Why does one purchase a chess engine?

[msalzge]

Hello all. New member, first-time poster.

I'm USCF 1500 (trying to get better) and regularly use free chess engines on top of Fritz 10 for analysis. My question is: Why do folks purchase chess engine packages such as Rybka and Hiarcs? What features do these commercial products offer that I would need? The Fritz 10 engine that came with my $20 product can already beat the pants off of me, and Houdini can easily trounce that engine - so I'm already a moron twice removed from my PC. What am I missing?

[gaard]

Hello all. New member, first-time poster.

I'm USCF 1500 (trying to get better) and regularly use free chess engines on top of Fritz 10 for analysis. My question is: Why do folks purchase chess engine packages such as Rybka and Hiarcs? What features do these commercial products offer that I would need? The Fritz 10 engine that came with my $20 product can already beat the pants off of me, and Houdini can easily trounce that engine - so I'm already a moron twice removed from my PC. What am I missing?

We are hobbyists, enthusiasts, and collectors. Some people pay for the various perspectives that multiple engines give you. Some are correspondence chess players and need the best there is to offer for the added "insight" that a higher level chess engine provides. Some collect them just to collect them, like stamps.

[SilvianRx]

We are hobbyists, enthusiasts, and collectors. Some people pay for the various perspectives that multiple engines give you. Some are correspondence chess players and need the best there is to offer for the added "insight" that a higher level chess engine provides. Some collect them just to collect them, like stamps.

Hey man !
Maybe some of us are psychopists !
Why not ?

Regards,
Silvian


Huraaaaaaaaaaah ! I have all clones & derivatives !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Odeus37]

I bought, long ago, Hiarcs 9.6 because it was the best to play chess with my old palm.

And I recently bought Shredder 12 because :

- I could try it before buying it
- SMK answer fast to emails
- the gui is very nice
- Shredder adapts its level to mine, and doesn't answer immediatly when playing with limited level.

So now, I have Shredder to play against, Houdini/Critter/Stockfish under Shredder Gui to analyse games, and Arena with a few other engines to run engines tournaments.

[msalzge]

I bought, long ago, Hiarcs 9.6 because it was the best to play chess with my old palm.

And I recently bought Shredder 12 because :

- I could try it before buying it
- SMK answer fast to emails
- the gui is very nice
- Shredder adapts its level to mine, and doesn't answer immediatly when playing with limited level.

So now, I have Shredder to play against, Houdini/Critter/Stockfish under Shredder Gui to analyse games, and Arena with a few other engines to run engines tournaments.

You make a good point. It's challenging to get the right level of opponent while playing Fritz under "Friend" mode. You playing against Shredder classic or the newer engine? ... and how do you like the gui vs. Fritz?

[Odeus37]

Well, I can't make any comment on Fritz GUI, since I never bought any, So kinda hard to compare it to Shredder GUI.

Since I bought deep shredder 12, I don't have Shredder Classic, and then I play against Deep Shredder 12. But at my poor level, it's the same : Shredder Classic or Deep Shredder 12 play the same I think when limited to about 1700 Elo.

Anyway, if you never tried Shredder GUI, you can download the free version at http://www.shredderchess.com/download.html , and try and play it for about 1 month. It's what I did before buying it.

[msalzge]

Great! Thanks - I'll give that a shot... although I'm pretty partial to the Fritz interface. It took some getting used to but now I like it quite a bit.

[Zapped]

Hi, first post here. Been lurking for a while but registered to reply to this thread.

I was under the impression that the Shredder 12 GUI and the Fritz 12 GUI were now identical. Is that not true? I did download the demo version of the Depp Fritz 12 and liked the GUI a lot, but I didn't want to ignore Shredder 12 if it turns out I'm wrong about the GUIs being the same.

[AnthonyTheSage]

You can buy Shredder from ChessBase which comes with the Fritz 12 GUI, or you can buy Shredder 12 with the Shredder Classic GUI from the the Shredder website. I personally prefer the Shredder classic GUI. Its simple and quick. Fritz is buggy and slower. The only real advantage to Fritz is the database functionality, its slightly more in depth.
As far as engines go I would recommend Shredder 12 to anybody, I personally thinks its the best analysis engine out there. It's the only top engine that seems to understand position. It's seems most top engines these day have turned into tactical monsters with little regard for position. But Shredder still sticks to the old school positional strategies. This makes it a great analysis engine, its moves have purpose and make positional sense.

[Prima]

Plus Shredder's GUI is more stable with regards to usability and functionality.