Chess Pairing Programs

[Laurie Roberts]

thanks. will have a look. the issue is that SCID has no icon at all. But once you load it up, it's very good and has all the functionality that chessbase has pretty much (and it's all free). The user interface isn't quite as good but if you spend a couple of hours with it, it's great

[Alex Holowczak]

You'll find that when you add SCID to the list of Applications, when you type in "scid" in the command section of the "Add Item" section, as if by magic, an icon will appear in the Applications! So it does have an icon, but it doesn't put it on the desktop. This is pretty consistent with everything else on Ubuntu.

[MSoszynski]

SCID is okay, but a major failing is that though it can read PGN files it can't write them.

[Roger de Coverly]

SCID is okay, but a major failing is that though it can read PGN files it can't write them.

I know little about SCID other than taking a couple of minutes to download and install it.

However the write to PGN option is certainly there, both as one game (useful for bloggers) and as a whole file.

Both options are under
Tools
Export Current Game
and
Export All Filter Games

I opened a PGN database without filtering. The saved file was a mirror of what I had first opened.

[Alex Holowczak]

SCID is okay, but a major failing is that though it can read PGN files it can't write them.

I know little about SCID other than taking a couple of minutes to download and install it.

However the write to PGN option is certainly there, both as one game (useful for bloggers) and as a whole file.

Both options are under
Tools
Export Current Game
and
Export All Filter Games

I opened a PGN database without filtering. The saved file was a mirror of what I had first opened.

I just spent half an hour working that out, and was about to report it here.

There's one issue I'm having. Suppose I am given a skeleton PGN file, and need to input games within it. How can I edit that file in SCID? I can see how to export the SCID file as a PGN, but how do I convert the PGN file to a SCID file initially for it to be edited?

[MSoszynski]

SCID is okay, but a major failing is that though it can read PGN files it can't write them.

I know little about SCID other than taking a couple of minutes to download and install it.

However the write to PGN option is certainly there, both as one game (useful for bloggers) and as a whole file.

Both options are under
Tools
Export Current Game
and
Export All Filter Games

I opened a PGN database without filtering. The saved file was a mirror of what I had first opened.

You're right. It's circuitous, but SCID can write PGN files in the way you describe.

[Roger de Coverly]

, but how do I convert the PGN file to a SCID file initially for it to be edited?

It appears to work the way you would expect it to work.

Step 1

Create a new SCID format empty database

File
New

Step 2

Import an existing pgn file

Tools
Import File of pgn games


Seems to work - I tested by amending Littlewood, P to Littlewood, Paul E in the now SCID format file of the British 2010

[Laurie Roberts]

For a free bit of software, it is pretty good. If you download the stockfish chess engine (which you can download in ubuntu as an extra when you download SCID) you also have an incredibly strong engine (almost as strong as Rybka and certainly strong enough for any chess player to use to analyse their games)

[Alex Holowczak]

Thanks, that seems to work. I'll give it a try at the 4NCL next weekend, before passing judgement on whether it's good or not. It looks promising though!

I installed Stockfish too, which should probably be stronger than the Fritz 6 engine...

[Andrew Camp]

http://www.vegachess.com/tl/index.php/H ... glish.html

[Alex Holowczak]

http://www.vegachess.com/tl/index.php/H ... glish.html

I've not downloaded it yet, but the Linux one is free and they charge for the Windows version. Ergo, this looks promising!

[Roger de Coverly]

Thanks, that seems to work. I'll give it a try at the 4NCL next weekend, before passing judgement on whether it's good or not. It looks promising though!

If maintaining consistency of names is important, then you need a database with the capability to use a library of names.

Whether it works under emulators, I don't know, but the (now old) demo version of Chess Assistant (Chess Assistant light) should also be suitable for doing tournament data entry.

http://www.convekta.com/download.htm

(A library of names is one where instead of keying in the whole name and having to remember the correct spelling, you just type in the first few letters and it shows matches and partial matches. So typing in "Ho" might bring up both Horton and Holowczak and you select the appropriate one)

[Alex Holowczak]

Thanks, that seems to work. I'll give it a try at the 4NCL next weekend, before passing judgement on whether it's good or not. It looks promising though!

If maintaining consistency of names is important, then you need a database with the capability to use a library of names.

Neville's skeleton PGN can be used. This already has names and ratings filled in. It's just a case of opening each game, putting the moves in, and saving games over the top of the old ones.

[MSoszynski]

Incidentally, Chessbase 9 works very well through Wine in Ubuntu.

[Alex Holowczak]

Incidentally, Chessbase 9 works very well through Wine in Ubuntu.

I noticed that in the WineHQ.

There were also positive reviews for ChessBase 10.

No one has tried reviewed ChessBase 11, myself included!

The fact remains that ChessBase costs money, whereas things like Scid don't. I think it's worth trying to get open source software to work before you start paying for proprietary software.