Name   Lawrence S. Tamarkin

Email  mrslug@nwlink.com



Rebel9 has just about everything one could want in a chess 

program: strength, database features are plentiful, and 

there is even a special download site on the Rebel home 

page, where owners can add to the already plentiful games

and utilities that come with Rebel.  



Still, Rebel does need to become a windows program in the 

future, as it does seem to suffer certain peculiarities of 

a Dos program - It occasionally crashes in windows, and how 

one moves the pieces with the mouse, seems more clunky to me

then chess programs that are made for windows.



But Rebel9 does win my heart with its very human like style, 

and its outstanding feature set.  On a scale from 1 to 10, 

I would give it an 8.  



It is also very reasonably priced so one can hardly go wrong 

in buying it, especially as the technical support from 

Schroder B.V. is a company that really cares about what their 

customers think, and tries to accommodate their desires in the

subsequent versions.





Name   Don Prohaska

Email  prohaska@ccis.com



It is obvious that Rebel 9 is by far the best Dos chess program

ever developed. It is fast. It is bug free. 



Even though it can be easily run through Windows95, I think it 

is best run from Dos. After all it is a Dos program. Window95 

hogs ram, even it you are running any Dos program through a 

Windows short cut. 



I don't know how much more Rebel can do in Dos. Future versions

will probably have to be in Windows, even though that might 

cause the Rebel engine some weaknesses. It seems so much more 

can be done in Windows. 



Regardless, Rebel is the closest to a Windows program that you 

can have in Dos. Great program. Support is great, probably the best! 





Name   

Email  jgmreuling@tref.nl



Ik vind het een zeer mooi programma. 



Alleen zou ik de tijdcontroles wat uitgebreid zien, b.v. 40 

zetten in 2 uur en de rest van de partij in 1 uur of 30 

min, andere programma's zijn hierin beter voorzien. 



Ik speel zeer veel via de autoplayer tegen andere programma's

en Rebel komt daar toch wel als beste uit.







Name   Bill Ross

Email  74633.610@compuserve.com



so far I like rebel 8 better (when I could configure it to 60mg.

Rebel 9 only goes to 28???  I would like a help button.  

Support is poor.



Remark of the Schröder BV

You can get 60 Mb hash tables in Rebel9 in the same way as

Rebel8. See the README file. HELP is supplied, see your

Rebel9 quick-guide. Go to the pulldown menu item you want

HELP, then click or press "?" and Rebel9 will go to the 

right place in the manual.







Name   William Fasse

Email  william.fasse@hermes.okol.oamk.fi



Best all around chess program I have ever seen. 



But their seems to be a problem in the database as after 

you rewrite a game if you continue moving thereafter the

program has its own idea of the position and or whose move

it is.



Remark of the Schröder BV

We can confirm this. Press HOME to bypass the problem.









Name   John Crooks

Email  MiCrooks@aol.com



Have owned all of the Chessmaster series and have enjoyed their

capable play.  Recently with 5000, I was disappointed in the 

bugs in the database features as well as a persistent emphasis

on funky chess sets and boards. I have always played with top

down pieces as I find all 3D boards to date too hard to see.



I started looking for other chess programs on the net, and 

ran into Rebel early on.  I downloaded Decade, but again 

was frustrated as it was a DOS program which consistently 

crashed under Win95 on my machine.  I got on Rebel's 

mailing list and was sent notices of the release of 9.0.



After months of consideration, I bit the bullet and ordered

it.  The bonus disk helped make up my mind BTW.



I am quite pleased with it.  It plays wonderfully well. I am

still somewhat frustrated by occasional crashes under Win95, 

but some tweeks to the settings have made them les frequent.



I love the ability to easily scan through databases, replay 

games, and jump in with a quality chess engine to do analysis.



Keep up the good work. I'm sold!







Name   Jochen Schoof

Email  schoof@informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de



To make it short, Rebel9 is a great chess program and

comes with more additional material (tools, databases,

opening books, etc.) than any other program I know.

The possibility to get updates to this material via

the internet is another big plus for Schroder BV. As

a customer you recognize that you are still taken care

of after already having spend your money, which is not

as usual as it should be.



I have to admit that one of Rebel's most important

features for me is, that it still is a DOS program.

I don't like Windows and try to avoid it whereever

possible. Nearly every chess program became a Win-

dows application during the last few years and so

I'm very happy to be able to use a very powerful

DOS-based program. And of course being DOS-based does

not mean Rebel does not run in Windows. If you need

to use it from Win, it works quite fine.



