Features in HCE and in Chessbase

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Zapflod
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Features in HCE and in Chessbase

Post by Zapflod »

As I'm a Mac user I have not used Chessbase 12 or the upcoming Chessbase 13, can anyone say what the major differences between HCE and Chessbase are? (besides the fact that Chessbase does not allow you to play against a computer). Am I missing out on something, is it worth getting a Windows PC just to get Chessbase?

To be clear, I'll give HCE a 9/10, as I find it perfect for my needs but I'm curious to hear what the rest of you have to say.

Edit: Spelling
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martinus
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Post by martinus »

Moving from Mac to Windows to use ChessBase, no, absolutely not. When changing operative system one lose a lot of time and money. I am sure you are able to come out with a better investment for your time and money.

I have been using almost everything that exists for chess in Mac and Windows since 1992; even before played a bit with some chess software for MS/DOS, ZX Spectrum, and so...

Compared with ChessBase, ExaChess for Mac is a pleasure to use and Hiarcs Chess Explorer is a pleasure and a luxury too.

I have ChessBase 12 and Fritz 13, I bought the license but both are currently uninstalled in my main computer (an AMD A6 Windows 7 Samsung laptop; at work place I have a Snow Leopard iMac).

In my laptop I am currently with Hiarcs Chess Explorer (I am an Hiarcs user since Hiarcs 6; did my best to get Hiarcs 4 but coudn't get a way to pay for/import it) and Thief to play on FICS. For my chess needs it is a very fine setup.

Generally speaking I find ChessBase hard to use and labyrinth like with its many windows and different ribbons. My God!

Also the Windows chess pasture is not so green inside as it looks like when viewed from the Mac side of things. Hiarcs (HCE) is fine and is going in a nice path.

Any question, just ask. Be happy.
Zapflod
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Post by Zapflod »

Thanks for the reply, I actually borrowed a PC from work and installed Fritz 14 just to see how it played...

It was frustrating just trying to open a PGN file, and it's just not as nice-looking as I find HCE to be.

So to recap, I'm not going to switch over and I'm not missing out on anything (but I'm happy that I did try Fritz), I'm a HCE user that's here to stay, great work with the program!

Can't wait to see what's in store for release 2.0 8)
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martinus
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Post by martinus »

Yes, and don't forget you need ChessBase to sort a games database to use in Fritz, without it any games collection just becomes a mess after some time.
Michael Blake
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Post by Michael Blake »

Lets' not forget that ChessBase does have many fine features, for example the simple task of deleting doubles which HCE is unable to do. I use HCE but ChessBase is no different than say MS Word or Excel, hundreds of features that not all users will use or ever need, but some of those users will use and need them.

I'm not in the camp of there is only one good piece of software, each can have its strengths and personally I hope that the strengths of ChessBase will help to drive forward the development of HCE.
Zapflod
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Post by Zapflod »

True, but as I'm Mac only my options are more limited.
I was interested to know if I'm missing out, for my needs HCE fits the bill, I imagine that with every new version it will get better and better.

I have watched YouTube clips showing Chessbase 12 and it looks really advanced, I like the feature to post directly to a homepage for instance.

I'm just glad that HCE is/does everything I really need and the fact that I think its a more beautiful app is only another plus in my book...

Edit: spelling
Zapflod
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Post by Zapflod »

What more can you do in Chessbase 12/13 that you cannot do in HCE?
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fourthirty
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Post by fourthirty »

Michael Blake wrote:I hope that the strengths of ChessBase will help to drive forward the development of HCE.
I have never used Chessbase.

Similar to Zapflod's question, what are the main features of Chessbase that HCE is missing?
Michael Blake
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Post by Michael Blake »

Similar to Zapflod's question, what are the main features of Chessbase that HCE is missing?
The main differences will be different for players according to their needs. For myself I would like to see HCE with the ability to find duplicates and manage databases a little better. Also useful perhaps would be a home screen showing all the registered databases so that we eliminate the need to use file explorer to find these and open them if we want to use them, in CB you can use the home screen to select databases for searching without having to one them as with HCE, you can also simply select a folder and run search on say all openings in separate databases. Having said that, I enjoy HCE and use it as my main tool.

ChessBase has a ton of features that I would enjoy if my very old Windows laptop would run it. For example, similar material search, similar position search and an ability to search multiple databases in one sweep.
gabeeg
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Post by gabeeg »

To add, Chessbase also handles much larger databases and can handle them faster. Chessbase has a lot of special tools that not everyone uses such as XFCC for Correspondence players. It features a multimedia system so databases can be bundled with audio, video and text (think Chessbase trainers, CBM, etc.). I would suggest taking a look at the available manual if you are interested in the features...there are a lot. HCE does the majority of what you need in a Database and you would really only need Chessbase if you miss some of the more specialized features. What HCE does though I think it does in a lot of ways better and more intuitively than Chessbase.
Kind Regards,
Harry Miktarian
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fourthirty
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Post by fourthirty »

Thank you Michael and Harry. I'll take a peek at the Chessbase manual.
Zapflod
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Post by Zapflod »

Thank you for the information!
ifekali
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Post by ifekali »

Main difference is in handling the databases.

HCE loads it's databases (PGN only) into memory first, only then one can use them. This means there's a wait when loading a dbase with half a million games. After that, there's no indexing or anything, the machine munches the data quite fast.

ChessBase on the other hand accesses it's databases via files on disk, only relevant chunks are loaded into memory when needed. This requires all kinds of software wizzardy like indexing and combing thru the files constantly, but in the end adds all kinds use possibilities.

HCE is simple, lean and fast, but can't handle big databases. ChessBase is big, complicated and frustrating, but can handle anything. Anything.

-Izmet
Michael Blake
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Post by Michael Blake »

ChessBase is big, complicated and frustrating, but can handle anything. Anything.
Not quite, it can't handle Mac OS as CB requires Windows. It can run on a Mac under Windows but that requires the user to buy a copy of that OS. :(
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