Buying my first chess engine - recommendations? - Chess Forums - Page 2

ProfessorProfesesen

Mar 19, 2014

0

#21

https://itunes.apple.com/app/play-magnus/id808138395?mt=8

Description

Want to test your chess skills against the World Champion of Chess? Now you can! Play Magnus offers you the opportunity to play chess against the official Magnus Carlsen "tuned" chess engine and gives you the chance to qualify to play Magnus Carlsen Live at a secret location! Play Magnus on your iPhone and iPod Touch - it's free!

PossibleOatmeal

Mar 19, 2014

0

#22

UrzaPW wrote:

pawpatrol wrote:

UrzaPW wrote:

Ok, I just found out. You can download it for free, yes, but when you are going to install it, it asks you for the license, which you have to pay for.

Two things:

1) It is a commercial product with a free month of full usage. After a month you can continue to use it indefinitely with a few advanced features deactivated (these are listed on the webpage). In other words, it is perfectly usable for no cost at all, indefinitely. And free for a month with all advanced features.

2) CPT 4 and above are commercial, but CPT 3 is completely free. He took it off of his website for download, but I have it on mine if you are interested in it: http://gorgonian.weebly.com/pgn.html

Also, I bought CPT5 and don't regret it for a second. One of the few commercial chess products I feel is worth paying for (until something free comes along to replicate its features, but nothing is close as of now).

Thank you very much for your clarification. I just downloaded the version 3 from your website ^^ which, by the way, looks great!

Thanks again!!

You're welcome, and thanks!

smurthy

Mar 19, 2014

0

#23

dzikus wrote:

sandeepn81 napisał:

Dear friends,

I have been trying both Lucas and Scid Vs Pc programs. I'm not clear about one thing though - What is the percentage number associated with the moves?

What does this number indicate?

If you are referring to the percentage numbers in "Tree" window, they show how often white won the game after playing this move and how much draws there were. This is calculated from the currently loaded database - works like the opening explorer on chess.com

Note that this does not definitely tell how good or bad a move is because large databases contain games of weaker players who win/lose much more games because of blunders. Those games can bias statistics a lot.

Thanks a lot. That helps.

I was really getting confused with these numbers, There were some really good tactical moves that were being shown with very less percentage. Your explanation makes it clear now.

I'm still trying to figure out a way to find what the engine prescribes as a best move in a given position. I could do it quite well with Chessmaster 5500 in my old PC. But now it does not work on my updated Windows 7.

I tried buying Chessmaster online, but looks like ubisoft has really bad website maintenance. Can you believe it.. it's gettin really hard to buy stuff online now!

With chessmaster, I could simply start a game against the computer, then at any point, I could let computer make a move or I could make opponent's moves myself to arrive at a given position; I could also switch sides in between or ask for the engine's suggestion of best moves for my turn. I was using this method to analyze my openings and old games... truns out to be hard on all the new free programs. Missing chessmaster :(

PossibleOatmeal

Mar 19, 2014

0

#24

In SCIDvsPC, click the train icon. The train is for "engine." That will give you an evaluation of the position. + is good for white and bigger numbers is more. - is good for black.

You can see more move options by increasing the number in the little number box. This way you can see what the top x moves in the current position are, not just the top move.

dzikus

Mar 19, 2014

0

#25

If you are using Stockfish then beware of its scaled evaluation which had been mentioned in a previous post.

Basically, a sure win starts from 2.5. Evaluations below that mean advantage but sometimes there is a defence - in nTCEC final match against Komodo Stockfish saved some -2.5 and did not convert +2.5 which is sort of a proof.

Mandy711

Mar 19, 2014

0

#26

http://shop.chessbase.com/en/categories/39

Take your pick among chess engines/Fritz GUI. I suggest Hiarcs 13. It's not the best chess engine but it's nearest in human GM like evaluation.

EricFleet

Mar 19, 2014

0

#27

BH154070 wrote:

Hello Chess.com community :)

I will soon be purchasing a new computer and moving to a location which has a chess club. As such, I am soon to buy a chess engine that it may assist me in some of the following tasks:

(1). the spotting of missed tactical opportunities in my games,

(2). the analysis of some of the opening schemas I choose (in building a very primitive opening repertoire), and

(3). serving as an opponent of various, adjustable strengths.

I have never purchased nor used a chess engine, so I apologize if my questions or concerns are silly or elementary. Do any of you have any recommendations for a good chess engine for a first-time user? Also, if any of them require any specific hardware, I would need to know, as I am not particularly computer-savvy so much as hardware is concerned.

Thank you all in advance!

Don't bother with a purchase... Stockfish will do 1 and 3. Scid vs PC will do #2.

Pre_VizsIa

Mar 19, 2014

0

#28

MrEdCollins wrote:

Before purchasing an engine, I'd download and then play around and experiment and test several of the free engines available.

Many of these free engines are just as strong, if not stronger, than some of the commercial engines.

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/top-10-free-chess-engine-recommendations

^this

Vigneshvicky17061999

Nov 29, 2017

0

#29

now what is top chess engine december 2017

SeniorPatzer

Nov 29, 2017

0

#30

Vigneshvicky17061999 wrote:

now what is top chess engine december 2017

Stockfish.

Gladiator1958

Jan 16, 2023

0

#31

PossibleOatmeal wrote:

Just get SCIDvsPC and Lucas Chess. Both free and will host any engine. Install Stockfish in SCIDvsPC and you will have database and analysis features equivalent or superior to any commercial products. Lucas Chess comes with a crap-ton of various strength engines and lots of training/analysis features.

There is literally no sense in buying any software for these purposes. If you want to spend money on software, spend it on something like Chess Position Trainer 5. That's a program that doesn't have anything close to a free equivalent/superior and is extremely useful.

Gladiator1958

Jan 17, 2023

0

#32

I got it but sadly don't know how to use it?

Can you guide me on that a bit please?

Thanks

Gladiator1958

Jan 17, 2023

0

#33

Install Stockfish in SCIDvsPC?

Any ideas on how to go about that please?

Thanks.

chesslover0003

Jan 18, 2023

0

#34

You may need to confirm what errors you're getting or what you've done so far.

1. Download and install your preferred chess GUI. SCIDvPC: https://scidvspc.sourceforge.net/

2. Download and unzip the chess engine. Stockfish: https://stockfishchess.org/files/stockfish_15.1_win_x64_avx2.zip

3. Add the engine to SCIDvPC. This video might help. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbX0kmj13MA

Gladiator1958

Jan 18, 2023

0

#35

Hello BrianErdelyi,

Thanks for your input. I will do what you have suggested. I am quite surprised that others didn't pitch in with their 2 cents. I will try you suggestion and see where it leads me. My goal is very modest given my advanced years...lol

Thanks again.

Gladiator2008