ChessBase Reviews

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CDs, DVDs, Software Part 15

The Colle System By Dimitrij Oleinikov

An excellent training CD from the Russian chess journalist Dimitrij Oleinikov covering the Colle System (1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 e6 4.e3 a6 5.Bd3 c5). The opening move order for White is not so important and I was introduced to this system by George Sprott and found it a very useful addition to my arsenal of openings. The author covers the opening over 17 chapters of text and uses a teaching database of 394 games. 172 of these are analysed, with about 100 annotated by the author. The analysis is top rate. The main database has just over 21,000 games and the CD also contains a strategy and tactics file to test your skills. A ChessBase reader is included so you don’t need the ChessBase program to take advantage of the CD. Here’s a fine example of one of George’s from the CD on how to handle the opening.

G Sprott (2325) - F Urban (2280) [D05] EU/MSM/IV prel corr ICCF, 1991
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.e3 c5 4.Bd3 d5 5.c3 Nc6 6.Nbd2 Bd6 7.0-0 0-0 8.dxc5 Bxc5 9.e4 Qc7 10.Qe2 Ng4 11.exd5 exd5 12.Nb3 Bd6 13.h3 Nf6 14.Be3 Bd7 15.Nbd4 a6 16.Nxc6 Bxc6 17.Bd4 Rfe8 18.Qc2 Ne4 19.Rfe1 b5 20.Nd2 Nxd2 21.Bxh7+ Kf8 22.Qxd2 f6 23.Bg6 Rxe1+ 24.Rxe1 Be8 25.Qd3 Qd7 26.Bf5 Qc6 27.Bg4 Kg8 28.Bxf6 gxf6 29.Be6+ Kg7 30.Bxd5 Qd7 31.Qf3 Rd8 32.Be6 Qe7 33.Qg4+ Bg6 34.Re4 Bc5 35.Bf5 Qf7 36.b4 Bf8 37.h4 Kh6 38.Re6 Rd5 39.Bxg6 Qxg6 40.Qf3 Rd3 41.Qxf6 Rd1+ 42.Kh2 Bd6+ 43.Rxd6 Rxd6 44.Qh8+ Qh7 45.Qf8+ Qg7 46.Qxd6+ Kh7 47.Qxa6 Qe5+ 48.g3 Qe2 49.Qb7+ Kg8 50.Kg2 Qe5 51.c4 bxc4 52.Qc8+ 1-0

The Grünfeld By Knut Neven

The Grünfeld is one of those openings which I never really got into and have only played on a few occasions. When doing so I could certainly have made good use of this CD. There are three separate databases covering the lines D70-D79 D80-D89 and D90-D99 giving just over 67,000 games. Slightly under 2000 of these carry annotations. The main area of the CD from a teaching point of view are the 42 text files which make good use of hyperlinks to diagrams and advise on handling the Grünfeld. Part of this course is a heavily analysed game file with 645 games. There is a massive amount of information to be gleaned from this CD. A ChessBase Reader is included on the CD. Here’s a game between a couple of our members from the CD:

D R Cumming (2123) - C R Beecham (2115) [D86] SCCA-ch corr 01-02
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Bc4 0-0 8.Ne2 Qd7 9.0-0 b5 10.Bd3 c5 11.Be3 c4 12.Bc2 Na6 13.Rb1 Nc7 14.Qd2 Re8 15.Bh6 Bh8 16.f4 f5 17.exf5 gxf5 18.Qe3 Qe6 19.Qxe6+ Bxe6 20.a4 Nd5 21.Rf3 bxa4 22.Bxa4 Reb8 23.Rxb8+ Rxb8 24.Bg5 Bg7 25.Rg3 Kf7 26.Bc6 Rb6 27.Bxd5 Bxd5 28.Kf2 Re6 29.Bh4 h6 30.Ke1 a5 31.Kd2 a4 32.Nc1 a3 33.Na2 Rb6 34.Kc1 Bf8 35.Nb4 e6 36.Bd8 Rxb4 0-1

Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual By Mark Dvoretsky

This is in the strictest sense a book in electronic format. The author is one of the giants of chess literature and the printed version was published by ChessGate and received some great reviews. ChessBase have taken the complete book and converted it to electronic format. The CD includes the ChessBase reader so anyone with a computer can read through the book. The key advantage to the electronic version is that the user can easily play through all the variations and examples contained in the book without the need to constantly set positions up on the board.

International Grandmaster Artur Yusupov said of Mark Dvoretsky in the foreword to the book: "He was more than a coach or a second. He was my most important chess teacher. I am sure that those who study this work carefully will not only play the endgame better, but overall, their play will improve." Anyone interested in some serious improvement on their endgame play will find this CD a must-have tool.

