Author: Albert Silver
Date: 12:17:37 01/13/99
Go up one level in this thread
On January 12, 1999 at 14:50:08, Mike Saavedra wrote:
>Suppose you had 250$US to spend on Chess software, and you had no software at
>the moment. Which software would you buy? Opinions?
Hmmmm.... You have a number of options, but if I had NO software I would want to
get at least a strong database and playing program. That pretty much leaves you
in two directions (IMO):
A CB oriented package:
- Chessbase 7 starter package which includes CB7, a 1.1 million game database, 3
issues of CB magazine and Fritz 5 (16-bit) and Crafty modules.
Price: $220
- Junior 5 (as CB already has F5 16-bit I would NOT waste another $50 just to
get the 32-bit version) which has a full interface plus could be used as a
module in CB7.
Price: $49
Total: $270 (overshot a little)
--------------------------------
A Chess Assistant package:
- Chess Assistant 4 which includes CA4, a 1 million game database, Dragon, and
Crafty modules plus.... and this depends on where you get it from:
a) Zarkov module (when purchased through Chess4less)
b) 6 month subscription to CA's Quick Service (twice a month update of
database - which BTW is considerably more complete than TWIC - when
purchased directly from Chess Assistant)
Price: $160 (BTW I'd go for option b)
- Rebel 10 or Mchess 8 which apart from their great play can be called upon
directly from CA4 to insert analysis. NB it isn't exactly like the internal
modules, but is still very efficient.
Price: $60 (R10) or $50 (MCP8)
- Fritz 5 32-bit. Great great Windows program, with mountains of functions
though not my favourite partner. There IS something to be said about analyzing
with the fastest searcher on the market though.
Price: $49
Total: $260-$270
A note: If I could overshoot the price a bit, I would definitely sacrifice Fritz
5 in the last for a subscription to CB magazine.
Albert Silver
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