In the last years, chess programs have increased a lot and the companies producing them grew bigger. Yet to point out, the most famous between them are Chessbase and Rebel.
The programmers are updating their programs and the programs are getting stronger with the help of developing hardware. The microcomputers haven't yet become as strong as " Deep Blue" , but they won great success over the last years : Rebel10 beat Anand in blitz matches, Fritz, Chessmaster and Rebel series got top places in strong tournaments against grandmasters.
I would like to explain why should a chess lover needs these programs. Then I'll give some information and how to get them as briefly as I can.
Firstly, a chess program is a good friend that will never refuse you to play and play as strong or as weak as you want.
Second, if you are competing in chess tournaments and develop yourself you must analyse your own games and grandmasters' games. A strong chess program is the best trainer to help you with analyse and you don't need to mess up with pieces or board, just click the position you want to see with your mouse.
Third, if you buy additional openings or games database (many programs come already with these), you will build up a good knowledge of openings and able to search different types of middle and endgame positions in a database.
Fourth, if you want to keep your games with their information (place,date,opponent), most chess programs will do it for you. This is a need for competition players and a must for correspondence players. If you are serious about keeping your games, you may think to buy a database program too(Chessbase, Chess Academy) . I advice you to use Chessbase light as a starting point. It's a free demo of Chessbase 6.0.
I personally use Fritz 5 , Chessmaster 6000 programs and Rebel 10 analysis module with my e-mail chess program Ectool. They are all great products, but there are many other good programs. Now it's time to end chit-chat and deal some of them :
FRITZ 5
The latest version FRITZ 5.32 was released in December 1998. I own the former version 5 and prefered to wait until the release of Fritz 6. I think it's the best chess program for all level chess players with it's easy to use interface, strong engine and database functions. The interface is much like the Junior and Chessbase 7.0 of the same company. FRITZ is produced by ChessBase, Hamburg. The man behind the playing strength is the Dutch programmer Frans Morsch . Let's list some functions of Fritz:
The ability of opening and saving databases of pgn,cbf,cbh. The database functions are satisfactory for %95 of the chess players
Different choices of board, size, colour
Very strong analysis module
Several analysis options (correspondence, infinite, blundercheck)
You can create as much trees as you want while analysing games and add annotations
Chess tutor for new learners
Adaptible to different strenghts (handicap, tournament...)
It's talking with the Talk-cd which comes with the program and I can say it will make you laugh a lot during the matches!
You can hold tournaments with both Chessbase compatible engines(Fritz 1,2,3,4,5, Junior,Doctor,Hiarcs 6.0) and Winboard compatible engines( Crafty, Comet,Crazy Bishop)
Printing games embedded with diagrams
You can create your own opening books or use the Power Book of Chessbase.
The database in the program Cd contains 300.000 games,but I recommend you to buy the Big Database99 Cd with more then 700.000 games.
A screenshot of Fritz 5
Further information : ChessBase
Chessmaster 6000
One of the best and oldest chess programs of the world. The chess engine inside Chessmaster 6000 is from Johan de Koning, Holland, whose software is also in TascBase and in the Tasc R 30 chess computer. The engine plays tactical game and searches attacking trees deeply. The engine hasn't been changed since the release of version 5000 and the figure of the old man with the white beard hasn't changed too!
- It's the best program for the beginners with it's large tutorial options.
- It hasn't got the database and analysis quality as Fritz has,but certainly is as strong as Fritz. In our tests ,CM6000 beats Fritz about %60 -%40.
- There are 300.000 games in the 2.cd of the program.
- You may watch the analysed games of IM Josh Waitzkin with audio comments.
- Free Internet play on Chessmaster Live, available on MPlayer.
- You may choose or create different personalities to play. In version 6000,this option has advanced much.
Personally, I advise beginners and intermediate players to buy CM 6000, but if you have enough money to spend, you should buy it whether your level is high or low. I can easily say that when I want to play against a chess program, it's Chessmaster 6000.
A screenshot of Chessmaster 6000
Further information : Chessmaster
ECTOOL
Ectool is an utility to help with the management of playing correspondence or email chess. It is written by Andres Valverde. Although it has a free version(Ectool Lite), it is economical to buy the program since it is only 15$. It's latest version is 5.00, which has several novelties compared to the earlier versions,which we will discuss. First of all it's a very easy to use program,while recording moves,dates and sending yours. The features of the program:
Keeps a database of games and show them in bookbase format
Automatic creation of messages, in the various formats usually used in correspondence chess
Send the resulting messages via SMTP protocol, receive messages through POP3 protocol
Keep track of messages sent and received
From ECTool help file (c) Andres Valverde 1996-98
Personally, I think it is an extremely useful program for players dealing with lots of correspondence games. You may buy the Rebel10 analysis module for 25$ to use the Rebel module for analysing games. It is possible to use the free Crafty and Rebel Decade analyse modules from Ectool, too.
A screenshot of Ectool 5.00
Further information : ECTool Home Page