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ChessBase GmbH is a German company that makes and sells chess software, maintains a chess news site, and operates servers for online chess. Founded in 1986, it maintains and sells massive databases, containing the moves of games from the dawn of history up to the present.^[1][2] Databases organise data from prior games; engines provide analyses of games and perfect play in some endgames.^[3][4]

History

Starting in 1983, Frederic Friedel began editing a magazine Computerschach und Spiele covering the emerging of hobby of computer chess. In 1985, he invited then world chess champion Garry Kasparov to his house, and Kasparov mused about how a chess database would make it easier for him to prepare for specific opponents. Friedel recruited physicist Matthias Wullenweber to program the first such database Chessbase 1.0, software for the Atari ST. The two created the Chessbase company, and began selling it in January 1987. Kasparov was invited, and began using it for his prep. Matthias Feist joined not longer after, and ported the program to MS-DOS and soon Microsoft Windows.

In 1988, Friedel began producing Chessbase magazine, sold as a CD or DVD, containing a large number of mostly recently games in Chessbase's proprietary cbf (later cbh) format. Many of the games would be annotated by top grandmasters, and later video interviews and such would be included.

In 1991, Dutch programmer Frans Morsch had been having some success with his Quest program, and they invited him to join, with Feist porting it to DOS and then Microsoft Windows for sale within an adapted version of the Chessbase graphical user interface. This program was marketed initially as Knightstalker in the U.S., and Fritz in the rest of the world. In 1991, Chrilly Donninger's program Nimzo98 was similarly adapted to the new GUI, followed by Shay Bushinsky and Amir Ban's Junior, Mark Uniacke's Hiarcs and Stefan Meyer-Kahlen's Shredder.

Following Stefan Meyer-Kahlen and Rudolf Huber's release of the Universal Chess Interface standard in 2000, Chessbase dropped support for the Chess Engine Communication Protocol (a.k.a. Winboard), and fitted their programs with ability to import UCI engines, such as Stockfish.

In the early 2000's matches were held pitting world champions Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik against versions of the Fritz or Junior engines with the engines winning.

In 2003, Chessbase introduced the Chess Media System allowing players to talk about their games while playing out moves which viewers could see on their own board displayed next the video. Chessbase commissioned world champions Garry Kasparov, Viswanathan Anand, Vladimir Kramnik and Rustam Kasimdzhanov to produce DVDs using the new format. Chessbase also produced Fritztrainer Opening DVD's by the likes of grandmasters Alexei Shirov and Viktor Bologan and a Power Play series by British GM Daniel King for lower level players.

In 2008, Vasik Rajlich's Rybka engine was added to the Chessbase product line, followed by Robert Houdart's Houdini and Don Dailey and Larry Kaufman's Komodo engines.

Recent versions of Chessbase and the engine GUI's such as Fritz offer access to cloud engines. Chessbase has also been creating webapps for accessing their games database, or openings or tactical training which can be used via their site.

The company

The company is located in Hamburg, Germany. ChessBaseUSA markets their products in the United States, and some products are sold by licensee Viva Media (USA).

The database

Image of ChessBase 8.0 running under Windows XP (year 2008).

The company hosts an extensive online database. As of 12 November 2017^[update], this contained 7.8 million games.^[5] This online database can be accessed directly through their database programs.

ChessBase uses a proprietary format for storing games (CBH), but can also handle games in portable game notation (PGN). The proprietary format uses less hard drive space and manages information that is not possible in PGN. The software converts files from PGN to ChessBase format, or from ChessBase to PGN.

The program permits searches for games, and positions in games, based on player names, openings, some tactical and strategic motifs, material imbalance, and features of the position. Chessbase can import engines either those such as Fritz or Shredder in native Chessbase format or Universal Chess Interface (UCI) engines such as Stockfish.

Playchess server

News site

Chessbase also maintains ChessBase News, a web site containing chess news, as well as information on their products. The site is available in English, German and Spanish.^[6]

Other publications

ChessBase produces many CDs and DVDs, including monographs on famous players, tactical training exercises, and training for specific opening systems. They publish ChessBase Magazine six times per year, which comes as a thin printed text and accompanying CD with multimedia chess news, as well as how to donate to ChessBase, articles on opening novelties, database updates (including annotated games), and other articles. All these are designed for viewing within their database software or the free ChessBase Reader.

A database-only version of ChessBase for the BBC Micro, called "BBChessBase", was published by Peter Tate in 1991.^[7]

See also

• Chess Assistant


• Chess engines


• Chess Informant


• Shane's Chess Information Database

References

External links

• Official website


• Playchess server