Freeware program for analysis?

[kaissa]

Hello,

I am training a young player and need a database software with analysis feature. My first choice was Scid. Free, nice program but does not write to PGN files for some reason. Komodo can annotate games but sometimes send an error message and stops analyzing.

My second choice was Arena. Again a very nice program however I just could not figure out how to have the computer analysis attached to the game score. Another problem was the time it took to load a game from a PGN file with only 22 games. 10-15 seconds!

My third choice was the ChessPad. Simple design, easy to use but again adding the computer analysis to the game score is a problem. Also although Stockfish is using the CPU but it does not give any analysis in the annotate mode.

My fourth choice was LucasChess. I really enjoy the training material that comes with it but the computer analysis modes gives points instead of regular Informant annotation marks and the notation windows blocks the g and h files so it is not intuitive to use as a database.

I am really discouraged as Fritz 5.32 did the computer analysis and added it to the game score very easily. Years later I am not able to do this with the current freeware programs :( I thank the authors for these lovely programs who have different strengths and appreciate their time and effort.

I look forward to your recommendations for a freeware database program that can use leading engines to auto annotate games.

Maybe I have not spent enough time to utilize these programs but what I am asking should be simple enough to be completed within 3-4 mouse clicks instead of copying the game as PGN to clipboard and then opening the PGN database and importing it there and so on...

Please do not tell me that the student needs to analyse the game herself. I already know that but having a world class player annotate your game is a resource that cannot be overlooked.

Best regards,

[Vinvin]

...My second choice was Arena. Again a very nice program however I just could not figure out how to have the computer analysis attached to the game score. Another problem was the time it took to load a game from a PGN file with only 22 games. 10-15 seconds!

Hello,
to analyze with Arena : menu Engine -> automatic analyze -> current game.
Here it take less than 0.01 sec to load a game in a 200 games PGN file.

[hgm]

I am not sure what annotation you expect, and what your starting point is (existing PGN multi-game file, games you copy-paste from a website, ...). WinBoard can annotate games with score/depth/PV from an analysing engine on each move, and starting it from a multi-game PGN file this would just require a few mouse clicks, as you requested:

Engine -> Load Engine -> browse to Komodo -> OK (or, if you used Komodo before just select it from Engine -> Komodo amongst the recent engines)
File -> Load Game -> browse (to open the PGN database)
Click on desired game in Game List (to load the game)
Click on << button (to position to start of the game, if this was not your default load mode).
Mode -> Analyze Game (starts stepping through the game to annotate it)

The annotation will be added as comment (score/depth) or as recursive variation (PV) to the PGN, and will be visible in the Comment window (where you can also play it out by right-clicking on it, and later Revert to the main line from the menu).

WinBoard is not primarily a database program, though. So it does not support any compact database format like SCID, just PGN. And PGN is not trivial to parse. So if you have really huge PGN files with many of thousands of games, it might take noticeable time to load it.

[Dayffd]

Hello,

...
I am really discouraged as Fritz 5.32 did the computer analysis and added it to the game score very easily. Years later I am not able to do this with the current freeware programs I thank the authors for these lovely programs who have different strengths and appreciate their time and effort.
...

Best regards,

Do you still have Fritz 5.32? If so have you added these freeware engines as uci engines? Or doesn't F 532 accept uci engines? (Been a while since I've used the F 532 gui.)

[sicilianquake87]

Hello,

...
I am really discouraged as Fritz 5.32 did the computer analysis and added it to the game score very easily. Years later I am not able to do this with the current freeware programs I thank the authors for these lovely programs who have different strengths and appreciate their time and effort.
...

Best regards,

Do you still have Fritz 5.32? If so have you added these freeware engines as uci engines? Or doesn't F 532 accept uci engines? (Been a while since I've used the F 532 gui.)

Natively it cannot but an Immortal forum member created a workaround recently.

[Dan Astrachan]

Hello,

I am training a young player and need a database software with analysis feature. My first choice was Scid. Free, nice program but does not write to PGN files for some reason. Komodo can annotate games but sometimes send an error message and stops analyzing.

My second choice was Arena. Again a very nice program however I just could not figure out how to have the computer analysis attached to the game score. Another problem was the time it took to load a game from a PGN file with only 22 games. 10-15 seconds!

My third choice was the ChessPad. Simple design, easy to use but again adding the computer analysis to the game score is a problem. Also although Stockfish is using the CPU but it does not give any analysis in the annotate mode.

My fourth choice was LucasChess. I really enjoy the training material that comes with it but the computer analysis modes gives points instead of regular Informant annotation marks and the notation windows blocks the g and h files so it is not intuitive to use as a database.

I am really discouraged as Fritz 5.32 did the computer analysis and added it to the game score very easily. Years later I am not able to do this with the current freeware programs I thank the authors for these lovely programs who have different strengths and appreciate their time and effort.

I look forward to your recommendations for a freeware database program that can use leading engines to auto annotate games.

Maybe I have not spent enough time to utilize these programs but what I am asking should be simple enough to be completed within 3-4 mouse clicks instead of copying the game as PGN to clipboard and then opening the PGN database and importing it there and so on...

Please do not tell me that the student needs to analyse the game herself. I already know that but having a world class player annotate your game is a resource that cannot be overlooked.

Best regards,

Hi

Scid (or even better, its fork on steroids Scid-Vs-PC) is perfectly capable of doing what you describe i.e. batch-analyze games from a PGN file with any UCI engine. You must be doing something wrong.

I can whip up a quick tutorial if you're interested.

[kaissa]

I am training a young player and need a database software with analysis feature. My first choice was Scid. Free, nice program but does not write to PGN files for some reason. Komodo can annotate games but sometimes send an error message and stops analyzing.