So the only thing I can do is thank Schroder BV for an

excellent program I really like to use.



After stating my big sympathies for Rebel9, I also

have to report a bug it seems to have inherited from

Rebel8, for which I already reported it some time ago:

When using Rebel on a PC with lots of harddisk or at

least lots of partitions the "Open Database" menu does

not seem to work correctly. In the headline the drive

letters C to J (all my disk partitions) are printed. 

When trying to move further in that list using the 

cursor keys, Rebel tries to access my floppy drive

with no success no matter if a disk is inserted or not.

It is not possible to get to drive letters beyond J.

Removing a harddisk entry in the BIOS setup makes the

CD-ROM's drive letter (R in my case) shows up and can

easily be selected. This is of course not a comfortable

way to use databases from CD. I have to admit that my

system's setup is not a usual one, but nevertheless I

think the behaviour described above is not intended.

I would be more than happy to get a fix for this problem.

Please feel free to contact me for even more detailed

descriptions of the problem. My experience is, that

Schroder BV is interested in improving their products

and I therefore hope you appreciate this report.



Remark of the Schröder BV

We will fix this. For the moment use the command SUBST

which bypasses the problem.



    







Name   Calvin P. Roach

Email  daroach@c2i2.com



Please fix your search algorithm.  When I search for Kasparov 

wins playing black, I get Kasparov loses playing black.  I like

to search by name, position and results.  Rebel 9.0 allows me 

to search by results and name or position only.  The program 

should be tested by many chess players (non-intersted party).

I am disappointed right now with Rebel 9.0



Calvin



Remark of the Schröder BV

Enter blackname="Kasparov" and score="+". 

This will do the job for you.











Name   Mike Cooter

Email  



I own many other chess programs (Fritz5, Hiarcs,Genius, 

Virtual Chess, Mchess) and this is in my top two favorites.



Even for a dos application, it still has a clean easy to use

interface. 



Its opening book is the best out of all my programs. In running

program vs program tests, my Rebel 9 comes out of book with a 

higher eval in most cases. 



It is a very well prepared and written book.



My question is how to run the included BT2830. Do I note the time

of when the solution if FIRST found or when it finally moves?



Remark of the Schröder BV

Enter each position into your computer, and let it think for 

15 minutes. If a position is solved, write down its solution 

time in seconds. 



It doesn't count as a solution if the program finds, the 

move and then changes its mind. If after finding a move, then 

changing its mind, then finding it again, you should use the 

last time found.



Any solution that is not found, score as 900 seconds. 

Add up all the times. To calculate the ELO formula:



BS2830:   ELO = 2830 - (TT/17)^2    TT = total time in MINUTES

BT2630:   ELO = 2630 - (TT/30)      TT = total time in SECONDS

BT2450:   ELO = 2450 - (TT/30)      TT = total time in SECONDS



BT2450 and BT2630 are provided with Rebel 9.0

BS2830 can be downloaded from the subscription area.







Name   Arnt Veenstra

Email  arnt@xs4all.nl



Ik heb een paar bugs ontdekt in Rebel 9.



1. Laad de volgende positie in Rebel:



7r/p2n1pp1/2k5/1p1rP2p/n6P/R3KPB1/6P1/1R1N4 w



Wit is hier dus aan zet. Selecteer Analysis exclude en

sluit de zet 1.Nc3 uit.



Rebel loopt nu vast en zal de PC zelfs resetten!



2. Laad een partij uit een database. Rewrite de partij naar

de database.



Rebel heeft het aantal zetten van de partij nu terug gezet

naar 1. Dit blijkt bijvoorbeeld als Rebel gaat analyseren.

Rebel zal 'nadenken' over zetten als 1.e4 en 1.d4, alsof

we aan het begin van een nieuwe partij zijn...



Ik ben graag bereid om meer informatie te geven als dit

bugreport niet compleet genoeg is. De beide bugs treden wel

op 2 verschillende PC's op identieke wijze op.



Remark of the Schröder BV

In Power Analyze Exclude zit inderdaad nog een kleine bug.

De "Rewrite" zaak is ons inmiddels ook al bekend. Als je na

"Rewrite op HOME drukt is het probleem verholpen. Bedankt 

voor de tips.









