Your opinion: Free gui's & free engines

[D.B. Morris]

I've been asked to write a short overview of 3 chess items that are "free."
The accumulated information that I can gather will go to
http://www.techsupportalert.com
Many members here will enjoy this website, which deals with the "best free utilities" as well as computer security and support information.
Your opinions of the following 3 areas are needed.
1. The best free chess gui's (arena, winboard...
2. The best free chess engines (rybka 1.0, Toga II...
3. The best free versitile engines (that can be used or downgraded for beginners...(I could especially use your thoughts on this one)
The only requirement is that the utility information I pass along must be "free."
I would appreciate your insights to pass along.
Regards,
D.B. Morris

[Mike S.]

1. Arena 1.1

2. One of the recent/last Fruit versions... I am not sure about the best version, yet. Maybe 2.3.1 with Extend Checks=on.

It is possible that the Rybka 1.0 beta testversion is stronger still, but it doesn't support the Nalimov tablebases and doesn't have the multivariation feature for analysis. So, since you asked for best and not simply for strongest, my answer is Fruit.

3. ? (I didn't pay attention to strength reduction features)

[matejst]

One of the best GUI is certainly Chess Assistant Light. It's very complete, with a lot of functions and a few limitations. The only thing that is perhaps missing is the option of matches between engines (not sure), but it is not important for an average chess player.

There are many excellent engines: Rybka 1.0 beta, Spike, Toga II, Fruit, Strelka, Pro Deo... Pro Deo is maybe the most versatile of all, with interesting personalities and levels of play.

Zarkon Fischer has an interesting site about free chess (http://freechess.50webs.com).

Kind regards.

bs

[mongrel]

Chess Position Trainer
******************
I haven't used it yet, and I have never used Bookup. But I gather that it can do what Bookup does, including "backsolving". In addition, it has a openings training feature that works like a full-featured flashcard system: it keeps track of your misses and schedules reviews, etc. My chess is very rusty now, but I am tempted to start playing again, just to use this tool to accomplish something I never did in my youth: successfully select and memorize a repertoire. It is very attractive and well behaved so far.

ChessDB
*******
I also haven't used this yet, and I haven't used Chessbase database management tools in about seven years. But ChessDB looks equivalent to Chessbase to me. I was amazed, over and over again, with how fast this is and how much information can be had in an instant. Import of PGN was very fast, and thereafter, various analytical reports are a click away, as the info is thoroughly hyperlinked.

Free Engines
**********
These are so strong now, that the exact strength doesn't matter much in play with a human. I would prefer the one with the most knowlege. I'd like to point out that Pro Deo has additional support from Ed Shroeder's websites, possibly the best chess websites of all. It also has a long and interesting personalities-settings history on the internet.

[Kirill Kryukov]

About the best free engine, not sure it if helps but we maintain a rating list of free engines in our 40/40 and 40/4 time controls. I don't mean you have to choose the strongest one, but at least you can see what to choose from. (Of course there are plenty of other lists as well that you can use).

Best,
Kirill

[Ovyron]

I'd like to point out that Pro Deo has additional support from Ed Shroeder's websites, possibly the best chess websites of all. It also has a long and interesting personalities-settings history on the internet.

Here's the link for Prodeo 1.5.

Please note that analyzing openings with it (With EOC learning enabled) may be confusing since high score just means high probability of winning (That's why it gives the highest score to 1...c5 against 1. e4 in the opening) and so you would get high scores for both sides (When Pro Deo likes both White and Black on a given position), but once you leave known opening theory the score may drop dramatically. That means you may want to try the moves suggested by ProDeo in the early opening if you want the most chance of winning even if they may be risky, and switch EOC learning off if you just want the best evaluation of the position (Even if that means a lower probability of winning).

In fact, analyzing openings with Pro Deo's EOC learning is way better than analyzing them with Rybka, since Rybka tends to develop knights no matter what and put her bishop in front of central pawns and a lot of other stuff that makes her position worse (until middle game in where she destroys everything).

