Chess Assistant 8 Manual
Contents
1. 36 000 commented games Professional pack This new mode helps the chess players to check their knowledge of opening and also points out the inaccuracies and the mistakes and provides recommendations on their elimination e The Playing zone ChessOK with Rybka 3 and Game Service 2008 2010 2 500 games free available every week via the Internet 2 FIRST STEPS Start CHESS ASSISTANT A light narrow bar can be seen on the left This is the object bar It displays all the open objects chess game bases and windows At the moment the object bar contains a line with the program name It will also contain a GURU line Starter pack or a HugeBase line if you installed the HUGEBASE Professional pack You can hide the object bar by clicking on the icon or pressing the Ctrl C key combination To make the object bar visible once more just click on this icon or press Ctrl C again 2 1 OPENING A DATABASE Select Base Open in the main menu or click on the Ia icon or press the Ctrl O key combination The Select base to open dialog box will appear Select the folder with the necessary base in the Look in text box To select ELITE choose the C PROGRAM FILES CHESS ASSISTANT 10 BASES folder The name of the selected base is displayed in the window below You may wish to see the bases of a certain format only To do this choose the data 5 format in the drop down list in the Base type text box To display the bases in all forma2. Annotator and Source Every base has its own library This concept of libraries greatly increases search speed and allows one to avoid mistakes in names with difficult spellings 17 If you don t remember a spelling press the Mark button enter a fragment of the name in the Value Pattern text box and select Substring in the Type window If you are sure that the entered fragment is the name s beginning then set the Prefix type If you have entered the complete name select Exact and then press the Search button This button refers to the search through the library list so don t confuse it with the search in a set of games The elements found will be marked in the list To see them all select Show marked Press this button which is now called Show all to return to the library list To delete all the entered criteria press the Clear markers button To remove a criterion press Unmark A dialog box similar to the one produced by the Mark button will appear Enter the criterion or its fragment that is to be removed press Search and the chosen elements of the library list become unmarked Searching through an entire database or a set of games You can start searching in any mode List Split or View The Search dialog box will give you the choice of either searching through an entire database or through the current dataset Choose between Set and Whole base in the Search in section To select an entire database to be used as t
3. the original set and N for the current game number in this set 3 SEARCH There are seven types of search in CHESS ASSISTANT Header Position Material Advanced For Comments For Maneuvers and the Composite search all these types of search may be combined 3 1 HEADER SEARCH This type of search is based on header information such as the players names result year place opening name ECO index etc Let s find for example all the non drawn games played between Karpov and Kasparov Open the ELITE database Select Search Header in the main menu You can also click on the small down arrow next to the a icon on the toolbar and select Header search in the drop down list The Search dialog box appears with the header fields listed on the left The Criteria and Details columns are empty The White field is highlighted To avoid spelling mistakes use the list in the upper right hand corner of the window Begin with typing the name When you type the letter K the list automatically scrolls to this letter Type two more letters A and R and Karpov Anatoly RUS will be highlighted in the list Click on this item or hit the Insert key and it will appear in the White field If you have made a mistake press the Clear markers button Go to the Black field and repeat the procedure with Kasparov s name In this example it doesn t matter which of the two champions played with the white pieces so mark the gnore colors che
4. Comments command in the main menu and then specifying the type of comments in the Search dialog box You can search for any textual fragments of game annotations naturally as with all other searches in several bases simultaneously To do this select the Search Comments command in the main menu enable the Annotation criteria option in the Search dialog click on the Set annotations button and then specify the necessary text annotations in the Set search parameters window You can even search for several text fragments at once just type them in different lines of the Set search parameters window In this case the program 21 will search for any of them thus the resulting list will include all the games with annotations containing at least one of the fragments you have searched for You may also use this type of search to pick out instructive examples for your training databases search for to find excellent moves to collect blunders search for 3 6 SEARCH FOR MANEUVERS Using this tool you can search for common piece maneuvers For example let s find all the games with the Greek gift in the Elite database Open the ELITE database and select Search Maneuvers in the main menu The Search dialog box appears with the Maneuvers pane on the right Click on the small button with 3 dots above the Help button and make sure that ELITE 1s selected in the Select bases to search in window To fill the board with doubled question ma
5. button If not drag the cursor to the necessary destination square and release the button If you first click on an empty square or an opponent s piece the program will suggest a piece to move there and highlight it If the wrong piece is highlighted just drag the cursor to the right piece and release the button Please note that illegal moves cannot be entered If you touched a piece but then decided to move with another one drag the cursor off the board area and release the mouse button The entered move immediately appears in notation in square brackets As you continue entering new moves they are inserted into the notation You may comment on the same move with several variations each time returning to the branching point to enter a new one As soon as you start a new variation for a move the icon will become highlighted Clicking on it will return you to the main body of the game Definitions of other icons are given in Section 2 4 View Mode Commenting the last move in the game If you place the cursor after the last move and enter a new one it will be added to the main body of the game To avoid this press Ctrl and only then enter your variations to the last move There is also another method Press the Ctrl Shift z key combination and an empty move will be added to the notation Then put the cursor before the empty move and begin entering the variation Replacing the entered move Press the
