Comments on: Chess Cheapskate

By: Tuirgin

Tuirgin — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:37:30 +0000

I was lured away from SCID for a while by Aquarium, which I quite liked for a lot of reasons, but it's not a free upgrade to the current version. SCID is always there for me when I need it. And as nice as it is, it still lacks -- last I looked -- the intuitive keyboard entry of SCID.

I have to admit I haven't been using any chess program on a regular basis lately. All my spare time is being put towards studying for the CCNA test.

By: ragu

ragu — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 03:42:09 +0000

I was also impressed by Scid's move entry. I always struggled reading chess books doing big context switching between the book and the application. Scid reduced this context switching. You mentioned about keyboard entry auto completion. What I really liked is the mouse entry. If the move on the book is Be8, just hover the mouse at e8, it shows most reasonable move to e8 by somehow avoiding stupid looking moves.

On the lighter note, I see having more kids helps!

By: Tuirgin

Tuirgin — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 14:08:01 +0000

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!

By: Tuirgin

Tuirgin — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:28:14 +0000

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!

By: Polly

Polly — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 11:09:34 +0000

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.

By: Hank

Hank — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 07:14:35 +0000

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

By: Tuirgin

Tuirgin — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 21:00:17 +0000

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.]

By: Chunky Rook

Chunky Rook — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:29:13 +0000

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!