Chessbase Chess Tiger
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Chessbase Chess Tiger
05/10/01
Chess Tiger is now available as a Chessbase engine. Regular readers of this page will
probably pause at that last sentence, since they know that Chess Tiger
is marketed and sold by a competitor - Schroeder BV (the makers of
Rebel). And there are quite a few people in the computer chess
industry that thought there would never be this kind of relationship
between these two software houses.
But be that as it may, Chess Tiger is showing it’s popularity by
now being supported by three major chess playing and analysis GUIs:
the Chesspartner interface (by Lokasoft), Chess Assistant (by
Convekta), and now Chessbase. But note that you cannot simply take
your Chess Tiger engine coded for Chesspartner or Chess Assistant, and
copy it into your Chessbase engines folder and expect it to work. The
reason is that you need the Chessbase engine adapter file, which is
only available through Chessbase.
Of course, the mechanics of engine adapter files, and other things of
this nature, are not even visible to the average user, and Tiger
installs just like any other Chessbase engine. That is, it can be used
in Fritz or Chessbase, as long as you own either of these programs.
Tiger can also be run without any additional software, since it
includes the Fritz 6 GUI. And since this version of Tiger also
supports tablebases (for stronger endgame play), you can use any
nalimov tablebase files that you have already installed on your machine. Tiger
also includes a tablebase generation program on the CD (for generating
3-5 piece files). But be warned that generating all the five piece
files can demand some heavy-duty hardware.
When you buy Chess Tiger, you really get two different playing
programs. The first of these is Tiger 14.0, which plays a somewhat
solid, but tactical game. Gambit Tiger 2.0 is the second engine you
receive, and it plays in a very sacrificial style. It has increased
valuation for piece mobility and new knowledge of positional attacking
factors (as compared to the “normal” Tiger engine).
I’ve written a few things about Chess Tiger in the past, so I
won’t rehash all that information. However, if you want yet
another opinion on Tiger’s playing style, I would refer you to
Peter Schreiner’s article here.
While the Chessbase engine is identical to the Chesspartner and Chess
Assistant offerings, there is one major difference between Tiger
running under these interfaces. Each Tiger runs a different opening
book, depending on which GUI you are using. Other than that,
everything else is the same.
There are a couple of things that you want to be aware of if you do
buy this version of Tiger. First, the copy protection check failed
when I first started the program. Closing and restarting solved this
problem, so I do not consider it to be major. Also, if you are using
Chessbase 8, you may need an update (available for free, just check
the help menu and select online upgrade).
It’s clear that Chess Tiger is winning the popularity contest
among chess programs. It goes without saying that the engine is very
strong. And it would not have been chosen by the three largest chess
software houses if it wasn’t one of the best engines available
today. And with this latest move, owners of Chessbase products now
have access to this engine as well.
Copy Protection
CD-based refueling. After install, and at intervals, the user will be
asked to insert the original CD