6. interzonal championship etc Round The number of a round Annotator The author of the game annotations Remark There are three ways to set this criterion a whole remark Exact a part of a remark Substring or its beginning Prefix Select the setting in the Type text box and type the criterion on the keyboard in the Value Pattern window Source The source of the game record White ELO Black ELO Ratings of players Moves Number of moves in the game Possible values for the White Black Site Event Annotator and Source fields are stored in the library You can type them in the Find text box Setting criteria for the ECO Date Round and Moves fields 1 Specify the range in the Enter new value section Enter the first value in the From text box and the last value in the Up to text box If several intersecting ranges are selected they will automatically be joined 2 Press Add All the chosen values can be seen in the Values window The first of them is shown in the Criteria column and the number of chosen values is displayed in the Details column To exclude a value from the Values section highlight it and press Delete Setting criteria for the values stored in the library Games are stored as game headers consisting of several fields and notations _ Names of players are stored in a special file called a library Besides the players names the library stores possible values for some other header fields Site Event
7. Active Window Current Dataset 3 Search 3 1 Header Search 3 2 Position Search 3 3 Material Search 3 4 Advanced Search 3 5 Search for Comments 3 6 Search for Maneuvers 3 7 Combining Searches 3 8 Composite Search 4 Commenting 4 1 Annotating Moves 4 2 Adding Variations 4 3 Entering Moves 4 4 Working with the Clipboard 4 5 Saving a Game 4 6 Inserting Games 4 7 Multimedia Support 5 Playing Engines and Analysis 5 1 Playing Engines 5 2 Linking Playing Engines 5 3 Adjusting Playing Engines 5 4 Playing Against an Engine 5 5 Analyzing with Engines 5 5 1 Analyzing in Infinite Mode 5 5 2 Analyzing a Set of Positions in the Background 5 5 3 Searching for Blunders 5 5 4 Game Analysis 6 Entering New Games 6 1 Entering a Game Header 6 2 Entering Notation 6 3 Editing Headers in the List Mode 7 Deleting Games 8 Editing Games Con NM AN WD W WD Ge 9 Sets of Games 9 1 Selecting Games 9 2 Classifying Games and Positions 9 2 1 Standard Classes 9 2 2 Windows Explorer Style Classifier 9 3 Operations with Datasets 10 The Opening table Mode 11 Operations with Databases 11 1 Creating a New Base 11 2 Copying a Base 11 3 Joining Several Bases 11 4 Deleting a Base 11 5 Converting Bases from Other Formats 11 6 Compressing a Base 11 7 Resorting a Base 11 8 Searching for Duplicates 11 9 Updating from the Internet 11 10 Repairing a Base 11 11 Packing and E m
8. Chess Assistant 10 features special Video Help reference developed for many of its modes described in documentation This is a flash animation collection explaining why a particular mode has been created and how to use it Video Help is stored on DVD and it is being installed by default into C Program files Chess Assistant Video if you have Professional pack During an installation the Intro icon is being added onto your desktop To start the Video Help double click this icon the Intro htm will be opened in your web browser giving you links to flash files Some of the flash animations may be called from corresponding topics of Chess Assistant Help system For your convenience the asterisk sign is added to those sections in the Content on the right page which have corresponding flash animations During installation of the programs an icon Playing Zone ChessOK with Rybka 3 will also appear on the desktop With Playing Zone one can not only play online but also watch online broadcasts and most importantly analyze the games with Rybka 3 Some of the modes are described in detail in the MS Word document in Manual folder on DVD Contents 1 Introduction 1 1 System Requirements 1 2 Technical Support 1 3 Installation 1 4 Copy Protection 1 5 Chess Assistant 10 What s new 2 First Steps 2 1 Opening a Database 2 2 List Mode 2 3 Split Mode 2 4 View Mode 2 5 Test Mode 2 6 Demonstration Mode 2 7
9. Ctrl key while entering a new variation The Changing move dialog box will appear Existing variations are displayed on the left Use the buttons on the right to control them The New variation button inserts the entered move as a new variation If you select Insert and check moves the new move will replace the old one with all the next moves being checked and the illegal ones being deleted For example if you had been entering a game and accidentally moved the wrong rook to a square i e Had as opposed to fd1 this would overwrite the old move with the correction and verify that the moves after it were still possible The Replace button will overwrite the old move with the new one and delete all the following moves 27 Changing the order of variations Ft Clicking on the os icon will bring up the Variations control dialog box Variations control EI A 12 0 0 a6 13 636 14 2h4 d5 By 12 Wid h6 13 h4 246 14 Het cd O 12 43 h6 13 2h4 cd 14 ed d5 ajel Cancel Help To change the order of variations in the window drag and drop them or click on the up and down arrows Deleting a fragment of notation Pressing the Backspace key deletes the last entered move If you want to delete all the moves from the current one until the game end press the Shift Ctrl Backspace key combination Clicking on the lt icon will bring up the Deleting moves dialog box Deleting moves Delete option Ok f De
10. TANT database to another Using the internal Chess Assistant clipboard Open the window with the game you want to copy and place the cursor before the half move starting from which the notation must be copied Click on the 7 icon in the Games section on the toolbar and then select Copy to clipboard in the drop down list The number will appear next to that icon This indicates that the clipboard contains one notation Repeat this procedure with the other games you want to copy The digit to the left of the 7 icon shows the number of games contained in the CHESS ASSISTANT clipboard Switch to the window where you wish to copy a notation from the clipboard and click on the icon The Insert game or variation from the clipboard dialog box will appear In the List of variations in clipboard panel you can see the contents of the clipboard Choose the necessary game notation If you now press the Overwrite button the notation from the clipboard will replace the current notation If you select Join the program will search through the current notation for the first clipboard position If the search 1s a success the clipboard notation will be inserted into the current notation as a variation If you want to clear the CHESS ASSISTANT clipboard click on the a 7 and select Clear clipboard from the drop down list 4 5 SAVING A GAME To save changes in a game select Edit Save game in the main menu or click on the icon or press the Ctrl S
11. You can now also use the standard Windows clipboard Using the WINDOWS clipboard Operations with the WINDOWS clipboard allow you to copy games and analysis from the INTERNET and other sources and to paste them to a CHESS ASSISTANT database With its help you can also export data from CHESS ASSISTANT to other programs and last but not least it lets you share data inside Chess ASSISTANT Most chess programs have their own format for storing chess data 1 e games and positions If programs only supported their proprietary format sharing information among them would be exceedingly difficult which is why the PGN and EPD formats were created They are the de facto standard for sharing information between different chess programs They are also the standard 29 formats for posting games and analysis on the Internet The PGN and EPD files are text files which can be edited manually with a text processor They can also be produced by chess programs which support these formats Chess Assistant documentation on DVD includes the detailed description of the following clipboard operations importing game s from PGN format to CHESS ASSISTANT exporting a game from CHESS ASSISTANT to PGN format exporting multiple games from CHESS ASSISTANT to PGN format importing board position s in EPD format to CHESS ASSISTANT exporting a board position from CHESS ASSISTANT to EPD format copying multiple games from one CHESS ASSIS
