Just came across this somewhat belittling "review" of Scid, Chessbase, etc... the tone is grating, but perhaps some of the points of "weakness" are worth discussion?
http://blog.chess.com/danthebugman/review---scid-40 *** The single best feature I will admit is useful in searches, is CQL. Scid does NOT have it , only Chess Assistant 10 and up has CQL.You will have to google it and look at the article and link on chessok.com or google chessok.com and CQL 2008-2009 follow up. I can say chessbase is faster than scid, to find patterns in new collections like 2-3000 TWIC chess games. It will sort and index tons as well as crossovers and thematic connections. scid is still limited. It is still good if you cannot afford the commercial stuff, or to learn just the basic stuff on. The others have dedicated programmers/testers and more pro features, along with very advanced features. Chessbase 10 has an ability to display a tree and show next move % from each color not just white's side. It also shows discarded lines, one click repertoire prep, one click opponent prep as black/white, best player and/or most frequent player for each line, the critical line (best play both sides/forced lines subvariations), show next move in tree (ex: list each line then show stats% for each follow up move and branch per side). It shows it as a list with say black response then all lines go horizontal and allow how far to display 1-20 moves. Chess basics are easy in scid, but for serious tournament type stuff, use only chessbase professional (mega or premium), Chess Assistant 11 professional (mega), and the August 2010 chess openings wizard professional, and Deep Rybka 4 with Deep Rybka Aquarium 4, as they do tons more than SCID can ever remotely possibly attempt to do. I do like some features in scid for specific timesavers to "pre sort" basics with, then do the serious "real work" with the professional software just mentioned. Scid is good for a "bare bones" database and to get quick stats, but otherwise is for kids and U1200 elo rated players. If you need to learn on, it is great to store games. I had trouble with never being able to sort games name list by alphabetical order, but with 1 click convenience, can make one mouse click in chessbase and the "tab" at the top changes and sorts entire 5,000,000 game list in 2 to 3 seconds tops! on a 100,000 game list, it was instant ! click,it is A-Z, click again, it goes Z-A order; and you can scroll through to see who has what. Chessbase also has a feature SCID needs but lacks, the "player" tab as a seperate window, where you see list by alphabetical order or number of games,etc. Convenient for TWIC or ICC, or FICS, or any game downloads. It allows you to take TWIC as seperate "database" aka "folder", and chessbase sorts it all, every possible aspect. Scid has like 10 middlegame features, motifs,themes,etc to show on player report or opening report, and chessbase has over 500 (five hundred no typo). Which do you think is more complex and detailed? It does a summary with + sign left of each word for more breakdown (expands / opens folder). You try to load TWIC and see who has most games, try it, and you do it manual vs automatic "1 touch shopping" in chessbase. You click number column tab and instantly see whose games are feature most this time. Maybe Daniel "bugman" can do some tutorial articles/blogs on using SCID. I have all the pro software, so no need to do basics with SCID. It also has a problem in SCID 4 trying to sort 1-0 = 0-1 or elo in low to high or reverse order. I think if you can show, or prove to users how to do it they will use it more. If you can do that, you are able to follow trends easier. The big sales part is showing discarded lines, %won, preparing for select players as either color and one click opening reports and player reports showing stats/themes/strategy/tactics/endings/and much more. When all used together, you get an extremely prepared opponent, ready to win; explaining why the pros use the commercial software, only because they cannot find any free stuff to equal the capabilities of paid for software. Scid is good to do basics and learn a basic database on. Scid cannot show pictures or graphic with mouse overs. Chessbase has nice ability to show "final Material" as you mouse over the column. It will show you a mini board and every piece ! That means big "TIMESAVER" ! You can slide the mouse over the column (called mouse over) and each row shows mini board and location of all pieces and pawns, saving you time to avoid clicking each game. Sure the column tells you R ending of R3P-R2P, but no idea in hell where they are put on board. Chessbase shows you details and you can decide if worth time looking at. Chessbase also has ability to show list of games and load each game at the start of endgame, jump to ending, saving more time for endgame review, as you blitz through endings. Chess Assistant has ability to load from middlegame and jump to middlegame spot automatically, no guess work. Another timesaver. Maybe