Chess Cheapskate

by Tuirgin on Mar.28, 2009, under Chess

It is extremely easy to spend way too much money on chess software. It’s also unnecessary. When I first started down the path of chess obsession a few years ago I started by buying Fritz. And then I discovered ChessBase, huge databases, and the ability to look at chess data in all kinds of interesting ways. This probably interested me more as a tech geek than as something that was going to be immediately helpful to my game. Of course there’s also Chess Assistant, Bookup, and a bunch of different training programs, engines with regular (and expensive) upgrades. For a compulsive geek this is all very dangerous. There is a huge temptation to spend way too much money in an acquisitive frenzy. Here’s why a family of 7 is a good thing: I can’t afford to be an idiot. (Sure I could hang out in the shadier corners of the web and land quite a lot of “permanent trial” software, but let’s ignore that thought.) I don’t have the money to spend on ChessBase. Luckily Chess Assistant is considerably cheaper, but I don’t even need that. I need Scid. Scid is free. Scid is open source. Scid is a chess database, and a front end for UCI engines. Best of all for me, Scid is cross-platform. My primary computer is a MacBook Pro and let me tell you, there ain’t much available for chess hobbyists on the Mac. But Scid takes care of all of that. It’s biggest weakness is the awkwardness of the UI, and even that has improved a bit with the most recent build. It does what I need as a database, as a front-end to engine analysis, and for human v. engine play.

The other thing needed is a source of high quality games. I bought Convekta’s Huge Database a few years back, so I’m using that. But someone without a commercial game collection could gather up all of the TWIC games pretty easily. In fact I just cobbled together a quick little snippet of python to grab all the available pgn files (211–749 at the time):

#!/usr/bin/env python

from urllib import urlretrieve for number in range(211, 749): url = 'http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/zips/twic' + str(number) + 'g.zip' myfile = str(number) + 'g.zip' urlretrieve(url, myfile)

I do still start up an XP virtual machine to run Fritz or Chess Assistant from time to time. (Actually, Chess Assistant and CT-Art—the demo, at least—both seem to work okay under Darwine.) But 90% of the time I’m just fine working with Scid. And since it’s quite easy to give Scid a very small footprint on-screen, I find it more comfortable than working with my other options. Plus Scid’s move entry is a snap—just start typing the moves and it’s capable of auto-completing—something I really appreciate when I’m following moves and variations in a book.

All in all, I’ve saved myself several hundred dollars by avoiding the Windows chess software tar pit. Scid does everything I need, at least for now. As I need tactical software, those can be added, but if I stick with Convekta’s offerings—I guess they’re ChessOK now—it’s still pretty cheap.

My “freetard” friends should be proud of me.

:chess software

6 Comments for this entry

Chunky Rook
March 30th, 2009 on 1:29 pm
Reached your site via the “Confessions of a Chess Novice”! Very interesting so far, and I enjoyed your author cloud as well. A man of the classics!

I’m a passionate chess cheapskate as well. I recently discovered “Arena Chess”, which is a neat free database/analysis software, though I’ve already downloaded Scid after seeing your recommendation. I’m very picky about what my chess board looks like on the screen, and so far Arena’s the best by far; the “Brushed Metal” theme together with the finely-rendered Merida pieces is pure eye-candy. For online games I use BabasChess, and for tactics ChessTempo.com. I think the most expensive chess item I bought to date is ChessMaster ($29 at Circuit City) because of Josh Waitzkin’s excellent lecture series, then the magnificently chunky Sterling play-in-the-park double-weight chess set (about $40), and book-wise $25 for Silman’s Endgame course (absolutely worth it). So that’s that. I’m off to peruse your other posts!

Reply
- Tuirgin
  March 30th, 2009 on 4:00 pm
  Well, I have to admit I tend not to be enough of a cheapskate. But the present economy and 5 kids will turn the biggest spender into a cheapskate.
  
  I don’t use Windows much preferring OS X and Linux—that’s admittedly a fairly big limitation where Chess is concerned. But SCID has been a one stop solution. It’s a little tricky to figure out at first and even after getting familiar with it, the interface is a little clunky. But it works and recent versions have nice looking boards and clean figures.
  
  I didn’t realize that Arena included database features—been a while since I used it. I’ve tried BabasChess just to see what I was missing by not running Windows. Looks like it’s got quite a few more features than Jin (which is what I’m using on OS X and Linux), but not stuff I’d use much, yet.
  
  I tend to like Merida pieces, too. Clean, sophisticated, traditional.
  
  My books tend towards the classics probably both because I have a traditionalist streak in me (Postmodern Traditionalist?) and because when I discover an author I like, I tend to run down their lists of influences to find more things to read. I’ve been spending a little more time in more recent literature lately as I look to the Man Booker award winners for reading ideas.
  
  Thanks for posting!
  
  [p.s. I'm mildly embarrassed that I don't even own a chess set. Everything I do is on the computer, so the real deal isn't much use to me. Not that I don't want one. And as I improve perhaps I'll find my way into some tournament play, though I think the nearest chess clubs are a couple hours away.]
  
  Reply
Hank
April 2nd, 2009 on 2:14 am
Great to see a well written new blog on the chess improvement scene!

For opening study/building up a repertoire, Chess Position Trainer is a very good free alternative to Bookup.

–> http://www.chesspositiontrainer.com/

The only catch is that it’s Windows only (also requiring the Microsoft .Net Framework 1.1x.

But it is free, and it’s as good as a lot of commercial software, as far as I can tell from using it for a few months. There are also some user-created repertoire databases available for download for it.

Best, Hank

Reply
- Tuirgin
  April 2nd, 2009 on 8:28 am
  I have heard of CPT, but haven’t checked it out, yet. I’m kinda avoiding doing to much opening specific work for a while. A couple years ago I tried out the free version of Bookup and got irritated with endless emails, erm, “newsletters”. When I’m ready to do opening training I’ll definitely give it a look.
  
  Thanks!
  
  Reply
Polly
April 2nd, 2009 on 6:09 am
Welcome to chess blogosphere. I get around my OS X limitations for chess stuff by running Windows XP through Parallels as a virtual machine. It works pretty well. When I’m using diagrams created in ChessBase or pulling of PGN filesto upload, I access my blog via IE in XP. Otherwise I’m using Firefox.

I’m a cheapskate too. I was given CB 9 for Christmas one year. Not upgrading unless somebody gives it to me for Christmas again.

I’ve addd you to my blog list. Anyone recommended by BDK is alright in my book.

Reply
- Tuirgin
  April 2nd, 2009 on 9:08 am
  Yeah, I’m running a virtual machine with VMware Fusion—I’ve been using VMware products for several years and felt like it was more stable than the demo of Parallels that I tried. And not that I actually need it, but my vm is set up two use 2 cpus so that I can run my multi-processor aware chess engines to their fullest potential. A waste really, since I’m not playing computer chess and only use it for analysis post-game… it’s the software geek in me.
  
  From everything I’ve heard CB 10 doesn’t bring much new to the table. Same with CA10, which is what I bought a couple years ago.
  
  Thanks for the comments!
  
  Reply