Archived from groups: rec.games.chess.computer (
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The CB crew doesn't know the difference between "feature" and "function."
They think that simply adding silly features like 3D boards and the "Turk"
will satisfy customers. It's as if we were all 11 year olds.
Chess players need software for cataloging and storing games, for practice,
and for analysis. CB does a fairly good job with its database function and
they're ok with analysis (although there could be more types of contextual
analysis). They score a 2 out of 10, however, on training and practice. I
hardly ever play my CB engines because there is no point in me getting
killed every time by a 2700-strength machine. The various strategies for
weakening the engines produce, in my hands, a 2700 player for 10 moves, a
patzer for one move (dropping a piece), followed by 2700. I don't have time
to figure out what the various "personalities" mean. I shouldn't have to.
There should be one scale for strength and another for style of play,
period. That is all we need.
Another shortcoming of these programs is their weakness in assisting in
opening training, and in building an opening repertoire. I should point out
as well that the main opening books sold by CB have a ton of errors in them.
I get the impression they got an over-worked IM to put them together 20
years ago and they haven't looked at them since. There are some real boners
in those opening books.
"HD" <hdchess@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:432be08b$0$18645$14726298@news.sunsite.dk...
> The Man Behind The Curtain wrote:
>> Angelo DePalma wrote:
>>
>>> I've had problems with every CB product since around Fritz 6. They hog
>>> memory and CPU, they're extremely clunky, they don't work well with
>>> Windows XP, causing crashes galore. Most of them require upgrades just
>>> to function properly.
>>
>>
>> I share some of your frustration with CB products. But I can't say I've
>> ever had one crash in XP. Not even once. Not even with other programs
>> running alongside it. I find the products very stable. A bit boring
>> these days, and with a clunky interface that needs to be rewritten from
>> the ground up, but crash-free.
>>
>>
>>
>> John
>>
>
> I can't say crash-free, but I haven't had all that trouble some people
> tend to have with their installations - CB or other. It's always nice hear
> from those don't have problems under XP (I find it a bit weird too), but
> it's indeed weird to hear from those who seem to have a lot problems with
> certain programs that runs almost flawlessly at most peoples machines
> (something seems to be working badly together).
> Personally, I haven't had more problems in the same period with
> CB-programs, than I had with Arena and ChessAssistant. Many other Windows
> programs also have their share if they're used enough!
>
> Regarding the new Fritz, I'm not sure if CB have re-wamped the hole GUI -
> sub-surface - or just continued the old one. It appears to me like
> Frederic Friedel promissed Mig Greengaard a lot of new features, but from
> reading on the German Chessbase site, I can't find much of such, except
> visual gimmicks and beginner-stuff. Personally I don't care for that. I
> want a wealth of advanced analytical features!!!
>
> Regards,
> HD
>