The ChessBase book
The ChessBase book combines eBook, databases and video lecture. With the interactive replayer you can become active yourself and analyse games on a digital board, try out variations and add an engine. You can export these analyses to continue working on them later with other programs (ChessBase / Fritz).
I. The diagram
On the diagram you can see game positions that you can analyse.
The diagram above shows the starting position of the Evans gambit. Perhaps you are now wondering why Black does not play 4 - Nxb4 in this position, but almost always takes with the bishop? Analyse the position: make the moves on the board! As soon as you have made the first move on the board, four buttons will appear below the board.
Use the left and right arrows to move forwards and backwards within your analysis. The third symbol takes you directly to the starting position.
Press the 4th symbol, the "fan", to activate a chess engine that provides you with an evaluation of the best moves:
The above diagram shows the evaluation after the move sequence 4 - Nxb4 5 Nxe5.
The best move for Black is shown, then the best move for White and so on. The result is a variation based on both sides making the best move. A variation always ends with an evaluation. In this case, it is that Black is clearly better.
You can scroll up and down within the variation using the bar to the right of the variation and also find the evaluation in words at the end. There is also some technical information about the time and effort involved in the analysis.
You can customise the number of variations displayed from the starting position using the two green buttons.
You can switch the engine on or off by clicking on the button with the fan symbol. With the help of the engine, it is then not difficult to answer the chess question posed:
4 - Nxb4 sets a trap. However, White can easily avoid it and get a good position
5.Nxe5 (White "falls for it") 5. - Qf6 with an attack on f2 and e5 as well as pinning the e5-knight. Black is better!
5. c3 Nc6 avoids the problems for White. The change of move has created an unfavourable variation for Black. The bishop is not well placed on c5.
II. The Video-replay-system
The videos are integrated by a replayer. Double-click to open the replayer.
You will see the image of the author at the top right. As soon as you click on the start arrow, the video begins. While the video is running, the current notation appears in the window below the video image and the current board position appears on the diagram on the left.
Below the diagram you will find several tools that you can work with:
- The traffic light is important if the author has included interactive questions here.
- With the circle symbol to the right, you can rotate the view of the board, depending on whether you want to look at the board from a black or white perspective.
- The square with the arrows, one place further to the right, gives you the option of zooming in or out.
- Click on the down arrow to load the entire database as a PGN database calculator.
- The open book and the cogwheel relate to the settings and the view of the database and the games.
Below the toolbar there is another window in which you can activate a chess engine, which then calculates parallel to the presentation.
Now switch to the right-hand window again, below the notation. There you will find a toolbar that allows you ...
- share the game or analyses with others;
- save the game (and only the game) as a PGN file;
- allows you to fold the notation if necessary and thus make even extensive variation trees readable;
- allows you to work on the commentary.
III. The Database
Double-click to open the replayer and play the saved games.
As an example, the database on the open defence of the Spanish game has been inserted here once again. At the top left you can see the current position of the game, in this case the starting position. At the top right you can see the notation, with comments on the game if necessary.
At the bottom left you can see the list of games in the database. By clicking on one of these games, you can transfer it to the digital chessboard and replay it there.
The window at the bottom right is of particular importance. Here you can see which moves have already been played in which position and by which players. The database on which this reference function is based is the ChessBase Live database, which consists of around 2,000,000 current games. With the help of this reference function, you can now easily track where in the game the "theory" ended.
Below the digital board and below the notation are the familiar tools for jumping within the game, downloading all the games in the database or carrying out and saving your own specific analyses.
IV. Solution-replayer
The little brother of the game replayer presented above is the solution replayer. This contains games that are provided with a chess task.
The digital chessboard is located at the top left. There you can see the position on which the task is based and you can also enter the suggested solutions as moves. To the right is the notation. When replaying the game, the position of further training tasks is also displayed.
At the bottom left is the game list of the database. Double-click on one of the list entries to open the corresponding game on the digital board and in the notation window. At the bottom right is the live book, from which you can see whether this game is saved in the live book.
If you try to solve the game, enter the move you think is the solution on the digital board. This is done by clicking on the starting square and the starting square. If you have made the correct move, the next task is displayed. If you make an incorrect move suggestion, the current task is retained and you have the chance to forget the whole thing by entering the correct move.
V. The Blue Arrows
The blue arrows to the left and right, see image below, are an indication of further information that is made available to the reader in the database.
For example, if you click on the arrow to the left, the live book opens and the engine that analyses the current deployment opens.
However, if you click on the arrow pointing to the right, the other games stored in the database will be displayed. You can open a game by clicking on it. If it is a database with videos, the videos offered in the ChessBase book are listed. Here too, you can open any of the videos by clicking on it.
VI. The Display
The view you have of the ChessBase Book depends above all on the options offered by your end device. The settings in the browser are decisive here. In the ChessBase Book you have the option of temporarily hiding the table of contents if you want to see more content on the screen.
By clicking on the arrow behind the word button, you can decide whether the chapter directory is displayed or not. If it is not displayed, the free space is used for the content of the chapter you are currently reading.