If you like/don't mind South Park you should watch Le Petit Tourette. All of the episodes are available on southparkstudios.com for free. All this predator talk reminded me of it.

can we still tell you to not shortstack? just wanna know.

I'd like to know more about how chessbase and Rybka help you. Does a person actually order them online? I'm not sure I'm dedicated enough to diligently use them, but it sounds like anybody wanting to improve, must do it. Thanks for the tips.

You can find free (non pirated) versions of Stockfish, Houdini and Firebird - all of which are stronger than Rybka.

Nice propaganda.

Propaganda!?- What are you talking about? These engines were rated higher than Rybka according to the official engine rating list as of a few weeks ago, at least. Or do you mean something else?

Show the link.

Really? Rybka 2.2, Toga II, Crafty, all these are acceptable for analysis of positions and are free. It's really splitting hairs when a Class player is choosy over whether his engine is 2800 or 2900 - kind of a moot point in most cases. Although some of the engines are more 'human-like' in the lines they choose to present. To do DB/engine study you need 2 things, an engine, and a db program to sift through the games. you can go the free route or the pay route. chessbase is nice and all, but it is a bit of a rip off for mortals. just download the mil base, update the twic games, find a decent free engine, and you'll soon forget everything you looked at like the rest of us! or you can pay 300 bucks, get chessbase super platinum ultimate edition or whatever it is called, brag about it to your friends, spend hours analysing things, and then promptly forget them when it comes up over the board! at least that's my experience lol

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_engine, Rybka is at the top of every rating list.

By the way, if someone asks for a link backing up something that was said, give them the link. Don't rant at them and condescend to them as a "class player." Just give the link or say you don't have a link.

I didn't mention the engines, so I wouldn't know where to link an article I didn't mention. 2nd, I wasn't ranting, and calling someone a class player isn't an insult or condenscending, in fact he lists himself as an A player, stronger than I am. So I figured I'd make a lighthearted post explaining the difference between a db and an engine, and how it really doesn't matter because a) a beginner/intermediate player won't make any more use of a 3000 engine than a 2600 engine, and b) unless used properly, there's no point anyway. My apologies if it came out that way. But then again, it was a different user who posts a 'nice propaganda' comment which frankly makes no sense to me and comes across as an asshole. As to your wiki link, the engine strength there is hardly a practical measure, chess engines are very sensitive to computer build/chipset. That being said, Rybka is probably strongest (deep rybka 4), but for all practical purposes it's a waste of money, unless you intend to leave it running overnight on a cloud network to find a novelty for you at tournaments or something. The free engines are plenty strong enough to do analysis. Anything over 3000 is just bravado imo.

just wanted to mention that Rybka version 2.3.2a is free.
http://www.rybkachess.com/index.php?aus ... mo+version

i find Houdini to be a bigger resource hog on my old laptop. i also like Rybka's style as it suggests some cool pawn sac ideas that other engines don't consider. so check out Rybka 2.3.2 also

Rybka 4 is now at the top. When I looked at the list a few weeks ago, Houdini was #1. The link I was referring to was http://www.inwoba.de/

I also don't understand the "propaganda" remark.

Also, "please show the link" would be an improvement over the brusque, potentially rude, "show the link".

All the firbird guys just loved to put rybka down. "Show the link" worked. "please show the link" might not have worked.
Anyway now it seems houdini 1.5 is stronger than rybka.