What do I do with my old score sheets?

Submitted by DrDave on Tue, 13/12/2011 - 10:47

Table of Contents

What do I do with my old score sheets?
Long version:

What do I do with my old score sheets?

<tl;dr> version:

Enter the games on the computer and do something with them, like find other games with the same opening, or get a computer to suggest better moves. In Windows XP, you can do all that for free using Fritz 5.32.

List of free software for Windows: http://freechess.50webs.com/index.html
List of software for Macs: http://www.sigmachess.com/_macchesslinks/macchesslinks.html
List of free software for Android phones: https://market.android.com/search?q=chess&c=apps&price=1&so=1

Long version:

Saving games onto a computer file

	WINDOWS	MAC	ANDROID
FREE	j2chess, WinBoard, ChessDB		ChessPad
COMMERCIAL	ChessBase, Fritz, ChessAssistant

Health warning: I haven't got a Mac or an iPhone.

Play through saved games

	WINDOWS	MAC	ANDROID
FREE	j2chess, WinBoard, ChessDB, ChessBase Light, CA7 Light
COMMERCIAL	Fritz, ChessBase, Chess Assistant

Find databases of old chess games

	WINDOWS	MAC	ANDROID
FREE	Pittsburg, TWIC
COMMERCIAL	ChessBase, Chess Assistant

ChessDB will download files from TWIC for you, and most of them are in a single database at http://www.top-5000.nl/dl.htm?file=dl/Million%20Base%201.74.rar

Find similar positions

	WINDOWS	MAC	ANDROID
FREE	ChessDB ChessBase Light CA7 Light
COMMERCIAL	ChessBase, Chess Assistant

Have computer look over your shoulder while you go through a game

	WINDOWS	MAC	ANDROID
FREE	Fritz 5.32, Stockfish/Crafty+WinBoard	HIARCS*	Droidfish*
COMMERCIAL	Fritz, ChessBase, Chess Assistant

* Chess-playing software comes in two parts, an 'engine' that does the thinking, and a 'front end' or GUI which allows you to see the moves on a board. Sometimes you can get one GUI to work with several engines. So, Stockfish is an engine, and Droidfish is a GUI that works with Stockfish, and you download the two together when you install it.