What is Reddit's opinion of Scid vs. PC?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

I like Scid vs. PC (http://scidvspc.sourceforge.net/). If you open the program you can do exactly what you want -just move the pieces around with no interference.

But of course you can also add an engine for analysis... and annotate pgn files, identify the opening and when the game goes out of book, play online games... and more.

ChessX and Scid vs Mac are two common choices.

The first one is simpler, and pretty adeguate if you don't want to handle large volumes of games (uses PGN files)

The second one is more complete and features a more robust and powerful database system (uses .si4 binary format), but it's also a bit more complex and a bit less user friendly

Try both and see what you like more, you can always port your game archive from one to the other, so it's not a problem switching back and forth

SCID vs PC is the one I see thrown around here the most. I haven't used it (ChessBase is really excellent imo if you can afford a copy), but it should do what you need.

Tarrasch for bare bones move entry/annotation.

Scid vs PC for more in-depth features, including interface customization and database management.

Edit: Forgot to mention, there are links to more options in the sidebar FAQ. These are just my favorite free programs.

scid vs pc can connect to FICS (good chess server). issue is i don't think the client can premove on it. that isn't a problem on realistic time controls.

the real reason i recommend scid vs pc is because you can set up a database with it. this lets you see the most common moves in your position from many high level games.

it's an excellent tool to use to go over your games before hitting the analysis button.

for other places to play you will probably just end up using your browser

https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/wiki/faq#wiki_where_to_play

GorgoBase: 2.5 million modern and historic games. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/141925/GorgoBase.zip

Scid vs. PC: Software to manage the database and analyze/annotate/etc. the games. http://scidvspc.sourceforge.net/

You could of course do the numerical evaluation thing by simply looking at a position, coming up with a number and then put it into an engine and see how close you were. If you don't have an engine, you can download SCID or Arena which come with engines for free.

Scid vs PC is a free alternative to Chessbase with a number of useful features. You can search for positions with specific criteria via Search > Material/Pattern. You'll also need a database - I often use Caissabase but if you are interested in specific players you can use PGN Mentor as well. Open a database in Scid vs PC using File > Open.

As for playing against an engine: I often leave the engine on so I get to play with engine assistance. I'll also go back and make changes, it's more of an analysis board than a "game". I go as deep as necessary - sometimes after 20 or so moves I conclude the idea is too deep for me to understand and just move on.

For me I've been using ScidVsPC with Caissabase which gives you more than 4 million games and every week getting the TWIC archive PGNs.

Takes some setting up but worth it since it's much larger than the lichess database and allows you to setup your own databases for analysis and importing your own games to study them.

This is caissabase. It is a free database of millions of chess games. I am sure GM fridman’s games are in there. You need to download the ScidVsPC app on your computer and import caissabase.

This will load a database of millions of games. Then you need to apply filters so that you only see Fridman’s games from a single color (you can find YouTube tutorials on how to do this). Then export the games as pgn and load into openingtree.

This method is how most of the “notable player” games in openingtree are created.

>I was wondering if there's any open-source alternative that equals the abilities of ChessBase

As a general purpose database, SCID is an excellent open source alternative

However, when it comes to managing opening repertoires there's really no comparison with ChessBase... the only thing you can do with ease in SCID is using it as your typical opening explorer: you open a big database as a tree, and while loading one of your games/a new board where you enter moves, you get a cross reference in the tree with stats, best games and so on

Organizing one of your databasese as a repertoire on the other hand, is one of the most obscure features ever... maybe I'm particularly dense, but for the life of me I could never figure out how to apply the suggested approach to an actual, practical scenario

In my other post here, I mention some articles regarding the same functionality in ChessBase; while not exactly smooth as silk, it's still a much more easier and understandable approach, and it comes with some interesting extra stuff like, for example, the automatic generation of dossier from one/multiple reference databases

So all the moves made in a chess game are recorded in pgn format, for example 1. e4 e5 2 Qh5 Nc6 3 Bc4 Nf6 4 Qxf7# would be the pgn of a game. A pgn file is one or more individual pgns of games. (I am bad at explaining things sometimes, here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Game_Notation). With this file, you could have all the games in it on your computer, and open them in your lichess analysis board/study or on some software (example : http://scidvspc.sourceforge.net/) and open the games up on your computer and analyze them. This is handy for chess books, because if you had the pgns for all the games in a book, instead of having to set pieces up on your chessboard over and over you can just click to the specific position.

For more info on how to use pgn files, this thread shows how to get and use software to have a pgn database, downloading annotated master games and analyzing them with this program really helped my chess https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/1aotjo/how_to_set_up_a_free_chess_database/

unless you are a professional, you can download scid vs. pc it's basically a stripped down version of CB completely for free. pick up stockfish and you're good to go.

I'm using https://ply.chessply.com it's mobile and free! The training mode is great and makes remembering lines easy. Hf!

Steps:

1. Download all your games from lichess.
2. Open the games in Scid vs PC and filter for <your username> as white.
3. Open http://database.chessbase.com/js/apps/database/?lang=en
4. Open an account at ply.chessply.com and create a 'white' repertoire (maybe call it 1. d4 or something)
5. Back to Scid vs PC open the tree window and go some moves deep in every sensible variation chosen by black (for starters maybe 8-12 ply). Are you comfortable with the line you played the most there? -> Put it in your chessply database (Obv. always one move for white, all sensible replies for black). Otherwise check what GMs are doing in those positions (the link from step 3) choose a line that has a good score and suits your style. Try to not get lost in endless variations that will never appear on the board. Never enter more then 3 moves that were never played against you on lichess. If you think that line needs more thought check the GM games, try to summarize the ideas in a comment.
6. Do the same thing for your black openings.
7. Train your repertoire with the training functionality of chessply.