these guys here, or Daniel can show how SCID can do that, to save you time. Daniel or Martin should showcase ease of use and above listed sorting features like alphabetical order,etc. to help you people. I hit the player tab and 1 click and instantly see results, as well as a "range of numbers" you can search, or show like "show me all players who have 200-350, 4-6, 5,000-15,000 games, only players with less than 20 games,etc." Have Martin or Daniel show that ability in scid. Show how to make the list show 1-0 group, then as you scroll down show =, then show the 0-1 group in same column; like chessbase instantly does ! Then click top tab of "results" and it shows 0-1,=,1-0, so much faster, easier. I honestly will admit the help files are lacking and need tutorials, but chessbase and chess assistant help files are like a "mini-series" or virtual encyclopedia set of data and vast detail huge learning curve on chess assistant or Rybka Aquarium with CQL. Compare going through scid help files to time it takes to read Dr. Seuss "Green eggs and ham". But on the other hand, Compare Chess Assistant, Chessbase, Rybka Aquarium help files to time it takes to read entire set "Encyclopedia Brittanica". "Slight" difference ! I hope you get those tutorials, blogs to help players who can't afford professional chess database software. If it can sort at least some of the above and in same list, you can copy, paste games or results. Chessbase will tell you in a "mouse over how many anything, as it changes "on the fly as you click through each header column. I don't think Daniel had the chessbase 10 professional or mega version, as he would know more chessbase features and not be using scid. Last note is SCID has 500 ECO codes and 26 letters per code. Example B22 alapin sicilian and it uses B22a, B22b, B22c, etc for like mabe 13K (13 thousand) breakdowns total. Chessbase calls them "keys" and has 104,000 breakdowns. Case in point is where I clicked SCID to show group in an ECO and it lacked finesse,specifics,details,timesavers,etc. Chessbase had 15 more "expanded folders" or "subdivisions" between the 2 groupings, and SCID makes you do it by hand. You can also sub divide the folders by click on "add subkeys" and keep adding to infinite number as it has no limit. It comes in handy on "long variations". Just the default keys preinstalled break it all down intense details and you click a "+" sign on left or use arrow keys on keyboard, insanely faster to blitz through data ! It also has the ability while you use arrow keys or mouse clicks to display a game list that changes and updates on the fly as you click. TIMESAVER AGAIN ! That also lets you single click on a game below and go to top right icon for show stats and instantly see results as a pie chart on right and number totals on left 1-0,=,0-1 in order from top to bottom. That also has a button under chart to show years with vertical graph that can enlarge to show numbers count per year if click radio button for year and see games played per year. If you click the "length" button it shows total games found per bar on vertical bar graph of all games found. The ECO is A,B,C,D,E or A-E button for all ECO or single letter group. Chessbase then further has a player name box and button black or white or both next to it to subdivide results and still be in same list just switch out names rapidly, using same stats. Chessbase has that ECO radio style button (the circle with a dot when you click button lol) and shows ECO result by 2 graphs. they are stacked vertical and form a horizontal rectangle you can shrink to display more data, or enlarge to zoom in on details say ECO B22-B32 or B00-B99. Bottom graph (vert. bars) is for each ECO number individual breakdowns. above it is the "timesaver" and handy cool feature of % white won with a considerate little 50 half way up. What "timesaver" is this compared to SCID and manual by hand typing over and over to have scid do it? Stone age vs Space age ! It shows at a glance the trends and some call it similar to a "stock market report" for chess. You click the arrow keys on the box to scroll through left or right. You can dump TWIC in it and use "length" button to see average length of games for each range, as you watch little "houses grow or skyscrapers" aka vertical bar graph and scan section by section to enlarge number display. First you shrink it to see summary of trends, like "spikes" and where. Then chessbase allows you to click A-E for overall summary and rapidly scan entire game collection for most or least played. Scan your eyes along the top chart as it shows how the win loss record went. Hit individual ECO like B for a quick recap of TWIC all B20-B99 sicilian games and find short "houses" aka bars on top to instantly see which sicilians are winning for black. How cool is that It would be nice to have the adjustable charts in scid, wouldn't it. You can name a database anything such as "My special preparation for player X" and tell chessbase to save it as a "repertoire" type database. You