Name   Anthony Schleizer

Email  schleize@che.utexas.edu



I have Rebel 9.0 Light. I like it a lot, but it keeps crashing

my computer. I have a 100MHz Dell Latitude XPi (Pentium) with 8M 

RAM and 540M HD. If I look at some games in the database and then

try to play a game or if I enter a game, play thru it with the 

analysis on and then try to play a game against Rebel my computer

crashes.



Remark of the Schröder BV

Most known problems are described in the README file. You can do

this inside Rebel 9.0 via the EXT menu and then select the README

item. If this doesn't solve your problem please sent email.









Name   

Email



A very good program.  However, I would like it to be a Windows 95

Compatible program capable of being multitasked; so that I can play

it against another program at the same time







Name  C.N. Dorado 

Email  cnd@mx2.redestb.es





In some positions, Rebel 9 is slower than Rebel 8, Why ?



Remark of the Schröder BV

Rebel 9.0 has more chess knowledge than Rebel 8.0. This extra

chess knowledge is superior above some speed loss, see the 

Rebel 9.0 results on this home page









Name   Richard Burlant

Email



I find Rebel 9 very unstable when accessing the Bonus

CD ROM. Crashes and other strange things occur quite often.



I am using an IBM clone with 16MB and 133MHZ.

On the whole, the programs works great. I love it !



Remark of the Schröder BV

a) Re-install the Bonus Cdrom using the option install 

   "databases" and "opening books" and the INSTALL program 

   will take care of removing the cdrom "read only" mark 

   from all the files.

b) OR copy selected files from the Cdrom and remove the 

   "read only" mark using ATTRIB -R *.*







Name   allan johnson 

Email  allan@mail.bhq.net.au





I have found Rebel9 a very strong program.



What a pity it can't be put into a dedicated chess board. 

Ho hum;dream on!



My main criticism is that it is a dos based program.Please make

it windows 95 based. I'd like also to be able print games.



I have put many difficult positions to Rebel9,Hiarcs6,Genius4,Fritz5

and Chessmaster5500 and in 95% of the positions Rebel9 has found the

"correct" answer more quickly than the other programs.







Name   Marian & Sebastian Predescu

Email  Marian.Predescu@Cognos.com





Hello,



We've just upgraded to Rebel9 and we like it very much, with 

one big exception, so far:



Analyzing a database seems to stop after move 1 ?!



I've used Win'95 with 80 Mb RAM using your Rebwin64.pif(or such).



The level was set to 6 Plys deep and then I went into the 

Databases/Utilities/Analyze database and specified the output

into a different database.



Rebel9 started to analyze move one from each game, wrote the

output (games one move long) into the new databases and then

stopped, leaving me in the Database menu again, with no sign

of wanting to continue the analysis.



I know you guys mentioned that "if analyzing a database is

stopped, it will pick it up from where it was left", but it

stopped all by itself(not by us and the application still 

got the focus)



Any clues?



Remark of the Schröder BV

"Analyse database" is for positions.

Use "Analyse Game(s) from the database menu "Utilities"



Other then that:



- The rest of the database functions we've seen so far are

cool: the small boards, showing the name of the opening, 

backing up the moves and evaluating, etc. 



You guys are really taking advantage of the speed of the 

Assembly language(that lets you load parts of the games

as the user scrolls through the database) and I admire 

you dedication and professionalism (especially now, when

most of us programmers go for the comfort of higher-level

languages) in picking the fastest and most compact

programming language available.



-We were looking forward to search functions(such as search

by pattern) and if they live up to the expectations, there

won't be any need to switch to databases like ChessBase 

anymore! 



It's very convenient to have a chess playing program with

such a rich database interface!



- We(especially my son Sebastian, a 9 year old scholastic

champion who will represent Canada in the World Youth Chess

Championship, in the Under 10 section, in France, next week)

appreciate the opening books; the fact that they show alternate

book moves, the deep of lines, the new analyzed opening books

we've seen some). 



They speed up the learning curve, being much easier to use 

then printed books(of course printed books still have their

importance).



- About openings; we've asked you from the times of Rebel 

Decade if you don't have a feature to "practice an opening"

Rebel9 has now, on the Bonus CD, the "Booktutor", but from

what we've seen it could stand some easy to make improvements,

like: more ...openings and annotations(notes), please!



- Also a "tree"; the possibility to enter/have lines in your

games scores would be greatly appreciated.



- We didn't understand why the analysis of a game/move stops

when touching the menus?



