Saturday, 30 November 2024

WELCOME


INTRODUCTION
 


Welcome to my Chess Book Reviews blog. 

I hope you enjoy it and that it proves useful if you are deciding to buy chess books.

It has been said that books are the most loyal and trusted friends that you can ever have and in this world of iPads, kindles and other electronic formats I still want to be one of the people giving a 'shout-out' for hard copy chess books. In this technological age it has never been easier to access chess online, at the click of a mouse, and this has affected book consumption.  

Chess books are an important aspect of a chess players lives. They serve as an educational and developmental tool, as well as illustrating history and culture. Some people own one or several books, whereas others have large collections assembled over a lifetime. 

Truly then, I believe in the value of hard copy chess books. Unlike electronic books, they don't lose their charge, they can be read in the sunshine, they don't hurt your eyes from watching screens and even better - they can be autographed to add to their value as a treasured keepsake. 

I want to be clear about my objective for this blog site.

I am blogging simply as an amateur chess player. I am a club and county player, former County Chess Champion (Shropshire) and I have proudly represented and indeed been Captain of my country (UK) in the NATO Chess Championships, but I remain like many of us, just an ordinary player with a lifelong passion for the game.

My reviews are written for the people who are most likely to purchase chess books. That is to say beginners, intermediate and strong players up to county level, but I am sure that even stronger players might enjoy or in some way benefit from digesting my reviews. This is a not for profit blog but reviewing chess books is something that I enjoy.

Reviewing a chess book isn't as easy as one may think. It requires a certain skill-set and I am learning all the time. One has to be impartial and objective but also not be afraid to have a personal opinion and I will not shirk from criticizing if I feel it is warranted. There should be a standard process for the task of reviewing and it can take me a while - but that is because I will actually read the book. Too many people merely flick through and I have seen some truly woeful reviews consisting literally of a couple of lines. I want to try to get into the head of the author. I want to do the best I can to explain to the reader of this blog what each book is really about and the impact it had on me personally, so that they can make up their own mind about owning a copy. 

It is as subjective as art or music, but I hope my reviews are a good starting point for people. Naturally, individuals will have their own views and opinions about the same books. I am sanguine about that...but these views are mine and mine alone. Sometimes I may use humour to make a point (how dare I?) which is not everyone's style but there we are, that's life. It is not in the scope of this blog site to enter into debates. Feel free to make your own mind up. 

For the record I have several of my own favourite chess books from the past including 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' by David Bronstein and Tom Fürstenberg. If you can still find it, then snap it up immediately. My most prized book is a signed copy of Anatoly Karpov's memoirs which he autographed when I played him in Chartres, France in a simul in 2019. 

As I say, you cannot autograph an iPad!

Without further ado then, let's put one foot forward and see where the journey takes us. Thanks for stopping by.

Carl

Carl Portman (Author: Chess Behind Bars and Chess Crusader)

 



 

 

 

 

 

 


Friday, 29 November 2024

CHESSBASE 18

 

CHESSBASE 18

Carl Portman


 


Whilst this site deals primarily with book reviews, I do include chess software occasionally, including my favourite, ChessBase, which I use for my chess writing, coaching and self-improvement. I am therefore unashamedly positive about CB products but of course that won’t stop me from commenting if I don’t personally like something.

My other caveat is that I do not use all of the functions of CB programmes. That is the preserve of elite grandmasters who know it inside out and necessarily use it in their professional lives. My comments then are made as an amateur club player for other amateur players of all strengths.

It is easy for people to visit the ChessBase pages and read about the product for themselves, so I don’t wish to echo what others say here, but instead offer my general overview. I will state if or why club players will benefit from spending their hard-earned money on ChessBase 18. 

Many people will already be familiar with the ChessBase offering so here I am going to focus on some of the new features.

I must give credit where it is due. I took the time to visit the overview from Albert Silver on ChessBase as he is always so clear and precise. You can find this here:

https://en.chessbase.com/post/a-quick-and-complete-review-and-overview-of-chessbase-18

Without further ado then, let us dive straight in with the official overview. What I will do is take the ‘blurb’ (horrible word, that) and break it down, fitting my responses in blue to the CB claims. This is a new way of doing things for me and I hope it makes sense.

WINNING STARTS WITH WHAT YOU KNOW– CHESSBASE 18

ChessBase is a personal, stand-alone chess database that has become the standard throughout the world. Everyone uses ChessBase, from the World Champion to the amateur next door. It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it. Start your personal success story with ChessBase and enjoy the game even more.

Whether it is preparation for an individual opponent or tournament, administration and analysis of one's own games, development of training material for self-study or for training groups, or publication of games on the web or in print: ChessBase offers an incredible wealth of functions for all areas of study and playing levels. Anyone who is seriously involved in chess, plays tournaments or simply wants to understand chess, needs ChessBase: youth players, amateurs, tournament players, coaches, grandmasters, professional players etc.

Indeed. Anyone serious about improving will benefit from investing in the CB products. I say this without any hesitation from years of personal experience. There are other products on the market but I like the look, feel and range of ChessBase programs.

NEW IN CHESSBASE 18:

Playing style analysis: What type of player is your next opponent? ChessBase 18 checks the games and recognises aspects such as “Manic attacker who risks everything”, “Strong endgame expert with great fighting spirit”, “Exchanger with too high a draw ratio” and many more.

