Try the Arena interface with the Fruit chess engine. Incredibly powerful (more powerful than chessmater) and free.
There is also some old Fritz edition online for free (I think 5.32). Superb program.
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As above Fruit is quite strong, as is Crafty, however if you want a real powerhouse Rybka 2.2 is pretty much the daddy of all the free engines, and more powerful that most purchased software as well. Arena is probably the most recommended GUI for it, I can't personally say about the ease of use but it is quite well liked around here.
What exactly is GUI? Is it something else I would have to download?
GUI is a Graphic User Interface. Windows is a GUI. Rybka 2.2 is a great comparison tool.
Arena is the GUI, most engines come just as the analyzing bit and not something to physically show you the moves.
Right now I use either Rybka 2.2 or the engine that came with Fritz 8, but I'm considering uphrading to Fritz 11, Rybka 3, or Chessmaster 11, depends on what I can get at a reasonable price.
I found a Rybka w/ Chessbase for $57.80, Fritz 11 for $54.95, Chessmaster 11 for $34.95
With a bit more searching I could probably come up with a few better deals but CM 11 is fairly inexpensive, Fritz has a very friendly interface(I hear), but Rybka is always going to be a bit more because of it's power.
Fritz has a nice interface to play, but sometimes I don't care for its analysis. It comes off as somewhat sarcastic, and I can only go off the +- points.
I have Kvetka, which I found out is a GUI. How do I connect (?) Rybka to Kvetka? I downloaded Rybka and opened it but all that came up was a window with blackness in it. The folder had two applications in it, Rybka 2v.2n2.mp.w32 and Rybka 2v.2n2.mp.x64. Also when I click, it asks whether I want to extract all files or just run. Should I extract them first?
Check in the help file, and good GUI should tell you how to bring another engine in for analysis.
Which is better, Chessmaster 10 or 11?
I've been using Chessmaster: GM edition to analyze some of my games. I was looking for a second one to compare the two. I'm looking for a free one online, and I would like it to be easy to use, since Chessmaster: GM is kinda timeconsuming. Thanks!