- More flexible time controls would be appreciated



- What we liked most is the "human like" playing style of Rebel9!!! 

We've alleyways  liked it, even in early versions.



- We would like more hints about what makes Rebel9 determine

if a position is better or worse. Especially in closed positions

when the computer didn't have enough counter play, it still

thought its position was better( only because of some space 

advantage, I presume), while a powerful attack was under 

preparation against it. 



Even then, my son's coach(an International Master) agreed 

that the computer was able to set up some tactical traps, 

but still we were all kind of puzzled of his kind of 

"reversed" evaluation.



Nevertheless, you can see from the above example that all

kind of chess players can find good value in Rebel9(amateurs

like me, national scholastic champions like my son or 

International Masters, like his coach)



- On the same line, we are curios to have more insight about

the "book learning" feature.



- We couldn't find a quick way and intuitive way to try some

of the new features, like analyzing selected moves or excluding

moves from the analysis. Even the "context sensitive" help 

doesn't seem to provide enough hints, sometimes.



-The list of nice and good features could go on, and I'm sure

that in time we'd love Rebel9 even more(once we get used to it).



As a final note, I would like to take the opportunity to thank

Mr. Schroder also for his kind gesture of awarding Rebel8 a few

months ago to my son, after the "Mate in 15" contest. 



Now, that we've upgraded to Rebel9, we can reaffirm that not

only Rebel is our favorite chess program from the playing 

strength and style points of view, but it is also the closest

to the ultimate chess environment one can get.



Thank you,



Marian and Sebastian Predescu,

Ottawa, Canada







Name   Wes Green

Email  





Playing strength is excellent. 



I particularly like the analysis mode of parallel evaluation of

Rebel's move and the move made in the game.



I also like the feature which permits display of the top 4 moves,

and the ability to see several layers of the ongoing evaluation 

process.



Compatibility with Windows95 is excellent, though there are a 

couple of bugs somewhere that have occasionally produced a memory

access violation. They have shown up very rarely, however.







Name   Harald Faber

Email  HaraldF@t-online.de





Excellent playing strength, don't know whether Hiarcs or

MCP are stronger (only time and SSDF will tell). 



Certainly stronger than Rebel8. 



Now nice database-features. Copy protection now very user-friendly!



A must-program for each chess player!







Name   Manfred Meiler

Email  manfred.meiler@esn01.telekom.de



 

G O O D:

Playing strength (BS2830 on Pentium 2/300 MHz, 60 MB Hash:

2.595 ELO), DB-options/handling, PGN-/EPD-Support, history 

analysis, no copy protection, 60 ply depth, max. 60 MB Hash

Bonus CD ROM, Internet subscription



B A D:

only DOS-Version, best 4 variations (in Super Info) without

scores, no CBF-support.







Name   Chris Taylor Notts

Email  Khristay@aol.com





I like the program It is nice and simple, Simply strong and easy

to use!!    



The graphics are pleasing to use, easy on the eye for long periods!



The database functions are really good,and with pgn support it 

makes the program really useful!  



It is  a joy to use!  



Chris Taylor Notts England







Name   Kai Middleton

Email  midd9354@uidaho.edu





My impression is that the creators of Rebel aim to make a 

practical chess program that will meet the needs of chess 

students and practitioners in the most straightforward way.



Thus they have emphasized a strong engine (Rebel is probably

currently the strongest on PCs), a custom chess user-

interface, basic database and book functions (usually 

thought of as being beyond the realm of a chess playing 

program) and flexible analysis features.



I want to play a chess computer that is able to play 

at a level high enough above my own so that its chess is

of a natural style.  Further I want to store and analyze 

the games I play.  I also want to configure the opening book

so I can use it as an opening trainer.  Rebel lets me

accomplish these goals.



Some of the little features I like a lot are the game

overview in 15 positions, and the miniatures in the 

database view showing the opening and end position of each

game in the list.



Cool program!







Name   Fernando Villegas

Email  ferdinan@cmet.net





Professional chess soft in all the senseS. 



ALMOST nothing left to be desired, except better personal acumen 

to get some chances to win it. 







Name   Bill

Email  IPLAYCHESS@prodigy.net





I feel that REBEL 8 is still just a bit better in ease of use. 

My main purpose is to be able to study Opneings, Middle games, 

and End games and afterwards play a very strong game using what

I just learned. 