12. ailing a Base 12 Libraries 13 Chess Trees 13 1 Operating a Tree 13 2 Database with Master Evaluations 13 3 UserBook 13 4 CAP Data 13 5 Different Types of Trees 13 6 Adjusting the Trees 13 7 Constructing the Trees 13 8 Opening Book 14 Opening Preparation 14 1 Opening Report 14 2 Search for Novelties 14 3 Automatic Opening Commenting 14 4 Automatic Preparation for Your Games 15 Gathering Statistics 16 Players Encyclopedia 17 Printing 17 1 What can be printed 17 2 Page setup 17 3 Print options 17 4 Print Preview 17 5 Exporting 18 The Playing zone chessOK with Rybka 3 18 1 Quick start 19 Test Opening Mode 20 Miscellaneous Options 111 1 INTRODUCTION This manual uses the following conventions Menu commands are written as follows Base Open the command Open from the Base menu Screen messages are written in talics Keys are shown as for example Alt Clicking with the left button of the mouse is referred to as clicking and clicking with the right button of the mouse as right clicking You can also use the CHESS ASSISTANT help file at any time Press F1 to open the help file 1 1 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS To use CHESS ASSISTANT 10 you will need the following Essential BM compatible PC 128 MB memory RAM Hard Disk 1 GB of free disk space VGA graphics Windows 2000 NT XP Vista DVD ROM drive Microsoft compatible mouse Recommended IBM compatible PC 512 MB or
13. ata was produced by the CHESS ANALYSIS PROJECT see Section 13 4 CAP Data for details To go to the next game press F8 or click on the gt icon on the toolbar To return to the previous game press F7 or click on the icon You can also jump to the first or to the last game of the current set by clicking on the KI or bi icon correspondingly 10 2 5 TEST MODE When viewing notation of the game Test mode is available Click Test tab on the toolbar Comments Position Games Engines Wen Book Test o 2 As you can see this tab contains only two buttons Test mode 3 and Demonstration mode Click Test mode button Demonstration mode is described in the next section this will display Test mode dialog box Another way to activate this mode is selecting the Test mode item in the notation local menu or press the Ctrl Enter key combination pias o 2 ANaz ane 0 10 0 0 h 11 4 5 re Le 15 03 Fs 16 6 I cit Aes Was 20 4 c2 1 fam Sete a6 22 Ba3 oe Mes 23 2 16 Mire Insert d E analysis b2 27 8ab1 Edi gt Demonstration mode a Test mode Ctrl Enter a view as ECO table s e Before you start testing you must adjust the parameters of this mode in the Test mode dialog box 4 Test mode Ei Side for test mod Preferences Save layout d MA s ei This window s properties White to move PUL O Advanced Advanced Black to m
14. b Players encyclopedia and photographs over 350 Mb Direct tree 559 Mb MegaCAP data 223 Mb A correspondence games database with pre built tree 80 Mb A correspondence games database in PGN format 223 Mb Video Help 99 Mb ega pack offers you Chess Assistant 10 Professional pack DVD with Nalimov Endgame Tablebases all 3 4 5 pieces 2 DVD with Nalimov Endgame Tablebases 6 pieces select Commented Game Service 2008 2010 VVVVVV Ss KS Ss KS SS KS Although the Nalimov DVD is included into the Mega pack it is installed independently of Chess Assistant using its own installation program After successful installation you will be prompted to run CHESS ASSISTANT 1 4 COPY PROTECTION The number of times CHESS ASSISTANT can be installed from the original DVD is unlimited You can back up all the CHESS ASSISTANT files onto any hard disk of your computer pack unpack files etc However you cannot transfer these files to another computer If you upgrade your computer and change its configuration you will get an error message Error 501 In this case you will have to reinstall the program from the DVD Therefore keep the original DVD available 1 5 CHESS ASSISTANT 10 WHAT S NEW CHESS ASSISTANT 10 incorporates all the features of its predecessor CHESS ASSISTANT and more including e New releases of built in playing programs Rybka 3 e Huge database of 4 000 000 games by July 1 2008
15. ck box with a tick 15 Search Elite X Header me Results Evaluations f es ee en ee EE at f O on oe oe ny gt Ignore colors Criteria included Header Material T Comments Search in Put results in al C Set 5031 games Newset i Tl Position Advanced J Maneuvers Whole base Clear all criteria Reload criteria Load Save L seach _ Cancel Help Go to the Result field and mark both 0 and 0 1 The selected values will appear in the Result field while the number of chosen items 2 in our example is displayed in the Details column Leave the other header fields undefined If you want to have the current dataset list replaced with the results of the search select the Old set option in the Put results in section To preserve the window with the current dataset and put the search results into a new list select New set For the purpose of our example please mark the New set section The options have all been set now and the screen will appear as it 1s shown in the picture above Press the Search button and you will get the game Kasparov Karpov 1 0 Las Palmas 1996 Description of the header fields White A player with the white pieces Black A player with the black pieces If the Jgnore colors check box is marked with a tick the program will find all the games played between the players independently of
16. d42 6 2 1 d4d5 22 1 e4e522 1 e4 d6 2 6 1 44 2 6 2 1 e4c6 28 143 BY 6 1e4ci2ks gt Z The lines in this list are the game headers and the current game is highlighted with a blue frame Use the arrow keys the green arrows on the toolbar or the mouse to move along the list You can also jump to the desired game by entering its number on the keyboard Sometimes you can see small letters next to the numbers a stands for games supplied with at least one annotation or diagram v stands for games supplied with at least one variation c stands for commented games with both text annotations and or diagrams and variations p stands for games started from a specific position Look at the Order of fields in list section The Selected window shows the displayed columns If there is a column you don t want to see move it to the Not selected window In order to do this click on the unnecessary item in the Selected window and press the gt button If you would like to hide all the items press the gt button The and buttons will do the opposite To change the order of columns click on one or several items and move them with the and buttons In the General Chessboard settings Field options Chess notation and Start notation from sections you can set many different options to modify the list accordingly In the Background type drop down list you can choose between Black and white Color Wood and Marble and From F
