Author: blass uri
Date: 19:40:38 08/18/98
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On August 18, 1998 at 21:41:55, mike cooter wrote: >Here is the review I pulled from Inside Chess Online. Note the interesting >comments he makes on each of the playing styles of each of the programs. > >Five Chess Engines. >(A special review by Jeremy Silman) >More and more players are buying chess computers, and more and more chess >engines are available to the public. In the past, chess "boxes" like the >Kasparov series, Boris Handroid, and endless others were all the rage. Today, >with millions of families owning powerful PCs, a simple CD takes care of one’s >chess "need" in a simple, inexpensive yet highly effective manner. > >What engines are best? This is the question I’ll be examining as I look at five >of the most popular bits of software. Be warned! I am a computer idiot. Half the >time I won’t know what I’m doing, and the other half will have me thinking I’m >in control, though I probably will be off-base there too! > >However, I do know what I enjoy, I know chess, and I know a good deal when I see >one; so heed my advice or toss it in the dustbin. In either case, prepare >yourself for ultimate annihilation by all of the engines about to be discussed! > >CHESSMASTER 5500: For only $35.00, this is a superb buy. This software offers >you soothing music while you play, pictures of famous players and sets during >setup (to get you in the mood), and a host of options involving strength, style, >time settings, and the list goes on and on. > >For whatever reason, I did experience some bugs. I couldn’t make it give off a >sound while moving, though I went into the appropriate box and clicked on all >the proper bells and whistles. Because of this, it was in stealth mode, and I >often sat there for several seconds before noticing that it actually did >something! At one point things got even worse. I’d make a move that got out of >book and the machine would just think and think, even though it was a >five-minute game. I’d command it to move and it would ignore me. I tweaked all >its other commands and they worked fine (so it wasn’t frozen). But the blasted >thing just kept thinking. Finally, I gave up and ended its miserable existence. > >As I said earlier (given that the experienced bugs were peculiar to my system or >were due to some form of stupidity on my part), Chessmaster 5500 is a giveaway >for the price. It’s slick looking (though things are a bit cluttered and the >board may give its owner a claustrophobic feel), strong (though not as strong as >the other machines that I’ll be discussing!) and well designed. If you’re a >Class A player or below, why get anything else? This program should offer you >humiliating defeats for years and years to come. > >FRITZ 5: The makers of this software have declared that Fritz is stronger than >most (or all?) of the other programs. Perhaps it does well when playing other >machines, but it’s clear to me that, in human vs. machine games, Fritz is a bit >weaker (and in some cases considerably weaker) than some of the other choices. >Nevertheless, I would not want to be without my Fritz! > >Fritz 5 boasts the cleanest interface of any engine, and one of the nicest >boards. Easy on the eye, all of its bells and whistles are simple to access. The >feature I like the best is it’s analytic spread, which enables you to analyze a >line and have it automatically placed on a spreadsheet. Chess symbols (equal, >White is slight better, winning, unclear, stuff like that) can be added at the >push of a button, and sidelines blend in seamlessly with the main features of >your work to form an instant book of your ideas! > >Playing in a very tactical fashion, Fritz 5 tends to think it’s winning as soon >as it gets a material edge; it has almost no feel for positional pawn or >Exchange sacrifices. I found in the nunn match that Fritz5 sometimes understands that the side with the material advantage is not better for positional reasons. I do not know why chessbase hides this fact and gives us a wrong impression that fritz5 is only a tactical monster. >Nevertheless, it plays blitz at a 2500 clip, and if you’re >not paying attention (even if you are rated 2500) it can thrash you unmercifully >game after game after game. > >At about $100.00, it’s considerably more expensive than Chessmaster 5500, but >personally I have no interest in owning Chessmaster while Fritz has a permanent >place in my software collection. > >CHESS GENIUS 5: This program is the other mainstay of my collection. It’s design >is perfectly adequate (though not as nice as Fritz’s), but its main plus is its >positional skills, which are far better than Fritz 5. In fact, after analyzing a >complicated Exchange sacrifice for several days, I noticed that Fritz always >thought the sac was unsound, while Genius saw and appreciated the positional >ideas behind the sacrifice. I want to see examples Uri
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