The Rebel 9 has alot of extras but just as Rebel 8 the manual for 

setting up the functions best to play with is vague with no sample 

set-ups like book on or off the brain on or off how do Iset up the 

best possible areana for play. 



I tried to follow the manual on the book tutor and it still never 

works as the manual instructs. I would like to be able to practice 

an opening with Rebel9 from a list of openings to choose from.



I collect every chess program there is on the market to see if its 

worth having and chessmaster 5000 is best for practicing openings, 

XTREME chess is best to play a rated game, I could go on and on but

I think you get the picture. 



I would be glad to be a BETA tester for any Rebel products since I 

have many years playing and testing chess software.







Name   Detlef Pordzik

Email  elvispcd@owl-online.de





I was among those, who stated, that the use of a chess program

in high rated CC tournaments in middle game to answer certain

questions, even in overnight analysis, is nearly a waste of time.



I must confess, that I partly had to change my mind, after

analyzing the first analyzes of R9 here....



Artur Jussupow said, that he never saw R9 doin' a useless,

silly move in his match against him.



I personally are lightyears behind the qualities of a A.Yussopow,

but I've got quite some experience with chess computers, programs- 

and, of course, inn CC - more than 20 years....



R9 catches up to be a dangerous ( serious ) tool even in IM title 

tournaments....gee.....



Beside this, the times, where one received a new program +

handled it blind after a few hours, seems to be over, too.



R9 has SO many functions / features / possibilities built in,

that one needs quite some time to find out, at all.



remark :

even, if not supposed....R9 STILL works pleasantly together

with the Tascboards....

btw : normal - no " 4 board option " needed at all....



critics :

Schröder BV still couldn't correct the error in normal DOS

6.2 mode with 64 or 128 MB RAM :

" a page error has been occured...."

so, one still can use R9 only in the DOS "x" configuration.

Rob Kemper siad, this has something to do with the himem.sys

but, I guess this one is needed allways there.....

you really should solve this ( when R 10 comes as a cd with

the WINDOWS version + the DOS version added for convenience

.... :)



Remark of the Schröder BV

Please take a look in the README file. You can do this inside

Rebel 9.0 via the EXT menu and then select README.TXT







Name   michel goldsteen

Email  mgold@vlijmen.demon.nl





Rebel 9 has given a new impuls to my love for chess and a deeper 

insight of the manner one thinks,



michel goldsteen







Name   Robert Sherman

Email  rsherman@interlog.com





Rebel 9 is an extremely strong chess-playing program written by Ed 

Schroder, with the user interface written by Robert Kemper, and the

opening book developed by Jeroen Noonan.



I first became interested in the Rebel programs when I downloaded 

Rebel Decade, soon after I purchased Rebel 8, which became my most

troublesome chess opponent.  



I didn't plan on purchasing Rebel 9 because I didn't feel that 

Rebel 8 could be improved enough to satisfy me.  



But when I heard about the new features and the Rebel Bonus disk I 

changed my mind.  



Now that I have it, the Rebel Bonus CD is just icing on the cake.  



The program plays very strong chess and is very difficult to beat

by closing the position and coming up with better plans.  Although

as I mentioned on CCC it can be beaten on a Pentium 100 mhz.



The database has been improved and has several neat features.  



My favourite is the little chessboard which shows you the final

position when you browse through games.  Many times the names 

of the players peak your interest but when you load in the game

you are dissapointed to see a boring game.  



With Rebel's database you can quickly see which games are

exciting by vie!wing the small chessboard and you can get 

Rebel 9's evaluation right away from that position or quicly

backtrack a few moves to see the final winning combination.



What attracted me to the Rebel Bonus CD was other then the fact

that it had many interesting databases and utilities but it also

had databases which showcased single players.  



This way you can see your chess hero's wins and losses.  This way

you can see what weaknesses he may have had that appeared to be 

transparent when you only see the wins.



Rebel 9 is not a perfect program (I guess Ed Schroder is saving

that Rebel 10!)  It has a few weaknesses, namely being a lack of

printing function and a slow database search.  It is still the 

perfect program for 99.9% of chess players.  



I highly recommend it purchase







Name   Karsten Jacobsen

Email  kardrag@post5.tele.dk





All in all I think Rebel 9.0 is easy to use, has a nice (but 

very oldfashioned) interface.



It's playingstrength is the best I know of. 



I would very much like to know why Rebel in it's analysis finds

that a specific move is the best? And when Rebel is analysing, 

why can't you see the whole range of possible moves?



