This CD from Chessbase is one of the best values available if you are interested in chess studies. It represents a truly Herculean effort by Harold van der Heijden, the archivist for this project. On the disc, you will find nearly 59,000 studies by various authors. Each study has a solution, with extensive languageless annotation (where applicable) and indexing. There is absolutely nothing in print that compares to this collection.
The data on this disk is supplied in Chessbase cbf and cbh format. To get the most out of the collection, you'll probably want to use Chessbase to access the data (because of the theme keys used for indexing). Note that you will run up against the maximum game limit if you use cblite. If you are not interested in using the theme keys, then you can use any software that can read Chessbase format files (or use a utility to convert to PGN).
In a collection like this, indexing is very important, because the primary use will probably be as a research tool. Each study is entered into the database with the composers name as the white player, and the Chessbase position code as the black player. The source of the study is entered in what is normally the tournament field. Of course, the date of the study is entered in the date field. So all this information is available to you even if you use a program other than Chessbase or Fritz. However, if you are using a Chessbase product, you can use the theme keys to access the data also. The most important of these are the keys for unusual material distributions (i.e. many queens, rooks, etc), and the endgame keys themselves, which allows instant access for a specified material distribution.
The only minus to this CD is that there is a code system used for the source of the material. You could look at this another way though - at least the code system is there, so you can track this information down. Thus, if you are writing a book, and are interested in citing a particular reference, you will have to look up the corresponding code to determine the publication source. However, finding the author and year for a particular study is very easy, since it's available in the header of each game.
One natural question that some people might have is how this collection differs from the program called Studies, by Convekta. Well, this offering from Chessbase would be a better research tool, whereas the Convekta program is more of a training tool. I say this because the Chessbase CD offers indexing and classification of more interest to the composer or enthusiast, along with a truly huge collection of material. However, the positions are not graded by difficulty (like the Convekta software), so there is no way of telling how "hard" a particular study will be. I'm not saying that the Chessbase offering is totally unsuitable for training (i.e. there's nothing to stop you from pulling out all R+P endgames, and studying these), just that I think it is better suited for study enthusiasts.
I've produced a text file that describes the number of studies present by each composer, you can download it by clicking here.
In summary, this is an indispensable research tool for the study enthusiast, and represents an exceedingly good value.
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