Opening Encyclopaedia 2004 By ChessBase

To use this CD you will have to have ChessBase 7 or 8 on your PC or one of the ChessBase playing programs such as Fritz. The first CD has a huge database of over 1.8 million games with more than 68,000 of these annotated. There are also over 3200 opening surveys. It also contains 86 special theory databases. The opening surveys and special theory databases are based on those published in the ever popular ChessBase Magazine. Contributors include for example: - Anand, Bareev, Dautov, Huebner, Jussupow, Kortschnoj, Krasenkow and Ribli.

The 2nd CD has a big tree of all the games for quick reference and statistics. This is a very useful CD for those who want a complete reference for opening training.

Deep Fritz 8 Multiprocessor version By ChessBase

Deep Fritz 8 is identical to the one that fascinated the world in the Man vs Machine duel against the greatest chess player of all time: Garry Kasparov. Millions of chess fans watched the games live on the internet, the match ended in a 2:2 tie. It also tied up with Shredder 7 for the latest computer chess world championship.

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. It has a built-in database with half a million top-quality games.

The program has a no-hassle connection to the internet chess server Playchess.com where you can play with chess enthusiasts all over the world (1 year full access). You will find hundreds of opponents, day and night, you can start a blitz game, play a tournament or simply watch and chat. You can also find the latest chess news, live coverage of international tournaments and online training sessions.

The following items are DVDs rather than CDs. In order to use them you will need to have a DVD player on your computer. ChessBase are obviously now beginning to use this latest technology since a DVD can contain a lot more information than a CD.

All World Champions from 1886 to 2002 By ChessBase

This DVD covers all the world chess championships from the Zukertort v Steinitz match of 1886 till 2002. This covers around 2200 games and about half of these are annotated. FIDE world championship knockout systems are also covered. There are also short biographies on all the world champions. The DVD also contains about 4½ GB of video material which should keep you glued to your screen for some time. There is also an excellent training database by GM Karsten Muller.

Mega Database 2004 By ChessBase

The latest Mega database from ChessBase contains over 2.6 million games compared to just over 2.3 million in the 2003 edition. Nearly 52,000 of the games in the 2004 edition are annotated. The latest games take you right up to the middle of November 2003. The 2003 database came on 2 CDs, the second of which contained was a player base with 15,000 entries and 14,000 photos of players.

This year all the information is contained on one handy DVD and the player base has also been extended. For example it now contains nearly 18,000 pictures. As always ChessBase continue to run stricter quality control procedures and a number of errors, caused by reporting faults from other sources, have been corrected. Also included is a openings key of more than 91,000 positions giving direct access to players, middlegame themes and endgames. The high standards ensure that this is still the premier database to own.

One point which should be remembered is that analysis tools such as the opening report in ChessBase are clearly tools to be used at the discretion of the correspondence player. Just because the statistics say White is winning 55% of the time in the line you are looking at is no reason to blindly play a move. You have to look at all the factors of the position. The statistical analysis looks at overall results but cannot take into account factors such as whether or not a game ended in a loss due to time factors or that a number of games may have ended in a win for one side after inferior moves by an opponent later in the game. The database gives first class reference material but it is still up to you to do the analysis and find the best course forward.

Fritz Powerbook 2004 By ChessBase

When you look at the content of this DVD you will instantly realise why ChessBase have moved from the CD version. The previous CD version had about 7.6 million opening positions compared to about 18 million on the DVD. The positions are derived from about 1 million high class tournament games.

The PowerBook is an openings book which can be used with Fritz, or any Fritz compatible engine such as Shredder, Junior, Tiger, Nimzo etc, making the opening play of the program more topical, versatile and entertaining. You can also use the PowerBook with ChessBase 7 or 8 to help with your opening research.

Endgame Turbo 2 By ChessBase

The DVD Endgame Turbo consists of 5 DVDs with endgame databases (Nalimov Tablebases). With the help of the Endgame Turbo, all five- and some six-piece endgames (including the sophisticated and practice-oriented endgame rook and 2 pawns v rook) are played with absolute perfection. Likewise, Fritz handles endgames with more than six pieces much better since the program can already access the endgame knowledge during the analysis. Installing all 5 DVDs on your hard drive would take up a massive 24 GB of space so it might be better to simply install DVD 1 containing the 5-piece endings and then only use the other 6-piece DVDs if and when you require them. This is definitely a must-have for correspondence players, endgame theoreticians and those who enjoy engine matches.