Winboard, Houdini, and Stockfish HELP!!!

I suggest:

Lose Winboard, and get Scid and/or Arena. Maybe there's nothing wrong with Winboard, but the other two have more users posting here, and you are more likely to get help.

Scid is very good for database management, learning openings, analizing your games. Arena is better if you like playing against you engines, or like to have engines play against each other. (all very subjectively my own opinion, others might disagree)

You can search for both in the download section right here on chess.com.

If you don't come right in the forums, there is also a Scid group, where you can ask questions.

Go get SCID vs PC at Sourceforge. Here's the link.

http://scidvspc.sourceforge.net/

It's easier for novices to learn how to use.

interesting. i'll check out both of your suggestions and update soon.

is there a difference between SCID and SCID vs PC

I don't know Scid vs PC. On the download page it mentions othe stuff that should be installed, seems a little technical for me. i'd just go with the latest Scid available here: http://www.chess.com/download/view/scid-422

(unless TomBarrister can explain the difference between the 2?)

I have this topic tracked, if you have questions, just post here, I'll try to help, even though there are some features I've not even looked at yet. I think it's a great program, and it's free :)

I dunno about mac. Try sourceforge.net, search for scid and see what pops up. they seem to have quite a few apps, some for windows/linux/mac. You mightr want to try scid vs pc, I downloaded it but it seems a little complicated, but the readme file has instructions for mac too. You can probably make better sense of that than I can.

ok. got scid. and arena. i think i prefer scid. so. i know if i'm trying to learn from my own games i will have to construct a database eventually but for the time being. where can i find a pre-made database to study with?

i've also :"stumbled" across a program called Chess Position Trainer in the forums to help learn specific openings of my liking. worked well on first run, but after that it keeps giving me the exact same variation of the openining instead of of different variations like it did the first time. i have a feeling it has to do with some settings but i'll ask about that soon as i get the chance. if you've got an answer or time to check it out i'd appreciate it.

p.s. in case anybody is bothered by it. sorry for incorrect punctuations (period overuse). it's a habit of mine when i type in forums. because i find it tedious to be grammatically correct as long as i'm understood. in forums.

This is a good place to get games:

http://www.pgnmentor.com/files.html

Sorted by opening. player or event.

You can keep it updated (weekly) from here:

http://www.chess.co.uk/twic/twic

woah. those links will become amazingly invaluable to me.

you're awesome for the help!!!

I also struggle to get CPT to work properly. If tou play around in SCID, you'll find "Repertoir Editor' which has some of the same functions, you might want to check that out.

A good way (for me) is to filter your DB with the opening you want to learn. and just play through the games, only 5 or 10 mins per game. Do this with lot of games, no matter what the result, and play them all the way through.

Very soon you'll find you are able to predict moves, and you will also learn the types of pawn structures, middlegames and even ending which come from this opening.

Winboard is the name of the board Kasparov played on.

Houdini was a magician

Stockfish is a kind of fish

Thank U vry much; will try this out

call me overly ambitious but i am very eager to learn. chess has been an interest of mine that i have never had time to develop but i just now realized a little improvement a day goes a long way. so. on to the point.

thanks to your links, i have downloaded the pgn's for the types of openings i am interested in. now. as you chess players know. openings have sooo many variations.

what i would now like to do is combine the pgns of those variations into one massive database so i can study/play through the games. for example. all sicilian into one database. or all french defense into one database. the reason for this is that i really don't care what they're named. i just want to be able to recognize and play them to my liking.

is there an easy way for me to accomplish this with scid? even if it's not easy. can you provide the most effecient instructions?

 br4iniac, Its good to also take a look from youtube's many instructive videos for openings if you havent done that already. And I guess there's no other way than learning them (the openings) by heart. My good visual memory has helped me to learn the lines and remember them. You just have to find your own way. Just remember to learn what does the move mean and why is it played. I'll be following this topic, it seems to be quite interesting! :)

Well, I just make one BIG database, combining everything. That way you dont have to open and close db's all the time.

First, I suggest make a folder somewhere where you keep all your pgn's and databases. It's much easier if you know where they all are.

In the SCID menu, choose file/new, and choose a name for your base (Br4iniac's Big Base?). Make sure in File Types you have Scid databases selected.

Next, go to the tools menu, and select Import File of PGN games.

Navigate to the folder where you keep your pgn's, and highlight the files you want to import. (You can select multiple files) It takes a minute or so if there are many large files.

And there you go! You have a large database!

In the File/Maintenance menu, let Scid ECO classify the games, and it's probably a good idea to sort by date.

Open the games and tree windows to see the fruits of your labour.

ha. i see wat you did there. br4iniac's big base  

but woooaaaahhh. that's a lotta games to study. a couple a day should get me somewhere by the next six months.

thanks rooper!

and jayztar. trust me. by the time i'm through playing this many games. i will have been subconsciously forced to memorize them. but you are right. youtube is good. however. i don't want to just know openings and not see their long term effects through the middle and end game stages though. it's great to know why a certain move was played.

has computer analysis developed enough to make such comments rather than just spitting out variable lines of possible moves? or does the human still have to play through the lines it spits out before s/he can see why?

oh and. how do you confirm that the database has been saved. i'd like to be able to carry it around (in a flash drive) in case i have access to scid somewhere else.

took a risk. closed scid. and reopened it. and all the games were there.

can i set scid to automatically open that one database so i don't have to open it every time?

and for the time being. how can i set it to only show games where white wins.

i know could browse through some sort of scid manual or forum and find out the answers to these questions but rooper is sooooo much more convenient