tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6393640898640561043.post6379363082000991778..comments2024-02-24T12:16:34.475-05:00Comments on Path to Chess Mastery: Chess computing resources for 2015 - Part II: Chessplaying software and computer opponentsChessAdminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02231584333139931889noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6393640898640561043.post-35247702578394719392015-09-19T17:14:12.495-04:002015-09-19T17:14:12.495-04:00Hello Stourley. That looks like a nice, simple ana...Hello Stourley. That looks like a nice, simple analysis board setup. Any modern analysis engine will give good results as far as blunder checks go, as well as showing the tactical possibilities in a position. That sounds like what you're looking for. Good luck with your training.ChessAdminhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02231584333139931889noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6393640898640561043.post-81799623281621268482015-09-17T23:08:03.349-04:002015-09-17T23:08:03.349-04:00ChessAdmin, I just found this site: http://en.lich...ChessAdmin, I just found this site: http://en.lichess.org/paste and it does exactly what I want. If, however, you advise that the analysis it provides would misguide me I would choose another program. TY.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6393640898640561043.post-65259551718441800812015-09-17T22:51:34.385-04:002015-09-17T22:51:34.385-04:00I would appreciate your advice, ChessAdmin. I woul...I would appreciate your advice, ChessAdmin. I would like to get started analyzing my over-the-board games but do not want to learn how to use any software. I would like to open a program, choose "New Board" and enter moves from a score sheet. Once I have named and saved the game I would like to choose "Analyze Game" and have the software's analysis engine rate the moves, identify blunders and alternate better moves. Any other features have no interest to me. I have looked at SCID vs PC and don't readily see how to perform these processes.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6393640898640561043.post-39333370135857761972015-01-19T22:24:51.865-05:002015-01-19T22:24:51.865-05:00I liked working with Aquarium better than ChessBas...I liked working with Aquarium better than ChessBase10 - this was back in the Rybka Aquarium days - so was for a little while doing analysis in Aquarium but maintaining my databases in CB format. This arrangement - made necessary by the two incompatible proprietary formats - felt too awkward after a while. I could transfer games in PGN, but the annotations (symbols especially) didn't make the transition, so in the end I decided to simply keep everything on the CB side. This was largely for convenience and standardization, admittedly. That said, CB11 was far better as a GUI than CB10 and CB13 has improved functionality as well, so I'm happy with the decision.<br /><br />Aquarium was originally an analysis-focused GUI (and still is), so I think it's a good choice for such work, including if you want to invest the time in learning the IDeA functions; CB13 is just now catching up with the idea of programmed analysis jobs (including multiple computers); CB no doubt was trying to address this area where Aquarium had greater functionality. Aquarium also has some good publishing functions, although I never could get the last version to work 100% properly with Blogspot.<br /><br />Re: Chessmaster, glad it's working for you, maybe Amazon updated it for modern OS compatibility (the way GoG does its old programs). Although I probably won't buy it again at this point just to get the dl version, especially now that I've found more live options for playing.ChessAdminhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02231584333139931889noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6393640898640561043.post-76512689764503518942015-01-19T17:46:04.024-05:002015-01-19T17:46:04.024-05:00Great post again!
