Yeah, SCID vs PC is great. You can download games from TWIC and have an updated database whenever you feel like.
Chessbase is commercial software.
That's a useful feature that was part of CB 11 when I bought it, but ceased being so about two years ago. Certainly a reason to consider SCID vs PC!
I use this one: http://www.theweekinchess.com/twic
i bought a year's chesspub theory [18000+ high level AN games] and have collected other annotated games [many sources, chessbase, chess.com, chesszone mag. for instance. so i have a db of strong human annotated games. i also have a corr db that contains the high level LSS/ICCF games over the past few years, as well as human 2600+ games. also i've downloaded various book samples of opening books (usually includes table of contents) and i make a pgn for each line/variation as i feel appropriate --- sometimes organized in the way as indicated by the table of contents of opening books. then i set my annotated games db as my reference db --- and merge games from that db into the appropriate pgn file. i have chessbase2009premium so it's easy for me to organize pgns and dbs. i add my own opening analyses based on otb/online and games studied as appropriate.
Ziryab wrote:
SirDonM wrote:
If you have an iPad, you might try the new Chess Studio.
Chess Studio is for reading chess books, not for creating databases.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chess-studio/id689948991?mt=8
You are referring to Chess Studio by Gambit. I'm referring to Chess Studio by Giordano Vicoli which is for creating databases.
@SirDonM
Thanks for clarifying. I'll check it out. None of the iPad database programs have proven satisfactory yet. Maybe Chess Studio offers something better.
A lot of people are intimidated by SCID or SCIDvsPC's interface when they first see it. There isn't an immediate indication of what to do or how to do it. There are a lot of non-descript buttons all over the interface. I will cover those later, most likely, but I wanted to create a quick instructional video to get people past that initial wtf do I do feeling.
How to get started in SCIDvsPC by creating a new database for your games:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NEImFya-9I
I actually found Chessbase and Fritz very clumsy to work with.
After using CB 8 and XP for several years, I found CB 11 and W7 clumsy at first. I'm more accustomed to it now. Preferences often seem driven by familiarity.
A detailed comparison of CB, SCID, and SCID vs PC could be useful. Maybe Chess Assistant should be included too. Is anyone familiar with all of these?