17. e question mark to the right of the white pawn icon Enter From 0 To O for the white knights and queens and From 1 To I for the white bishops and rooks The line with the large white question mark instead of a piece is to set a range for the total number of White s pieces on the board In this example it doesn t matter so leave on both the left and right e Set the limits for Black using the same procedure as above Enable the Ignore colors option and set Side to move Either e Make sure that Whole base is selected in the Search in section Search for positions with a certain material advantage This type of search allows you to find games in which one of the opponents had an extra pawn piece exchange etc While in the Search Position and material window set the difference in number of pawns knights bishops rooks and queens in the Imbalance box on the right The line with the large white question mark instead of a piece is to set a range for the total amount of White s extra material on the board It is calculated on the assumption that the value of the pieces is as follows Queen 9 points Rook 5 points Bishop 3 points Knight 3 points Pawn 1 point 20 You can also set the limits for Total number of pieces and indicate for how long this material imbalance continued in the Imbalance time moves box If the Imbalance time is indicated as 0 then the material imbalance set above may last for any number of move
18. e rooks Note that when selecting any criteria from this group you can define the number of rooks with the Quantity spinner boxes The position of the rook s relatively to open files possibility of their maneuver along the rank mobility of the rook s etc are included e Bishops along with criteria common to any piece the mobility the condition of being pinned or attacked etc we can find here the conditions specific for the bishop the presence of bishops of opposite color on the board two bishops on the board the color of bishop same or different from the color of a particular corner square etc e Knights this group includes some knight specific criteria like the knight s position within the extended center c3 f3 f6 c6 on the rim of the board being restricted in its mobility or positioned on the enemy s third rank e Pawn structure various pawn structures can also have specific positional criteria Here we find passed pawn s isolated pawn s the mobile pawn center backward pawn s or doubled pawn s etc e Control over lines this group includes criteria specific to the rook and queen play on the opened and semi opened files the possibility of invading the enemy camp with the major pieces full or partial control over the seventh rank etc Control of the major diagonals with a bishop is also included e Controlling the center and periphery this group includes the complex positional criteria r
19. eferring to the alignment of forces on a specified region of the board as well as the balance of attack defense on a particular square Clicking the icon with the cross plus sign unfolds the group and displays its content At any time you can view the complete list of the search conditions by unfolding the group Actually these complex conditions represent some predefined templates for the search which will assist you in forming your search request This makes the Composite search a powerful tool for finding a variety of complex positional factors which define the course of the struggle on the board You can find examples of the Composite search in manual document on your DVD 25 4 COMMENTING You can annotate games in any mode that displays notation View Split and Tree To comment a game in View mode just click on the Comments tab in the left part of the toolbar and the Comments toolbar will appear Comments Position Games Engines VIEW Book 16465 mi f a aE 4 1 ANNOTATING MOVES To annotate a move click on the mik icon A small drop down menu will appear Select Annotate move and you will get the Annotations editor dialog box Annotations editor f ai oo oe OF 8 Se oe Cc oO Ff IL PF I Pl L Hm mw e t N BR Atternvord E valuation Standard Classes User Folders Short Before Short After Long Before Long After Introduction o The Informant style symbols may be used in short co
20. elect Browse and select the DVD ROM drive Double click on SETUP EXE The SETUP program will start e Read the License Agreement e Type in your Name and Company optionally e Type in your Product serial number that is given on the front page of you user manual e Select Jnstallation Directory CHESS ASSISTANT is installed in the C PROGRAM FILES CHESS ASSISTANT 10 directory by default However before the files are copied you have the option to change the path Chess Assistant 10 comes in three packages that differ in their volume and possibilities they offer to user Starter pack or Professional pack or Mega pack All the options of the Starter pack are enabled by default If you wish you may either remove some of the options or add extra features from the Professional pack or Mega pack Starter pack offers you DVD Chess Assistant 10 gt Program files and folders 100 Mb gt GURU database with 1 050 000 games with pre built tree 290 Mb gt Opening Encyclopedia 2008 50 Mb gt Direct tree 210 Mb gt Demo versions and folders Game Service 2008 2010 2 500 games free available every week via the Internet Professional pack offers you Chess Assistant 10 Starter pack DVD Chess Assistant 10 gt Chess Assistant 10 database with 4 000 000 games July 1 2008 HUGEBASE with pre built tree 770 Mb gt Chess Assistant 10 database with 4 000 000 games Jult 1 2008 HUGEBASE in PGN format 2000 M
21. emembers all the bases and windows open from the moment you exit and restores them when you start the program again However if you want to close the base select the Base Close command or access the local menu LIST MODE 2 2 You can open a list of the current set of games in three different ways e With the Dataset List command from the main menu e By pressing F5 e By selecting the Open list command in the local menu 5 Elite List 5031 games White Lae ae L L L Tal ats Tl FFI EF EE FE FE E id ER FE BF FF EE EE EFI Cifuentes PF Brenninkmeijer J Nijboer F Sokolov Sosonko G van Der Sterren P wiersma E Brenninkmeijer J Piket J Reinderman D Yan Der Wiel J Van Wely L wiersma E Cifuentes P Nijboer F Piket J Yan Der Viel J Rainderman D Remersma L Van Wely L Yan Der Sterren P C fuentes P Sokolov I Njboer F Remersma L Sosonko G Yan Der Viel J Rainderman D heh 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 eh eh 0 1 Amsterdam Amsterdam Amsterdam Amsterdam Amsterdam Amsterdam Amsterdam Amsterdam Amsterdam Amsterdam Amsterdam Amsterdam Amsterdam Amsterdam Ch Netherlands Ch Netherlands Ch Netherlands Ch Netherlands Ch Netherlands Ch Netherlands Ch Netherlands Ch Netherlands Ch Netherlands Ch Netherlands Ch Netherlands Ch Netherlands Ch Netherlands Ch Netherlands 1 0405 2 1 d4 e6 2 1 d42 6 2 1 d42 6 2 1e4ch 28 1
22. eria included section with a tick then fill the chessboard with doubled question marks press Ctrl Q e Set up the typical Sicilian pawn structure The screen should appear as follows Search Elite X Position and material M Search position M Material restrictions a b c ad e f g a Imbalance Total number of pieces E g I Ignore colors Imbalance time half moves fo E Position search options Side to move Either x Ignore colors Search in variations as Bishops any z Mirror flanks i Ciera included m Search in Put results in Header MV Material I Comments E Set 75 games 2m M Position M Advanced Maneuvers Whole base Select bases to search in Elite Chess Assistant for Windows 5031 games Clear all criteria Reload criteria Load Save L seseh _ Cancel i 23 Press the Search button 3 8 COMPOSITE SEARCH The Composite type of search is based on several chess criteria You can find the complete list of these criteria or conditions in the Condition dialog box that appears after you have selected the Search Composite search item from the main menu x 2 King s position 3 Queen 4 Rooks 5 Bishops 6 Knights 7 Pawn structure 8 Control over main lines 9 Controlling center and periphery Fl Quantit
