Need Clarification On Chess Engines And Recomendation

As a new chess player I was hoping this forum could offer me some guidance and clarification.  As far as I understand a chess engine analysis any games played online or OTB.  It gives you suggestions on moves you should have made and tells you where you went wrong.

And some engines apparently don't come with a GUI, for those that don't are there GUI that are commercial products or are they all free?

I guess I need some clarification on what a chess engine is and what GUI is.

Also, what chess engine would you guys recomend?  I need something that is very strong (obviously) but that is also easy to use or at least comes with a manual so I can learn how to use it. 

Thanks in advance for your help.

GUI is just a graphical user interface... it's a thing that lets you and the engine communicate with each other.  Kind of like when you turn on your computer at home, it's fully functioning, but without a monitor and keyboard it's not much use to you.

I guess some free download-able engines don't come with a GUI -- but any time you buy a program like Rybka (strongest) Fritz (was so famous now sometimes used as a synonym for "chess engine") or out of the Chessmaster Series (not quiet as strong, but gives superior instruction for players below Class A or Expert) it will come with a GUI... when you install it on your computer it will be ready to go right away.

Some very strong players (or curious amateurs) may have multiple engines, or even "collect" engines in a sense and have them play against eachother or if you're a serious player use different engines for different tasks.  Some engines are more adept at deep searching tactics while others will give you a more consistently correct evaluation based more on positional factors.

All of this is way more than any amateur needs though.  What works best (in terms of your wallet too) is getting only one engine.  Any commercially popular engine is at least GM strength, and the fact that Rybka4 is a few hundred points stronger than Chessmaster doesn't mean much.  How often do you need analysis that finds a sacrifice that works 20+ moves down the road... such a move would be completely useless for an amateur to play in a real game anyway as they can't follow it up properly.

So anyway, I recommend something out of the chessmaster series.  It has more instructional tools and is an incredibly strong engine.  Once you start looking into international tournaments and getting all your IM norms, then you can worry about whether stockfish or Toga works best with your Shredder and Rybka suite.

Hi Nisec,

The difference is simple. Let's say that the Graphical User Interface (also GUI or simply interface) is the program you use to view your games, make annotations, etc. Then you might want to get your games analysed, so you need to get an engine, which is the "brain" of the chess program.

So in all a chess interface without engine is just a chess viewer, where you can play moves, but you won't get any tips nor evaluation of the position.

Similarly a chess engine without a chess interface is just a very very very good "player" without chessboard nor pieces. "It" cannot prove how good "it" is since "it" has no interface to "show" it to you.

There are several good commercial GUI + engine (Fritz, Rybka, Shredder, Hiarcs), but if you want something free but good enough to get your games analysed I'd recommend you to download any of the free chess database GUI available on the net such as Scid or Jose, and add them a free engine. One of the best free engines available is the strong Rybka 2.3.2a.

When checking this last link to Rybka engine I've just realized that on that webpage you can even download a GUI interface called Tarrasch with this Rybka 2.3.2a already preinstaled. It seems a good option for you. I can't tell you how good (or bad) it is since I don't know it at all, but if I were you I'd give it a go, for sure.

Good luck.

PD: As orangehonda said Chessmaster has an excellent chess course to guide you from the very beginning up to a very good chess level.

Thanks for the reply riuryK and orangehonda, I really appreciate it.

I actually just purchased Chessmaster, thankfully it had a download option, and it seems to be perfect for me.  Plus it was only $20 which is cheaper than most books.

I agree that I don't need a chess engine yet because I'm just starting out but I was reading so much about chess engines and it's pretty intimidating.

The one thing that confused me was that for example, I thought Rybka and Fritz were completely seperate engines.  But on Rybka's site (http://www.rybkachess.com/index.php?auswahl=Purchase+Rybka) it shows that you can purchase Rybka without GUI or Rybka with Fritz's GUI. 

Also, I heard that Houdini was a strong and free engine and on their site it states that you can use the Shredder GUI.  But I'm guessing if I got Rybka with Fritz's GUI I couldn't use Houdini with Fritz's UI.

Personally I think Shredder's interface is much nicer and I prefer it but I can't seem to read an article about chess engines without hearing about Rybka.  I'm guessing I'll most likely be purchasing Rybka once I'm ready and actually need a chess engine.

Thanks again for your response.

In fact Shredder, Hiarcs, Fritz, Junior use all the same interface developed by ChessBase. The only thing that changes is the engine. As you said, there's even a Rybka engine which runs under Fritz GUI, although originally Rybka uses an interface named Aquarius, whose look-and-feel is really nice, but I find the commands and options quite complicated.

For Chessbase people like I am I guess any other interface is just a little bit shocking, hard to get used to. So I stick to ChessBase products, but this is just a matter of taste.

I also own Chessmaster and it's simply great. You've made an excellent purchase. You won't regret.