ChessBase 9 vs Chess Assistant 9

Posted by GilaChess
February 26, 2007

cbvsca.jpg
I have used both this software before and as a patzer, have not really made full use of them.

From personal experience I didn’t quite like the Chess Assistant ver 7 because it was buggy (at least on my PC) and crashed frequently. ChessBase 8 at that time was very stable.

However, now with the latest versions out, I see ChessBase 9 crashes often - particularly when you run the Opening Report feature. Software patches are supposed to fix this bugs. However because of this, I have been using Chessbase 8 more often.

On the other hand, the latest version of Chess Assistant version 9, seems very stable without any serious crashes. Chessbase is still the most popular chess database out there but I can see most of the features are also matched by Chess Assistant. The range of features offered by both databases are very similiar. Comparing the intuitiveness and ease of use, I’d say Chessbase is slightly better compared to Chess Assistant. However, given time, a typical chess player should figure out all the major function without any problem.

Since I just got Chess Assistant 9, I need more time to compare both the databases. But it’s safe to say that both are quite good and the choice of which one to use is a matter of taste.

Still, there are small but may be major differences in features that some players may find important. One example is “Prepare for opponent” feature that CA has but CB does not have. CB has “Opening Report” feature which CA doesn’t. I’ll post more on these later..

Related Links:-
Asean Chess Academy is the official distributor of Chess Assistant products while ChessBase is from well ChessBase (I don’t know of any local distributors here).
Free alternative : ChessDB (open source)

Popularity: 19% [?]

Chess Database

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Comments

SCID is also a very good database program http://prolinux.free.fr/scid/ and its free!

Comment by masrost71 on March 2, 2007 @ 12:57 am

Yeah I know about that. Forgot to add the link. Thanks.

For freeware I think ChessDB has more features as they already have basic features such as saving/loading PGN games and are also trying to copy some of the features of ChessBase.

Comment by GilaChess on March 2, 2007 @ 11:48 am

Sorry, I seem to have messed up the post - I don’t really know much tags.

Anyway, I was trying to say that ChessDB - which you can download from http://chessdb.sourceforge.net/ is an enhanced version of Scid, which is internet enabled now. It can dowload games from ICC and The Week In Chess (TWIC).

Comment by Peter Sherringham on March 11, 2007 @ 9:16 am

It’s no problem. I mess up tags on comments many times too.

Thanks for the update. I didn’t know that ChessDB can make online updates. It’s certainly a very useful feature.

Comment by GilaChess on March 11, 2007 @ 9:18 am
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