23. from left to right T Begins replaying the game Dl Starts next games automatically HPLPEEE ECAP PEEL Speed 12 moves min 240 Adjusts the replaying speed eJ Press this button if you want to stop auto replaying When you replay a game the linked Tree can be seen below the game notation showing you a detailed report on the current position with full statistics evaluations previously analyzed lines and annotations See Chapter 13 Chess Trees for details Clicking on the tree window with the right mouse button produces the following local menu Annotate move Annotate position Evaluate move Annotation Evaluation Markers F Move from user book W Show diagram of success This window s properties All these operations refer to the tree and will not affect the game See Section 13 2 Database with Master Evaluations for more information You can move along the tree double clicking on moves in it or pressing the gt key If you double click on a move which differs from the move played in the investigated game the position on the chessboard will remain the same If this additional information is unnecessary and you don t want to see the moves from the Tree just disable the Show moves from tree option in the local menu or press the Shift Ctrl C key combination The Game progress section in the bottom part of the window presents a graph that shows the changing evaluation allowing one to easily locate blunders This d
24. he dataset in this operation select Dataset Reset or press F6 The old set will be erased and a base list will appear in the window Before you start searching make sure the current set is the right one 3 2 POSITION SEARCH The positional search function looks for a specific position a partial position or a structure Select the Search Position command in the main menu You can also click on the small down arrow next to the J icon on the toolbar and select Position search in the drop down list In the Search dialog box there is a chessboard with the starting position where you can set up the position you want to search for Suppose you are interested in the Alekhine Defense Drag the white pawn to e4 and the black knight to f6 then indicate whose move it is in the Position search options section Partially defined positions You can search for a fragment of a position or for a pawn structure To set a partial position use the piece palette just below the chessboard Clear the board with the Ctrl C key combination Take the pieces from the palette and set up a position on the chessboard To set a piece on the board first click on the piece icon on the palette The mouse pointer will turn into the piece icon Now click on the square or squares on the board where you want to put the piece and return to the palette and repeat this procedure with the other pieces until the necessary position is set up When this is done click o
25. ile When you open a new list its appearance will depend on the options set in the Tools Options List window To copy the options you have set for the active window to the other lists press the Copy to global options button You can quickly enter some value for a header field to all the current dataset games To do this mark this column by clicking on the column header select Tools Fill in the local menu and the Fill pattern window will appear Click on the Source line then on the button with 3 dots on the right and the Select from library of base window will appear Select the necessary value that will be copied into the Fill pattern window and press OK To resort a dataset list select the Tools Sort command in the local menu and the Select the sort order for window will appear Resort the dataset according to the procedure described in Section 11 2 Copying a Base 2 3 SPLIT MODE You can move along the list and at the same time replay games and annotations on the chessboard To do this select the Mode Split command in the local menu or press the Shift F5 key combination This will divide the list window into two parts 2 4 VIEW MODE To access a single game use the View mode There are two ways of switching from the list to the View mode 1 Click on the m icon or press F4 key Click on it again if you want to return to the list 2 Opening a new window for the View mode There are five ways to accomp
26. ional information is given which may facilitate finding the solution Find the best move A Text comments Please enter a move or press Enter or Ak Aight to mowe further the piece to move and evaluation of the correct move Side to move is marked by a colored triangle in the upper right part of this window Black in the given case This message will reappear after each unsuccessful try until you find the solution which displays the hidden part of notation There can be several tests in one selected game You can switch off the hint information in the Test mode dialog box Quite a different situation arises when you have set the Maximum variant depth parameter other than 0 and entered a move from an embedded variation In this case program replays this variation automatically and displays the following message daong lt Press Enter to go further Fress Esc to stop playing Mi k wih Pressing the Further button causes the program to exit the variation returning to the main line and to continue in Test mode until the next text occurs within the same game Task solved Task solved Press Enter to go further Fress Escto stop playing 5 Stop 13 A similar situation arises when you have successfully finished the test By pressing the Stop button you quit the Test mode To resume testing you must click the Test button on the toolbar again After you have completed with a single game you may switch im
27. key combination This command is accessible when the current base is not Read only otherwise you can save changes to the clipboard When you Close the View game window or switch to another game the Confirm window will appear asking you Game is modified Save changes to clipboard If the current base is not Read only then the game will be saved to disk Note that if the ELITE base was not Read only and you have changed and saved a game then you would have to restore ELITE from your DVD Don t be afraid if you 30 accidentally damage the database If the game has been changed then the program will warn you and ask your confirmation to save changes To restore a pe game select Edit Restore game in the main menu or click on the icon 4 6 INSERTING GAMES You can insert other games as new lines with the help of the drag and drop technique The program itself determines where these games must be inserted Inserting one game Open two different windows with two different games Take one of these games move the mouse pointer to its notation panel and press the left button and drag to another move the mouse to another notation and release the button The Game drag amp drop options dialog box will appear Game dragtdrop options Humber of half movwes in game to be joined Anii Join only if current game position exists in game to be joined Start from last equal position Proceed Cancel Specify how man
