ChessBase / Chess Tech "Office Hours"

Feedback and Support
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I’ve been asked if I would do a session on ChessBase and / or “chess tech,” and I thought one way to go would be to offer “Office Hours.”

What questions do you have about ChessBase, Fritz, Stockfish, Leela, or any other chess tech for that matter, that I could answer in a class setting?

Post those questions here and we’ll find a date for me to do a class where I plow through that list!

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hello!
I would like to know how to search for structures or maneuvers. thank you

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Im a lower rated player here, 1480 USCF. While working on building an opening repertoire, I currently use non-Chessbase sources (online videos, books, etc). How can I make use of Chessbase to help me build, learn and practice my repertoire? Specifically, I would like to use Chessbase to force an engine to play my openings for practice, and also build a database of games (from megabase, etc) of games that have been played using these openings

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Hi John, I think I ran into you in Hamilton 30 years ago, but I might be mistaken :joy:
I picked up chess after a 30 year break (that sounds depressing), and being on the retirement side of income and post-mortgage I was able to join KCT and finally buy Chessbase.
I watched your older series on Chessbase, but still have some questions. I think enough things changed with Chessbase 17 that it is indeed worth an update :grinning: Plus, trying to find good help on chessbase online is painful. I know you covered some of this, but a review would be good.
So questions - I am still struggling with engines in several respects:

  1. Which engine(s) to use? Free, buy, online? Maybe a quick overview of the big ones?
  2. Technical settings, it defaults to a lot of cores and bogs my machine to a crawl - is this normal? (I don’t have a dedicated CB machine, but I do have a pretty fast laptop.). So, basically covering engine settings again. One of the KCT instructors said at a sub-2000 level only a few cites and less depth is needed, but J didn’t want to ask him more and interrupt the lesson topic.
  3. Annotations and analysis - probably a simple question, but how do you keep your own analysis/comments AND engine analysis of the game? Perhaps more detail on your own analysis process?
  4. There is an engine by default in the window that tantalizes me with good english comments, but they don’t persist - is there a way to see these?
  5. Not an engine question, but maybe more on free sources of games? I tried the correspondence path you suggested, but they rejected me as I have to join the Canadian one first at cost, and so on. Is it worth pursuing this?

I am sure some of these are simple answers, and I have more. But hopefully this is useful to you.

  1. Adding one thing to my long list - a review of how you build a repertoire would be good, I got most of it from your other lecture, but it isn’t solid in my mind. And maybe more about how you actually use it?
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Perhaps two types of sessions are in order.

The first would be about building a repertoire; this would be two parts, showing the work done in Lichess, and then how to transfer those files to Chessbase and continue to improve them there.

The second would be specifically about Chessbase questions, tips, and tricks.

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Hello all.
Good afternoon!
There was a question that was concerning me for sometime now: about online Databases. I have known for sometime now that if we press enter twice on Chessbase on a board, it leads us to the online database. I wanted to know about the effeciency of using online databases compared to MegaDatabases with frequent TWIC updates.

I use MegaDatabases frequently(and update TWIC always on Tuesdays) and do not rely on Online Databases almost at all. However, MegaDatabases also take much more time to load(including with Search Boosters) while Online Databases load almost instantly.
There are many games that Online Databases offer and offer quite some Correspondence games as well. I wanted to ask how does one maximise using Online Databases and whether they prefer using Online Databases or Mega Databases.

One insecurity I have when using Online Databases is that they would not have all the games in the Databases and that I may miss out on some important games because of that. Does anyone know how to address these issues and what is your opinion about them?
Thanking you,
Yours sincerely,
Aradhya Garg

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The question is not efficiency. It’s about how willing you are to curate your own databases.

If you are not willing or able to commit to downloading TWIC games weekly, ICCF games monthly, and others (BdF, national databases, Lichess elite, your own sources) as you find them, the online database is preferable.

If you keep your database up to date religiously, I think Mega + TWIC + ICCF is preferable. The online database is sometimes not fully current, and if you have no internet access, obviously you can’t use it.

The main point is that strong players need to control their own data for maximum benefit.

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Hello Mr. Hartmann,
Good evening,
I am quite willing to curate my own databases. I do download TWIC games weekly and do have the latest versions of MegaDB usually. I do try to control my own data. However, I had some questions. Could you help me with them?:

  • How to download Lichess games? I tried to download it once but it takes way too much time to download and I think even after waiting for a lot lot of time it could not download properly. Could you manually show us how to download Lichess games and how to store it in our database if possible? Would be very grateful if you could help us with that Sir.

  • What is BDF? Do not know about it at all.

Thanking you,
Yours sincerely,
Aradhya Garg

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Master-level Lichess games are available here for download each month:

https://database.nikonoel.fr/

If you are interested in learning how to datamine the complete monthly Lichess databases, I can do a video on that. It’s complicated to learn, but powerful.

BdF is the German correspondence league. Back when this was 365, I did a session on finding data sources. Here are all the correspondence links I gave.

ICCF - https://www.iccf.com/
Lechenicher SchachServer (LSS) – Lechenicher SchachServer - Welcome Page
German Correspondence Chess Federation (BdF) – BdF-Schachserver - Welcome Page
Deutscher E-Mail-Schachclub (DESC) – http://www.desc-online.de/
Freechess (German language only) – https://www.freechess.de
International E-mail Chess Club (IECC; no engines allowed) – https://www.chess-iecc.com/

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