Chessbase 10 vs Chess Assistant 10

Hi,

My coach told me to get a *proper* database program instead of Chessbase Light (free version). I am curious on what's the difference between CA and CB, and why does the CB starter package always seems so much more expensive than the CA Starter.

From what I read on the net, I am still left pulling my hair out on whether you can enter, save and annotate your own games into CA 10. If you have CA 10, perhaps you could save my 3 specks of hair still left on my head?

THX

Both have their merits and limitations. Some players find ChessBase attractive. Others find Chess Assistant useful.Here is a link from our own site:

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/good-review-chessbase-10-and-chess-assistant-10 

Thx Nagesh.

Could somebody give me a link to a ca 10's features? The program description only tells how the Opening Encyclopedia and Rybka 3 works.

Interesting post.  Since your coach was obviously down on the Lite version of Chessbase, did he not have any suggestions?  Did he (or she) say what particular gaps in Lite warranted the advice?

Have you checked out SCID?

http://scid.sourceforge.net/

This post prompted me to post a new topic.

I noticed there is an automatic recommendation of chessbase full which can cost up to $368 for the mega version (with large databases) . it seems to me though that one can get:

scid -  you can enter, save and annotate your own games  AND you can have the engine auto-annotate your game. And then import as many large databases available into this to get same functionality 

I think its time we start comparing what each software can do according to needs.

I'm sorry the database function of the Chessbase playing software (Fritz, Rybka, Shredder etc.) is inferior to the Chessbase Light database programm.

You should ask yourself which functions of CB or CA you really do need. Much can be done by the playing programs, even more by CB Light and almost anything by Scid.

Because of the look and feel I like CB best. BTW the differences between CB9 and CB10 are not that big.

I use both...

Thankyou for all of your replies!

Features I am looking for:

1.To annotate, enter and save your games (it seems to every program does that now)

2. The option to merge databases and copy games from one database to another (chessbase light would not do that)

3. To merge games into a tree. (Chessbase light does that, but I can only create a tree with one database. E.g, I need to copy and paste one database into another to create the tree that I am looking for.

4. You can use full game analysis with the engine which the program supports.

CB = database program (like Scid or CA)

Rybka = chess engine (like Zappa or Naum)

Rybka by Chessbase = chess engine with GUI which has minor database functions included (like Fritz or Rybka Aquarium)

CB9 does support all the fritztrainer videos and the Chessbase media system. CB11 doesn't exist yet.

SCID does all of what you want for free and quite easily too.  note that 3 depends on 2. You copy from one database to another creating larger database and use that as tree. SCID also auto-annotates games you play from engine analysis (which chessbase doesn't have) and you can also play against the engine from any position. Not sure if chessbase has that either.

It is a good idea to get a full featured free software like scid before moving on to chessbase if at all necessary - in my case i know i dont need it.

i've tried to download SCID, it says there is an error in the start script...

I think the area where Chessbase Light 2009 Premium (=Chessbase 10) really shines is in its opening keys and its ability to find games matching certain characteristics easily.  You can design your own opening keys based on how you divide and think about openings.  In Chess Assistant and Aquarium, you are more or less stuck scrolling through each move individually without any shortcuts.  I also like Chessbase's Find Novelty feature and the Reference pane in a game window, which let you see a list of games with the current position, and the candidates and which players favour them.  You can reorganize this list by rating with a single click, a feature that I don't think other programs have.

On the downside, Chessbase doesn't have any backsolving functions at all (Chess Openings Wizard is probably best for that).  Also, Chessbase doesn't have an automated interactive deep analysis function like Aquarium's, and it gives only limited access to the features of certain engines. The Fritz interface (also sold with Rybka, Shredder, etc) does automatic annotation of games, but I don't really trust automated anything, and in any case, you'll learn more by analyzing the games yourself.

Chess Assistant can of course merge and copy games from database to database, although I find the Chessbase interface a bit more user-friendly for that kind of operation.  You should perhaps be warned that most chess programs have bugs.  Chessbase chokes when it can't get enough memory to complete an operation, and Chess Assistant has a nonstandard implementation of fonts that can lead to weird symbols popping up in your annotations.

I love Scid. I've never used Chessbase, but I don't believe it has anything substantial to add over Scid.

