Chess Program Review Archive

While I am no longer an active e-mail chess player (my last game was over 5 years ago), I recently took a look at Rebel-ECTool 6.0 from Andreas Valverde and Schroder BV(the makers of Rebel). For those of you not familiar with the program, it takes all the tedious work out of playing e-mail chess. Anyone using POP3 and SMTP e-mail clients will find this program to be a handy addition.

Andreas has integrated a very easy to use graphical chess board with an e-mail program, to produce a slick tool for the electronic correspondence chess enthusiast. Once you set up your ISP information, you can use ECTool to keep track of all your e-mail games. Internet geezers like me remember hand-typing game scores into pine (a text-mode e-mail program). To say that this program is an improvement would be a vast understatement. Not only does it eliminate the tedious procedure that I just mentioned, it also takes care of time stamping, selecting notational choices, tracking player data, etc. It also stores all the games you have in progress, or have played in the past. There is even a feature for automatically updating games in the database when you receive new moves via e-mail.

The user interface of the program is very good, with large buttons on the speedbar, and a very straightforward interface. The only problem I experienced was with the installation of the windows help file. Fortunately, there is a very good English manual on the ECTool website (where you can also find many other interesting things).

The version I looked at also included the Rebel Century engine for ECTool. Currently, this is the only way that you can get the Century engine as a windows program (you can run DOS versions of Rebel under windows also, but this is not as nice as having a full windows program). Furthermore, the engine can employ a number of personalities, and Rebel-format opening books.

Rebel fans might be interested to know that you can analyze games (and not just positions) within ECTool. Couple this with ECTools PGN import/export facilities, and you have a way to analyze your games with a windows version of the Rebel engine.

This program is pretty much the standard for e-mail chess play. Those of you that want more information should also look at the excellent review written by Gordon Evans (on the Ectool website) – it goes into greater detail about some of the other features of this program.

CHESS SETS FROM AMERICA'S LARGEST CHESS STORE
Chess USA is America's leading retailer of chess sets, chess pieces, chess boards, and more. In fact, for 30 years Your Move Chess & Games has been the leading retailer of all things chess! Not everyone can view the hundreds of chess sets we have on display in our New York Chess Store, which is why we strive to have the most detailed chess website anywhere on the internet. After All, with over 2,000 chess sets, chess boards, chess pieces, chess computers and more, we need to be detailed! No matter what you are looking for, from chess set or chess program, our knowledgable staff is ready to help.

Have a Chess Set already, and just need to freshen up on the rules? We've got them - just click here

Your Move Chess & Games, America's Largest Chess Set Store. It's Your Move!