ChessBase 17
ChessBase is a personal, stand-alone chess database that has become the standard through out 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.
WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH CHESSBASE: Retrieve games according to openings, players and tournaments; generate tournament cross tables and full graphic statistics of players or openings; “Similarity search” shows all games with similar pawn structures, sacrifice patterns, endgame positions, etc.; “Let’s check”*: access the world’s largest database of in-depth analysis (more than 200 million positions); “Instant Analysis”: Any unannotated game is analysed almost without delay immediately on loading (optional). “Assisted Analysis”: as you enter a game, whenever you click on a piece an evaluation is produced for all its possible target squares; “Tactical Analysis” will annotate game, inserting commentary, variations and diagrams, before strong moves or errors, into a game or an entire database. It will also point out combinations, played in the game or missed, tries, attacks, initiative, and of course the latest in openings theory; Cloud analysis: you can analyse positions simultaneously with several engines from on di©erent computers running in parallel; “Deep analysis”: generates an analysis tree that changes dynamically, as with time weaker variations are dropped; automatic analysis jobs for correspondence games; “Replay Training”: Playing through a game with the notation hidden and automatic training questions with tips for each individual move. Extended reference search for openings shows increase/decrease in popularity and typical recurring endgames; merge games on the fly into an opening tree; Repertoire recommendations for every move with a single click; generate a dossier containing all available information on a specific player from the database; Preparation for opponents with recognition of their weaknesses; generate a comprehensive openings report with main and critical lines, plans and most important games; Urgent news about recently played innovations; Search for characteristic tactical positions in an opening variation single click publication of games on the Internet; Improved search mask with tactical motifs and examples for manoeuvres and material distribution; Completely new search booster for patterns and plans; print games in superb quality with diagrams and multiple columns; Crisp new 3D boards thanks to raytracing technology; automatic update of your local reference database with the weekly installments of games (one year); access to the ChessBase online database with over eight million games*, mobile access with the ChessBase Account
The most important innovations
ChessBase 17 focusses at things that, in our view, are the foremost of the program's areas of application. First of all, a lot of work has gone into functions that one only notices subconsciously, but which improve the user experience: the new ultra-high-resolution 2D board; the really crisp display of notation and lists through support of Direct 2D which runs on all recent Windows versions; and popular in more recent times: the "Dark Mode".
Technical improvements
Then there are many technical improvements that generally improve the program, such as: a new faster data format, with fewer files and no search booster - which overcomes limitations of the CBH format; and a fine-tuning of the database paths that solves conflicts with the Documents directory and OneDrive, so you can smoothly manage your databases outside the standard Windows directories.
Interactive search mask and much more
The smart inputting of positions is of direct chess significance. You place a few pieces onto the board, and immediately see in which games of the reference database this position fragment occurs. By clicking on a game, you can save yourself the rest of the inputting. The new search mask is also more interactive: if you enter a search criterion, the number of games in the database for which it matches is immediately displayed. This way, you know what yield to expect before you click on "OK".
interactive searchmask
Pearl search: Find spectacular games instantly!
The new engine window
A lot has also been done in an area that is crucial for daily chess work: the engine window. Most ChessBase users probably spend 90% of their time with interactive analysis of positions. The output of engines has altered little in the last 30 years: variations, evaluations, dry as dust, done. In ChessBase 17, this has been fundamentally re-evaluated. The visual evaluation of pieces and measurement of complexity - you know from Fritz 18. The display of non-trivial threats or temptations is fancy, but also already familiar. The same goes for the training option to suppress the entire engine output, and only receive subtle tips as a stimulus to your own thinking. This is primarily intended for when watching live games.
Analysis in natural language
However, the interpretation of an engine variation in natural language is groundbreakingly new. It is often a challenge for many players to imagine what is actually happening based on just an engine variation. You see the best move, the rating, and that's it. ChessBase 17 describes in words what the variation entails
For example: In a super-sharp position, a complex variation has the strange rating "0.00". ChessBase 17 would then add "perpetual check" or "repetition of the position" and the situation would become clear. Material changes are vividly described: "White wins the queen for rook and knight"; "Black loses two pawns"; and even "The position is simplified into an endgame R+B vs R+N". There are also exciting statements like: "White gains a dangerous passed pawn on e6"; or "White sacrifices a bishop"; "Black has an attack"; "White gets the majority on the kingside"; "Both kings are insecure"; and "Manoeuvre Nd2-f1-e3-d5" etc.
Such assertions clarify the motives behind a position. If you want to understand even more of what the program means by these hints, simply move the mouse over the move indicated and the position appears on the main board. Clicking on a move copies the variation up to that move into the notation, which then simplifies the commentary
“The more colourful, the sharper” - or "Death to the exclamation mark!"
It does make a di'erence whether a position contains sharply forced variations, or several moves of almost equal value. Today's engines do not provide this information. ChessBase 17 therefore diverts a small part of the hardware resources towards a clone of the main engine, and calls this the "Buddy engine" - this only slightly impacts the computing power of the main engine. Buddy now goes over the variations, and analyses the position after each move. The variations are saved so that you can easily view them by moving your mouse cursor over on the move. Importantly, forced moves are annotated with coloured rectangles. The exclamation mark used in commenting on games for 170 years, doesn’t do justice to Buddy's search results; therefore, we now only use it for sacrifices
The colour of the rectangles indicates the evaluation. The shape shows from which depth the forcing is recognised in the calculation. Trivial tactics have vertically divided rectangles. Medium forcing divides the rectangle into two triangles from top left to bottom right. Deep forcing divides diagonally from right to left. If the upper (or left) part is green, the move wins. If the lower part is yellow, for example, the position remains roughly in the draw range after the worse alternative move. If it is red, the alternative move loses. This system may seem complex at first glance, but it has the advantage that a lot of information is signalled in one space-saving symbol. The exclamation mark has had its day. In any case, one thing is clear: the more colourful, the more forcing!
