I'm in the process of upgrading from Fritz 8, as it doesn't run on my vista 64-bit.  I want to keep track of my games, and have solid post-game analysis as well as a versatile opponent.  I'm trying to decide between the Convekta version and the Chessbase version.  I haven't seen too many reviews of the Aquarium 3, although I've read some people who really disliked the old version and like the Rybka 3 with Chessbase interface.  I want your opinion!!  Please tell me which one you own (or both say so), and what you like about it, what you use it for.  Thanks!

I have aquarium. Aquarium is fantastic. I'll explain all of the things it can do. It has 3 and a half million game database that comes with it. You may also download or install other databases into it. You may search games by player or position. You may also create trees similar to the Chess.com Game explorer. One can you Rybka or anyother engine to anylize the game once you open the game up. One cool little feature in the database is demo mode where the computer makes the moves from the game at a pace you choose.

Aquarium comes with Rybka, Rybka Dynamic, Rybka Human, Rybka  960, Crafty, Delphi, and Weak Delphi. You can import any UCI engine and use it in Aquarium (ex. Fritz, Junior)

One can also put the engines head to head and one chooses the start posstion. Although it isn't called Monte Carlo if you make it so the engines don't change colors then it is quite similar to Monte Carlo. These games can also be made into a tree.

Once can of course set up any possition they like and anylize with Rybka. You may also enter your games and Rybka will do a blunder check. This is useful but I think it is more instructive if you manually go through the game and spend more time with Rybka on the possiton if it is intresting while almost skipping other ones.

One may also play any of the engines installed in Rybka in a variety of time controls. Their is also chess 960 support.

This is all good but why should you choose Aquarium over chessbase? Because of the anylasis technique known as IDEA. (Interactive Deep engine anylasis) Why is IDEA better than your nomal anylasis techniques. Because in IDEA you are in charge of the anylasis. It is up to the user to mark moves as "good" or "dubious" or bad or even tell Rybka to complety ignore it all together. If your a good chess player this will seriously add to the anylasis because it doesn't waste time looking at bad moves. The results are saved in a tree, where they can be easily accessed.

Rybkachess.com forums will give you a lot of help with using Aquarium. Over all it is a great buy.

Thanks for the input!  Anyone out there used the chessbase interface?

I have both, and I have to say, Aquarium may be a good choice for correspondence chess specialists (in sites where engines are allowed of course) who need to dive in positions too deep and opening analysts etc. (because of the IDEA analysis feature explained above).

However, trust me, if you aren't one of the above, or aren't amazingly patient and curious, or haven't recieved special courses from the C.I.A to withstand different techniques of torture, stay away from Aquarium.

Chessbase knows it's stuff: you can actually do what you want without spending hours to find out how to work things out as if you are hacking the most complicated computer system on earth.

Aquarium is uninstalled on my computer, and I did try to stay with it because I had a huge sympathy for the developing team, but finally I admitted it was a complete failure and got rid of it. I'm a happier person ever since.

to have an idea of what I'm talking about, just go visit the official Aquarium forums. Just skim through posts with titles IDEA or "trees" etc. You'll feel like you've found the archives of correspondence of developers of Linux from the OS's first release or something.

These people on here need help. I had a good laugh reading the above.  It is okay, we all start somewhere. I will help you out. I am rated 2500 and have tons of chess software. I have it posted on my profile intro and you search eviesays.com for chess events 64801. I can tell you rybka aquarium works on 64 bit vista I also own ( my laptop new !) and you install Rybka engine in chessbase program folders. Understand it is easy... IF YOU KNOW HOW. Anyone with questions send me some, and I'm glad to help !

I own chessbase 10 mega, chess assistant 10 mega, chessmaster, chess openings wizard professional (was called bookup 2000),Rybka Aquarium and Deep Rybka 3, all informants, NIC (new in chess) magazine and NIC yearbook, chessbase magazine subscriptions, all ECO (a,b,c,d,e) edition 1,2,3,4,and 5 ! MCO 11,13,14,15, BCO 2, Theory and practice by horrowitz, NCO by john nunn, Many repetoire books, eric schiller series (sco,wco,uco,gco) , and MCO beginners cut down version of MCO, and I am an "opening specialist/theorist/analyst", meaning I know how to prep openings for serious games.

I also own the reference endgame books basic chess endings rueben fine, pandolfini endgame course awesome start for foundation work, averbakh comprehensive chess endings 1-5 series encyclopedia, ECE ( encyclopedia of chess endings) 1-5 ( I have all 5 books in the set !), 21 dvd set of "endgame tablebases" (150 GB) for "perfect endgame play/analysis", along with "FREEZER" from shredderchess.com, over 500 chess engines possible analysis, and much more.

Send me questions and I will answer for free, glad to help. I was a novice once too. You can convert engine or save engine as "UCI" (universal chess interface), then store in a folder to load later. You can adjust or "tweak" engine settings, then save it as a new "engine" for later. You can load chessbase engines inside or "into" Rybka Aquarium and have fritz,shredder,junior,tiger,rebel,king,or any engine saved first as "UCI". This is nice when using rybka aquarium interface and watch fritz do IDEA or any other thing aquarium does on menu choices. You can load rybka for chess assistant if you get rybka first. The new chess assistant 10 has rybka preinstalled ! You can load rybka in C.O.W. (chess openings wizard professional not standard). The professional version has "backsolving" turned on to double check opening lines and note ALL transpositions ! I have a 5 million game database from opening master dot com. I help players take their game to the next level. Favorite authors to help class players are schiller (eric), silman, pandolfini, lev alburt, "yaz" aka yasser seirawan winning chess series, to name a start.

I will show you the real path to a GM 2700 elo, or just how to make it all seem easy, and have way more fun along the way not to mention being the strongest player for your club or area! Yours truly, Mike

I have Deep Rybka 3 with the ChessBase interface and I like it a lot. Read the Rybka forums and you realize a lot of people are dissatisfied with the Aquarium interface...see also reviews on Amazon.com.

http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/forum_show.pl