Chess Genius 5
Frank Nelson
Chess Genius Gold which has every version of Chess Genius on it CD-ROM.
I found it difficult to beat Genius on any level even instant. My USCF
rating is 1615 and my ICC rating is 2025 standard and 1800 blitz. The
program seem to excel at tactics even better than Fritz5. However, it is
weak in strategy but somewhat makes up for this by its strong endgame. I
may have played at least 100 games against Genius and won only 2 with about
8 draws. So much work for USCF-rated players! If anyone has any experience
with Chess Genius 5 please post to this group.
Me. Frank Nelson
LJ...@Tosconet.com
Lawrence S. Tamarkin
Frank Nelson wrote in message
<01bd6aeb$5776bc60$04b1...@www.tosconet.com>...
Here a quicky review of a few of the better programs, that I posted a while
ago:
Ratings of programs are now so high (for us ordinary chess experts that is!)
that IMHO that shouldn't be the primary reason for selecting a program.
That said, on your list Fritz5 has a substantially lower rating than the
others, but notice that it is on a 90 MHz processor which really hurts its
performance compared to the others.
My personal selection of programs is based on its overall features and
computability with Chess Base (my database of choice) and looks like this:
1: Fritz5 - Has a Opening tree and many, training/coaching features that set
it apart from other playing programs. Also, so far it is the only program
that incorporates the new cbh file format of Chess Base and plays multimedia
clips. So if you down load Chess Base Light and get this program you pretty
much have a complete chess Database and Playing program together. Also the
fact that Fritz5 comes with 300,000 chess games on the CD, and that more
than 5000 are annotated is a very important feature. So far, I hardly use
the Talk feature (German or English), but it is innovative and important to
some.
2: Genius5 Gold - Comes with all Genius versions (dos and Windows) on one
CD! Genius 5 has the best interface of all the programs I've seen, is
compatible with Chess Base (CBF format), and has some settings for the way
the program evaluates that seem more customizable then Fritz5. It also has
the best 3d Board(s) I have seen! It is likely the fastest program in
Blitz, and also can be plugged into the an external board.
3: Rebel9 - Probably the most feature rich dos program, It like HIARCS is
thought to have the most human like playing style (Maybe not as human as CS
TAL or HIARCS though) Rebel9 currently comes with a 'free' bonus CD loaded
with a 105,000 game database, other famous games databases, 56 MB of
additional opening books, and numerous utilities to increase one's chess
playing fun. For true chess professionals, it is probably the best
combination of chess playing program and database in one.
4: HIARCS - I only have an older version of this so I can only go by what
others have said about it in this newsgroup rather than personal experience.
Aside from Chess System Tal it is said to have the most human like playing
style. It is said to incorporate 'more' chess knowledge then the other's,
and yet somehow it is currently the highest rated (by 1 point! over Rebel9)
of all the programs on the SSDF list. The version I had (2.1) had a really
old - fashioned dos like interface which I quickly (like with MChess) got
tired of. Like MChess it has a shuffle chess feature, if you like that sort
of thing! Also is available as a DLL engine playing module usable inside
Fritz5, but I was (am) disappointed that company Chess Base doesn't offer an
additional discount to previous (and current)HIARCS owner's on this add-on.
Hope this quick summary helps,
mrslug - the inkompetent chess software addict!
j rinde
Chess Genius 5 is a fine program. So are most of the others such as Hiarcs,
Rebel, MCP, etc. I think the program that works best for one is the one to
use. Some of the free stuff works great also. Have you tried Rebel Decade?