can have multiple unlimited repertoire databases ! When you dump TWIC games in chessbase, it ask if you want "auto sort to repertoire databases". click yes and yes to do not show this box again. Now you click on your repertoire database (open it) and single click once and go back to top right icon for "statistics" looks like vertical bar graph icon next to create tournament crosstable icon. now when you hit ECO button you see A-E or seperate letters such as C and scan 1st part of C00-C19 all french games. It will only display (as has now been pre filtered) only the french games you play, the lines you use or variations, groups, etc. It can show C19 all or just the lines you select. If you narrow too much and play stuff hardly anyone uses, it may show no games found. If you choose broad selection such as all C19, it will show new winning or losing ideas in french. If you select Black side only as database under "save as repertoire database, it will only show those games, lines you use for black. This means chessbase will show you the winning chances this week and you right click in list merge all games and it shows all variations as one annotated game that you can expand or collapse. You can R click on that "super game" that merged all games and double click a game. Now right click on chessboard, select show novelty. Try that in SCID and nothing happens. Chessbase now shows the newest move from all the entire games that were merged, showing every new move done so far and jumping to that move on the board, along with highlighting the list of novelty's (new moves=novelty). You scroll moves of game and jump to next novelty either forward or backward to see where people are being creative and where they "leave well enough alone or if it aint broke don't fix it" approach. I hope Daniel or Martin can show you some "timesavers" comparable to chessbase, that you can do in SCID. We won't even begin to get into the complex searches and "filters" used in Chess Assistant or Rybka Aquarium. Bookup.com has Chess openings wizard professional version only that can do quality "backsolving" as I own it and chess position trainer (free) and tested both. Only Chess openings wizard pro was able to give a list of details for exclude, include options for backsolving. Backsolving video tutorial free at bookup.com Backsolving, when done right, will scan entire repertoire and all branches until it finds a game or games that beat your line you play, study,etc. Now it goes back and shows a new correct evealuation for why not to play that, until you find an improvement. You make a repertoire database in C.O.W. (C.O.W. pro for short) and use it to dump those same copy, paste games. C.O.W. calls them "ebooks" and you know them as folders. Go to top menu and scroll down to backsolving. Click on it and it opens a box with a bunch of details for how you want it to do the job. Now check mark "backsolving always on". Now click on overnight analysis of repertoire. You wake up with entire repertoire updated and sorted out, replacing bad moves with better moves. It does not delete games, only shows new "tree" you scroll .It will show you better lines to win, and the PC has done the work while you slept. A new feature is speed learning and speed testing. see all 8 videos on youtube under "thechessopeningsguy" as he has been making database software just to learn openings extremely fast since 1983 ! It will do stuff for learning openings no other database can do. I hope these guys Daniel and Martin can show you some similar features in SCID to help improve your chess. Chessbase light is a joke for serious work. Save up for chessbase professional mega or premium version. They may call best one they sell premium version. It will cost about 500.00, but is a bargain and worth every penny. I spent over 1500.00 for mine all of them and the add ons to get full functions, features. 400.00 just for informants 1-100 cd to own every informant issue and use engines and databases with them, plus be able to merge games,etc. I also am able to avoid carrying 107 issues of heavy informant books around. You can also get all ECO on cd ! You can use the informants in many ways as best games collection of heavy annotated games by winners, best endings, combo, opening TN, best played game,and all other trade marked sections. Use them with databases to see trends and historical timelines,changes,etc. Good luck to you all, Use SCID free until you get money for serious software, as mentioned above. I hope this motivates some people. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Learn how Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) One Node allows customers to consolidate database storage, standardize their database environment, and, should the need arise, upgrade to a full multi-node Oracle RAC database without downtime or disruption http://p.sf.net/sfu/oracle-sfdevnl _______________________________________________ Scid-users mailing list Scid-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/scid-users