But for now, thanks to the people at Schröder BV for a good 

product!







Name   Phil

Email  JonahNJ@aol.com





Excellent playing tool!



Im still having Window95 problems.  Ive downloaded all the 

suggested add-ons and theyve helped a little.  Cant use "sound 

on" because it crashes the program.  Wish I knew how "sound" 

affects it so much and how I can remedy it.



Remark of the Schröder BV

Please take a look in the README file. You can do this inside

Rebel 9.0 via the EXT menu and then select README.TXT







Name   Rafael Vasquez

Email  rvasquezs@hotmail.com





I own all the major Chess Programs available and consider REBEL

as the More complete product. 



It's very strong (it's power is consistent in all the phases:

opening,middlegame and endgame). 



It's database improvements are getting better and better. 



The simultaneous option is higly important as a tool for a 

sderious player preparation (not only fun!). I will continue 

working with REBEL and recognize Ed Schroder as a top performer

in CHESS programming. 







Name   Ulf Flörsheimer

Email  floers@aol.com





Rebel spielt ein freches, munteres Schach, wobei er manchmal

dazu neigt, in mobilen Stellungen die Chancen des Gegners zu 

unterschätzen. Ich habe den Eindruck, daß Rebel 6 zwar 

langweiliger, aber solider spielte als Rebel 9. 



Dennoch: Der Weg ist richtig, denn was die Computerschachfreunde

nicht wollen, ist der zähe, trockene Stil eines Genius.



Ansonsten ist zu sagen, daß Rebel 9 durch solide Features 

überzeugt. Es ist aber auch der Punkt gekommen, an dem man Ed 

Schröder wünschen möchte, es nicht zu übertreiben, denn: Man 

kann ein Program auch in Features buchstäblich "ersäufen" 

(armer Chessmaster!).



Ich wünsche dem Schröder-Team weiterhin viel Erfolg und wünschte,

Rebel 10 würde taktisch ein bißchen stärker spielen.







Name   Marc van Hal

Email  cesaer3@worldonline.nl





Rebel is one of the strongest programma,s there is it plays 

dynamical and has good database functions and tools for book 

analyzes and what they did give away for free is absolutly 

incredible and service they also do give a lot manny other 

programmers could learn something out of that







Name   Jerry Watson

Email  jwatson@jill.reno.nv.us





Rebel 9.0 is a great program. I've also owned Rebel 

6, 7, and 8. I've learned a lot by looking at your

opening books, and the data is first rate.



Rebel support on the internet is good, and must

remain so.



I would like to see a more text intensive analysis

feature that could point out weaknesses, possible

combinations, or the reason WHY Rebel rates a

position as it does.



The ability to read ChessBase and other database

formats is important. (Sadly, I've retired my

NicBase 3.0 in favor of ChessBase 6.0)



However....you MUST cave in to the Gates Monster

and make it a Windows 95/8 program. A dream feature

would be the ability to directly access the engines

of other programs (Fritz, CM4000-5500, Hiarcs, etc)

to play engine against engine.



If this were done, the only other possible improvement

would be a direct esp link to Rebel while I am playing

otb so that Rebel could help with the analysis.(g)



Thanks for a great product.



Jerry Watson, Sparks, Nevada USA, inviting all to the

100th (!) US Open in Reno, Nevada USA in 1999.







Name   Manuel Rodriguez

Email  positron3@hotmail.com





The Best program i know and this is for two simply reason:



1) The top playing strength.

2) A lot of Opcions.







Name   

Email 





I like the possibility to play different engines against 

each other.



I would like the possibility to give the engines different 

times in order to explore what differences the time make 

in playing sterngth.







Name   Sylvanus McLeod

Email  sly@cliffhanger.com





Rebel9 is possible the strongest commercialy available chess

software that I have seen.  The only software that comes

remotely close is Hiarcs6.



I enjoy playing against Rebel9 and most of all the built in

auto232 is a hit.



The database is quite good and the analysis of a game is also good.



The downside of the program is you cannot offer a draw, and 

you cannot resign.



Overall it's a very good program.







Name   Paul Cotti

Email  cotti@map.com





I run with 48 megs of virtual memory on a 133 Pentium with 

16 megs of ram. 



Rebel keeps the HD working pretty hard. On all my other 

applications restricting the virtual memory significantly 

speeds up the computer. Possibly Rebel 10 will have better 

memory management. Keeping Rebel a DOS based program will 

eventually severely limit your market. 



