Help! which program to buy?

[S.Taylor]

Does anyone have up-to-date knowledge or test results which can clearly indicate which program now is strongest in tactics?
Also, which is strongest in all the various aspects? (king attack/defense, positional knowledge and practical implementation, machine calculated end-game, other aspects of computer play, other features etc).

One major question is, although rybka is the strongest all-round, what are its weaknesses, and is there other program which is stronger than Rybka in some positions?

(I've been going on too long without one of todays top programs, and now I wish to get atleast one for now, and since Rybka 3 is not on the way yet, so I wanted to know how 2.3 is appraised, vs others.
AND, if I need a frame to use Rybka in, where shall I get it from?).

[Chris Taylor]

Hi

If you were to get Rybka all you then need is Arena, Arena sofar is free. This will allow you to play with the free UCI engines, plus it is good at winboard. I have Arena running on a 64 bit machine dual AMD 4800, it runs crafty really fast.

Hiarcs 11.1 is another good program, IMHO...This will run in Arena.

Zap chess Zanzibar is another reasonable shot.. But Chessbase only?!

Another idea is to visit CCRL and CETG, and look at the rankings. this will give you an idea of the ratings.

Best

Chris

[Kirk]

There was an interesing study done posted not too long ago:

http://216.25.93.108/forum/viewtopic.ph ... =winfinder

[michiguel]

Does anyone have up-to-date knowledge or test results which can clearly indicate which program now is strongest in tactics?
Also, which is strongest in all the various aspects? (king attack/defense, positional knowledge and practical implementation, machine calculated end-game, other aspects of computer play, other features etc).

One major question is, although rybka is the strongest all-round, what are its weaknesses, and is there other program which is stronger than Rybka in some positions?

(I've been going on too long without one of todays top programs, and now I wish to get atleast one for now, and since Rybka 3 is not on the way yet, so I wanted to know how 2.3 is appraised, vs others.
AND, if I need a frame to use Rybka in, where shall I get it from?).

I would say Komodo and SF

Miguel