I play correspondence chess mostly. What is the best program for saving games, tracking games etc.?
The best is Chessbase. Its prime competitor is Chess Assistant. Both are good, but I find the Chessbase interface more appealing. There is also a very reputable free database manager called Scid (Shane’s chess information database). google.com/search?q=chess+s … ent=safari
How does ECTool rate?
The price is right. The interface is unappealing to me, but I’m sure it’ll store and manage a large number of games. It depends in part what else you’ll be doing. If you’re managing millions of games in a reference database in addition to your own small database, doing opening research, learning openings, training (Solitaire-chess style), analyzing games when finished, etc., no one touches Chessbase, in my opinion. If you want an inexpensive way to just faithfully track your own games, Chessbase is not the tool.
I found the best way to be to abandon postal and email play and compete exclusively by webserver.
If postal or email are your preference, then ECtool is the best I’ve seen.
All of my play has been on the ICCF server for a long time. Agree, it removes a lot of the clerical work of correspondence chess.
The FAQs for it also states that XBoard can handle correspondence email tasks. Unfortunately, the WinBoard port of XBoard for Windows does not include the cmail component which handles the email side - also from the FAQ. So the correspondence side is apparently Linux / *nix only.
But when I was active I used ChessBase.
Were I still active in correspondence play, I would build a LiveUSB or LiveCD/USB combo to try it out. Mainly because I still have a preference for WinBoard and use it once in awhile. Actually, I just rejuvenated a junk laptop into a Linux multimedia system last week but it is already emplaced and I’m not intending to network it. Last notion… there is a variant of DSL (D*mn Small Linux) which can apparently run inside an active Windows session; that might be an avenue one could explore.
But all of this is really for we who think tinkering with OSes is great fun… Can’t say I’d recommend it for someone who’s just looking to get their email correspondence games automated.
I am also an operating system enthusiast. I have a laptop that I use to try various 'distros" of Linux. I have found that Ubuntu and its variants (e.g. Mint) allow a one click install of XBoard from the Ubuntu software center. Very easy, no tar balls etc. It’s worth a try.
Having said that, I actually store my games with the Viva Media version of Fritz 12 (inexpensive, about $10 from Amazon) on a Windows Vista laptop. Fritz 12 has more than enough database functions to allow easy entry of games and replacement when new moves are made. I turn off the engine for easy entry. You can also search the included database for games as well.
Arthur Holmer
POST-A-LOG is the best, i have been using it for over 30 years.
SCID or SCIDvsPC are good, free (GPL) alternatives. Both have correspondance features that aid in tracking current games and analyzing finished ones. In particular, they can handle reading the moves from email (within certain limits) and will interact with certain servers (ICCF I believe is supported) directly to gather responses and send your moves.
ChessBase has functions that track correspondence chess times, etc. Hiarcs Chess Explorer is a good database for $60.
I found one site online still apparently selling them. I have one myself, but haven’t used it in some time.
The downside with ChessBase (remembering above that I’ve usedual d it before myself,) is that I always kept two separate files of each game, one with the correspondence headers and the other with my analysis.
I have an older dual boot laptop running Windows and I think Mint… haven’t used it much of late but it was dedicated for amateur radio. I’ve also got a Raspberry Pi, but it’s now more or less permanently tasked to XBMC as a home music player. And I should have tested it on a Lucid Puppy distro on an old laptop, but it’s at work serving as my music player there and I’m not planning on networking it.
But I also think I’ve got a Lucid Puppy LiveUSB from building that one. Think I’ll shut down and give that a try on this machine.
While I got my Linux LiveUSB working, I haven’t managed to find a build of XBoard for my particular distribution (Puppy Lucid) where the correspondence functions are turned on (the builds all seem to be centered around playing the computer.) May just be me, though, not finding a preconfigured build and not going to go and build it myself.
I did, though, install SCID (which I also have on Windows 7.) I didn’t fully configure it, but it would probably be my choice if I weren’t going to use a server.
It still works the same. The operating system hasn’t changed. 
Why bother? Analysis can be entered as a variation. (It’s good to backup and to salvage goofs with Ctrl-Z.)
I played correspondence in the 1980s (Post-a-Log!) and a bit in the early 90s (Compuserve Chess Forum–very clunky). Am now playing a grad school drinking buddy on GameKnot: not a very strong crowd, but nice interface. (The temptation to cheat yourself by clicking the engine button is also diminished: one would have to port to PGN first.). I am told that chess.com and iccf web servers are similarly nice.
It came from an article by Steve Lopez over at ChessBase http://www.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211/PostId/4003750/chessbase-and-correspondence-chess-part-2.aspx, and I think I read an earlier version of that article prior to 2007.
I don’t really remember if I found out that emailing move sent the analysis or not. But I think I tried it and it did. (This was at a site which required appending full game to each email - not just last x moves.) Also, IIRC sending conditional moves required entering them as variations.
The other reason… the glyphs for the correspondence moves and time used, coupled with variations analysis, just looks clunky in the move list. The two things I’dve liked to change about CB’s interface are how it handled the correspondence annotations (change to a smaller glyph or something,) and also give more variation to the allowable time controls. The place I played longest had a rolling timeclock (30 days total used time for last ten moves, perpetually,) and I had to build a spreadsheet to track times because CB could only handle x moves in y days fixed.