Remark of the Schröder BV

Limit Rebel 9.0 hash table a little using:

a) the command line parameters W1-W6

b) Use the provided shortcut REBWIN16.PIF

More info in the README file. You can do this inside

Rebel 9.0 via the EXT menu and then select README.TXT



Sacrificing some playing strength to the Windows interface will

probably be a good trade off. Windows NT is the future. I expect

Windows 98 will be the last operating system that will support

DOS.







Name   Raymond Vingerhoeds

Email  raymond@hvision.nl





Zonder twijfel tot op dit moment het sterkst spelend 

schaakprogramma. 



Vele opties maken het dat het voor vrijwel iedere 

schaakliefhebber een prima programma is. Van Rebel 8 

was ik al zeer onder de indruk, maar deze nieuwe versie 

overtreft Rebel 8, zeker op het gebied van de 

database-functies!



Wat ik persoonlijk nog steeds jammer vindt is dat er naast de 

DOS-versie nog steeds geen Windows-versie op de markt is; 

wellicht wordt Rebel 10 (een magisch getal!?) een programma 

in beide versies....



Opvallend vind ik dat Rebel 9 in de BT2630 test ten opzichte 

van Rebel 8 minder scoort, gekeken naar de tijd die het programma

nodig heeft om de juiste zet te vinden. Ik houd hierbij de 9 ply

en de 4MB hash aan die ook aangegeven worden op de Rebel computer 

benchmark. Stelling 5 wist Rebel 9 op te lossen waar Rebel 8 het 

antwoord niet kon vinden binnen de hierboven gestelde eisen. 



Overigens hulde aan het gehele Rebel-team het weer voor elkaar

heeft om een top-product op de markt te brengen!!







Name   Ralph Hellmig

Email  ralph.joerg.hellmig@tu-clausthal.de





Rebel 9.0 is without doubt one of my favourite chess 

programs. This results from its very good analysis features

and the really good playing strength.



I normally use it to save and analyze my competitive games,

having a database with my own annotated games.



The user interface is really nice, I am not so much a fan of

stunning graphics, a usable 2d-board is what I really need.



Rebel is one of the most featured chess programs I know, and 

what is more important: Most of the features are very usable

for a serious chessplayer.



I just think Rebel 9.0 is a nice solution between chess 

playing system and databases, also for opening preparation,

hence it is a really valuable helf to improve my personal

play, a nice sparring partner and ideal for preparation

competitive games.







Name   Jeff LaHue

Email  





Before seeing REBEL 9.0 I had wondered how this release could

be any better than REBEL 8.  Well, Schroder BV succeeded with

the greatly expanded database features and such niceties as 

the small boards, multiple game analysis, and book analysis--

it is much better than REBEL 8.







Name   Moritz Berger

Email





Top 10 things I like



 1. Excellent chess playing engine

 2. Extended Autoplayer 232 and Chess232 support

 3. Good bread and butter database capabilities and then some 

    (statistics, auto-rename, double elimination)

 4. No copy protection, excellent database and opening book update

    service via free Internet Bonus subscription

 5. .PGN, .EPD support, .CBF, Nicbase import, Bookup analysis and 

    import/export of e-mail chess-forms, opening book import from 

    Genius, Fritz 4 and Chessmaster 

 6. Ingenious shuffle book option

 7. Overnight book analysis, pre-analyzed extensive theme books 

    available via Rebel 9 homepage for  registered users

 8. Outstanding help system, extensive tutorials

 9. Analysis options, presentation of evaluation details

10. Playing-strength adjustable to suit everybody’s needs: 

    auto-increase, decrease, randomize, ELO-rating-level, 3 global

    strength levels



Top 10 things I hate



 1. DOS program, doesn’t run under NT

 2. No nested variants in game score

 3. Doesn’t support .CBF (only via import) and .CBH (not at 

    supported at all) database formats (although here ChessBase is 

    to blame for not making these formats publicly available)

 4. Limited opening book annotation symbols (only play or not play)

 5. Learning weightings are not user-editable

 6. Way too inflexible timing options, no Fischer clock, no move 

    increment, no adjustable time odds (different time controls for 

    computer and opponent), no adjustable e.g. 37 moves / 43 minutes

    level.

 7. Rebel .mvs books cannot be edited, there’s no way to convert

    the rebel.mvs main book to an editable .rbm file.

