A mac is great if you can afford to spend a lot of money on brand and you know nothing about computers.
Chess Engines/Computer Needs
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So a PC is harder to use, but a mac is more likely to get you killed in combat?
Aug 8, 2014
0
#24
Having both Macs and PCs I find when given a choice I will always use the Mac. The reasons are better responsiveness, shorter boot times and much greater reliability. I use ChessX which is free and has a really beautiful user interface about 75% of the time and the commercial program Hiarcs Explorer about 25% of the time, as GUIs with the free Stockfish engine 90% of the time and occasionally double checking with Komodo 7. I do most of my analysis in ChessX ocasionally switching to Hiarcs Chess Explorer, referring to the Hiarcs Explorer Opening books when I am preparing openings. I really like the PGN based Everyman chess books and use them with the ChessX training mode. I build my own stockfish engines so I always run the latest code.
While I have Chessbase 12, Fritz, Aquarium and Chess Opening Wizard on my windows machines I find I don't use them nearly as much as I used to. I just find the long boot times, crashes, and slow responsiveness on PCs to be not worth the fustration and find I don't use the additional features that much anyway. I do software development on windows machines at work all day and enjoy coming home and turning on my Mac. I appreciate the better design and elegance as well as the better user experience to be found on the Mac.
JamesCoons wrote:
Having both Macs and PCs I find when given a choice I will always use the Mac. The reasons are better responsiveness, shorter boot times and much greater reliability. I use ChessX which is free and has a really beautiful user interface about 75% of the time and the commercial program Hiarcs Explorer about 25% of the time, as GUIs with the free Stockfish engine 90% of the time and occasionally double checking with Komodo 7. I do most of my analysis in ChessX ocasionally switching to Hiarcs Chess Explorer, referring to the Hiarcs Explorer Opening books when I am preparing openings. I really like the PGN based Everyman chess books and use them with the ChessX training mode. I build my own stockfish engines so I always run the latest code.
While I have Chessbase 12, Fritz, Aquarium and Chess Opening Wizard on my windows machines I find I don't use them nearly as much as I used to. I just find the long boot times, crashes, and slow responsiveness on PCs to be not worth the fustration and find I don't use the additional features that much anyway. I do software development on windows machines at work all day and enjoy coming home and turning on my Mac. I appreciate the better design and elegance as well as the better user experience to be found on the Mac.
Is Hiarcs Explorer compatible with Chessbase format? can one read a book for chessbase format or watch a chessbase DVD via the Hiarcs explorer?
JamesCoons wrote:
Having both Macs and PCs I find when given a choice I will always use the Mac. The reasons are better responsiveness, shorter boot times and much greater reliability. I use ChessX which is free and has a really beautiful user interface about 75% of the time and the commercial program Hiarcs Explorer about 25% of the time, as GUIs with the free Stockfish engine 90% of the time and occasionally double checking with Komodo 7. I do most of my analysis in ChessX ocasionally switching to Hiarcs Chess Explorer, referring to the Hiarcs Explorer Opening books when I am preparing openings. I really like the PGN based Everyman chess books and use them with the ChessX training mode. I build my own stockfish engines so I always run the latest code.
While I have Chessbase 12, Fritz, Aquarium and Chess Opening Wizard on my windows machines I find I don't use them nearly as much as I used to. I just find the long boot times, crashes, and slow responsiveness on PCs to be not worth the fustration and find I don't use the additional features that much anyway. I do software development on windows machines at work all day and enjoy coming home and turning on my Mac. I appreciate the better design and elegance as well as the better user experience to be found on the Mac.
4/10 ad apply yourself
Aug 8, 2014
0
#27
>>Is Hiarcs Explorer compatible with Chessbase format? can one read a book for >>chessbase format or watch a chessbase DVD via the Hiarcs explorer?
Unfortunately Chess base formats are proprietary. With Games you can export them in PGN, Chessbase Trees can be imported in Aquarium. With Chessbase DVDs you need chessbase, Fritz ( and equivalents ) or chess base light.
JamesCoons wrote:
>>Is Hiarcs Explorer compatible with Chessbase format? can one read a book for >>chessbase format or watch a chessbase DVD via the Hiarcs explorer?
Unfortunately Chess base formats are proprietary. With Games you can export them in PGN, Chessbase Trees can be imported in Aquarium. With Chessbase DVDs you need chessbase, Fritz ( and equivalents ) or chess base light.
Thanks for your reply - I'd still need Chessbase to do this though. Is there any way to view the chessbase material on a tablet e.g. ipad? (assuming I keep the book in chessbase format).
DrFrank124c, I want to maximize the use of the chess engine. My rating is secondary, as it seems pointless getting a chess computer and not using its full function, which is really where it excells, otherwise your horizon is quite low.
So after shelling out money for a top notch computer, and engine, and running a game through the engine...the engine is gong to tell you that at some point your were winning by .7 pawns. What does that mean?
It means you had an advantage, but not a decisive advantage.
The Shredder interface interprets +.70 to mean you are "slightly better." FWIW
Obviously, but what is it about a position that means you have an advantage? if you cant figure out what it is about the position, that gives you an advantage, a chess engine isnt much good. I only bring this up because i see so many posts about what the engine said, but when you ask, that person what it means they have no idea.
Absolutely. This is not the route i want to take. I merely need to maximize so that I know the engine is optimized. Understanding will come from lessons not brute force.