28. lete previous moves Hew shart move number 49 Cancel C Delete following moves re Delete whole game C Delete all comments T Insert deleted moves to clipboard Move text comment from last move Select the necessary options according to what you want to delete and then press OK Setting markers Clicking on the icon opens the Color markers setup dialog 28 Color markers setup x cO c X 9 s This window contains 5 tabs Markers Lines Blocks Chars and Text these allow you to control the placing of various groups of objects on the chessboard squares To set a marker click on the color box and select the marker Then clicking on the board square sets the marker there To set a line click on the Line tab then on the color box and select the line Click on the source and destination squares on the board Every successive click continues the line to stop it double click on the last square To place the text on the board click the Text tab and press the Add button Select the area on the chessboard click the first square of the area then drag the mouse to the last square of the area Enter the text in the Input text marker window Choose the desired color in the Color drop down list and the font size in the Size box and then press OK 4 4 WORKING WITH THE CLIPBOARD Chess Assistant has its own internal clipboard different from the standard Windows clipboard and intended only for game notations
29. lish this e By selecting the Dataset View command in the main menu e Clicking on the icon e Double clicking on the required game in the list e Pressing Enter e Pressing F2 The View mode presents a chessboard game header the notation a fragment of Tree and the Game progress diagram You can modify the window just as in the List mode selecting This window s properties in the local menu 5 Elite 274 E32 Azmaiparashvili Z Korchnoi _ 1 2 1 2 Moscow Russia 1995 c7 37 4c5 a5 38 b4 axb4 39 Sxb4 Fic6 40 Sb5 d 41 exd4 xd4 42 Bc4 Fic 43 Ad3 e4 44 feed feed 45 He5 f5 46 4b3 He1 47 93 A3 48 c4 Axh2 49 e3 h5 50 a4 g4 51 45 e3 52 8c3 Sb6 53 Ad4 a5 54 4b3 Hed 55 4a3 c4 56 4b3 Hed 57 a3 Pic4 58 4b3 Hed 59 402 e2 60 4c3 Fy 3 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 o i ol oe l To replay moves and annotations use the arrow keys or two button bars below the chessboard The buttons are similar to videocassette recorder controls In the upper row from left to right In the lower row from left to right rE Iq Jumps to the starting position k m Jumps into the variation Steps back a half move Goes to the upper level mi Deletes the latest half move Bl Goes to the next variation v lala Steps forward a half move pl Shows the list of games from huge base gt I Jumps to the end position The View section in the toolbar includes three buttons
30. mediately to the next game in a given sub set by clicking gt button or by pressing F8 key click button or press F7 key to switch to the previous game Thus you can undergo a series of tests while not leaving the Test mode To quit the Test mode click Test button on the toolbar Note that selecting the Test mode item in the notation local menu or pressing Ctrl Enter key shortcut does not stop the Test mode but displays the Test mode dialog box instead 2 6 DEMONSTRATION MODE The Demonstration mode or simply Demo mode resembles the Test mode with only one slight difference Open a game from a list and press Demo button on the toolbar This operation hides the part of notation immediately after the cursor similarly to the Test mode Thus the user is prompted to enter a move on the chessboard However in contrast to the Test mode entering a wrong move the one that did not happened either in the game or in some variation to this game calls the New move dialog box New move is entered Bb3 Make the game move Insert suggestion as a variation Here you can select one of the three proposed actions Keep on guessing Make the game move and Insert suggestion as a variation We recommend you to select Keep on guessing for a while Similarly to the Test mode you can navigate in the list of a subset of games selected for the Demo mode by pressing F7 and F8 keys or by pressing gt and buttons on the
31. mments Highlight Short Before if you want to insert a symbol before the current move or Short After to insert one after then click on the appropriate symbol You can also press the Evaluation tab and select the necessary evaluation For explanations of the Standard Classes and User Folders tabs see Section 9 2 Classifying Games and Positions You may also insert any text in the notation To do this click on Long Before or Long After and type the text commentary in the text window Use the Introduction and Afterword tabs to insert annotations before the first and after the last move of the game To delete annotations click on the bi icon and select Delete annotations in the small drop down menu Press the Delete key if you want to delete the current commentary directly in the notation To insert a diagram click on the BS 7 icon and to delete a diagram click on it again 4 2 ADDING VARIATIONS To comment a move with a variation place the cursor before the move in the notation window and just play out the variation on the chessboard 26 4 3 ENTERING MOVES Entering moves All moves are entered with the mouse In order to make a move move the cursor to a piece press and hold down the mouse button drag the cursor to the destination square and then release the mouse button To speed up the entering of moves the program suggests a destination square when you choose a piece If you agree with this suggestion just release the mouse
32. more RAM 10 GB of free disk space for the databases and trees Super VGA graphics with 16 bit colors and 1024x768 screen mode DVD drive 1 2 TECHNICAL SUPPORT Please refer to the CHESS ASSISTANT documentation and help system before contacting technical support Chess Assistant 10 users can obtain on line support via the Internet To use this feature select Help Online command in Chess Assistant s main menu You can also register over the Internet filling the registration form during installation of the program Otherwise you should mail your registration data to the addresses given below Mail Convekta Ltd PO Box 302 c o IPS Suite 2 Global House Royle Road Colnbrook SL3 OYA Berkshire UK CONVEKTA technical support is available as follows info chessok com CONVEKTA provides unlimited technical support Technical support is available only to registered users CONVEKTA technical support policies are subject to change without notice 1 3 INSTALLATION CHESS ASSISTANT program files must be installed onto the hard disk The program cannot be started from the DVD Follow this procedure to install CHESS ASSISTANT on a standalone computer e Ifyou have an earlier version of CHESS ASSISTANT installed make sure that it is not running Close all the other WINDOWS applications e Insert DVD into your DVD ROM drive e The installation will start automatically if you have not enabled the Autorun option Select Run from the Start menu S
33. n the arrow on the palette 18 Besides the chess pieces there are some other symbols on the palette You can put them on the board too Their meaning is as follows aS Any white piece T E Any black piece aie aed oO E MMN Any piece of any color or an empty square Empty square Sign of negation Negation of a piece means that this piece cannot stand on this square Negation of an empty square means that any piece may stand on this square but it can t be empty Negation of the white question mark means any black piece or an empty square Negation of the black question mark means any white piece or an empty square Negation of the doubled question mark stands for negation of pawns of any color You can search for several pieces on the same square To do this put the first piece on the necessary square Then choose another piece from the palette press the Ctrl key and while holding it down drop the new piece onto the same square Any number of pieces may be put on one square though only three of them will be displayed To see them all click on the arrow on the palette and then on the square er Tip CHESS ASSISTANT allows you to perform every type of search except the header search in several bases simultaneously To do this make sure the required bases are open then while in the Search dialog box click on the small button with 3 dots above the Help button The Select bases to sea
