Chess Database programs
Orion Auld
How much do they cost? What are their limits? How fast are they?
What are some of their better/worse features? How large can their
databases be?
I realize there was a thread about this a few months ago, but
I missed it. Thanks for your input.
--
***** Orion Auld ***** *---------------------------------------------*
"We are only fabulous | I am that which must overcome itself |
beasts, after all." | again and again. -Nietzsche |
-- John Ashberry *---------------------------------------------*
Bookup
Orion Auld <oa...@ponder.csci.unt.edu> wrote:
>I want some of the specifications of the popular chess database programs.
>How much do they cost? What are their limits? How fast are they?
>What are some of their better/worse features? How large can their
>databases be?
>
>I realize there was a thread about this a few months ago, but
>I missed it. Thanks for your input.
>
I can't answer for the others, but will tell you a bit about
BOOKUP. And by the way, we will mail you a free brochure which, among
other things, compares BOOKUP to other databases. Just call us at
1-800-949-5445 to receive the "20 Questions" brochure, and more
information about our products.
BOOKUP is a positional database, which is designed to store
information in the form of a tree of analysis. It was inspired by Kotov's
"Think like a Grandmaster," in which the author recommends this method of
representing chess analysis. There are no limits on how large a tree you
may construct. Regardless of how much information is in one data book,
the program instantly checks to see if a new position matches anything
already in that data book. You can never analyze the same position by
mistake twice.
Some features include over 80 lines for commentary at each
position, sheet printing capability in the style of BCO/ECO type pages,
integration with HIARCS or ZARKOV to analyze your data, and a training
mode which hides the candidate moves and thus immediately tests your
retention of the variations which you have just studied. The graphics are
VGA, with complete mouse control and pull-down menus. Data may be input
via mouse, keyboard, or import via text files.
Other chess database products do an excellent job of storing and
retrieving games, but with BOOKUP you can view 50 [or more] related games
all at once, and thus really learn how tournament games create opening
theory.
Chuck Schulien
BOOKUP tech support/data author
Monica Vann
>I want some of the specifications of the popular chess database programs.
> How much do they cost? What are their limits? How fast are they?
> What are some of their better/worse features? How large can their
> databases be?
There are four main choices.
ChessBase...The most expensive
NicBase...Graphics are poor and interface not intuitive
Chess Assistant...The most flexible, powerful and the best value
Book-up...Not truly IMHO a database, never the less an excellent
choice for opening preparation.
I have an interest in Chess Assistant and am therefore biased. However,
if you ftp chess.uoknor.edu you might be able to grab demos of the above.
Its well worth seeing them for yourself to help make up your mind which is the
best system for yourself.
Monica Vann
CAPSA
ChessBase only twice, because of copy protection. One cannot even transfer
it from one hard drive to another and expect it to work (although I'm happy
to say that one CAN retrieve games after the transfer).
I don't wish to get into a flame war with those who think that we who have
paid $300 (and in some cases, much more) for use of a program do not have
the right to move that program from one computer to another. But I will
say that I think the manufacturers and distributors of ChessBase are as
bad as "pirates" because they treat their customers as pirates.
Fraternally,
Jerome Bibuld
James Paul Bach
subject (and boy, have there been tons) is the method of opening
classification used by the various database programs. I use NiCBase, and
although I am not completely satisfied with it, my favorite thing about it
is that it uses the New in Chess key system. Because this system is more
detailed than the ECO system, used by ChessBase and, I believe, Chess
Assistant, I prefer it. It is true that it took me a bit of time to learn
it, but once I did I became very happy with it. I find that it is also a
bit more flexible than the ECO system, and can be expanded more easily,
even by the user.
I don't want to start up a long thread over which system is better, but I
did want to point out something that I think is of importance for anyone
considering the purchase of a rather expensive piece of software.
Jim
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Kevin D. Blair
My question for this thread would be: How do you use your chess
database? How does it help you improve? Does it help you improve?
I've been using the CA for PGN (thanks very much to Steve Mayer
who helped me get a hold of this program and who has been
providing games on netcom.com). I've been finding openings that
I like to play, and playing out the moves. That is: I load a
game and play as if I'm white or black, predicting the moves.
If a move is made that I don't understand, I put in a lot of
time trying to figure out why the move was made. This has been
a very helpful way of studying. Its much easier than using
books and setting up the pieces. I've recently started to add
games, etc. from some of my favorite books. I hope to be able
to use the database to move the pieces while I read the text.
With the minium cost of a database being around $150.00 (for
bookup or Fritz- assuming you use it as a limited database as
suggested by a recent review) and full fledged ones costing
$200 to $500 (the price for chess base with all the bells,
etc. from what I've been told), exactly what will I do with
it that I can't do now with CA for PGN? On a final note, I
plan to call the ChessAssistant folks. Hopefully I can order
something from them, so that I can support them for their
efforts.
-----Kevin
--
Jeff Otto
>
>My question for this thread would be: How do you use your chess
>database? How does it help you improve? Does it help you improve?
>I've been using the CA for PGN (thanks very much to Steve Mayer
>who helped me get a hold of this program and who has been
>providing games on netcom.com). I've been finding openings that
>I like to play, and playing out the moves. That is: I load a
>game and play as if I'm white or black, predicting the moves.
>If a move is made that I don't understand, I put in a lot of
>time trying to figure out why the move was made. This has been
>a very helpful way of studying. Its much easier than using
>books and setting up the pieces. I've recently started to add
>games, etc. from some of my favorite books. I hope to be able
>to use the database to move the pieces while I read the text.
Up until now, I have had only one database: Bookup. I have used Bookup
primarily as a tool for studying openings. I also purchased an endgame
database (King and Pawn) and I use it to study these endgames as well. I have
particularily liked using the training feature of Bookup. Unfortunately,
it takes up an enormous amount of diskspace. My database of >900,000 positions
takes up about 120 meg of HD space. Obviously, Bookup is not intended to
be a games database.
I just bought ChessAssistant for a number of reasons:
1) to build an enormous games database (an acquaintance had cb and 375,000
games).
2) to study middlegame and endgame posistions. Because of CA's ability to do
ambiguous position searches, I can ask it to find positions similar to one from
my game. I can then ask how did the GM or whoever handle this position. As
much as I like Bookup, it can't really do this, and besides because of how much
disk space it takes up, a 400,000 game database probably would take up more
than 1 gigabyte of hard disk space :-(
3) to search the games database for particular openings, export them into PGN,
and then import them into Bookup. For studying openings, I still think Bookup
is the best, and wouldn't it be nice to have a 300,000 position library on the
KID or Ruy Lopez or whatever? I plan to keep the bookup databases that I am
not currently looking at zipped up to conserve disk space, but this will allow
me to generate very complete databases on a given opening
4) to study my own performance. Enter all of my games in a database so that
I can analyze how I do against various openings, opponents or whatever.
If nothing else, I will have a convienent means to keep a record of my games
and my performance.
5) To study how others play, or to pull up specific games. Lets upon reading
an article a reference is made to X vs Y in Linares 1994 refering to a similar
sort of middle game position. Now I have a convient means to look at that game
provided of course that it is in my database.
Jeff