Best 2012 chess GUI ?

Ponti · Post by **Ponti** » Mon Dec 31, 2012 7:54 pm

Which one ?

Please explain your choice!

My best wishes for all my forum friends - happy new year !

velmarin · Post by **velmarin** » Mon Dec 31, 2012 8:00 pm

I like Fritz and Chessbase, which are almost the same,
Chessbase but does not allow play between engines.

My vote is for Houdini-Chessbase is the same interface as Fritz 13 (or fritz 12 which is what normally use).

Matthias Gemuh · Post by **Matthias Gemuh** » Mon Dec 31, 2012 9:07 pm

When ChessGUI bugs shall be fixed, guess how the GUI shall fare in future polls.

Ponti · Post by **Ponti** » Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:31 pm

My own vote goes to Houdini in Fritz (Chessbase´s) GUI. It is the GUI I use most.

I like Aquarium for analysis, but its database features are not so good.

Maybe Hiarcs Chess Explorer is best, but I don´t own it so I´m not sure.
It lacks Internet server connectivity.

I like Shredder´s GUI except the 3D graphics.

Arena seems buggy every time I try to run it.

CA 13 is old. I think the package is way better than Chessbase´s, though.

Chessbase 12 wins the "most buggy GUI of the year" award in my opinion.

ChessGUI´s graphics are ugly. Maybe it is just designed for eng-eng matches...

Winboard Zeta is a nice GUI, but it lacks 3D graphics.

Lavir · Post by **Lavir** » Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:35 pm

Ponti wrote: ChessGUI´s graphics are ugly. Maybe it is just designed for eng-eng matches...

Also if it's meant for eng-eng graphics play a huge part; the name already say why, if it's a graphic interface then graphics are obviously important, elsewhere you will simply use something like cutechess-cli or littleblitzer.

If ChessGUI had reasonable graphics it would be miles ahead of the competition. It's a shame, really, also because it doesn't take that much work to make a nice looking board/pieces (there are even freeware font pieces to take, as Merida for example).

Ponti wrote: Maybe Hiarcs Chess Explorer is best

Limited database functionality (you cannot import large databases, filters are much less powerful than many either freeware options), no engine matches/tournaments, limited analysis functionality, handicap and friendly matches done worse than Shredder or Fritz etc. etc., so what should it have of "best"?

Matthias Gemuh · Post by **Matthias Gemuh** » Tue Jan 01, 2013 9:22 pm

A warning !

ChessGUI is doing well in this poll, but I warn newbies not to download it now.
Insiders know how to cope with a couple of serious ChessGUI "issues".
Newbies should wait for bugfixed release (possibly with better graphics).

Cheers,
Matthias.

hgm · Post by **hgm** » Tue Jan 01, 2013 9:58 pm

No XBoard?
No XBoard-GTK?
Not even the 'normal' WinBoard?

Graham Banks · Post by **Graham Banks** » Tue Jan 01, 2013 10:05 pm

Matthias Gemuh wrote:A warning !

ChessGUI is doing well in this poll, but I warn newbies not to download it now.
Insiders know how to cope with a couple of serious ChessGUI "issues".
Newbies should wait for bugfixed release (possibly with better graphics).

Cheers,
Matthias.

Hopefully the good showing of ChessGUI in this poll will tell you that your efforts are appreciated, and that it's worthwhile to keep working on improving it.

Matthias Gemuh · Post by **Matthias Gemuh** » Tue Jan 01, 2013 10:38 pm

Graham Banks wrote:
Matthias Gemuh wrote:A warning !

ChessGUI is doing well in this poll, but I warn newbies not to download it now.
Insiders know how to cope with a couple of serious ChessGUI "issues".
Newbies should wait for bugfixed release (possibly with better graphics).

Cheers,
Matthias.
Hopefully the good showing of ChessGUI in this poll will tell you that your efforts are appreciated, and that it's worthwhile to keep working on improving it.

The poll puts pressure on me, but I have been planning to resume work on ChessGUI this February anyway.

smatovic · Post by **smatovic** » Tue Jan 01, 2013 10:38 pm

as an XBoard user i feel a bit discriminated.....

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Srdja