34. ove Use regular Use regular Specific players espressions expressions Maximum variant depth Time T Use timer Initial value 2 seconds On mistake i Dn stop 11 This feature allows setting up and modifying the parameters of the tests to be automatically presented as you go from game to game in a database There are a large number of criteria that can be selected for determining which moves constitute a solution to a test This timesaving approach means that the user does not have to construct each test by hand In the Test conditions section of this dialog you can select which good and or bad moves will constitute a solution You will have to make the moves that match the criteria selected in the Prefer move section and not to make the moves that match the criteria selected in the Avoid move section The two lower check boxes offer you the most often used cases Q and correspondingly If you wish to find evaluations annotations or particular combinations of marks press the Advanced button The Use regular expressions check box lets advanced users set more complicated criteria The Side for test mode pane allows choosing the side or a group of players you will play The upper button turns the Test mode Off The Show hint pane defines a way in which the program will give you various hints If you start with a wrong move the program displays all comments to the quiz mo
35. rch in window will appear Select the bases you want to search through and perform the search The results will be given for each base in separate windows Another way of entering a position Imagine that while replaying a game in the View mode you see an interesting position and want to find other games in which this position occurred How can this be done quickly Right click on the notation and select Search for current position in the local menu The Search window will appear with the current position Naturally the 19 search will be executed through the current dataset so if you want to search for this position in another set you will have to save it in a special file Search for horizontally and or vertically symmetrical positions This type of search is examined in detail in the manual document on your DVD 3 3 MATERIAL SEARCH The material search function looks for games within certain material restrictions Example Find all the endgames with rook bishop and two pawns or less vs rook knight and two pawns or less in the ELITE database e Load the ELITE database Select Search Material There are two boxes on the right Black and White e Set the limits for White Enter 0 over the question mark to the left of the white pawn icon To do this click on the rectangle to the left of the white pawn icon and either type 0 on the keyboard or select it by clicking on the small up and down arrows Enter 2 over th
36. rks press Ctrl Q Put the white bishop on b1 the black king on g8 and the black pawn on h7 with the help of the piece palette When this is done click on the arrow on the palette Then drag the white bishop from b1 to h7 and the yellow string b h7 4 will appear in the Maneuvers list Drag the black king from g8 to h7 and the second yellow string will appear amp 8 h7 amp If you made a mistake and need to remove a maneuver from the Maneuvers list just highlight it and press the Delete button below the list Should you wish to remove all the maneuvers click on Clear list Now when both moves are present in the Maneuvers list look at the first string It says that before the sacrifice the white bishop stood on b1 though it could be on any other square along the bl h7 diagonal as well To correct this highlight the first line then click on the Change button and adjust the Details in the window that will appear Search Elite X Maneuvers Maneuvers Maneuvers Bashi a AA f re j wy Dm 20 8 0 8 E ae Om 70 8 0M 70 07 A i SA 0 O a 20A OA Delete Clear list Details 2QEN SO NS Copy to position criteria Copy from position criteria M Criteria included Search in Put results in Header Material I Comments C Set 19 games New set Position P Advanced M Maneuvers Whole base Old set Select bases to search in Elite Chess As
37. s Search for bishops of opposite colors This type of search may turn out very useful in some middlegames and especially in the endgames Bishops of opposite colors can be specified in the Search dialog window which appears after selecting the Search Material command in the main menu Select Of opposite colors in the Bishops drop down list and the number of bishops will automatically be set to for both Black and White Search for games with bishops of opposite colors in the ELITE database will produce a list of 1126 games 3 4 ADVANCED SEARCH The Advanced search is a material search in which the material restrictions are set independently for two different groups of squares Call the Search Advanced command in the main menu There are two markers red and blue The current color is indicated below the chessboard To define the first area click on all the squares you want to include then set the material restrictions for the selected area as described above To set the material restrictions for another group of squares click on the Blue marker tab Like wise define another area and set the corresponding material restrictions An example of this kind of search is given in Section 3 7 Combining Searches Tip Position Material and Advanced searches can also be performed in variations by enabling Search in variations in the Search dialog box 3 5 SEARCH FOR COMMENTS You can search for commented games by selecting the Search
38. sistant for Windows 5031 games Clear all criteria Reload criteria Load Save Search Cancel Help 22 Mark the Undefined source square with a tick You can also select Captured pieces Promotion pieces Set delay between previous and current maneuver in half moves and Undefined destination square For the purpose of our example these options are not needed so press OK The screen should appear Press Search to start searching 22 games will be found You can save the current position as a criterion for position search with the Copy to position criteria button and conversely you can import a position from the Search Position window to the Search Maneuver window with the Copy from position criteria button Naturally this feature is important if both the Position and Maneuvers check boxes in the Criteria included section are enabled 3 7 COMBINING SEARCHES CHESS ASSISTANT is capable of combining different types of search Select them in the Criteria included section of the Search dialog box and then set the criteria for each one Example Material Position Find all the typical Sicilian endgames in the ELITE database e Call Search Material e Set the material restrictions There mustn t be any queens on the board Both Black and White have two rooks and seven pawns while the number of minor pieces is unimportant Set Ignore colors to Off and Side to move Either e Mark the Position check box in the Crit