As I said on the other post I s...Great post again!<br /><br />As I said on the other post I see Aquarium as a bit of an underdog so I like to speak up for it a bit. Again, not trying to convince anyone of anything just to make a point or two. Just one quick hit, I use Chessmaster grandmaster edition on windows 7 with no problems at all. My copy was the Amazon.com download copy.<br /><br />As far as Aquarium goes, I would just like to mention a point or two about the IDeA area in the program. I find this very useful for game analysis. The reason is again the idea of the tree. IDeA builds a tree for the game or position you are looking at and adjusts the results in the whole tree as the analysis continues. The key idea here is that in certain situation I want to ask a lot of questions about the position, trying different ideas and finding out what the engine has to say about the specifics of what I want to know. In some ways this goes towards demystifying some of those inexplicable computer lines because you can easily keep asking it to answer you and you won't lose your place, you can go back and try something else and it's always there for you.<br /><br />Of course you can do similar things with infinite analysis on a regular analysis pane (of course Aquarium has all the standard tools as well). The key here is the ability to really explore a position and have this very convenient tree to hold all the results in an easy to use fashion.<br /><br />One example here is when I played a game where I built up a great attacking position. I was pretty sure my position was good, but there were several different options on how to proceed. By using the IDeA setup I was really able to get an understanding of why the computer preferred certain lines and this involved things like looking at ideas from one line and try them in the other and basically just exploring. Here I am getting feedback and saving everything as I went.<br /><br />I guess one of the coolest things to me is the idea that you can change the focus of your investigation. You can keep the computer working in very focused point or you can let it spread out and work in a more diffuse manner on many points. Or you can go back and forth between these two.<br /><br />Another point for Aquarium is that is possible to set up several computers to work together (I have done this for some of my correspondence games where use of computers is allowed), and because of the way it breaks up the tasks you lose you no efficiency you just gain in speed.<br /><br />Of course there are some issues, and I know some people have had problems. For the record I am using Aquarium 2014 64 bit and I have had no problems.<br /><br />I will also point out that there is a real learning curve with IDeA and you have to be willing to learn to use it, which may not be interesting for people who are mostly just looking for blunder checking or a sparring partner. I have however found the forums that linked to to be quite helpful and full of info.Jabot Scrobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00596129484843268040noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6393640898640561043.post-33067600555240794512015-01-05T21:12:54.077-05:002015-01-05T21:12:54.077-05:00Thanks for the comments. The Shredder website that...Thanks for the comments. The Shredder website that's lined has info on all of the cross-platform functions, so it's really a brand these days rather than a single product. They do seem to give pride of place to the GUI products, but of course mobile is big and is probably where they should put new effort, business-wise.ChessAdminhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02231584333139931889noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6393640898640561043.post-63486317046237710242015-01-05T17:06:18.294-05:002015-01-05T17:06:18.294-05:00Hey Chessadmin! Another great post.
For clarity ...Hey Chessadmin! Another great post.<br /><br />For clarity I should let it be known that the ShredderChess Online experience is NOT thru the Shredder GUI. It is web based or on an Apple IOS app.<br /><br />And the Shredder GUI has not seen an update in a while. It seems the developer has instead focused on Mobile platforms (and putting the steps method into programs!)<br /><br />That all being said for playing against an engine (if one wants to do that) I have found Shredder and Hiarcs to be the most fun to play against and "reasonable ELO levels". Even better than Chess Master. <br /><br />For a really fun computer opponent I highly recommend the Chess Tiger app on Apple IOS (Chess Pro or something like that) by Christophe Theron. This is a wonderful chess app to play against and even do quick post mortems on a game. You can have the engine analyze but just show blue arrow=good move and red arrow=bad move. Basically creating puzzles on the fly!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6393640898640561043.post-78555357436646452442015-01-04T18:54:15.845-05:002015-01-04T18:54:15.845-05:00Stockfish is indeed a great choice for an engine, ...Stockfish is indeed a great choice for an engine, you're not giving up any real performance and it's free.<br /><br />Depending on your computer, it may matter what GUI you have, since some of the older ones are not set up to fully exploit multiple cores. Usually amateurs don't need the "Pro" versions of engines, which scale up to 32 cores, but the standard versions of the latest engines normally can use up to at least 4 physical processors (8 multihreaded).<br /><br />I liked the Arena GUI when I checked it out, as linked above, both for performance and for the aesthetics of the interface; it looks like a professional job. Will have to go check out the lucas chess program, thanks for mentioning it.ChessAdminhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02231584333139931889noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6393640898640561043.post-17520243361915175542015-01-04T16:38:54.532-05:002015-01-04T16:38:54.532-05:00Stockfish 5 is not weak(er), at short calculation ...Stockfish 5 is not weak(er), at short calculation times its at rank #1 http://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/404/ and its always stronger than Houdini 4<br />It is not neccessary to get a new version of fritz. To be able to play with the strongest engine it is enough to have a fritz 11 from ebay.<br />Games against chess engines can be made with the free chessgui Arena or with the brilliant lucas chess program : http://www-lucaschess.rhcloud.com/ too<br />AoxomoxoA wonderinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16058687381216896080noreply@blogger.com