This recent upgrade from Chessbase is similar in style and philosophy to their release of Fritz 6. That is to say, the core functionality of the program has not changed very much, but from an ergonomic standpoint, there have been very many changes. All the features of CB 7 remain in CB 8, however, some of the menus are different (more windows-standard), and the organization of the program has improved. There are also a few new features; I will talk about them in the second half of this review.
It’s been a while since my original review of Chessbase 7, so let me digress a little bit and go over some of the features that Chessbase provides.
The Basics
As you can see from the name, Chessbase is a database for storing chess information. This information can be in the form of games, chess trees, and hypertext documents (i.e. electronic documents that are like web pages). One of the main things you need to be able to do with any database is to search through it. In Chessbase parlance, this is called ‘filtering’ a database.
You conduct filtering operations using a search dialog box, which is essentially an electronic form that you fill out. Using this form, you can select games based on the following criteria:
- Player Names
- Dates
- Tournaments
- Material on the board
- Position of pieces on the board (both exact and fuzzy specifications)
- Piece maneuvers
- Openings, strategy, positional features and tactics
Once you have a game you are interested in, Chessbase will pop up a graphical chessboard for you to look at. You can step through the game move by move, and follow variations in the game quite easily. Chessbase also allows you to use any Chessbase compatible (and many winboard compatible) chess engine when you need advice on a position. This new version also provides a link to Fritz for game analysis. So you can press a button, and Fritz will come up, with the current game being displayed.
Chessbase provides facilities for placing colored squares and arrows on the board, which can be seen when you view the game with any Chessbase product. You can also place audio and video clips within the game as well. And this brings up another point. Since Chessbase provides their Chessbase reader for free, it is easy to distribute what you have created, because you can be sure that others can read your files.
As I mentioned previously, Chessbase allows you to form chess trees based on collections of games. The chess tree shows you information about how well particular opening moves score. You can use this tree to study the opening phase of the game, and also within Fritz as an opening book. It is an absolutely indispensable tool. The Chessbase tree also provides for automatic minimaxing, so you can see the strongest sequences of play, without having to step through a lot of the tree.
The Extras
All this information (game collections, chess trees, video, audio, etc) can be linked together in hypertext documents. Clickable links allow the data to be connected. So tutorial material is easy to create. And while you can view tutorial material within any Chessbase program (Fritz, the Chessbase lite, and Chessbase itself), you need CB 7 or CB 8 to create these documents.
Chessbase also provides ways to automatically generate reports on openings – giving you typical piece maneuvers, top players, and the best scoring moves from a given position. For a few more details on this feature, see my Chessbase 7 review. You can also generate tournament tables, print ECO-style tables, and HTML documents.
One of the more important Chessbase capabilities is the use of themes, which can be used to automatically categorize games based on virtually any criteria you can think of (for instance a Bishop sac on h7, or a particular pawn structure, endgame, or opening). When you set up a theme, any games that you copy into a database will be automatically organized according to the theme specifications. In the new version of CB 8, the use of themes has become a little easier, and a bit more transparent to the user.
It’s really quite impossible for me to provide a complete list of the features in Chessbase. The best thing I can do is suggest that you download a copy of Chessbase Lite, and see for yourself. As of this writing though, Chessbase Lite is based on Chessbase 6 or 7 (depending on the version you download). So you won’t get the gorgeous new CB 8 interface.
Chessbase really has many other features that I have not discussed in this review, like PGN compatibility, windows clipboard integration, multiple concurrent analysis engines, etc. It is a fairly feature-rich program, and so I’ve tried to hit the high points with this little discussion.
What’s New
The first thing that struck me was how stunning the interface was. Chessbase clearly spent a lot of time and money on the aesthetic aspects of this program. I know I have decried purely cosmetic changes to a program in the past. People that have read my reviews on Chessmaster know what I’m talking about. But, this case is somewhat different. When Chessmaster came out with CM5000, CM5500, CM6000 and CM7000, the underlying menu structure and program interface remained largely unchanged. Very little energy was placed on streamlining tasks, and making it easier for the user to do things. Chessbase’s approach has been to both improve the overall look of the program, and improve the user’s ability to actually get things done.
They accomplished this by designing a visually pleasing yet restrained interface. For those that are familiar with the term ‘skins’, the interface is fully ‘skinnable’ (I apologize to any editors that may have just had a hemmorhage). They also redesigned many of the menus, so that they are more in line with the windows standard. Furthermore, the interface rarely leaves you wondering what you are supposed to do next to accomplish something.
Ok, that’s enough said about the slick new interface….
Since Chessbase 1.1, the main database browser window has not changed significantly. In CB 8, the organization of folders and databases in the main Chessbase window has improved, so databases and folders are laid out in a hierarchical fashion that mirrors your own directory structure. In fact, the new database browser window is very similar to windows explorer. There is even a built-in preview window of sorts that shows the contents of the currently selected database; along with a "recent games" and "recent database" list on the file menu.
Another big change is that Chessbase has gone away from an MDI-type layout. For those that are not familiar with this terminology, it is similar to what Microsoft has done with their Office 2000 upgrade. In other words, in Chessbase 7, you had a parent window, and all other database windows opened inside of it. Now, each database and game has it's own window. So users of CB 1.1, 6 and 7 will have to get used to this.
Generally speaking, Chessbase has made some big improvements in the way game data is presented visually. When you are studying a game for instance, you can see the position of the current game, concurrent with tree statistics for that position. In CB 7 this was not nearly as easy to accomplish. Additionally, in this same window you can see the results of any position search that you care to perform. Overall, this change in the interface is one of the best new features of CB 8, and it does make opening study easier
In general, the internet integration of this version is the best I have seen to date. This is mostly from the standpoint of obtaining database updates, program upgrades, and conducting online searches. Searches in the online database at the Chessbase website are totally transparent to the user. So, if you are looking for a game or position that is not in one of your online databases, you just connect to the internet, and press a button to find the game on the Chessbase website. This is a very good implementation, and Chessbase is to be commended for their efforts. E-mail transfer of games and data has also been improved. Assuming you have a compatible mail client, with one menu selection you can mail out game scores (in PGN, HTML, etc), with a Chessbase format file attached. This makes for easier transfer of data.
The capabilities of the search/filtering dialog box are largely similar to the previous version, with one major change. You can now search through variations in the game score when looking for positions. I know many people asked for this feature, and Chessbase has finally made it part of CB 8.
The interoperation between Fritz and Chessbase has been improved. In CB 8, you can click on a button, and Fritz will open up with the current game. So you can then use Fritz to play out a position, or for game analysis. In previous versions, you always had the problems of dealing with file locking when trying to access data concurrently from within Fritz and Chessbase. The new Fritz game exchange ability mitigates this problem. Note that in order to use this feature, you will need to make sure you are using the latest service pack for Fritz.
From a performance standpoint, the program seems faster in some search operations. But I really don’t have any definitive results in this regard.
And I almost forgot, there are three-dimensional boards in this version of well. They are identical to those used for Fritz. Personally, I have no need of three-d in a database program, but I’m sure many users asked for it, so it got added.
The Verdict
The bottom line is that all the functions of Chessbase 7 are in Chessbase 8, with a few additional ones. The most important of these are the new board/tree/game layouts and the ability to search through variations. Most of the improvement in this new version is in the area of ergonomics. And I think this is where most of Chessbase’s energy has been directed. The program will definitely be easier to understand for new users, and the overall look and feel of the program has improved immensely.
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