Computer chess

[Jon Mahony]

It is a bit rich having to buy DVD’s in order to learn to use the program properly though - what’s wrong with a decent set of instructions included on the disk? (Not the pointless FAQ file that comes with it), I tell you what’s wrong with it, Chessbase wouldn’t get another £30.00 out of you!

In the old days of complicated software, you could expect a text-book size instruction manual to be included with the disk - rain forests aside, that’s still the best way in my opinion.

I’m still using Fritz 11 myself, and at the moment I see no reason to replace it - it databases m and analyses my games, at my level I don’t need a more sophisticated engine to point out my blunders I don’t need the few extra bells and whistles, and I find playing against modern computers tedious - though smashing up my old Tandy hand held one can still be fun, it plays down the same loosing line of the Colle Zukertort every single time

[Nick Murphy]

It is a bit rich having to buy DVD’s in order to learn to use the program properly

You don't HAVE to buy anything. There's a huge (239 pages!) manual on the disk in pdf format, and an extensive help file in the program itself (neither of which, in my experience, do people look at before contacting "technical support"!). The days where ChessBase manuals were superficial and hard to follow are loooong gone, yet it is one of the things I hear trotted-out most often from users everyday - even now!

There's also a host of resources online for free. I created my DVDs simply to bring together my knowledge and experience of supporting Fritz for nearly 10 years now. All the knowledge I got was by reading free articles articles online and experimenting with the program itself - something anyone could do. Now I would say that I know the program as well as anyone, but I did nothing special (and I certainly don't know everything about it!)

My experience of working with much specialist software (such as photo editors and video editors) is that they are not that intuitive or well-explained in the manual. ChessBase stands up very well by comparison. And I have certainly learnt a lot about how to use these programs via free articles and videos online - so that is not unique to ChessBase either.

I do agree with you about that most people don't need the latest and greatest version though. But that also can be said of a lot of things. My favourite chess program to play against is PowerChess98 which doesn't run on anything past Windows 95. It still beats me every time at the highest setting. Doesn't mean I don't love the latest version of Fritz though, it's truly remarkable really...