ChessBase Reviews

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CDs, DVDs, Software Part 20

Once again disks covered in this article come on either DVD or CD, so make sure you have the appropriate disk drive in your PC before purchasing them.

Caro Kann By Zoran Petronijevic

A very interesting CD covering variations arising after 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.c4 (ECO code B13- B14). The CD contains 145 database texts, approx. 800 model games annotated by the author, more than 25,000 games (nearly 1,200 of the games are annotated), a training database and a new reader based on ChessBase 9.

This is International Master Zoran Petronijevic’s first publication for ChessBase. I am not a Caro Kann player but I found his texts easy to follow and would be quite happy to use them as a reference for playing this opening.

System Requirements: Pentium 166, 64 MB Ram,Win98 SE, ME, 2000, XP.

Although not a correspondence game, here is a game from the CD where our own George Pyrich held none other than Paul Motwani to a draw using this system.

Paul Motwani (2455) – George Pyrich [B14] Scottish Championship, 1992
1.e4 c6 2.c4 d5 3.cxd5 cxd5 4.exd5 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nxd5 6.Nf3 e6 7.d4 Bb4 8.Qb3 Nc6 9.Bd3 Be7 10.0–0 0–0 11.Be4 Nxc3 12.bxc3 Qc7 13.Qc2 g6 14.Bh6 Rd8 15.h4 Bd7 16.h5 Be8 17.Rfe1 Bf6 18.Rad1 Rac8 19.Qc1 Ne7 20.Bg5 Nd5 21.hxg6 hxg6 22.Bxf6 Nxf6 23.Qg5 Kg7 24.Bxg6 fxg6 25.Rxe6 Qf7 26.Qe5 Rd5 27.Rxf6 Qxf6 28.Qxd5 Bc6 29.Qe5 Bxf3 30.gxf3 Rxc3 31.f4 Rf3 32.Rc1 Rxf4 33.Rc7+ Kh6 34.Rxb7 Rxf2 35.Qxf6 Rxf6 36.Rxa7 Rd6 37.Ra4 Kg5 38.Kf2 Kf4 39.Ke2 Ke4 40.Kf2 ½-½

The ABC Of The Ruy Lopez By Andrew Martin

This DVD is another of the new format being produced by ChessBase. It contains over 3½ hours of very instructive lectures. After my review in the last magazine I have to say that I like Andrew Martin’s style. The lectures on this DVD cover:

Intro 19:12 min Sustained Pressure 12:54 min Simplicity 08:36 min Solidity 9:50 min The Lopez Grip 12:58 min Black tries to smash the Ruy Lopez 10:40 min Intro to Theory and Berlin 11:38 min Berlin 1 5:14 min Berlin 2 6:15 min Schliemann 16:55 min Bird 9:19 min

Cozio 12:19 min The Smyslov Variation 14:55 min The Classical Variation 10:50 min Berlin Classical 6:28 min Chase Variation 8:57 min Steinitz Deferred 9:28 min Main Line 1 9:06 min Main Line 2 7:09 min Main Line 3 9:49 min Outro 0:48 min

Attention: Please note that this DVD and the next is a supplementary program for use with other ChessBase software. You will need a copy of ChessBase 9 or a recent playing program such as Fritz8 to use the lectures on the DVD. Non of these is supplied with this DVD. These training courses make it well worthwhile the cost of the other Software needed to view them.

Positional Ideas By Jacob Aagaard

This training DVD from Jacob Aagaard contains six multimedia lectures and a collection of 50 multimedia exercises on which you can test your positional skills. The lectures are broken up as follows:

In total the DVD contains more than four hours of high class video in which Jacob Aagaard teaches in six lectures the important principles of positional play such as weak squares, good and bad pieces, prophylaxis and pawn weaknesses.

Fritz Technique Trainer 2 By Henrik Schlössner

This vital chess skill can be acquired and improved with the CDs of the Fritz Technique Trainer series. "The tasks on this CD deal exclusively with the creative work of the first official world champion, Wilhelm Steinitz. He was the first to describe the fundamentals a promising attack is based upon. Thus most exercises are about showing how a successful attack is conducted." (Schlössner). Each exercise starts with a won position from a Steinitz game which you are to play against Fritz. It is rarely about finding combinations to solve the problem. Usually the win can be achieved in different ways, but there are always a few obstacles to be swept out of the way, and then you will always experience the sweet smell of success.

The CD contains: - 121 winnable game positions, explanations as to how to go about things and appropriate examples of how to win. The positions are classified according to difficulty. A very useful CD, from which most lower graded players will derive great benefit.

Fritz 8 Championship Edition By ChessBase

The Fritz 8 is identical to the one that fascinated the world in the man vs Machine duel against the human world champion. Millions of chess fans watched the games live on the internet – the match ended in a 4:4 tie. "Deep Fritz is stronger than Deep Blue" said world champion Vladimir Kramnik, who had carefully studied the program. But don’t be afraid, Fritz is not just a chess playing monster. It is a friendly chess partner for beginners and amateurs. It will teach you to play chess from scratch, and can automatically adjust its playing strength to suit your needs.

It will warn you when you go wrong in a game, giving you hints on how to play better. In any position it will explain all possible continuations to you in plain language, and it will display all pieces that are attacked, defended or "hanging". Afterwards, it will analyse your games and point out mistakes and blunders.

It has many handicap and friendly levels. In the sparring level, the program will actually set up tactics for you to discover, teaching you to keep a lookout for opportunities throughout the game. Fritz has a photo-realistic 3D chessboard and will chatter humorously during the game. It has a giant openings book with a very wide repertoire and full statistics on every move. It has a built-in database with half a million top-quality games and is the companion and analytical partner of top players all over the world. Even Garry Kasparov admits: "I use Fritz regularly for my analysis." Fritz is also the only chess program that has been in space.