39. toolbar Anytime you can leave the Demo mode either by un pressing the Demo button or by selecting the Demonstration mode item in the notation s local menu The Demo mode may be used for memorizing particular variations and sub variations See more detailed description of Demo mode in the Word document on your DVD 14 2 7 ACTIVE WINDOW CURRENT DATASET At any time you can open several bases and several windows with different sets in different modes To make a window active click anywhere on it or click on its icon on the object bar If a window is hidden under the other windows use the icon in the object bar on the left The current active window will be highlighted on the object bar You can also select Windows in the main menu and mark the line with the necessary window with a tick Like many other Windows based programs Chess Assistant allows you to switch between windows within the program with the Ctrl F6 key combination b Many operations in Chess Assistant use the notion of current set If an active window contains a list with a set of games this set is the current set If a base s name is highlighted on the object bar then the entire base is in fact the current set In View mode the current set is the one from which the View mode has been called The program always remembers where a game is called from This information is displayed on the object bar as NI N2 with N2 standing for the amount of games in
40. ts select All bases Click on Elite and it will appear in the Base name text line with a short commentary at the bottom Press Select or double click on the base icon when the options have all been set A window with the contents of ELITE will appear If this list window does not appear enable the check box Open list when opening a base in the Tools Options General menu Select base to open ki x Lookin JCQBases A Hugeb ase Jal bases Cancel Open as read only Base tupe C Program Files Chess Assistant S Bases E lite properties Type Chess Assistant for Windows Length 5031 games Look at the object bar The word Elite 5031 appears showing the base is open and another line List 5031 is now hanging from it indicating that a list window is open All the open windows are displayed on the object bar next to the corresponding bases so you can easily understand which base the window refers to The red letters RO to the left of Elite indicate that this base is Read only and cannot be altered The Read only check box can also be found in the local menu which can be accessed in two ways 1 By right clicking on the database name in the toolbar 2 By clicking on the icon Tip Right clicking clicking with the right mouse button on an object produces a menu of operations specific to this object This is known as the local menu Most commands are available from the local menus The program r
41. ve If your second suggestion is wrong it shows a piece that is to move The time given for one exercise is set on the Timer pane The Maximum variant depth box enables you to define whether the test will include the variations to the game or not The default value given is 0 which means that only the moves from the game s main text will be taken into account for the test Setting this value to 1 includes the variation of 1 level 2 includes the sub variation of the 2 level etc If you have chosen Any color in the Side for test mode section all moves become invisible Try to guess the moves by yourself making them with the mouse If you have guessed right the program makes this move on the board otherwise it opens the New move message window offering you to select one of the three options Keep on guessing Make the game move or Insert suggestion as a variation After you have set all the parameters of the test and pressed OK button the test starts The program displays several moves from the game automatically then stops and hides the remaining part of notation The test procedure itself assumes entering the moves on the chessboard A correct continuation entered discloses the remaining part of notation up to the next test in the selected game if any while a wrong continuation produces the following message window below the chessboard 12 As we can see the user is prompted here to enter another move and some addit
42. who played as White or Black If the gnore colors check box is Off the only games found will be those in which the player set in the White field played as White and the player set in the Black field played as Black If you want to find all the games played by a certain player as White enter their name to the White field and leave the Black field undefined If you are searching for all the games of a certain player with either _ black or white pieces then enter their name in either the White or the Black field leave the other fields undefined and mark the Ignore colors check box with a tick Result Possible values are 7 0 0 1 1 2 1 2 or an evaluation stands for an unknown result 16 To choose an evaluation instead of a result choose the necessary evaluation as represented by the Chess Informant symbols in the Evaluations section ECO Opening index according to the Chess Informant classification Select the way of setting it in the Enter new value text box as a single value type on the keyboard in the Index text line as a range indicate the first and last value of a range by name select from the drop down list Site The city where a tournament took place Date The year and month optionally when a tournament was held This criterion can be set as a single year a range of years a single date or a range of dates The number of months is shown in the Details column Event The type of competition match
43. y half moves must be joined and how they must be inserted This depends on the check boxes Join only if current game position exists in game to be joined and Start from last equal position If the second check box is On then the dragged game will be inserted into the motionless in any case rewrite If the program fails to find common positions it will insert the dragged game into the motionless as a variation to the first move Inserting several games Two objects are displayed on the screen a notation and a list You want to insert several games from the list into the notation Highlight the required games and select them in the list see Section 9 1 Selecting Games for detailed description of this procedure Drag them from the list to the notation This will bring up the Game drag amp drop options dialog box Proceed as described above 4 7 MULTIMEDIA SUPPORT When annotating games in View mode you can add the multimedia annotations images video and audio to the moves See description of this mode in manual document on DVD 31
44. y ion mONO a Characteristic mee oo Cancel In this dialog box you can see the chessboard in the right hand part of it which is used to schematically display the selected search conditions The Side drop down list allows you to define which side the selected condition refers to The Quantity spinner boxes From and To allow you to set the number of pieces you can use them when selecting some kind of material condition The Characteristic text line below displays the description of the selected criteria of search As you may see the conditions of search are displayed as a hierarchical structure in the left window of this dialog They are grouped into nine sections e Material this group of conditions include criteria referring to various alignments of forces like an extra exchange or a piece two bishops against bishop and knight etc e King s position the king s position can certainly be a decisive factor in any stage of the chess game Using this choice you can easily find games based on the positioning of the king like the castled king or the king in the center or the king on a corner square of the board 24 e Queen here you can set the search conditions to search for the queen s position and circumstances queen on a central square queen attacked by an enemy piece a pinned queen mobile or not mobile queen etc e Rooks this group of conditions refers to the number and positions of th
Download Pdf Manuals
Related Search