These are what I think are essential chess software for the chess player nowadays. Not just professionals but typical club players.
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Deep Rybka 3 Acknowledged to be the world’s strongest chess engine. ‘Deep’ refers to the multiprocessor version of this chess analysis monster. Since most computers nowadays are at least dual-core, it’s better to get the ‘Deep’ version to squeeze even more ELO strength out of this already formidable analysis engine. Fritz is still popular but Rybka is just stronger. Common use of this engine is to pin-point missed tactics. Some lazy players (me included!) leave the engine to analyse the games overnight to do the hard work of checking the games for mistakes/improvements. Of course everybody knows the best thing is to use your own brains to criticallly analyse first and then only compare with the engine’s findings. That’s how one can derive the maximum benefit of using a strong engine. Problem is that I’m just too lazy to follow this advice |
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Megabase 2009 Great for opening and sometimes preparation against specific opponents. Couple this with “Opening Report” feature in Chessbase 10 and you have a nice way to study openings. Also a good supplement to opening books which are quickly outdated in the latest variations. With a huge 4 million+ games and 62,000 of them annotated, this is the only chess database anyone would need. I just update the newer games using TWIC and the database is up to date. |
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Chessbase 10 You need this to enter your games, search from Megadatabases and it is the single chess program that I use the most often. Of course you can also use the FREE Chessbase reader that comes with Megadatabase but it’s a crippled version with many features unavailable. Better to get the real deal in Chessbase 10. Use this to annotate your games, save analysis, and watch those chess media videos from Chessbase. |
Owning any one of the original Chessbase products also entitles you to one year of Playchess.com user account.
Of course Chessbase product is not the only programs you can use. I see some professional chess players using Convekta products such as Chess Assistant.
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