Hi all!

First off, I apologize if this is the wrong category to post this in, but I didn't know which one would fit it the best.

I have been playing chess seriously for about a year now. I have only done two tournaments, however. I am looking for a chess software to buy for my computer, but there are so many out there I do not know which one to get.

I interested in studying more openings and analyzing games with the software.

If anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them!

Thanks in advance!

MrPopTart

P.S. if it matters, my USCF chess rating is 1955

Here on chess.com,

http://www.chess.com/downloads/playing+programs+engines

You need a soft " to have a board " and an engine. The software tarrsach is a good choice because very simple to use at the beginning (Arena is excellent but less simple).

The engine stockfish is high engine (2861 elo). You can use it in tarrasch or arena.

All are free.

Thank you djort, I have been trying them out.

Okay, I have another question, hopefully someone out there has an answer for me. (sorry i am new to the whole chess software thing).

Does a stronger engine make that much of a difference? And what is the difference if one works better with multiple processors compared to on a single processor?(From what i have read, that is the difference between deep fritz and regular fritz)

(if i have well understood) the difference betwen single or multiple processor is the speed the engine can reach a deep but not the level. So I suppose in a bullet deep frit will win against fritz but in infinite level the move will be the same.

(for example deep Fritz need 5 minutes to reach deep 15 and fritz need 15 minutes to reach deep 15. Warning the time I give is totally wrong, just the idea seems ok)

Frit or rybka 3 (4 i don't know) are slow engine. Stockfish goes very fast to reach deep 21 and this is really important. If you just want analysis stockjish save you time.

[But the gui fritz or rybka is more easy to use (more beautifull too but less important)]

If you want to play against an engine (perhaps) schedder-12 is better (and you can use stockfish-engine in too) or a free soft like chesstal II who are more human like (or fritz 5.32 but less human-like)

This is wrong. Rybka simply hides its correct number of depth reached. In effect, it's probably even faster than Stockfish when reaching a certain "real" depth. Anyway, Fire is stronger than Rybka.

philidor_position, strange about rybka but interresting, do you know why this engine hide the depth ?

Not sure, my guess is that it was a weak try by Vas (the author) to give the impression that the engine has "lots of positional knowledge" and doesn't need to go very deep, similar to a human style. He kind of succeeded for a while but later it became common knowledge around the computer chess forums that you need to add 4 to the depth Rybka indicates.