Chessbase is the only software most professionals use. It's a hassle to use on a Mac, which is why you rarely see Apple products at chess tournaments.
Sotftware: HIARCS, Chessbase, Macs etc.
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Why is it a hassle? You should be able to run VMWare or Parallels or whatever virtual machine and emulate a PC just fine. I thought any hassles were ironed out by now.
I am not going to be a pro (although I would like to get very good eventually), and I definitely love my Mac, so I wonder if Chessbase would offer me anything HIARCS Opening Explorer can't that is of any value (I don't mean at my current level - but say at a 2000+ level)?
Jan 26, 2015
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#4
What chessbase offers is ease of use. That's not rating-specific. Chessbase allows you to create your own specialized databases, do specific searches, and other cool useful things that I haven't seen from any other.
I'm not familiar enough with HIARCS to say definitely, but just about all the pros use chessbase for their own reasons. I'm guessing HIARCS isn't nearly as useful.
That may be true. I was just wondering why you said that chessbase is a hassle to use on Macs. I'm guessing that stems from the fact that you need third-party software as I mentioned (which isn't much of a burden as far as I know). Other than that if you know of a hassle please let me kow.
SmyslovFan wrote:
What chessbase offers is ease of use. That's not rating-specific. Chessbase allows you to create your own specialized databases, do specific searches, and other cool useful things that I haven't seen from any other.
Just out of curiosity: what are the cool useful things that you could not do with XBoard?
I would also like to know what chessbase offers that HIARCS Chess Explorer does not. I'm not doubting it, just want to know which I should get for the Mac. Chessbase, or HIARCS (with a VM so I can emulate a PC). Chessbase probably has a bigger game database. HIARCS Chess Explorer comes as a full package. Chessbase does not -- you would need to buy Fritz or something similar to do everything HIARCS package does. Not a big deal I guess.
If you were (or are) a Mac owner, would you recommend Chessbase (which can be run on a Mac if you buy a VM), or HIARCS Opening Explorer, or something else or in addition? Frtiz, other programs, etc.?
Is Chessbase better than HIARCS, and if so, by really that much?
There may be other great programs I haven't considered, but I would like to have Chessbase-like functionality, great databases, openings, statistics, ability to play the computer with hints/coaching, etc.