If you want pure engine strength, Fire and Houdini are both stronger than Rybka, and are free.
If you want realistic human style with adjustable strengths, go for Shredder Classic (NOT the Shredder 12 that comes with chessbase, which has the same interface with Rybka and Fritz).
Is there any "proof" of this ? I wonder because Rybka keeps winning the engines championship. Why is that if there are stronger engines out there ? Are you going by ratings alone or what ?
Engines championships that Rybka officially participates in don't allow Robbolit and Fire to participate. I don't know why Houdini doesn't. <snip>
Houdini's author, posting to the computer chess forum at talkchess.com, recently cited time and money as the reason. Also, Houdini has no openings book, as yet.
Howdy all,
Right, I'm aiming this question to those who have bought one or more of the above: which is best?
I'm not really interested with engine strength, but rather usability/functionality. Which would you say is the most intuitive, and which is the nightmare?
Cheers!
For what it is worth I have always found Shredder to be really good for a sparring partner. The limit strength function is very well done in that engine. Hiarcs and Junior 12 are also really good for sparring partners. (and all three provide great service!!) I also think the Shredder GUI (not the chessbase one) is the most intuitive and easiest to use when playing and doing post-mortem analysis.
And I just got turned on to this engine:
http://www.lokasoft.nl/rebel12.aspx
Rebel 12 is SUPER fun to play against. It has many personalities and is very configurable!