General considerations:

• It's important to update your repertoire once you play against a line you don't feel comfortable with.

• Don't do everything at once. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time: Start with entering a single opening (e.g. the Benoni) try the training mode and get a feel for the program.

• Try to use the engine as little as possible. That will lead you into a forest of fantasy-computer-chess variations.

• After the beginning phase with lot's of training leading up to the Philadelphia Open train your repertoire on your way to chess games on your mobile phone. Works great for me.

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I'm an engine author (in the works) and use the data for a lot of analysis and cooking opening books.

Here is a good app to use as well and can do a lot of tuning. http://scidvspc.sourceforge.net/

As well as: http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/djb/pgn-extract/

I see a lot of people recommending Lucas Chess but my experience with the program has been that it's quite buggy and frustrating to use due to the fact that it likes to open new windows for everything, e.g. if you want to view a particular variation this will be opened in a new window. You end up with way too many windows and it's quite frustrating having to cycle between them.

Also, I've encountered serious bugs in Lucas Chess, e.g. it gets stuck when playing against some engines. I suspect this is because it issues UCI commands and the engine replies with an acknowledgement before Lucas Chess is ready to receive it, thus Lucas Chess waits for a reply indefinitely. Another bug I encountered was that Lucas Chess allows you to make illegal moves during an engine game. Try it for yourselves sometime. (Edit: This is actually a visual glitch. The piece only appears to be on its new, illegal square but the move isn't actually recorded. Also this only happens in the PGN viewer, not in engine games)

Bottom line: Lucas Chess needs a lot more polish before it'll replace Tarrasch as my UI of choice for playing against engines. (I use Scid vs. PC for analysis and database searches)

I believe SCID vs PC is a free way to accomplish this:

http://scidvspc.sourceforge.net/

"Shane's Chess Information Database is a powerful Chess Toolkit, with which one can create huge chess databases, run engine analysis, or play casual games against the computer or online with the Free Internet Chess Server. It was originally written by Shane Hudson , and has received strong contribution from Pascal Georges and others.

Scid vs. PC is a usability and bug-fix fork of Scid with some new features. The project is authored by Stevenaaus, and has been extensively tested. For more screenshots, visit the Gallery. "

Good luck!

Deskop database application much in the same way (on a conceptual level, they look pretty different) as Chessbase. Open source, with two main branches, original SCID or SCID vs PC fork... fully compatible with each other on a core level, either will do depending on secondary features/ui choices that one feel more comfortable with.

Biggest point compared to traditional PGN editors is that they have their own .SI4 database format which allows for good performance and compat size even on huge archives, (again in a similar way Chessbase uses their .CBH database); can easily import/export PGN at will

Efficient data management allows for lots of interesting features, like on-the-fly generation of move trees, tons of filtering options, multi-database access/browsing/cross-reference, tournament & player reports and so on

It doesn't have the most pleasant UI and it takes a little bit of tinkering to understand its quirks, but it's very powerful

If you want to have a go at it, pick one of the two apps above, download the (again free) Caissabase DB as reference + import your own personal database/opening repertoire files and experiment a bit using the built-in Help files

If you capture the enemy king with your own king it will make a null move (passing a move). Than you can turn the engine on to see the lines with the other color to play in the original position. See "Entering Null Moves":

http://scidvspc.sourceforge.net/doc/Moves.htm

You should be able to try the beta 64 bit version of SCID vs PC (which is a fork of SCID) here:

http://scidvspc.sourceforge.net/#toc3

It's the one with 'Catalina' in the file name.

Hope this helps!

There is SCID vs Mac, does it work on chromebook? You can find all the download versions on their homepage (Downloads-tab)

The picture was about Atomic Chess openings, as in a chess variant. Yes, I have studied chess variant openings :D

I Prefer ScidvsPc GUI (scidvsmac also available). Uses polyglot libraries quite nicely. All you have to do is copy the .bin file into the book directory of scid and you can access it.

Is ChessBase 14 a worthy upgrade from ChessBase 13? I was thinking that by version 13, it should be a mature product and that version enhancements would be either esoteric or frivolous.

I just had a look at CB 13 on Steam and note that its pricing is the same as the latest CB 14. But CB 14 isn't on Steam.

As for the OP, I recommend either SCID or (my preference) SCIDvsPC. Both are excellent FOSS progams and will do what you're asking. You can run a chess engine within the program (I use Stockfish) and have it analyze and annotate your game(s).

My interest in ChessBase would mostly be for buying books in CBV format (eg. from Everyman Chess) so I can easily play out the games/positions while reading the text. On the other hand, now that I think of it, it would be much cheaper to use ScidvsPC to import the PGN version and read the text via epub on my Kobo.

Scid vs. PC might be interesting for you.

Scid is a Chess Database/GUI where you can:

• play against the computer
• import a big database (eg. Millionbase 2.2 million games)
• create a database with your own games
• analyse games with an engine
• explore master games (you can filter for openings, positions, players...)

(you can also save the games. So you can have small databases for each opening you play)

For further read check out the link in the sidebar

Scid vs. PC on Sourceforge

SCID is a free chess database program with which you could enter moves, variations, and comments for each opening and save it as a PGN game like you describe. Both SCID and its fork Scid vs. PC have Mac OS X binaries available.

Just want to mention Scid vs. PC as an alternative to BabasChess. It's mainly a chess database application (think ChessBase lite) but it's also a pretty decent FICS client.

Scid vs. PC is a great interface for analysis. Arena has always been a little buggy in my opinion. The strongest free engine is Houdini 1.5a.