Answers.Body: <p>By far, ChessBase is the most popular one, it has been there for a long time. But there is other software that can do more or less what ChessBase can do, like Chess Assistant. </p>
  
  <p>When you compare software, you should consider comparing for example Fritz vs. Hiarcs or ChessBase vs. Chess Assistant, because Fritz or Houdini or Rybka are mainly engines with the capability of full game analysis and ChessBase is more of a database with special feature for the pros.</p>
  
  <p>In terms of opening encyclopedia or other products, they could be read with almost any professional chess software. So, no problem here.</p>
  
  <p>Finally, if you are not a professional chess player, any software like Hiarcs, Shredder or even Stockfish with a GUI could help you and you don't need to buy such expensive software.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2017-08-26T05:08:51.207Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2020-03-22T20:38:19.713Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2020-03-22T20:38:19.713Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Ako Heidari
Body: <p>I am a Mac user and ChessBase is not available. Instead I purchased Hiarcs. I would like advise as to whether there's added value to ChessBase that should motivate me to install ChessBase on Parallels or even to buy a cheap laptop for this.
  Note: my question is not related to engine usage as I don't believe that should matter so much, but rather for DB management, meaning availability of DBs, ease of management, etc... Any pointers would be appreciated!</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-06-16T01:09:11.010Z
Comments.Text: I do not have experience with Hiarcs, but I like ChessBase together with one of the megabases for its usefulness when preparing for OTB games. I can quickly look up opponents, find their games, and let ChessBase extract an openings tree from their games to see what they play, how often they played it and what results they got. Besides that I have a database of my own games, but I do not use that database too much (except for bookkeeping).
Comments.UserDisplayName: TMM
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-06-16T01:10:25.280Z
Comments.Text: For others to be able to help you, it might help if you describe specifically what you are using the software for, and what features you are looking for (that you do not have with Hiarcs).
Comments.UserDisplayName: TMM
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-07-02T19:54:50.397Z
Comments.Text: 1. Regarding preparing for your opponents, surely this is only if you're playing at expert level? I can't imagine games of simple club players would be included in the CB database..?!
  
  2. I would primarily like to use the program for studying opening lines, to quickly go over games to see different ideas and lines in the openings I play. Hiarcs comes with a rather "small" DB of around 35000 games, and from my research it's not it's easy to get hold of large DBs. I understand CB sells also a huge DB (thought about the idea of buying only this DB and converting it to pgn to use in Hiarcs).
Comments.UserDisplayName: acye
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-07-03T00:38:00.967Z
Comments.Text: CB also sells opening books/trees separately, at cheaper rates than their databases. I'm not sure if those work with other software as well, but it may be a good alternative to study openings. There used to be some large (1M+ games) free databases before, but I also couldn't find any of those anymore when I searched for them recently. (And indeed, preparing only works if your opponent's games are in the database. When playing against young, active 2000+ players there are usually plenty of games available.)
Comments.UserDisplayName: TMM
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-07-03T08:58:27.647Z
Comments.Text: Thank you for your answer. I'm indeed beginning to suspect that there's a good reason that "everyone" is using CB.. Now, I did notice that they offer also the "Opening Encyclopedia", so maybe buying CB 14 and the Opening Encyclopedia separately is a better alternative than buying one of the CB packages that come with the Big/Mega Database, which I understand is less geared towards opening study. Do you have an opinion on this (The Big/Mega DB vs the Opening Encyclopedia)?
Comments.UserDisplayName: acye
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-07-03T09:55:20.607Z
Comments.Text: Well, I also use the database both for preparing against opponent's, and for looking up full games in certain opening lines to get a feel for common plans in those positions. You won't get this with the opening encyclopedia. CB has a free online DB now though, which can be accessed via the Internet and also offers functionality for looking up players and searching for games in given variations. So I think settling for the CB + opening encyclopedia (or even Fritz + opening encyclopedia, if those are compatible) and using that online DB on the side could be a good option.
Comments.UserDisplayName: TMM
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-07-03T16:28:32.960Z
Comments.Text: Ah, so the opening encyclopedia doesn't contain full games? Only the initial moves?
  
