Author: Dave Gomboc
Date: 06:19:53 03/11/99
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On March 11, 1999 at 00:30:01, Richard VonMau wrote: >Hi, I'm looking to buy my first (professional) chess program. I established a >1493 rating 8 years ago and have not concentrated on playing until 6 months ago. >I'm studying some books like "How to Reassess Your Chess", "Endgame Lab", >"Comprehesive Chess Course" and "My Best Games 1908-1937 Alekhine" and using >some shareware programs to play. > I'll be joining a chess club next month because my night shift changes to >dayshift (after 17 years I finally have enough seniority!) and I'll be able to >attend the meetings. Wow, congratulations!! :-) > Anyway, my budget is no more than $100 (single income with 3 small children). >I want the most helpful program for the buck. > -Rebel 10 sounds good. Within budget, $60 > -Hiarsc 7.0 sounds good too, at $100 limit. Is it twice as good as others? > -Nimzo 99 is another nice one and within budget, $50. > -Fritz 5.32 sounds great, right price at $50, could this be the one? >There are others but ... well dont know if they're worth the cost. >Which leads to another question: > -ChessBase 7.0 looks good, really good but is well out of budget, $220. > Should I save my money until I can afford CB7 basic (or even CB7 Mega $400+) >and continue with the CB light, Rebel Decade, Arasan shareware/freeware's? > Or get one of the above programs that is within budget now? > Can someone with experience with chess programs give me some guidance? >Thanks for the help, in advance. Richard If you're in North America, CM6000 may be the least expensive for you to purchase, because you can usually find it locally in a computer store. You can call Steve (at ICD here) and price check the various programs, maybe a local store would jack up the price enough that it's cheaper to get it from ICD. :! Rebel is very good, program and database features too. It's still currently DOS-based, but will run in a window under Win95/98. Fritz is always a solid contender. It has a nice GUI, some database features borrowed from Chessbase, and quite a strong program. I do not have experience with Hiarcs or Nimzo, but I have heard good things about both. I think everyone would enjoy having Chessbase. Like you said, big moola. :) Is there a Crafty distribution that is "download, install, and go" yet? I know that Winboard is easy to install. If you download a premade opening book with Crafty, it shouldn't be too hard to get going. If you're optimizing for cost, this is probably your best option! And Crafty is no slouch either. Unless Bob has been programming behind my back (imagine that! :-) there is no capability to store user-entered games and retrieve them (e.g. database stuff). But I'm not sure if you're looking for that anyway. Some people find it very important, but I generally don't use it even when I have it available. Dave Gomboc
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