ChessBase Reviews

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CDs, DVDs, Software Part 16

Shredder 8 By Stephen Meyer-Kahlen

This is the latest annual update version of this program and an initial comparison of this against the previous version indicate that the programmer, Stephan Meyer-Kahlen has made some major changes. For one thing, when analysing a position, Shredder 8 seems to be much faster at getting to a deeper depth in the search tree. Greater emphasis has also been given to the safety of the king. Shredder won the Computer Chess World Championship in 2003 so it has to definitely be given serious consideration by players looking for a top class engine to play against, or help improve their play. Shredder seems to excel in the endgame stage of any chess game. One big advantage is that the program is written to work on both single and double processor systems so you don’t have to think about buying two separate versions. The Chess Engine remains completely configurable by the user which allows you to tweak the program to suit your particular playing style.

The program comes with a tournaments opening book and a database with 500,000 historic and current games. You also get 1 year's free access to the ChessBase PlayChess.com server where you can play yourself or test the Shredder engine against other chess engines.

Giuoco Piano C50-C54 By Reinhold Ripperger

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 sees you into the Giuoco Piano which to this day I have never learnt to pronounce correctly but always remember it as one of the earliest opening that I was recommended to learn. The author has done a good job with this CD in producing a good means of studying the opening. There are 11 text files with 240 annotated games as well as 2 extra databases containing over 44,000 games. The training database has over 160 questions where you can test your understanding against the clock. The CD contains the ChessBase Reader so you don’t have to own any other ChessBase programs to use it. Here’s a game from the CD played by Douglas Bryson:

D Bryson - M Gudyev [C50] FIN jub25-A corr8792, 1987
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d3 Bc5 5.Nc3 d6 6.Bg5 Na5 7.Bb3 Nxb3 8.axb3 Be6 9.Na4 h6 10.Bh4 Bg4 11.Nxc5 dxc5 12.h3 Bxf3 13.Qxf3 Qd6 14.Bxf6 Qxf6 15.Qxf6 gxf6 16.Ra5 b6 17.Ra6 Kd7 18.0–0 Kc6 19.f4 Rh7 20.fxe5 fxe5 21.Rf5 Kd6 22.Rf3 Kc6 23.Kh2 h5 24.Rg3 Kd6 25.Kg1 Ke6 26.Kf2 Rh6 27.Rg5 Rf6+ 28.Kg1 Rh6 29.Ra1 a5 30.Rf1 Rah8 31.Rff5 ½–½

The Greatest Tournaments in the History of Chess 1851-1986 By ChessBase

You won’t find games by any of our players on this CD but you will find much more to delight you. Personally I would describe is as a snapshot of chess culture.

The sometimes extensive tournament reports – mostly written by Manual Fruth – contain many interesting details, which at the same time give an insight into the history of chess. In this way, you find out that today’s much discussed rules about thinking time have been undergoing a process of development: from long to shorter and shorter. And in those days there was also a struggle against short draws. Thus, for example, tournament regulations frequently mention that draws may not be agreed before move 30. The 50 tournament reports form a true treasure trove of further information.

The 50 tournaments on the CD are: London 1851, New York 1857, Vienna 1873, Leipzig 1877, London 1883, Hastings 1895, St Petersburg 1895, Nuremberg 1896, Vienna 1898, London 1899, Paris 1900, Cambridge Springs 1904, St Petersburg 1909, Karlsbad 1911, San Sebastian 1911, San Sebastian 1912, St Petersburg 1914, Mährisch Ostrau 1923, New York 1924, Baden-Baden 1925, Moscow 1925, Bad Kissingen 1928, Karlsbad 1929, San Remo 1930, Bled 1931, Moscow 1935+36, Nottingham 1936, Kemeri 1937, AVRO 1938, Salzburg 1942, Sverdlovsk 1943, Groningen 1946, Moscow 1956, Dallas 1957, Bled 1961, Capablanca-Memorial 1963, Los Angeles 1963, Santa Monica 1966, Moscow 1967, Moscow 1971, San Antonio 1972, Milan 1975, Moscow 1975, Leningrad 1977, Bugojno 1978, Tilburg 1978, Montreal 1979, Moscow 1981, Bugojno 1986, Tilburg 1986.