Newbie needs advice on No PERIODIC CD Insertion Computer Based Chess...

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/best-5-free-chess-software

Thanks gaddogno.  Permit my further elaboration.  Looking for a game I can purchase with a CD that: (1) Comes on a CD, (2) Does not require the CD to be periodically inserted & (3) That will provide unofficial chess rating based upon my playing over time/games.  I.e., something like Fritz, etc., but I have no clue which purchaseable games do the above and have spend alot of time on the net trying to figure it out ...hence further advice is VERY appreciated if you have a moment further to do so.

Plenty of freely downloadable PC engines around that you can set the ELO for - Houdini 1.5 or Stockfish are very very strong and run on multi-cores - there is also a very nice free adaption of Stockfish for android tablets as I recall (although I use Shredder on my phone which is a few $$$). I think it's called Droidfish from memory.

If you have a tablet and want quick access to loads of master games and opening theory etc. then you can get the Chessbase android app (and I assume Iphone app) for $5 or so. I think they have 2m+ games in their online searchable database and you can run their engine over any position you like from inside the app (which is quite handy). It is absolutely amazing value for $5.

IrregularSAm, I've read your post and the specifics of what you're requesting. I know of nothing that fits your description. I don't believe there is anything like what you're describing. When I used chessmaster for a little while I went crazy with the need to reinsert, so I left the cd in my drive, because I didn't use the drive for anything else. that's my only suggestion. If you don't use the drive often, just leave the CM cd in the drive. But, no, I dobn't believe there is anything that meets your description. 

You could, of course, purchase something like Shredder, and you could purchase the CD version by paying I believe 10 bucks extra for the CD, and it would not require reinsertion and you would have the CD. However, it would not give you anything like a rating...however, as people have pointed out, you could set it to play at a certain rating, and it would provide far more varied openings than you experience with chessrally.

Better, I think, to play live chess on here. You'll get a rating, play real people, get openings as varied as the people who play them, play people from all over the world, choose the time frames (time control) of any game you play, and will never need to reinsert anything!

hope this helps.

Thank you BTP and Somebodysson.... very much.

There are just so many choices.  Fritz doesn't require a CD (DVD probably) once installed and has a "plain language" advice that some find amusing.  Kind of a bear of a program to learn to use beyond playing chess with but plenty of instruction material available on youtube and other places.  Good prices right now since they just came out with a new version.  I like HIARCS because the database functions seem easier to use; even a computer dunce like myself can load it up with free databases.  The engine is also as human like as engines get (or so I've read) and I like that there are dozens of opening positions you can start with against the computer.  ChessKing was probably designed to teach children how to play; probably why I like it.  You get to play against Houdini but the engine is missing pieces so you get to attack against expert resistance and attacking is something I need practice with.  Lucas Chess is free and kind of fun to play against.  I could actually go on but you get the point.  There is almost an embarassment of chess riches out there in the free to $50 price range.  Some of us have tried many of them hoping to find a magic program that will eliminate the need for hard work to get better.  So far my search has been unsuccesful. 

It's kind of a pricey solution but Game Jackal eliminates the need for CD insertion.

http://www.slysoft.com/en/gamejackal.html

hehe, some of us...hehe, yes. Includes me. 

You could make an .iso image of your cd-rom and have it mounted on a virtual drive. 100% free.

I thank you allllll for your time and your thoughts.  You have collectively led me to the software I needed that met all my hoped for objectives, ChessKing2.    This is going to be great.

Fritz doesn't make you keep inserting the CD. Install it and you're done. Fritz 14 just came out so if you want the latest and greatest you can buy that, or you can get Fritz 12 which has plenty of bells and whistlles to keep one busy for around 10 bucks on Amazon.

Arena is a fine chess ap that is more than capable of filling your needs and it's free. Just download, install and you're off and running. It comes with a couple very decent engines already installed, and you can download a plethora of chess engines to enhance your experience.

I have Fritz 13 and I still use Arena on occasion for certain tasks. IMO it's the best free chess ap around. But that's just my opiniuion. good luck man.

can somebody direct me to a program that will get me off the forums and back onto the chess? I a willing to reinsert as many times as needed.