If u go to www.chess reviews.com, ron pawlak does a nice job of listing the pluses and minuses of Cbase,Cassistant,bookup, and Cacademy.  U will get the most out of chessbase as long as u have the corresponding Fritz; chess assistant uses Tiger which is included. u can play against tiger,but u can't modify it's strength. . Fritz allows u to modify it's strength so u can place it 100-300 rating points higher than your current level. in this way,u can have a built in practice partner who is somewhat stronger than u-enough to understand why u went wrong. . free copies(demos) of both database programs are available on the net. in fact, with Cbase light, u can do most of the things u will need-unless u r a GM-in which case, u wouldn't have asked the question.

Being new to this site, thought I would try and start a discussion on databases.
Chessbase and Chess Assistant appear to be the two most popular ones.
What are the pluses and/or minuses of  these systems ?
I do not as yet have either, so would welcome your opinions.
              I keep pushing  the wood,
                                                        Tony