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Subject: Re: What are the best benefits given by ChessBase or TascBase?

Author: Ernst Walet

Date: 05:15:42 06/01/98

Go up one level in this thread


On June 01, 1998 at 07:35:40, Ed Schröder wrote:

>On June 01, 1998 at 01:54:32, Komputer Korner wrote:
>
>>On May 31, 1998 at 12:39:17, Eran wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>Hi,
>>>
>>>Since I am a positional player favoring slow games in Rebel9, I do not
>>>know whether I need ChessBase or TascBase and why.  In addition, I do
>>>not know exactly what the purpose of ChessBase or TascBase is.  I never
>>>bought one of them before; I am not sure whether I will buy one until I
>>>fully understand why ChessBase or TascBase is so important to any strong
>>>positional player.
>>>
>>>What are the best benefits given by ChessBase, TascBase, or any other
>>>database software?  Are they very helpful to any strong chess player?
>>>If so, how?  Please give me several examples how any strong positional
>>>chess player manages ChessBase or TascBase to gain benefits in chess.
>>>
>>>Which is the best chess database software, ChessBase, TascBase, or any
>>>other one, and why?
>>>
>>>The reason I am considering very carefully about any other commercial
>>>database software is that they have several million games comparing to
>>>Rebel's Topbase database file that has only about 116,000 games and that
>>>is not enough.  On the other hand, the commercial chess database
>>>software is quite expensive.
>>>
>>>Your help is greatly appreciated.
>>>
>>>Thank you,
>>>Eran
>>
>>Top of the line databases help the serious player study minute parts of
>>his games like studying the isolated d pawn, r vs b endgames, the 2
>>bishops,..... etc.
>>What you are really asking is what are the database features contained
>>in top of the line databases that Rebel doesn't have that will help you
>>do these? Rebel 9's database does not let you drag and drop games or
>>databases from one to the other. It is much more labour intensive to
>>collect new games from the internet and combine them into your Rebel 9
>>bases. Rebel 9 does not have theme keys which will provide instant
>>access to the above theme games in the database. You cannot search on
>>specific dynamic themes, nor can you combine different search types in
>>the same search. Rebel 9 doesn't allow direct printing of your games nor
>>allow diagrams to be inserted which can be useful if you want to take a
>>bunch of them to a chess tournament. As for opening book study, Rebel 9
>>does not allow the user to edit his opening book while in monitor mode.
>>in other words while in monitor mode you can't get Rebel analysis. Rebel
>>9 can't sort a database on anything other than the white player's name.
>>It cannot import a file from a floppy. It cannot import other user books
>>to its user book format. Rebel 9 does not have a Chesstree as
>>ChessAssistant and Fritz 5 have. Rebel 9 will sometimes crash running in
>>my Tecra notebook with a Logictech mouse. Rebel 9 has a 250 page limit
>>in scrolling back screens  in it's database. You cannot import special
>>training multimedia files. Rebel 9 will not run in WIN NT 4. You can't
>>find a player's wins losses, draws with a specific colour. The post game
>>analysis feature is backward. It first analyzes the game's move and then
>>analyzes it's move. This wastes time because if it did it the other way
>>around, it would save time in not having to analyze the game move all
>>over again. Rebel 9 will analyze some of it's book moves. In a pgn game
>>if there are 2 or 3 promotion squares for the pawn, Rebel 9 will not
>>import the game. When you save a game to a textfile, it doesn't put the
>>txt extension on. You have to do it yourself. The move window does not
>>allow variations. Move comments don't show when Rebel is analyzing.
>>Selecting all the games after a search takes a horrendous amount of
>>time. Because Rebel 9 is a DOS program you cannot rearrange the window
>>sizes. No K best variation mode like Fritz or Tascbase engine has. No
>>contempt feature like the Tascbase engine. Menus could be larger
>>lettering. Any selection of certain menus stops Rebel's analysis. Rebel
>>does not have other external engines besides Rebel. Endgame databases
>>are not accessed. No email feature. No merging of games into one game.
>>No intelligent mouse feature. No game marking feature with medals as in
>>Chessbase. You cannot drag and drop engine analysis into game move list.
>>There are other drawbacks as well but as a playing program Rebel 9, has
>>a lot of features that other playing programs don't have such as 4 board
>>simultaneous play. However as a full fledged database, opening book
>>editor chess tree, it has it's limitations.
>
>What a shit program :)

You should contact the programmer, Ed :). (this means joking, though?)

>
>>Rebel 10 will correct many
>>of these limitations.   The best database software is Chess Assistant
>>3.02 if you don't mind that there is no find and delete doubles feature
>>and no compress base feature. If you do think these are important then
>>ChessBase 6.03 is best.
>
>IMO Tascbase 2.1 is the best database.
>
>- Ed -

I subscribe this opinion, Ernst-jan.



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