Chess software conundrum

I am currently using SCID to go through games on TWIC and to analyze my games with variations and comments. However, I can't seem to save my notes and variations in a database of my own games using SCID. Is it perhaps not meant for this purpose?

I would really like to know of a type of software that I could download my pgn files from chess.com and then analyze and create variations. I would then like to save those files within a database.

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated with this.

Thanks in advance!

fritz lets you do such things, easily.  maybe arena, too?  it isn't free, though...

I have the latest version I think. 3. 6.19. I use it on windows 7. I liked it because I can download pgn files from twic, however I can't save any of my games that I analyze with the comments and variations.

I suppose if you could tell me how to do that, I would be all set.

Scid only handles pgn files as read-only. In order to make edits and save them, you have to first convert the pgn file to Scid format with the pgnscid utility. You can read the "Quick Guide to using Scid" in the help section for more information.

P.S. Scid is up to version 4.3.

thank you. I will give that a shot.

First, the newest version is 4.3, not that it makes a difference. Though, the newest versions don't have a way to download from TWIC directly from the software.

All you really need to do is create a new database from within SCID. It is pretty easy to do and I can fire it up and give instructions if you need. Once you have your own database you can import PGN games into it via various methods; from pgn file and copy paste from pgn are the two I use the most.

Then be sure to save each game after you import them. You will need to open the database you created each time before you start importing but that is about it. You don't need to use any special utility.

I've uninstalled the old SCID and downloaded 4.3. I seem to be having a bad time with this. It's not installing onto my c drive. I have to open the program from the downloaded file folder. It states that the bases could not be found when the program runs.

I tried creating a database in the folder and then cut and paste a pgn file into the database. I then opened it in SCID and it would not give me the option of saving. Not sure what I'm doing wrong here.

Is this the most intuitive of chess programs? Seems like there could be something simpler. (Little frustrated right now.)

If you want simple, you could try ChessPad 2 or the Tarrasch Chess GUI V2.

No, it's not the most intuitive of programs; however, it is free and does a pretty good job.

I didn't think about the newer version giving that error when I posted above. If you go to the install directory for the application open the bin directory and create a folder called bases then you shouldn't get that error anymore.

I always just grab the zip version of the program, extract that and use it without installing (you have to take care of the bases problem if you don't like seeing the error).

When you created a base/database, did you do it from within the application? If so, then that should be the active base. From there you should be able to import a pgn or copy it to the clipboard and then use the menu item Edit and then  Paste Clipboard test as PGN game ...

The other way is to download the PGN and use the option Tools and then Import One PGN Game ... and follow the dialogs.

Once you have a game you can click the icon that looks like a hard disk with an arrow. You will get a dialog where you can enter additional options for the game but if you imported or pasted from a PGN then you should be able to just hit the save button. After that, it is saved in your database.

There is a group for SCID users, http://www.chess.com/groups/view/scid-users, and you can ask questions there too.

I checked out chesspad and decided to go with that. Thanks for all the help!!! Especially to Martin for going out on a limb and being willing to help me out.