EOC learning makes Pro Deo the strongest Bookless engine on the opening (good for analysis) and its personality options makes it the top choice for a versatile engine. Like, you can play against an opponent that overvalues knights and undervalues Bishops or other such weakness that make for a consistent strength throughout the game (Unlike other engines' personalities that may make one big blunder now and then and play the rest of the game like Kasparov).

(I can't give my opinion on Free Chess GUIs since I use commercial).

[mongrel]

This is a parenthetical addendum to my recommendation of ChessDB:
Here are some facts that I just noticed. I don't have time to research this for you.

Scid is a free, open source chess database program (sourceforge). The original author, Shane Hudson, stopped working on it a few years ago. (Thank you Shane Hudson, I hope you'll come back. I remember and appreciate your work.)

Scid, under that name, is being actively developed here: http://prolinux.free.fr/scid/ (No longer at sourceforge? -to preserve the original while the author is away?)

ChessDB is said to be a "fork" of Scid. I'm not sure what that implies. He acknowleges the original, but has changed the name.

I'm not sure which of the above is ethically correct given that Shane Hudson might want to continue work on Scid.

[jwes]

This is a parenthetical addendum to my recommendation of ChessDB:
Here are some facts that I just noticed. I don't have time to research this for you.

Scid is a free, open source chess database program (sourceforge). The original author, Shane Hudson, stopped working on it a few years ago. (Thank you Shane Hudson, I hope you'll come back. I remember and appreciate your work.)

Scid, under that name, is being actively developed here: http://prolinux.free.fr/scid/ (No longer at sourceforge? -to preserve the original while the author is away?)

ChessDB is said to be a "fork" of Scid. I'm not sure what that implies. He acknowleges the original, but has changed the name.

Here is a definition of fork from http://www.nosi.net/node/31

Fork – When a developer takes an open source project developed by someone else in an entirely different direction. This is done for a variety of reasons – disagreements with the philosophy of the original developer, slowness in development of the original, different purpose for the new software (an example of this is FilmGimp, a fork of the Gimp image processing program developed specifically to work with film).

Since Shane Hudson is not currently developing scid, but still maintains control of the sourceforge site, anyone who wanted to continue development needed to fork the source. Unfortunately, there are two forks of scid because the new developers could not work together.

I'm not sure which of the above is ethically correct given that Shane Hudson might want to continue work on Scid.

Shane Hudson released his code under GPL v2, which defines the legal rights and responsabilities of users of his software. AFACT, both forks follow the GPL licence. and I see no ethical problems with either.

[Dann Corbit]

I've been asked to write a short overview of 3 chess items that are "free."
The accumulated information that I can gather will go to
http://www.techsupportalert.com
Many members here will enjoy this website, which deals with the "best free utilities" as well as computer security and support information.
Your opinions of the following 3 areas are needed.
1. The best free chess gui's (arena, winboard...
2. The best free chess engines (rybka 1.0, Toga II...
3. The best free versitile engines (that can be used or downgraded for beginners...(I could especially use your thoughts on this one)
The only requirement is that the utility information I pass along must be "free."
I would appreciate your insights to pass along.
Regards,
D.B. Morris

When you feel like taking a pounding, I recommend the following engines:
Alaric
Delfi
Frenzee
Fruit
Glaurung
Naum
Pharaon
Rybka
Scorpio
Slow Chess
Spike
Strelka
Toga
WildCat
Zappa

If you want some revenge, then there's Chad's Chess and Golem. Mint will make funny faces at you as it plays, if you watch the pv.

For free Chess GUIs:
Arena
Winboard
Scid (and variants)
Jose

For tournaments, Arena
For online play, Winboard
For opening study Scid
Jose is a nice Java Gui

I have the real Chess Assistant, so I have not tried the free one, but I guess it is very good because I adore Chess Assistant.

[mariaclara]

.......hi there,

here are my recoms:

best free engine: rybka beta 1 - can beat commercial engines
best free gui : arena - many features/options. esp. tournament
best database : scid - very fast and useful features.

..cya..