  It's not clear to me what the difference between these two products is.
Comments.UserDisplayName: acye
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-07-03T17:47:46.627Z
Comments.Text: Actually, I will create a separate thread for this as I have a few more Chessbase related questions. Thanks!
Comments.UserDisplayName: acye
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-07-04T01:59:58.497Z
Comments.Text: I think the opening encyclopedia is mostly a tree of variations, with assessments of different lines and statistics on results played in those variations. Those variations end at some point though, and I think the encyclopedia doesn't contain full games. Databases contain only games, but with CB it is possible to generate such opening trees from large databases as well.
Comments.UserDisplayName: TMM
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-07-15T12:49:04.150Z
Comments.Text: I can now confirm that the Opening Encyclopedia does contain full games.
Comments.UserDisplayName: acye
Tags: <software><database><chessbase>
Title: Chessbase vs Hiarcs for DB management
ThreadText: # Chessbase vs Hiarcs for DB management
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2017-06-03)
  
  I am a Mac user and ChessBase is not available. Instead I purchased Hiarcs. I would like advise as to whether there's added value to ChessBase that should motivate me to install ChessBase on Parallels or even to buy a cheap laptop for this.
  Note: my question is not related to engine usage as I don't believe that should matter so much, but rather for DB management, meaning availability of DBs, ease of management, etc... Any pointers would be appreciated!
  
  **Tags:** software, database, chessbase
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: I do not have experience with Hiarcs, but I like ChessBase together with one of the megabases for its usefulness when preparing for OTB games. I can quickly look up opponents, find their games, and let ChessBase extract an openings tree from their games to see what they play, how often they played it and what results they got. Besides that I have a database of my own games, but I do not use that database too much (except for bookkeeping).  
  > **username_1**: For others to be able to help you, it might help if you describe specifically what you are using the software for, and what features you are looking for (that you do not have with Hiarcs).  
  > **username_0**: 1. Regarding preparing for your opponents, surely this is only if you're playing at expert level? I can't imagine games of simple club players would be included in the CB database..?!  2. I would primarily like to use the program for studying opening lines, to quickly go over games to see different ideas and lines in the openings I play. Hiarcs comes with a rather "small" DB of around 35000 games, and from my research it's not it's easy to get hold of large DBs. I understand CB sells also a huge DB (thought about the idea of buying only this DB and converting it to pgn to use in Hiarcs).  
  > **username_1**: CB also sells opening books/trees separately, at cheaper rates than their databases. I'm not sure if those work with other software as well, but it may be a good alternative to study openings. There used to be some large (1M+ games) free databases before, but I also couldn't find any of those anymore when I searched for them recently. (And indeed, preparing only works if your opponent's games are in the database. When playing against young, active 2000+ players there are usually plenty of games available.)  
  > **username_0**: Thank you for your answer. I'm indeed beginning to suspect that there's a good reason that "everyone" is using CB.. Now, I did notice that they offer also the "Opening Encyclopedia", so maybe buying CB 14 and the Opening Encyclopedia separately is a better alternative than buying one of the CB packages that come with the Big/Mega Database, which I understand is less geared towards opening study. Do you have an opinion on this (The Big/Mega DB vs the Opening Encyclopedia)?  
  > **username_1**: Well, I also use the database both for preparing against opponent's, and for looking up full games in certain opening lines to get a feel for common plans in those positions. You won't get this with the opening encyclopedia. CB has a free online DB now though, which can be accessed via the Internet and also offers functionality for looking up players and searching for games in given variations. So I think settling for the CB + opening encyclopedia (or even Fritz + opening encyclopedia, if those are compatible) and using that online DB on the side could be a good option.  
  > **username_0**: Ah, so the opening encyclopedia doesn't contain full games? Only the initial moves?  It's not clear to me what the difference between these two products is.  
  > **username_0**: Actually, I will create a separate thread for this as I have a few more Chessbase related questions. Thanks!  
  > **username_1**: I think the opening encyclopedia is mostly a tree of variations, with assessments of different lines and statistics on results played in those variations. Those variations end at some point though, and I think the encyclopedia doesn't contain full games. Databases contain only games, but with CB it is possible to generate such opening trees from large databases as well.  
  > **username_0**: I can now confirm that the Opening Encyclopedia does contain full games.  
  
  ---
  
  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_2 on 2017-08-26. Score: 1
  
  By far, ChessBase is the most popular one, it has been there for a long time. But there is other software that can do more or less what ChessBase can do, like Chess Assistant.
  
  When you compare software, you should consider comparing for example Fritz vs. Hiarcs or ChessBase vs. Chess Assistant, because Fritz or Houdini or Rybka are mainly engines with the capability of full game analysis and ChessBase is more of a database with special feature for the pros.
  
  In terms of opening encyclopedia or other products, they could be read with almost any professional chess software. So, no problem here.
  
  Finally, if you are not a professional chess player, any software like Hiarcs, Shredder or even Stockfish with a GUI could help you and you don't need to buy such expensive software.
  
  
  ---
  
  