Hi

Scid (or even better, its fork on steroids Scid-Vs-PC) is perfectly capable of doing what you describe i.e. batch-analyze games from a PGN file with any UCI engine. You must be doing something wrong.

I can whip up a quick tutorial if you're interested.

I would love to have that tutorial. The analysis goes fine when suddenly I get this:

"This database is read-only and can't be altered.
This database is read-only and can't be altered.
while executing
"sc_game flag T [sc_game number] 1"
(procedure "markExercise" line 81)
invoked from within
"markExercise $prevscore $score"
(procedure "addAnnotation" line 155)
invoked from within
"addAnnotation"
(procedure "autoplay" line 27)
invoked from within
"autoplay"
("after" script)"

I simply do not understand why Scid or Scid-Vs-PC cannot write to PGN. I exported one annotated game in Scid format to PGN within Scid but the output was garbage.

[Vinvin]

I am training a young player and need a database software with analysis feature. My first choice was Scid. Free, nice program but does not write to PGN files for some reason. Komodo can annotate games but sometimes send an error message and stops analyzing.

Hi

Scid (or even better, its fork on steroids Scid-Vs-PC) is perfectly capable of doing what you describe i.e. batch-analyze games from a PGN file with any UCI engine. You must be doing something wrong.

I can whip up a quick tutorial if you're interested.

I would love to have that tutorial. The analysis goes fine when suddenly I get this:

"This database is read-only and can't be altered.
This database is read-only and can't be altered.
while executing
"sc_game flag T [sc_game number] 1"
(procedure "markExercise" line 81)
invoked from within
"markExercise $prevscore $score"
(procedure "addAnnotation" line 155)
invoked from within
"addAnnotation"
(procedure "autoplay" line 27)
invoked from within
"autoplay"
("after" script)"

I simply do not understand why Scid or Scid-Vs-PC cannot write to PGN. I exported one annotated game in Scid format to PGN within Scid but the output was garbage.

May be Scid have not the right to write in the selected folder. Did you tried to run SCID with admin right ?

[royb]

I am training a young player and need a database software with analysis feature. My first choice was Scid. Free, nice program but does not write to PGN files for some reason. Komodo can annotate games but sometimes send an error message and stops analyzing.

Hi

Scid (or even better, its fork on steroids Scid-Vs-PC) is perfectly capable of doing what you describe i.e. batch-analyze games from a PGN file with any UCI engine. You must be doing something wrong.

I can whip up a quick tutorial if you're interested.

I would love to have that tutorial. The analysis goes fine when suddenly I get this:

"This database is read-only and can't be altered.
This database is read-only and can't be altered.
while executing
"sc_game flag T [sc_game number] 1"
(procedure "markExercise" line 81)
invoked from within
"markExercise $prevscore $score"
(procedure "addAnnotation" line 155)
invoked from within
"addAnnotation"
(procedure "autoplay" line 27)
invoked from within
"autoplay"
("after" script)"

I simply do not understand why Scid or Scid-Vs-PC cannot write to PGN. I exported one annotated game in Scid format to PGN within Scid but the output was garbage.

It appears to be a feature of SCID. This is from the SCID tutorial (link follows):

You cannot edit a PGN file in Scid, as they are opened read-only and file maintenance functions are only available for Scid-format database files. So you will want to create one or more Scid-format databases and import games from PGN files into them.

The link for the SCID tutorial is here: http://scid.sourceforge.net/tutorial/

If you create a SCID database from the .pgn file, THEN that database is writeable.

[Dan Astrachan]

Hello,

I am training a young player and need a database software with analysis feature. My first choice was Scid. Free, nice program but does not write to PGN files for some reason. Komodo can annotate games but sometimes send an error message and stops analyzing.

My second choice was Arena. Again a very nice program however I just could not figure out how to have the computer analysis attached to the game score. Another problem was the time it took to load a game from a PGN file with only 22 games. 10-15 seconds!

My third choice was the ChessPad. Simple design, easy to use but again adding the computer analysis to the game score is a problem. Also although Stockfish is using the CPU but it does not give any analysis in the annotate mode.

My fourth choice was LucasChess. I really enjoy the training material that comes with it but the computer analysis modes gives points instead of regular Informant annotation marks and the notation windows blocks the g and h files so it is not intuitive to use as a database.

I am really discouraged as Fritz 5.32 did the computer analysis and added it to the game score very easily. Years later I am not able to do this with the current freeware programs I thank the authors for these lovely programs who have different strengths and appreciate their time and effort.

I look forward to your recommendations for a freeware database program that can use leading engines to auto annotate games.

Maybe I have not spent enough time to utilize these programs but what I am asking should be simple enough to be completed within 3-4 mouse clicks instead of copying the game as PGN to clipboard and then opening the PGN database and importing it there and so on...

Please do not tell me that the student needs to analyse the game herself. I already know that but having a world class player annotate your game is a resource that cannot be overlooked.

Best regards,

As promised, here is a tutorial on how to do just that with Scid-Vs-PC.

You'll notice that the file comes with an .exe extension, don't fret. I did the tutorial with the excellent Wink freeware (it is, as you'll see, an interactive video tutorial), and the tutorial comes with its own built-in player, hence the executable

Here's the link to the tutorial:

http://www.solidfiles.com/d/ed9472bdcc/ ... achan].exe

Here is the Virustotal analysis log of the file; don't mind the overzealous one that notices it's a packed executable (duh):

https://www.virustotal.com/fr/file/fa7a ... 394901761/

Once you've downloaded the file, simply double-click on it and follow the on-screen brilliance

I hope this will help