Author: John Kilkenny
Date: 01:02:41 02/13/00
I can't believe Silman thinks for 2 seconds that Genius 5 is even in the same
class with the other top 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.
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. For the blitz
fanatics, Genius is clearly
the stronger of the two. I can beat Fritz regularly if I really
concentrate, but Genius is an
incredibly tough nut to crack.
This is another $100.00 bit of software, but it’s well worth owning if you
like to use a computer for analysis.
In fact, Fritz and Genius complement each other well, and I recommend that
titled players pick up both
programs.
REBEL 9: Rebel (also in same price category as Fritz and Genius) is
highly respected by
quite a few strong players. Cyrus Lakdawala, one of the best blitz
players in the country, says
that he tends to wipe out Fritz and Genius, but can’t win a game from
Rebel (he says it rips
him tactically and he isn’t able to avoid those kinds of positions;
something he’s able to do
against the other programs). In June 1997, Rebel beat Grandmaster
Yusupov in a match 10
½ - 6 ½.. Clearly, this is one mean machine!
Rebel has all sorts of functions, but I more or less ignored them since I
was mainly interested in its
strength. Its interface, which is pretty easy to use, is rather ugly (far
less appealing than either Genius or
Fritz). Why not give the poor thing a face-lift?
Over all, I’m happy to own Rebel. It’s nice to know it’s there when you
experience one of those "I want to
get humiliated at all costs" moments.
M-CHESS PRO 7.0: M-Chess is now up to version 7.1, so I can’t be sure
how much of a
difference that fraction can make. The version I have, though, is
strong, though I don’t
consider it as good as Rebel (and I would guess that Genius may be a
bit better too, though
this might turn out to be a figment of my imagination). The interface
is clumsy and the pieces
are not to my liking.
To be fair, I haven’t had a lot of practice with M-Chess, just because of
that unpleasant interface.
However, Seirawan told me how Grandmaster Larry Christiansen once played a
series of blitz games
with this program and "saw his whole life flash before his eyes." In other
words, M-Chess bit the
Grandmaster and wouldn’t let go!
M-Chess actually has quite a list of amazing results: In the 10th AEGON
event at the Hague (May 1995),
M-Chess 5.0 beat Christiansen and Z. Polgar and finished with a performance
rating of 2652! Other
M-Chess victims over the years (and this was an old version!) are
Grandmasters Rohde, Shabalov,
Cifuentes and Wolff.
In my mind, the big news is M-Chess Pro’s 7.1 new price: only $49.95. This
makes it competitive with
Chessmaster 5500. Chessmaster looks better and is easier to use, M-Chess is
much stronger.
AN HONEST PERSPECTIVE:
In general, numbers can be created that make any one of the top machines
appear to be the highest
rated. One article had Genius as #1, another claimed that Nimzo had taken
that spot. Other surveys claim
that Rebel is top dog, and the debate goes on and on. The one thing that
can be verified is that there are
six programs that lead the pack: Rebel, Hiarcs, Nimzo, M-Chess, Genius and
Shredder.
As I stated earlier, as far as cost goes, M-Chess and Chessmaster are best
buys. Non-masters don’t
really need to pay much attention to this fight over computing power:
Chessmaster will beat them like
dogs for the rest of their lives. If you don’t care about Chessmaster’s
more attractive (and user friendly)
interface, then M-Chess offers you a bigger bang for your buck with a
rating in excess of 2500
(Chessmaster 5500 is probably in the 2300 category).
Rebel is making lots of noise around the world, and could well be the
strongest program available at this
time (if you’re a "bigger is better" kind of person). It’s flaw is an ugly
interface.
By far the most attractive programs are Genius and Fritz. Fritz has the
best design of any engine I’ve
seen, while Genius is stronger.
If you have experience with these engines (or others that I’ve failed to
mention), please write me at:
jsilman@earthlink.net and I’ll post all or part of your letter if I feel it
adds a useful new perspective on the
questions: Which chess engine is the best buy? And which chess engine is
the strongest?
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