This is seriously cool. Let me break this down. Okay, I am going to be the guinea pig and use my own data, of which there are only 107 games online but this makes it personal. As well as learning more about your opponents or great players in chess history I wanted to understand more about myself. I used the ‘Style Report’ in Database 2025 to examine my games and this was the return.



My ego was instantly stabbed. What? I am low on aggressiveness. I never considered that and thought I was quite an aggressive player. I am definitely better as Black, as it indicated, and I do try to avoid theory. ‘Rarely fianchettoes as White’ is very interesting. To be fair, some games are from years ago and my style has changed somewhat but this is all valuable interesting information to help me with self-scrutiny.

There is another new function called ‘Error Report’ and I put my details in, to find this return.



Well, it is for me to try to further investigate this information but already it has given me some ideas going forward about what I want to work on with my game. This is one of the fundamental benefits of CB Databases – self-improvement. I blunder more in the endgame than the opening, which I suppose is true for many chess players.

Now, for fun I also put World Championship finalist Dommaraju Gukesh in, and this was the return for him.



Just look at all of those highs. Undoubtedly Ding Liren will be using this function at the very highest level. I found this to be a very exciting innovation and I will use it to work on my game going forward.

Search for strategic themes: Find games with a thrilling kingside attack, or on the topics: Defence; space advantage; strong square; queenside play etc. - training and illustrative material in abundance!

Chess Coaches are you listening? This is a superb resource to find material to fit your lesson plans.

Simply right-click on the Mega Database 2025 icon, go to search, advanced and strategy and you can click on your choice, as follows:


Let the engine do all the work for you. Find games with these themes to use in your coaching sessions – it’s quite marvellous. I ticked ‘Reckless King’ and found a large number of games to use. Above all, these things save a person time – the most precious asset we have that we should not waste. This new function alone will save me hours of searching and it is a big influencer for me.

Access to 6 billion Lichess games, extremely fast access via the ChessBase Database Server.

This is what ChessBase is all about. Not only over a million games in the database but automatic updates from tournaments all over the globe for a year. In the old days I used to have to search for these myself, taking many hours.

Player preparation by matching Lichess games: Matching Lichess or Chess.com accounts via statistical matching provides deep insights for opponent preparation!

So many players use Lichess and Chess.com now. It can be difficult to find their games in a ‘Normal’ database so if you are armed with the username of a person you can input that into CB 18 and again, it will do all the work for you and find their online games. This what the box looks like, so you can set parameters but it is so quick you don’t really need to. Once the games are found, they can even be copied into your own prep database. It’s quick and easy. This is a new and valuable addition and I look forward to getting best use out of it.



Download Chess.com games with built-in API, convenient and fast!

It really is instant, and I cannot emphasise how much time this will save the keen chess player.

Built-in cloud engine: Use the power of the cloud on your notebook or tablet, rent the appropriate engine and save your own battery at the same time! With free flat rate for premium users*

I have not tried this but many people will. It is something I might consider going forward but I am old-school and don’t like too many apps on my electrical equipment.

ChessBase Mobile: The app for on the go – access to your own cloud databases, opening preparations and the ChessBase Database Server with over 12 million games!

I have not tried this only because I am a dinosaur and don’t like apps on my phone, but again many people will enjoy this function.

Further innovations: Printing of QR codes for games and positions. New design for Interface. All new icons. Icon colours adapt to the design theme. Better displays for reference searches (e.g. filter for Elo and year or draw range). Faster game input by voice and much more.

There are indeed all new icons, as shown below.


I have to say that this is one aspect of the new program that I do not like. The colourful icons worked better for me, but I note that most people like these. It is a subjective matter.

Only in conjunction with a ChessBase Premium account, which is included with the purchase of CB18 (1 year). This also applies to CB18 access to the ChessBase Online Database.

Conclusion.

There are several packages of CB18 available. These range from Premium, Mega Starter, Simple and Update. Then, players can add databases and PowerBooks along with other ChessBase products to enhance the experience.

People will choose what is appropriate for them, so it is not for me to recommend any single package but as a whole, the ChessBase team continue to develop their fantastic programmes in order to give chess players of all levels the opportunity to enjoy and improve their game. It is still my ‘go to’ programme and I have no hesitation n recommending it to any chess player. We live in a world that can often be depressing and negative – so chess players can have some fun and enjoyment through CB 18 as well as improving their game.

With enjoyment in mind, do note that in the database path there is a new line called video. When you click on it there are a number of offerings to get your coaching from renowned grandmasters. This is something I could only have dreamed of when I was a kid. 

 

I do finally wish to mention that as an 'oldie' I always preferred hard copy DVD but ChessBase 18 is download only. This is understandable - it saves on plastic for one thing but I do miss having the product in the box. With some trepidation I started the process of downloading it, and everything went smoothly. I can visit my 'shop' account' to find my serial numbers whenever I want. Thus, if you are 'old-school' don't be afraid. If you encounter any issues the ChessBase team are always quick to offer customer support - and this is another key feature when dealing with the company.

If you want to play online or against your computer, analyse your own games, learn in all aspects of chess with databases and videos from top players then this is for you. ChessBase make so much available - it is up to the player to decide how much they want to use the myriad functions available. It is intuitive so look around the functions, try things, have fun.

Well done all round to the ChessBase team - I recommend it. 

Christmas is around the corner - go on, treat yourself. You deserve it.



WELCOME

INTRODUCTION   Welcome to my  Chess Book Reviews  blog.  I hope you enjoy it and that it proves useful if you are deciding to buy ches...