their
anti-windows programming, they claim they will have the Windows 95/98/NT
version of Rebel for sale by the 1st of the New Year. |
| |
| Fritz 5.32 |
| Fritz is a terrific chess program and I see ver
6 is already on the market. I paid $50 for Fritz 5.32 a few months
ago because a friend of mine told me it was the best. My friend was
comparing Fritz to Power Chess 98… you know, the chess program from Sierra
with the ugly, UGLY chess pieces! (YUK!) |
| Anyways, I think Fritz is well known and one of
the most popular chess programs in the world, but I don’t think it’s the
best chess program. The database that came with my version of Fritz
only has 300,000 games. I checked the home page for Fritz and discovered
the Chessbase database is available for another $275. I couldn’t find any
way of expanding the database for Fritz without buying Chessbase or by
buying opening modules… $24.95 for a module on the Dragon, $24.95 for one
on the French, and so on. |
| While Fritz is written for Windows 95/98/NT and
has fast searches, I was surprised when it couldn’t find a piece sacrifice
that Rebel found during a game comparison. It was almost as if Fritz
‘preferred’ to play quieter lines. Later I was shocked when one of
my Class B friends beat it in a sparring game (even though I had the setting
set to ‘hard’). To be fair to Fritz, it’s possible that the sparring
mode allows it’s opponent to win occasionally (although I’ve not beaten
it). |
| The menus are straight forward and Fritz offers
an excellent teaching mode. I don’t know what improvements 6.0 has
to offer. |
| |
| Tasc |
| I bought the Tasc database 2 years ago. I
struggled with it for a couple of months before I could use it. The
menus were difficult and confusing. Tasc came with CD’s and a protected
floppy installation. I paid extra for the 1 million game database
and then added all my tournament games with notes and sub variations to
my favorite lines. Occasionally the program would refuse to run because
of either a hard drive crash or an upgrade to the computer. In each
case I would have to re-install a ‘key’ from the floppy disk and the program
would run again. The program only gave me 6 ‘keys’. |
| I knew my last key had been used when I upgraded
to a P-3, but I was certain the company would stand behind their product…
well, I must have been wrong. After months of asking for help they
have not returned the courtesy of a single reply. Oh well,
aside from losing all my games and notes this could be a valuable lesson
for you new people. Don’t spend years building a database that only
protected software can read! |
| |
| Studies 2.0 |
| I bought this CD from USCF. Only $29.
This tutorial program has some interesting problems on it and covers various
attacking themes and endgame play. However, I found it difficult
to use and I believe players below 1900 would not be able to solve 50%
of the problems. In theory the program allows you to select the field
of study you are interested in. Then it shows you some play from
actual games involving the selected field. You are given a test using
the principles taught by the lessons. The problem I had with the
test is that the play was derived mostly from famous grandmaster games.
I doubt if any chess master can make his way thru these studies with a
perfect score. |
| |
| ChessMaster 7000 |
| Don’t laugh. The Chessmaster series has always
been a good playing partner and learning tool. The 7000 series supercedes
its predecessor with excellent studies by Bruce Pandolfini. The positions
given are from actual games and you are asked which move to choose from.
Bruce then talks over the position with you thru your sound card and explains
by voice while the chess pieces move on the board. You can pick from
beginner to intermediate & above. After the lessons you can take
a rating test, which is very good practice. ChessMaster 7000 is only
a $15 upgrade for CM6000 users! |
| The program also has a Josh Games section and a
Kid’s section. Other contributors are Yasser Seirawan and some of
Nunn’s puzzles. The ChessMaster database is full of Classic games
and not a serious study tool. It’s like taking the kids to a Disney
movie… more for entertainment than learning. |
| |
| Chess Academy |
| The version I tried is the Professional Version
4.0 At 1st the program seemed overwhelming. But after fiddling
around with it a bit I was able to do almost anything I wanted without
reading the manual (yeah, I don’t ask for directions either <grin>).
I must say that when you run this program you know you have quality software
in your hands. Kind of like the difference between riding in an old
Chevrolet with bad springs and riding in a new Caddy down the expressway.
Chess Academy is smooth, sleek and very fast! I put some test positions
from master games and was amazed at how fast this sucker popped ‘em up.
Now this was really nice… but wait! What the...??? There’s
no chess engine! GEEZ, how can they put out such a great program
with the best database I’ve ever seen with all the latest master games...
And NO CHESS ENGINE!? |
| Runs great from Windows 95/98/NT and has a quality
database of 1.6 million games with fast searches. This version includes
a tutorial with timed responses and bonus points if you get the solution
early. It’s one of the few tutorial programs that allows you to send
the problems to your printer. There are so many things you can do
with this database & tutorial that I could write 3 pages on it.
However, as I mentioned, there is no chess engine and the program tutorials
are in ‘protected format’. Which means you have to use a ‘key’ off
the floppy if you need to reinstall them. |
| I personally am leery of buying protected software,
but Chess Academy varies from the former Tasc database… Only the tutorial
modules are ‘protected’. The database is not. With the Tasc
program all I had to do was switch hard drives, change operating systems,
crash a drive or upgrade the motherboard and the entire program refused
to run. Chess Academy won’t take your database away from you and
gives you 20 installs for the tutorial programs. |
| I logged on to the Chess Academy web site and saw
an add for their new CHESS ACADEMY 2000 (!) |
| Here’s a cut & paste from their site: |
| 18.04.1999 Chess
Academy 2000 will include playing program and chess engine with powerful
opening books and Ken Thompson's endgame databases on CDs.
We
are developing the Chess Academy 32-bit playing program and 32-bit chess
engine for Chess Academy 2000 which will include the followingcomponents:
-
Chess
Academy 5.0 32-bit professional database program with built-in chess engine
on CD.
-
Chess
Academy Profi-Base 5.0 on CD
-
Chess
Academy 5.0 32-bit interactive tutorial program with built-in chess engine
-
About
25 tutorial & training modules with about 30,000 annotated chess games
on CD
-
Chess
Academy 5.0 32-bit playing program
-
Openings
Books on CD
-
Endgame
Databases* on CDs
 This
version will be available for shipping approximately before X-Mas 99.
Update
from Chess Academy 99 Main Pack to Chess Academy 2000 Main Pack will cost
about 69 US$ (shipping included!).
Full
versions of Chess Academy 2000 (Main Package) will cost about 119 US$,
Pro Package will cost about 179 US$ and Exclusive Package will cost about
350 US$.
*
Endgame Databases will be included in Profi and Exclusive packages of Chess
Academy 2000. |
|
| Now this looks like a great selection… and I like
the way they take care of people who bought their older versions – a nice
discount to upgrade. |
| I hope this article is helpful for those of you
considering buying computer software. I apologize to the makers of ChessBase
for not being able to give information on their product line. However,
people wanting to find out more about the ChessBase program can find them
on the web at http://chessbase.com. |