 8. Some hotkeys (e.g. Alt+P -> Alt+Q) have changed from previous

    releases.

 9. If you access the menu bar, the chess engine is halted and has

    to be restarted on the current position. Still annoying even 

    for Rebel veterans like me.

10. Impact of learning function is not even remotely explained (a 

    well kept competitive secret by the programmer). At least I know 

    that it's some kind of book learning, but it's not adjustable and 

    doesn't take into account opponents strength and time controls (the 

    latter being idle speculation by myself in he absence of tangible 

    information).



Top 10 reasons to upgrade (besides the top 10 things I like)



 1. Greatly improved database handling (!!!)

 2. Tons of study material (chess problems, games, opening books) 

    and utilities on Bonus CD

 3. Book learning and pre-analysis capability

 4. Direct .PGN file support (no conversion necessary)

 5. Improved chess engine

 6. Analysis exclude option

 7. Search on pattern, search on material

 8. Improved game overview with evaluation scores

 9. Build in autoplayer (available engines: Rebel 7,8,9, Decade)

10. Extensive set of chess material and utilities on Bonus CD







Name   Peter Schreiner

Email  pitters@aol.com





Rebel 9.0 ist ein rundum perfekt ausgestattetes Schachsystem, 

das sich ganz klar an einen Anwenderkreis wendet, der in erster 

Linie mit seinem Programm intensiv arbeiten und trainieren will. 



Mir persönlich gefällt die sachliche und funktionale Aufmachung

des Programms außerordentlich gut; - der Bucheditor, die Datenbank-

funktionen und vor allem die vielfältigen Analysehilfen sind vom 

Feinsten.  



Ob der begehrte Spitzenplatz in der SSDF wieder erreicht werden 

kann, bleibt erst einmal abzuwarten; - die Chancen dafür sind aber

mit Sicherheit nicht schlecht. 



Nach meiner Ansicht ist Rebel 9.0 ist sogenanntes Pflichtprogramm", 

das man einfach besitzen muß. 



Zum Erscheinungstermin der Rochade Anfang Oktober ist das Programm 

voraussichtlich schon im Fachhandel für 198.-DM verfügbar; für das 

Update sind schlappe 98.-DM fällig.



Ich wünsche Ihnen viel Spaß beim Experimentieren mit Rebel 9.0. 

Falls Sie über eine Anbindung an das Internet verfügen sollten und

an einem Erfahrungsaustausch interessiert sind, würde ich mich über

eine Email sehr freuen.

  





Name   Wybe Koopmans

Email  larsmans@worldaccess.nl





Rebel 9.0 is naar mijn mening een zeer sterk schaakprogramma. 

Bijzonder eraan vind ik dat er vele opties aanwezig zijn, waarbij de 

gebruiker veel naar eigen wens kan instellen. Van schaakdatabank tot 

simultaanspelen. Kortom zeer compleet. Er zit voor elke schaker wel 

wat bij.

          

Zijn er eigenlijk zaken die te wensen overblijven ?

Jazeker, wat is een mens zonder wensen ? Zo zou ik graag zien dat

de analyses van Rebel niet als tekst, maar als variant wordt 

weergegeven. Uitbreiding van het aantal speelnivo's met bijvoorbeeld

de Fischer-klok. Een zogenaamde "echte" toernooi optie, waarbij 

terugnemen van zetten, niet mogelijk is. eventueel gekoppeld aan 

een rating-systeem. De mogelijkheid van het aanbieden van remise

aan Rebel.

          

Verder zou ik (ik weet niet of dit uitvoerbaar is) graag een 

relatie zien, tussen de te gekozen opening door Rebel een de 

ingestelde speelstijl. Bijvoorbeeld: de speelstijl is agressief, 

Rebel mag dan wel Siciliaans spelen maar beslist geen Russisch.

          

Maar al met al, kan ik U REBEL 9.0 van harte aanbevelen.







Name   Hans van Raaij

Email  





Door alle nieuwe mogelijkheden is Rebel 9 uitgegroeid tot een

veelzijdig programma dat niet alleen uitstekend schaakt, maar 

ook op het gebied van analyse en het bijhouden van 

partijendatabases het nodige te bieden heeft. 



Daarbij komen nog twee bijzondere extra's: de 'update service'

en de bonus CD-ROM waar elders op deze site uitgebreide 

informatie over te vinden is. 



Alles bij elkaar een bijzonder aantrekkelijk totaalpakket!