ChessBase Reviews

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CDs, DVDs, Software Part 6

World Champion Alekhine

ChessBase have now released the English version of the excellent CD "World Champion Alekhine" by Robert Huebner. The CD contains over 2000 games, and just over 400 of these are annotated. 50 text files are included in the main database, most of which relate to tournaments. There are also 13 videos on the CD where top players give comments on Alekhine. A training database contains 102 test games where the reader can test themselves against the clock to find the best moves. Each game may have several test positions and should keep even the serious student occupied for a good few hours.

Huebner has also included a database of 40 tasks where you are given a position and a task to solve. The next game in the database is the line solving the task with annotations by Huebner. One of the best parts of the CD is a small Huebner about Alekhine database where 25 games are superbly annotated by Alekhine, Huebner and others.

The CD doesn't give an account of the life of Alekhine, but does contain a lot of background information, including some 174 bitmap photos to look at.

Pocketfritz

Pocketfritz is the latest chess playing program from ChessBase and has the advantage that you don't have to haul around a large PC to use it. This program runs on any pocket PC using Windows CE 3.0 (or compatible). There have been many systems over the years, but this is definitely the strongest portable system that I gave come across. Ok, it may not cause a lot of sleepless nights for GM's but if you're graded 2100 or less, you may find yourself losing frequently. Even IMs can find themselves playing a tough game.

The display quality of the game is good and the moves are executed by using a stylus on the screen. The openings book is derived from Shredder's tournament repertoire, and has a new and more compressed format which only requires 500 Kbytes of storage space on the Pocket PC. Pocketfritz can even be used to access the internet and the ChessBase server in Hamburg with the giant database located there.

Fritz 7 is also due out at the end of October and I would recommend visiting the ChessBase website for a sneak preview. There is a demo version available which allows you to play online. I may give details of how I managed to lose my first internet game in the next issue.