computer software types and uses

I would appreciate it if everyone could give me their info on the various programs available and the major differnces in them as per use. Thanks. 

engine - an implementation of a chess-playing algorithm, in itself mostly a console application, requiring a GUI program (sometimes bundled, but mostly separate) to interact with; examples: Stockfish, Houdini, Rybka, Critter, Comodo

GUI - graphical user interface, software providing a graphical interface which allows the user to interact with a chess engine (by displaying a board with chessmen, a move list, etc.), as well as often offering other functionality, such as limited database handling capabilities; examples: Arena, Winboard, Tarrasch, Lucas Chess

chess program - a combination of a GUI and a specific engine in one package, mostly commercial; examples: Fritz, Chessmaster (featuring The King engine), Shredder

database program - a more specialized type of a GUI, focused on extensive functionality allowing the handling of large databases of games; examples: Chessbase, Chess Assistant, Scid (and forks such as Scid vs PC, ChessX, Scidb)

Thanks for sharing the differences in these things. I own fritz8 which I guess is getting kinda old and the newer chess programs have improved much and would give me an update on games played info since fritz8 was created.

I looked at thechessstore here locally and I see fritz13 is the newest or maybe fritz14 is about to come out(?).

What are the key differences in fritz and shredder? I don't have a clue. I had chessmaster for playstation years ago before getting the fritz8.

What's scid? Also aren't chessbase and chess assistant the same thing?

Thanks again for the 411.

Chessbase is a massive database of games played at tournament levels.

SCID and the newer and updated SCID vs PC and Arena 3.0 are free GUIs similar to Fritz which can be used to record and playback games.  SCID vs PC is more database oriented and Arena is geared to comparison of different engines, but both work as a general GUI like Fritz.  You can add free chess engines to them including Houdini 1.5a, Stockfish and others. 

Thanks. I'm new to all this (read old man lol) and I appreciate the help to get up to speed.

Are there any real differences in the engines? Thanks.

Most any engine today is rated Elo 3000++ so all of them make better moves than we do.  So most of them will make the same suggestions or alternate moves or lines.  If you are an international GM then perhaps one might be better than another at that level, but at our level I don't think it matters.  The ones I named above are all free and you can install more than one engine in any of these GUIs and try them out to see if you can see any difference.  I'm betting you won't.

Ok. I was thinking they might have different playing personalities or something. Like one attacks more or plays defence more. Or one plays more positional or tactically. Thanks.

Hi Bill. If you don't mind a few thoughts from another patzer... Engines do have different personalities, but I think what the others are saying is that if you run them full force, us average patzers just aren't strong enough to see the difference.

But I think before any of us can give any specific advice, we need to know what you hope to do with the software. For general purpose use, even though Fritz 8 is really long in the tooth, it's still useful. But do you want to analyze with the strongest engine, or does it not have to be the very strongest? Do you want to be able to play games against the program? Are you going to get deep into game databases? What is it about Fritz 8 that doesn't fill the bill?

Depending on your needs, free software might do the trick, unless you just want the latest bells and whistles. (Yep, I think Chessbase usually comes out with a new Fritz version just before Christmas every year, whether it's a real improvement or not. )

I was thinking that if they did have different personalities, that this could be kinda like playing a variety of people and thus (hopefully) give me a more well rounded ability to play. I have looked at the games in the database on my fritz8 a few times. But as I don't fully understand how to use what I'm looking at I'm probably missing a lot. I want to get better at the game, at least reach my potential whatever it may be. I don't pretend to want to be the best or even a champion of some tournament. I just want to get better is all. My thought is that "IF" the different versions do have different personalities (per se) If anyone could give me some useful clues as to what they are. Fritz8 is good. And like I stated I'm probably not using it to it's full potential, and my thought also is that computer tech advances to double over shorter periods of time and I considered the possibility that it may include better features which may help me reach my potential. I never knew fritz comes out with a newer version so often, but it falls inline with the speed that tech is advancing I guess. I see many different types in ads like shredder, or king something and rybka, and so forth and Am trying to understand what the real differences are other than the hype of the ads as well as if their usefulness has increased as well.

One question; are the ones I see for dual core any different really? I currently just use my laptop I bought at walmart and it's my first computer, so I'm still learning all this stuff. I'm kinda gettin up there in age and there wasn't comp's for the home when I grew up. I'm kinda like from the stoneage lol. Thanks again to everyone for all the help.

Why play against an engine, when there are thousands of people ready to play you ? :-)

Yeah, going from 1 core to 2 cores might get you 50 - 100 extra rating points (maybe the same amount going from 2 cores to 4 cores). So is an extra 100 or 200 rating points on top of a 3000 elo engine worth double the price? To me it's not, but that extra rating difference might be important to your analysis work. (Again, to me it's not.) My laptop can run 2 cores (threads), but even if one of my engines is capable of 2 cores, I always run just one core to avoid any possible overheating problems.

I'm not really sure if playing against different engine personalities would result in you getting a more well-rounded playing ability. It might be more fun, anyway. And yeah, if you can play against other people, I think that's a lot more fun.

