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.