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Subject: Re: ChessBase 8 or Chess Assistant 6.11? A few questions!

Author: Paul Massie

Date: 15:28:09 12/20/01

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On December 20, 2001 at 17:45:49, Frank Nelson wrote:

>I used to have Chess Assistant 6.0. It disappointly came with two manuals you
>had to read - one for CA 5.0 + CA 6.0 (It was recommended that you read both to
>be able to work the database). I did not like this - why not one manual? Too
>much work if you ask me. But on the other hand with ChessBase 8 - a buggy db is
>worth nothing compared to one that is well and working. So Chess Assistant 6.1!

I have both CB8 and CA 6.1 and have used both quite a bit.  I consider them both
excellent programs.  I've not seen any major bugs or crashing problems with
either.  Both have certain minor little quirks that can be annoying, but don't
really rise to the level of being bugs.  Others apparently have had experiences
less pleasant than mine, but that's my experience.  I use both on Win 2000 and
Win 98 systems.

They are clearly different programs.  Both are very rich in features.  In fact,
it's highly unlikely that the average user will ever plumb the depths of the
features in either.  CA has excellent technical support - Victor Zakharov
responds very quickly to bug reports.  I've reported two or three bugs that he
has gotten fixed almost immediately.  CA tends to do faster searches in most
cases than CB.  The price for CA with the associated database is quite a bit
lower than CB with a similar database.  Also, CA can read CB-formatted
databases.  On the other hand, CB is much more widely used and is somewhat of a
de facto standard.  I find the user interface for CB to be a bit more intuitive
to use.

My best advice to you is to download the "lite" or free version of CA and try it
out.  I can't remember if there's a lite version of CB8 or not.  If there is,
try it.  The older free CB is not comparable to the current CB8.  The right
decision will basically boil down to what price, set of features, and general
feel seems right to you.  I find both to be great programs.

Paul



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