The threat is stronger than the execution
— Nimzowitsch
Category: Games
NBA 2K12 Available for iOS on October 4
Together with the release of the NBA 2K12 for PS3 and other consoles, 2K Sports will also be releasing the NBA 2K12 game app for iOS devices like the iPod, iPhone and iPad.
CNET’s Tap That App is all praises for this app:
I’ve purchased and played with EA’s NBA Elite app, and just as in the PS3 console, I’m pretty sure 2K will beat EA anytime of the day — especially when it comes to gameplay quality. Continue reading
Wishlist: DGT e-Board + Classic Chess Set + Digital Chess Clock
The plug & play DGT electronic chess board brings you the best of two worlds. The classical game of chess finaly merged with 21st century computer and internet technology.
The beautiful classic wooden DGT e-board easely connects to the USB port on your PC. With the DGT e-board you can play online at internet chess sites like PlayChess, Chess 21 and ICC. The ingenious e-board acts as input device for all major playing programs.
The DGT e-board is the ultimate chess-PC interface. It adds a new dimension to your chess fun. A typical DGT product. Innovative, designed for the real chess lover. High quality and value for money.
The giftbox comes with a special edition of the famous Fritz program and 100 days free access at playchess.com
Interview with Wesley So
Chess master William Stewart of OnlineChessLessons.net had a text interview with our very own GM Wesley So on his rise to becoming a Grandmaster and his usual practice or study routine. Read the interview.
Stewart also analyzed So’s game way back in the 2009 World Cup against GM Gadir Guseinov. Continue reading
Running Fritz 12 on a Mac: VMWare vs. Boot Camp
If you are running software that are CPU intensive like some of our people are then boot camp is the way to go because you will have the native speed of the machine.
So, I guess I made the better decision with going with the Boot Camp way. Fritz 12 is definitely CPU-intensive, especially when utilizing all cores of your machine.
The Chess Explorer by Hiarcs
The Hiarcs page right now goes:
HIARCS Chess Explorer is an exciting new chess product which is under development and we hope will be available in the autumn 2011. More details on the new chess explorer application will be posted here when they are ready. We hope chess players of all chess abilities who really wish to explore and improve their chess will like the new HIARCS chess explorer software.
For me, this leaves more questions than answers:
- Is this a GUI alternative to Chessbase’ Fritz 12?
- Is this thing available for Windows and Mac?
- Is this Hiarcs answer due to Sigma Chess not available to support OS X Lion?
- Can I install other competing engines?
- Will it have intuitive interface for game analysis?
- Will I become a better player with this software?
- Will this be free or shall be sold for a hefty amount?
- Do you think it can beat Houdini?
I can go on and on, even with stupid questions, but really, that page is not helping a lot. Hope Hiarcs can come up with a concrete answer and hopefully fill that bridge for a good native chess program for the Mac.
What Goes into the Minds of Grandmasters?
A Grandmaster makes the best moves because they are based on what he wants the board to look like ten or twenty moves in the future. This doesn’t require the calculation of countless twenty-move variations. He evaluates where his fortunes lie in the position and establishes objectives. Then he works out the step-by-step moves to accomplish those aims.
— Garry Kasparov (on his book “How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom)
Raptor is a Great FICS Desktop Client for Mac
Free Internet Chess Server (FICS), which can be found at www.freechess.org, is a great way to play chess online for free. Besides being free, another great thing about FICS is the presence of a huge community, so that you’ll always have someone within your playing level to start a game with. It is also highly moderated by system and human moderators so that trolls and cheaters are quickly identified and acted upon accordingly.
I used to connect to FICS via Winboard or BabasChess on my Windows machine. But now that I’m on a Mac (specifically on an Intel, Mac OS X Lion 10.7, Macbook Pro 13″ Early 2011), these two programs don’t just seem to work. Good thing I stumbled upon a comment from one user in the FICS group in Facebook about Raptor Chess. Continue reading
Mac Desktop Client for FICS
UPDATE: I actually already found a great FICS client for Mac: Raptor Chess.
If you have have read in my previous post, I’ve been a Mac convert for sometime now. And I would like very much to test the computing power of a Mac upto its full potential.
I also liked playing chess on FICS or freechess.org. And I have been looking for Apps or programs that can be a desktop client for connecting to FICS. In my Windows days, my favorite was Winboard, though I sometimes used BabasChess. Continue reading
Chess on a Mac
Admittedly, Chessbase’ Fritz 12 is the best program for the PC. The Fritz 12 (or even the Deep Fritz 12) engine may not be the strongest computer chess engine out there, but the Chessbase interface is able to deliver on its purpose. I use it widely when analyzing games and studying openings. I load my favorite engines like Rybka, Houdini, Stockfish, etc., to test some of the more stronger engines.
But the problem is it’s only available in PC. When oh when can they be able to make a program for the Mac? I’m a Mac convert now, and there really are a lot of Mac users who are anticipating this from Chessbase. Although I already paid for the licensed copy of Fritz 12 for Windows, I’ll be willing to shell out another for the Mac — for as long as it will natively run on the Intel Mac. Continue reading