Shredder

kcdusk

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Anyone here ever use Shredder? I'm about to get the 30 day free download, and was interested in anyones comments on it. I was thinking of going classic shredder (24 pounds) but will likely end up going with deep shredder (50 pounds). I don't think i have a need for the top-of-the-line Shred.

I use PC based chess software to play against a computer and also analyse my games for blunders or to look at the moves or 3 that turned a game.
 

Scott Tortorice

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Anyone here ever use Shredder? I'm about to get the 30 day free download, and was interested in anyones comments on it. I was thinking of going classic shredder (24 pounds) but will likely end up going with deep shredder (50 pounds). I don't think i have a need for the top-of-the-line Shred.

I use PC based chess software to play against a computer and also analyse my games for blunders or to look at the moves or 3 that turned a game.
What do you think of Shredder? As you can tell, I am starting to look around for an updated chess program. :) I was going to go with Fritz 13, but I hear that there are a lot of good indie programs out there too, like Shredder and Hiarcs. I'm mostly interested in a program with good, plain English analysis. Hiarcs is supposedly even better than Fritz in this regard.
 

kcdusk

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History: I owned 3 different versions of Chessmaster over the years, and loved it. Lots of people loved the tutorials and being able to play against different personalitied opponants. But i really liked how CM could analyse your game and "talk" to you at the same time "Chessmaster recommends you do ABC instead of XYZ, and you win, a pawn". Thats what i enjoyed most about CM.

Future: I'm on a Mac now, so that limited my choices for chess programs. I was asking around on the chess.com forum about free programs but it got too hard for me. You have to find a free engine and a free GUI, know how to install them and both had to be Mac compatible. I gave up and downloaded Shredder trial for free and used that for a month. Later, i purchased the cheapest version of Shredder (US22.00).

What do i think? I miss Chessmaster. Playing a game against Shredder is good, not much different to CM. But the analysis is not the same, maybe not as useful for me. You can get your games analysed and Shredder gives you a +/- after each of your moves and the opponents, and in some places it will give you a string of alternate moves you could have made. But it doesnt say at the end "you win a pawn" or "you have more room and your opponant is cramped". So in Shredder I dont always know whats better about the 5 or so moves it might recommend, or theres work to determine "i gained a bishop for 2 pawns and ..... maybe i have a better position as well". Shredder just gives you an alternate view in brackets that you can chose to follow. I learnt the most from CM.

On the plus side, you can choose to have a graph on the side of your game that shows after each move if white or black is in front, and by how much. I've enjoyed that, but it can also be a distraction because your working out why your so far up or down instead of working on your next move. You can turn it off if you like.

If you want Scott, send me a game of yours and i'll run it through Shredder analysis and i can post its output, give you an idea of what it does. See if its for you.

I've got work now, and am away this weekend, but i'm happy to post some screen shots etc if that'll help.

Shoot me any questions if you like, I'll be back on line Sunday arvo.
 

Scott Tortorice

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History: I owned 3 different versions of Chessmaster over the years, and loved it. Lots of people loved the tutorials and being able to play against different personalitied opponants. But i really liked how CM could analyse your game and "talk" to you at the same time "Chessmaster recommends you do ABC instead of XYZ, and you win, a pawn". Thats what i enjoyed most about CM.

What do i think? I miss Chessmaster. Playing a game against Shredder is good, not much different to CM. But the analysis is not the same, maybe not as useful for me. You can get your games analysed and Shredder gives you a +/- after each of your moves and the opponents, and in some places it will give you a string of alternate moves you could have made. But it doesnt say at the end "you win a pawn" or "you have more room and your opponant is cramped". So in Shredder I dont always know whats better about the 5 or so moves it might recommend, or theres work to determine "i gained a bishop for 2 pawns and ..... maybe i have a better position as well". Shredder just gives you an alternate view in brackets that you can chose to follow. I learnt the most from CM.
Exactly my sentiments as well. The +/- stuff is functional, but it doesn't make analyzing your games easy or interesting. I wasn't going to do it, but I think I will reinstall CMGM again since it really was a great program. I wonder if Ubisoft is going to keep up with the franchise going forward?

And after asking around a bit, I think I will stick with Fritz 13 as people don't seem as hyped by HIARCS as that video makes it sound like. Most people seem to say that Fritz is still the best when it comes to features and English-assisted analysis. I've always been happy with it in the past, so I think I will stick with it again (even if Chessbase has yet to implement proper QA procedures for their software - every title is buggy as heck and is seemingly patched in a random, haphazard fashion. :().

If you want Scott, send me a game of yours and i'll run it through Shredder analysis and i can post its output, give you an idea of what it does. See if its for you.
Thanks! But I am okay. I still have CMGM, and I can even install Fritz 11 again if I want. I just wanted to start fresh with a new chess program.
 

kcdusk

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Fritz gives you english-assisted analysis, does it? Similar to Chessmaster (because i'm familiar with CM)?

Edit: bah, doesnt matter, Fritz doesnt look to come in Apple flavour.
 

Scott Tortorice

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Fritz gives you english-assisted analysis, does it? Similar to Chessmaster (because i'm familiar with CM)?
Yeah, it does. You can see an example of its analysis in my blog's chess entries, such as this one. Too bad it isn't available for Apple. Somewhat surprising seeing how Chess is a cross-platform game. :D I swear, these chess software companies are as stuck in the mud as most wargame developers. Chessbase products should all be cross-platform by now, not to mention available on Steam.
 
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