ChessBase Reviews

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CDs, DVDs, Software Part 14

Paul Morphy Genius and Myth By ChessBase

This is a first class CD covering the life and games of the great Paul Morphy. Morphy was head and shoulders above his contemporaries of the time and was deservedly crowned the unofficial World Champion. Morphy rose to the top very quickly and retired early adding to the mystique of the man. The CD contains an excellent biography by Thomas Eichhorn which alone makes the CD well worth purchasing. On top of this it also contains a database of 500 of his games. Just under 100 of these games are annotated by GM Karsten Müller and Rainer Knaak.

There is also a self test database containing 90 positions where you can pit your wits against selected combinations by Morphy. These are well annotated by Karsten Müller and should keep you amused for hours. Those of you aspiring to better things will learn a lot from these tests and the annotated games in the main database. The CD comes with its own Reader so you don’t need to own a copy of ChessBase.

English 1.c4 c5 By Mikhail Marin

This is a bumper CD on the English from Mikhail Marin. It covers all of the 1.c4 e5 Systems giving all the material any Correspondence player should need in one handy source. I think you will be hard pressed to find significant games from any other source. There are over 69,000 games and just under 2000 of these contain notes, many of which I would describe as excellent annotations.

The author has put a great deal of work into this CD and has produced 60 database texts and annotated 330 games exclusively for the CD. The CD also pulls together other material from previous ChessBase CDs and magazines.

The CTG key is over 65 MB in size and will help you easily navigate through the myriad of variations. There is also a training database which contains 46 games. The CD comes with its own Reader so you don’t need to own a copy of ChessBase. Here’s a game I found by one of our members on the CD:

G Pyrich (2377) - H Veen (2492) [A20] Reg Gillman Mem-C corr, 1999
1.c4 e5 2.g3 Nc6 3.Bg2 Bc5 4.Nc3 d6 5.e3 Nge7 6.Nge2 Bb6 7.d4 exd4 8.exd4 0–0 9.Be3 Re8 10.0–0 Bg4 11.Qd2 Nf5 12.Rae1 a6 13.h3 Bxe2 14.Nxe2 Nxe3 15.fxe3 Qg5 16.Rf4 Ba5 17.Nc3 Re7 18.Qf2 Bxc3 19.bxc3 Rae8 20.Rg4 Qh6 21.Rh4 Qg6 22.e4 Na5 23.Rg4 Qh6 24.Bf1 Qe6 25.e5 g6 26.Rge4 Qd7 27.Qf6 Re6 28.Qf4 Qc6 29.Qh6 Qd7 30.Qf4 Qc6 31.Qh6 ½-½

Albin Counter Gambit By Luc Henris

There may not be as many games on this CD (about 3600) as the English one but nevertheless this is quite an interesting CD. The Albin Countergambit (1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5) is not exactly considered sound even though it has not been refuted. You would be hard pressed to find any of the top Super GMs playing it. Strong players such as van der Wiel and Tiviakov have used it and I am sure you will find their games interesting. The Albin Countergambit produces some very playable positions which should provide you with some interesting chess.

Luc Henris has produced 29 introductory texts to give the reader a firm grasp of the opening and has annotated 95 of the games. The CD is well worth getting if only to let you spring the occasional surprise on your CC opponents and have them scurrying off to Sam Collins to try and find a book to help them out. The CD comes with its own Reader so you don’t need to own a copy of ChessBase. Here’s a game I found by one of our members on the CD:

R Beacon - F Van Scheepen [D08] CCN/ACG1/P1 CCN Email, 15.01.2002
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 d4 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.Bf4 Bb4+ 6.Nbd2 Bxd2+ 7.Qxd2 Bg4 8.0–0–0 h6 9.Nxd4 Nxd4 10.Qxd4 Qxd4 11.Rxd4 c5 12.Rd6 Ne7 13.e4 0–0 14.h3 Be6 15.Be2 Nc6 16.Rhd1 Nd4 17.Bf1 Nc6 18.Bg3 Na5 19.b3 Nc6 20.f4 Rad8 21.Bf2 Rxd6 22.Rxd6 g5 23.f5 Bc8 24.Rxh6 Nxe5 25.Bxc5 Re8 26.Be2 Kg7 27.Rd6 b6 28.Bd4 Bb7 29.Bf3 Kg8 30.Kd2 1–0

Two Masters from Seattle By John Donaldson

This is the first ChessBase Monograph CD which doesn’t feature a World Champion. With his books "Elmars Zemgalis" (GM without a Title) and "Olaf Ulvestad" (An American Original), America’s International Master John Donaldson brought the lives of two masters from his home town Seattle close to broad readership. Now, both books have been captured in full on this CD, with additional content.

Both players had a strong ties to Europe. Born in Latvia, Zemgalis lived in Germany after World War II and celebrated his greatest triumphs there, before he emigrated to the USA in 1952.

Ulvestad was American by birth, yet this ancestors originated from Norway. He is best known as the inventor of the 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 b5!? Italian Game in the Two Knights Defence. His remarkable appearance on the chess scene was at the legendary match Soviet Union v USA in Moscow in 1946. Ulvestad’s authentic report on this event is included on the CD. Later, he also was to live in Europe for many years.

The CD has two databases. The first is Elmars Zemgalis and contains 6 text files and 190 games. The second database is Olaf Ulvestad and contains 5 text files and 336 games. The CD comes with its own Reader so you don’t need to own a copy of ChessBase.

Deadly Threats By George Renko

Before you can strike in chess, best by delivering mate, first you have to threaten something. And this is precisely the central theme of George Renko’s new CD – threats. With more than 2.500 selected tactical positions, the sheer amount of material is enormous. There are no lengthy introductions; without further ado, you can immediately start solving tasks until the cows come home. There is no better way to improve your tactical vision.

The tasks are sorted according to themes, but of course you can also load one by using random selection. The solutions are very instructive. The CD comes with its own Reader so you don’t need to own a copy of ChessBase.

Hiarcs 9 By Mark Uniacke

Scoring a solid 2:2 draw against the world's number 8, super grandmaster Evgeny Bareev, the program Hiarcs has definitely re-established itself as one of the world's best chess programs. In the years of developing Hiarcs (which stands for Higher Intelligence Auto Response Chess System), its author Mark Uniacke has successfully focussed on the implementation of a maximum of chess knowledge. The Original engine from the match against Bareev is included. A chess program which can do more than calculate.

The latest version 9.0 of the program has been enhanced and extended in many ways, particularly in terms of implementing concrete chess knowledge and positional learning. With the improved search function, it's now possible to assess positions using new positional criteria such as "typical pawn structures", "long term plans" and above all "safety of the king". A better selection of variations provides a greater search depth, enabling Hiarcs 9 to impress by its sharp powerful play against the enemy king as well as its better understanding of endgames, even with unbalanced material.

A special asset of Hiarcs 9 is the opening book, which has been finely adjusted to the playing style of the program. This is the work of computer chess expert Eric Hallsworth, who has been developing the Hiarcs opening books for many years. For Hiarcs 9, he has compiled an optimized and many-sided repertoire with a wealth of novelties.

Developer Mark Uniacke himself says about his new program: "A major improvement is the king attack enhancements. Hiarcs' play can now be really exciting. Also the learning and the positional understanding has been clearly improved. I suggest to you that the king attack enhancements (the play can be really exciting), learning, positional understanding (Hiarcs has a reputation as a positional player) and the overall strength are now clearly on a par with the top engines."

In addition to an excellent sparring partner, which will probably beat you more often than not, you also get 1 years free access to the ChessBase PlayChess server which allows to to play chess on the internet against players from all over the world.