Rybka 4 plus Rybka Book

I don't own Rybka 3 and understand that Rybka 4 was a bit of a disappointment, in that it was not as strong as people hoped it would be.

I'm not worried about improvement in elo - since I don't have either versions. I do have Rybka 2.2n2.

I know there are free engines out there that are very strong, and I have a few. What I am most interested in is the benefits of owning both Rybka 4 and the Rybka Book. Also, do you need Rybka 4 to use the Rybka Book?

Thanks

The Rybka Book includes 17 million positions and over 700,000 games, which were selected from following sources: TOP human practice, correspondence chess games and computer chess games (up to April 2010). And this is only the starting point: the value of the book lies in over 700 original analysis and move choices, which lead to a re-evaluation in many critical points of modern theory. This makes it useful for tournament and correspondence players alike. The book contains a lot of computer-checked analysis never published anywhere before. The author of the Rybka4 book is Jiri Dufek (national master, FIDE 2276, ICCF IM 2579), one of the world‘s leading experts in chess opening theory. Jiri Dufek has been on the Rybka team since summer 2009, and his preparation is used in all official events after this date, which Rykba won. During World Championship match between Vishy Anand and Veselin Topalov worked as second of Veselin Topalov. In his long chess career he won twice Czech Correspondence Team Chess Championship and wrote together with Roman Chytilek book Beating the French defence (in Czech only).

The rybka book is a tree of variations, similar to chess.com explorer, though it's more up-to-date.

Honestly, at your level, it doesn't really matter chess-wise, unless you're a chess-fashion victim

That is true. Playing blitz with other 700-800 players does not require memorization of several 20 move sequences of the Ruy Lopez, for example. Also, even in cc, where I'm in the 1400's, things go off book pretty fast.

Tactics, tactics and more tactics training are required before I will be facing opponents who have the basics down regarding opening theory/lines.

The opening book holds more interest to me as well, even though I don't need it yet for rated play. I do like to look at openings as if they were short stories - and just enjoy the cleverness of it all.

Regarding pawn value evaluations, I don't know why Fritz 12 gives about a half pawn higher value on any given move sequence than Rybka 2.2n2. Example: Fritz .09 to Rybka .04. It changes the evaluation from slight advantage to decisive atvantage at times.

If you enjoy discovering openings, then a general intro to various openings, such as Watson's books may be much more enjoyable than a raw tree of moves, which doesn't provide any explanation at all

Rybka's evaluation function is known as being more conservative than most engines, especially Fritz and Shredder.

Thank you for the response. As to John Watson - I own all three volumes of Mastering the Chess Openings. Vol.1 covers 1.e4, Vol. 2 covers 1.d4 and Vol. 3 covers 1.c4.

1.c4 made no sense to me until John Watson opened my eyes.

"Let's start with the move 1.c4 and ask what White wants. His first goal is to control d5, obviously, and in particular, to discourage ...d5. In the most general terms, we can say that the move d4 is White's next objective. In other words, given a free move, White would ordinarily play 2.d4; indeed, Black's main replies 1...e5 and 1...c5 are designed to prevent that." - John Watson

That just gave me an idea! Playing blitz games with other 700-800 rated players - I could sometimes get lucky by having that second free move of 2.d4. What a dream pawn duo in the center of the board! I'm getting pretty darn excited!

I own far too many books on openings and most come highly recommended. To those who are reading this thread - John Watson's three volume set is hands down THE best set of opening books for beginning to intermediate players.

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Regarding engine analysis: Thanks for the confirmation on the values I get from Fritz. I thought that perhaps I had something set up wrong in the software.

There is a glitch in the text of Watson's Vol. 3 regarding 1. Nf3. On page 14, he states: "As it happens, many players intending to play an English Opening will use the move 1 Nf3, primarily to avoid lines with 1 c4 e5, and then follow with 2 c4."

What this fails to say is that in the event of 1. Nf3 d5, White cannot follow up with 2. c4, whch means it's not an English Opening at all, but a Reti. Perhaps he will clear this up in Vol. 4.

Well, it was fine work indeed! The simplicity of a beautiful wood chess board and pieces with a wood clock - heck - it doesn't get any better than that. Well done!