A couple of ideas - You might want to consider trying out some free GUIs and engines to get a feel for things. If you don't like them, you're not out any money. Another idea would be to hunt for a copy of Chessmaster 10th Edition. Ubisoft no longer sells it, but you probably could find a copy on eBay or online for around $20. (Chessmaster 11 will be much more expensive, and there's not that much difference between the two.) It has a lot of very different engine personalities that you could play against. And even if you don't like the engines, the tutorials are pretty darn good. The downside of Chessmaster? You can't import UCI engines into the GUI (at least not easily), analyzing games is cumbersome, and there's a few minor bugs. I know it works on Win7, I'd imagine it would work on Win8, but I don't know that for sure.

I don't know a whole lot about the commercial packages; I tend to go with the free stuff.

I agree with the comments here, @Billlearns, and I'm a senior citizen like you are, having played only briefly in my youth and then finding time to play after retirement.  So here's my own view:

I use Fritz 13 which is rated well over 3000.  No one on earth is rated that high, so any engine above 3000, which is essentially all of them, free and commercial, are better and "smarter" than we will ever hope to be.  Personally I don't think it makes much difference which engine I use because I use Fritz to save and replay my games from here and OTB, and any minor variations in analysis are far above my poor ability to recognize or appreciate - or to learn from, which is the whole idea.

In Fritz, I use a setting of 20 minutes/move, use "Full Analysis" mode and run on just one CPU core.  Fritz uses the same engine as Deep Fritz (more expensive) but is crippled to just one CPU while Deep Fritz can run on any number you have available.  You can achieve the same result, in effect, by increasing the time allowed per move.  Or you can download a free engine such as Houdini 1.5a which will run multiple cores.  A check of the number of nodes/sec being run will show that multiple cores run much faster than a single core, and of course the CPU clock speed of your computer factors in as well.  And different engines also run at different nodes/sec.  Does it matter?  Not at our level.  And if you run a game through two engines and compare the different lines suggested, you'll find very very little deviation if any if your settings are comparable.

As @EscherehcsE suggested above, if you can find a copy of Chessmaster, it does have a lot of different play styles from which to choose.  But Fritz 13 (don't know about earlier versions) also has 9 preset playing styles available, a rating strength slider, and 8 custom sliders you can use to force Fritz to emphasize various themes such as King attack, mobility, pawn structure, etc.  In Fritz 13 it's under the Training menu - Handicap and Fun.  How useful this is, I don't know because I don't play against the engine, but it's a good and perhaps more flexible choice than Chessmaster.

But I agree with @hicetnunc that it's better to play people here on Chess.com where you'll find opponents of your strength and as many different playing styles as you'll ever want.

Another possibility if you're looking for personalities is Majestic Chess. It was a commercial program - a "chess quest" type of program which you might not care for, but it also has a single player mode. Not as good as Chessmaster - fewer personalities, smaller tutorial...So I wouldn't pay as much for it. If you live near a Half Price Books store, they might have a copy for about $6. The downside is that you can't export the engine - You're stuck using it in that program. There's only about four easy personalities (only about a dozen total, compared to the huge number in Chessmaster), but you can create your own personalities. The engine was designed by David Kittinger, which is a plus.

And then on the "free" side of things, you could download one of the free GUIs and then go searching for free engines that can be set at weak levels. Some possibilities are Crafty, Hamsters, Stockfish, Ufim, and Phalanx. I could get you download links, but you'd have to learn how to install and set up the engines.

One last comment - Playing these personalities might be fun, but if you're trying to improve, nothing beats "old school"...Hitting the books, playing real people and asking them where you went wrong, etc.

To be clear, Chessbase is a database program and SCID vs. PC is also a database program.  The two programs have the same function.  Chessbase also ships an actual database of games while you have to get your own for SCID vs. PC.  However, SCID vs PC is 100% free and there are very good sources for big databases on the internet for free.

Of the two, I recommend SCID vs. PC and a free database.  The difference between the two is not nearly worth the cost.  I mainly wanted to clear up the differences and similarities between CB and SvPC though.

Fritz 8 has that. It's under File, New, Handicap and Fun.

Thankyou to everyone who has answered. You all have certainly been helpful in assisting me to gain a foundation in this area, which I hope will help me. I just looked at the "File, New, Handicap and Fun" and I see that it does have different personality and settings. Cool. I appreciate all the help!

Does anyone have any good suggestions as to how I can use fritz 8 as a learning tool? Other than simply playing it. (And yes I hear you about playing people online here )

Also does anyone have any good recomendations for instructional dvd's. I viewed some by Susan Polgar from our public library and they really didn't go into much about the thought process of the moves shown IE the why's. I also tried viewing Kasparovs QGD dvd and it was just him talking of what seemed like endless lines of variations, but not covering the why behind the moves. Both dvd's were informative in their own way, but I'm trying to figure out a way to systematically think OTB that will help me to play better games. IE not get killed so quickly or easily. Thanks. 

OK I figured out how to see the engines in my fritz 8 There's one called crafty, one called comet and 3 types of fritz ones. Is there really any difference in these or are they just listed in order of strength? Thanks again.

http://chessprogramming.wikispaces.com/Stockfish