Have several databases open, open a Tree window in one (say some million game database), switch to the database of your own games and play through them, the Tree windows changes based on the current position but using games from the big database.

You can always have an engine running (I use the free version of Rybka), endgame tablebases work, you can play any position against the engine (whenever a book claims "and white wins", it's always good to prove this for yourself vs Rybka).

Searches can be ridiculously powerful. Search for endgames with one rook and one bishop each (same coloured bishops), and four pawns on the queenside each? No problem. IQP positions with all major pieces still there, and the e-file open? Fine. Et cetera.

The Opening Report gives statistics about the current positions you're looking at (how does it score, how often does castling long follow after this, which players played it most, what were the highest rated games, how popular is it...), then gives a list of the most popular move orders to reach it, and then it creates huge NCO-style tables based on the 100 highest-rated games that had this position. It's a great help.

You can click on players (like yourself) and get rating graphs over time, see which openings they play and how they score with them, et cetera.

Too many features to mention, but I'm very happy with it.

EDIT: Well, one negative: it's repertoire support sucks. There are the repertoire files, which are horrible to edit if you want to do it well, but then you can do searches on your repertoire (say, in the latest TWIC). Then there's also a sort of repertoire trainer that I haven't used yet in the latest version, and it uses a different repertoire. Ridiculous situation.

Those are some of the things I find most maddening about SCID.  Say I am looking at a database archive, and want to examine a certain variation of the Ruy Lopez Marshall Gambit.  In SCID or Chess Assistant or Aquarium, I have to scroll through each move one at a time until I get to the position I want, while in Chessbase, I just create an opening key for Marshall Gambit games, and with one or two keystrokes, I am at the key position.  I can sort the game list by the rating of the white or black player with a single click.  When playing through a game, I can click on the Reference panel, and up pops a sortable list of the moves different GMs have played in that position.  In SCID, you have to do all of this with searches that take a lot of time to set up.  With Chessbase, it is all automatic.  SCID is good if you want something for free, but if you want convenience, I think I prefer Chessbase Light 2009 Premium or Chessbase 10.

In a game window, just click on the Reference tab at the far right above the game score.

The Fritz GUI that comes with Rybka, Shredder, etc. has an auto-annotation function, but as far as I know, in Chessbase, you have to analyze the games yourself.  Even so, I don't really trust auto-annotations.  You'll probably learn a lot more by analyzing the game yourself.

The Fritz interface (also used by Chessbase's version of Rybka) does not have a Reference tab.  You can find it in Chessbase Light 2009 Premium or Chessbase 10, as well as some older versions of Chessbase.

Right the reference window is part of the Chessbase database program only. In CB10 there is even a online reference search option where you can check the very latest games.

Fortunately I will get "Fritz 12" within the next two hours. If there is better database support I will let You know.

Auto-analyzing doesn't work with CB but as Catalyst_Kh said correctly there are better way to do this, especially when You use your own brains. The best analyzing tool on this planet btw is Aquarium's IDeA. But it needs some training to handle this. But when You put some effort into it You can go really deep into each given position.

The company Chessbase deliberately keeps the features of Chessbase the software and the Fritz GUI seperate, so that you will probably need to buy both to get all the different features.  I believe you need Fritz to create endgame keys or calculate Elo ratings, and the Reference pane seems destined to remain a feature of Chessbase only I fear.

Here is when I use auto-annotate. I just finish a 2-3 blitz games on say FICS. I want to go over them but I have no time. So I set scid to autoannotate any blunder (you can set the value - I use the default 0.2 i think) - I increase the engine thinking time per move to about 12 seconds and it does all 3 games without me having to attend to it. In my lesuire i can come back and go over it - This is particularly useful because I have yet to find a "perfect" game I played without an obvious blunder.

Maybe if you are very high rated player - it would be harder for the engine to spot an obvious blunder and you have to go over more carefully.

Another thing scid has : you can bookmark positions of ANY game in ANY database. And at another time, you can retrieve it with one click - it will open the right database and game.  This is in response to someone saying they can do this only in chessbase ...And you can arrange them in folders too.. I only found this out now..

You also have up to 6 custom flags to tag a game with--- this is similar to the medals feature in chessbase.