What are the advantages of chess software over a traditional standalone chess computer?
By far the two biggest advantages are cost, and playing strength. All the playing programs cost under forty pounds, and all of them play to a standard far above that of even most of the worlds Grandmasters. Indeed, at some time or other, nearly all of the worlds elite Grandmasters have succumbed in games against chess software.
There are a lot of different playing programs, which one is the best?
All the programs are extremely strong, and there is no way to say for sure which is the strongest – that is what the programmers are constantly trying to determine ! In addition, each program (also known as an engine) offers virtually identical features and playing interface. So what’s the difference? Well, that lies in the differing playing styles of the machine. Some, such as Chess Tiger are particularly aggressive and tactical, while others, such as Shredder are positionally very sophisticated. Each program is developed to try to reach positions which enhance their best strengths, which can lead to fascinating confrontations when two programs with radically different styles clash. While all the programs will obviously always choose the same move when there is a single clear cut continuation, for more unclear positions, the evaluation and assessment of different moves can disagree substantially between the engines.
Do I need to buy more than one?
If you are a new users, or casual player, realistically probably not. Any one of the programs (Fritz is a good choice for a first program) would give everything that was needed in terms of analysis and play. However for more experienced players, choosing a second program, especially one with a playing style diametrically opposed to their main program can reap substantial benefits – eg for correspondence play or adjournment analysis.
I want to make my program(s) even stronger still ! What else can I do?
Well the most drastic thing that you could do would be to nip straight down to your local PC supplier, hand over a large bundle of cash, and get them to supply you with the very latest PC, as the better and faster your PC is, the better your chess program will play. However a more cost effective option would be to purchase any or all of the various add-ons that are available to turbocharge your program. These include :
Fritz Powerbooks (£39.95) : If the normal opening library of about a million positions that comes with your software as standard, you can boost it up to 7.6 million with the installation of Fritz Powerbooks. Although this wont give your software any more calculation power, it will vastly increase it’s opening knowledge allowing the computer to know all variations to an even deeper standard, as well as saving valuable clock time (all moves from the opening library are played instantly)
Endgame Turbo DVD (£39.95) : With the installation of this CD Fritz, or any of the other programs will now play endings with a total of five pieces (and some with six pieces) absolutely perfectly. This can make a significant difference at a critical final stage of the game.
