ChessBase Reviews

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CDs, DVDs, Software Part 12

Fritz Powerbook 2003 by ChessBase

The Fritz Powerbook 2003 is an openings book and database that will run with Fritz or any Fritz compatible engine (Shredder, Junior, Tiger, Nimzo, etc.). You can also use it in ChessBase 7.0 or 8.0 to conduct openings training and hone your repertoire.

The Fritz Powerbook 2003 contains 7.6 million openings positions, which were derived from 750,000 high-class tournament games. Together with each position, all relevant information is stored: all moves that were played in the position, by players of what average rating, with what success and performance results. The games from which the Fritz Powerbook 2003 was derived are also included on the CD. This means that in any position of the opening tree, you can load and replay the games in which the position occurred.

The Fritz Powerbook 2003 represents the state of the art of current opening theory. It can be used to discover exciting new lines (e.g. never before played transpositions) and practice them against Fritz.

Fritz 8, Fritz 7, Fritz 6 and all other ChessBase engines under the Fritz interface can use the PowerBook 2003 as opening book, making the opening play of the programs more topical, versatile and entertaining. Required space for PowerBook: about 550 MB; for the database: 95 MB.

The Franco-Benoni by Don Maddox

Pioneered by GM Gideon Barcza and later revived by Danish GM Bent Larsen, the Franco Benoni is, as its name implies, a cross between the French and the Benoni based on 1.e6 and 2.c5. This resilient, spring-like pawn structure is especially effective against unsuspecting 1.e4 players and can serve as a universal black defence against 1.e4, 1.d4. or 1.c4. Black has to be prepared to meet Benoni lines after 3.d5, but most 1.e4 players hang back from queen’s pawn structures, often entering a little known Sicilian Paulsen or Alapin backwater where the black player is better prepared. The CD includes more than 13,000 games, 800 of which are annotated, a discussion of basic ideas and patterns, an Opening Tree, and 37 training positions. The CD includes a reader so there is no need to own the ChessBase program or any of the playing programs.

White Repertoire 1.e4 by Alexander Bangiev

This is an interesting CD and proves that chess training can be fun: it is suitable for advanced players and has more than 600 games annotated by the author. The 8 databases have more than 60.000 games and the main focus of the author's repertoire is the Grand Prix Attack of the Sicilian Defence.

It features a wealth of introduction texts, playing suggestions and annotated games about this sharp attacking weapon. Yet this is only the starting point of the complete White 1.e4 repertoire which offers a playing plan against all common replies by Black. The point: the suggested lines have a lot in common, often transpose and many times lead to similar middlegame positions – an effective opening study is guaranteed. Once again a ChessBase reader is included.

World Champion William Steinitz by ChessBase

This is a first class CD and I would recommend it to anyone who seriously wants to study the game. Steinitz’s positional play is still more than relevant today. The CD has more than 1000 games and some excellent texts on the first World Champion, it also includes the CD reader program.