While I was watching videos I saw a couple on a free software called Lucas Chess. It seemed packed with features. It even estimates your calculation strength. Anyone have it? How would you compare it with Fritz?
BTW, thank you to everyone who's been giving me their opinions. I, sometimes, worry that people will be rude, insulting or dismissive but I really appreciate the nice bunch of chess folks that stopped by this thread to help me out. :)
Lucas is a lot of fun. I've only tried a few of its' features but he's collected a few dozen engines and you can play them all. Most of them do typical dumb engine stuff like play like a grandmaster for 10 moves and then give you their queen. It's free:
http://www-lucaschess.rhcloud.com/index
Baddogno, that made me laugh out loud! So, I should tell my son to pick a strong opening, hold tight until the computer plays like his Mom (on a particularly bad day) and offers up her queen?! So, you can't switch up the engines like on Fritz and install Houdini or Stockfish?
I figured out how to post a game in the analysis section! I wasn't able to do it on my tablet because the options weren't showing up to insert his game. I picked a game for him that I think he would benefit if it were analysed properly. We'll see how this goes...
Baddogno, that made me laugh out loud! So, I should tell my son to pick a strong opening, hold tight until the computer plays like his Mom (on a particularly bad day) and offers up her queen?! So, you can't switch up the engines like on Fritz and install Houdini or Stockfish?
I do have a tendency towards literary license, but hey if it gave you a laugh...There are all kinds of training tools available and I've only been playing in the very shallow end of the pool. There are actualy 91 engines available. 20 engines are over 2000 and there are 4 over 3000 including Rybka and Stockfish. Not sure if you can add your own but hardly seems necessary. I just boot it up when I need a victory to bolster my battered self esteem, but obviously there is serious training available as well.
I believe the most important thing is to teach your child how to analyze his own games and to notes down any insight without the help of computers. This is the old school way of improving in chess, and the old greats did this long before the invention of chess computers. When you analyze games on your own, you tend to use reasons and logic to explain why this is good and why this is bad. When you analyze using computers, you get move variations but you don't get to learn why this should be a better move. This is the critical difference.
It doesn't mean that chess engine analysis is totally useless either. It is good to show you any idea that you may have missed, but it should be the very last phase after you have done much of the heavy lifting.
If you can teach that to your child, it would be the skill that will serve him well throughout his journey as an improving chess player.
Bad dog, no! (I just got that!) I appreciate the laugh. I did take you seriously and thought Lucas chess was really weak. It's good to hear that it's a worthwhile program. You don't need to tell me about battered self esteem... Me to son, " Hey, why don't you just take that pawn for free?" Son to me, "Uh, because, their threatening my queen." Me to son, "OH, I didn't see that! Okay, have fun & let me know how the game went."
Raja - You make some good points. I will try to encourage him to do that, more. Sometimes, he tells me, I know what I did wrong but usually he is just seeing one point in the game when there are probably different areas of the game where he could improve. He takes losses hard, sometimes, especially, when he feels he messed up. I do tell him that they are opportunities to learn but sometimes he just too irritated with himself to listen. Especially, when he was ahead and had the win in his hands and then somehow relaxed and lost the game! Chess can be brutal, sometimes, but he still loves it!
Eat at Culver's is my advice
That was random! Googled Culver's out of curiosity and they don't have any anywhere near my zip code.
Sad, their Concrete Mixers are the best!
Eat at Whataburger is my advice, but I don't think you have them there either.
5 Guys?
Athens?
Rib House?
Do these places sell alcohol? 'Cause that would explain your posts. ;D 5 guys is the only one we've even heard of but we don't have one near us.
I heard once that Culver's had a Smoore milkshake, though I have no idea if that is true
What about Chipotle?
Panera Bread? Forget Starbucks as a chess club meeting! Panera Bread is the place to go!
Bingo, we have a Chipotle! Also, my son has played chess once at Starbucks and several times at Panera!
Yay! Now we have two, how do you like your Chipotle? I pefer it as a bowl.
Panera Bread, I love their flatbread sandwhiches
You?
We don't go to Chipotle but love Panera Bread! Tomato soup in a bread bowl with tater chips for my son, black bean soup and 1/2 Mediterranean veggie sandwich for me and Clam Chowder in a bread bowl with chips for the husband!
Hey roi_g11, Ever heard of Culver's?
@IpswichMatt - As you suggested, I watched a couple of Steve Lopez' videos this morning but I missed that one. I just watched it now, Thank you. :) Steve and his deep voice should come with packaged with Fritz, lol. I've got a feel for how Fritz works, now. I, also, checked out the game analysis link and I' m really surprised people will go into that much detail, just because you ask. That's pretty awesome & kinda restores your faith in people. I've already asked my son to pick one of his games where he's not as clear where it went wrong. Do you just copy and paste a pgn file and it creates the board for you?
@NathanielGraham - Thank you, I will keep this thread handy if we get Fritz. We will be sure to watch videos before using it. Our computer is slow and that's frustrating enough we don't need Fritz aggravating us further. We have a running joke around here asking who gets to chuck the computer out the window and shoot it it midair!
@ ghostess Lola - Plug it in? ;D Maybe getting your games in or using a database? Not sure, enlighten me.