For years, we have recommended analysing with two engine variations, so that at least one forced main move can be recognised immediately. However, this costs a lot of additional computing time. ChessBase 17 marks the beginning of a renaissance of single-variation analysis. At the same time, the calculation goes much deeper. Buddy shows whether the first move is forced, and also provides the second variation.
New in ChessBase 17:
- New data format: fewer files, more functions, more comfort, more speed.
- Engine analysis renovated: Variants are automatically verbally annotated, forced continuations are recognized, “buddy heuristics” for greater search depth!
- Pearl search: Find spectacular games instantly! Beautiful games are marked in the database list.
- Optimised program interface: high-resolution 2D board, faster graphics.
- New clearer search mask: material & positional searches simplified, immediate feedback on expected results.
- Intelligent position input: when setting up pieces, you are shown the games where those positions occur.
- Dozens of detail improvements for improved usability, e.g. automatic loading of the last edited game.
- Control via One-Drive: all database paths can be set in the options dialogue.
- Newly structured game notation: with intelligent folding and symbols.
- Modern integrated browser for all database texts.
- More insight: Visualisation of attack correlations (optional).
- Dark Mode: darkened program interface.
*) Access via PREMIUM ChessBase Account
Mega Database 2023
The ChessBase Mega Database 2023 is the premiere chess database with over 9.75 million games from 1475 to 2022 in high quality. Packing more than 110,000 annotated games, Mega 2023 contains the world‘s largest collection of high-class analysed games. Train like a pro! Prepare for your opponents with ChessBase and the Mega Database 2023. Let grandmasters explain how to best handle your favorite variations, improve your repertoire and much more
- 9.75 million games contains the Mega Database 2023
- Includes Mega Update Service 2023: update your Mega with your ChessBase 17/16 program every week with over 5,000 new games. That’s about 250,000 new games by the end of 2023!
- Enlarged Tournament menu!
- Comfortable menu and more top-level tournaments than ever before!
- More than 110,000 annotated games
- Direct access to the games of all the World Championships, among the over 450 years of chess knowledge. • Direct acees to Top Tournaments, Games, CrossTable and more • Player lexicon for download with over 600,000 player names and more than 40,000 player photos (only with ChessBase 17 or 16)
More than 550,000 new games
Hundreds of thousands of new games played in 2022 were added to the new Mega Database 2023. A lot of these games were played by renowned grandmasters and are annotated by well-known ChessBase authors.
The Mega Database menu makes it easy to prepare for your games, to search for tournaments, to find annotated games or to access all the games from particular players.
Here’s a short tutorial how to update the database and download new games database. One improvement: all World Championship matches, Women’s, Juniors and Senior’s World Championships tournaments were added and a lot of top tournaments can be directly accessed via the menu with tables, all games, and texts about the tournaments which give you additional information and insights.
Tournament information, e.g. Tournament text to the World Chess Championship Match Carlsen vs. Nepomniachtchi 2021.
All the games and tournament tables of the recent top tournaments as Wijk aan Zee 2022, Biel Masters 2022 or Norway Chess 2022 or online rapid tournaments of the world Elite players like the Grand Chess Tour or the online Meltwater Champions Chess Tour (Magnus Carlsen Tour). You can find all games from the World Champion matches from epic matches from Classical to shorter time controls, matches alike of tournaments. A lot of them with annotations and analysis by top grandmasters offer insights to the games.
The ChessBase Mega Database 2023 is the premiere chess database with over 9.75 million games from 1560 to 2022 in high quality. Packing more than 110,000 annotated games, Mega 2023 contains the world‘s largest collection of high-class analysed games. Train like a pro! Prepare for your opponents with ChessBase and the Mega Database. Let grandmasters explain how to best handle your favorite variations, improve your repertoire and much more.
Preparing for your next opponent is easy: with the Mega Database it just takes seconds to find the games of your next opponent! The repertoire overview shows you which lines your opponent likes to play and statistics reveal weaknesses in his repertoire. The reference search allows you to find critical opening positions easily: put the position on the board and click the reference-button. You can filter games e.g. according to date or start your research to look for annotated games to deepen your understanding of particular opening positions.
Prepare for your next opponent or find your own games, just enter his name to get to the games or enter the name of your favorite Chess legend, e.g. Magnus Carlsen to get to all his games:
Search the database for a specific player: Just typ in the Player’s name.
Find all the games in seconds. Tournament Tables to all Top-Tournaments, e.g. Tata Steel in Wijk aan Zee 2022:
The Mega Database 2023 at a glance
- Enlarged Tournament menu! Direct access to all World Championship matches and top tournaments
- More than 9.75 million games
- More than 110,000 annotated games — the world’s largest collection of games with top-class annotations
Update service in combination with a ChessBase full version with about 250,000 new games until the end of 2023 (weekly updates with about 5,000 new games, every week)
Corr Database 2022
The new Corr Database 2022 is the large ChessBase collection of correspondence games from the period from 1804 to 2021. With more than 80,000 tournaments and over 2 million correspondence games, the Corr 2022 is a must for all correspondence chess fans. But the Corr Database is very popular even among many grandmasters and trainers, since correspondence games often herald the development of opening theory!
Get insights from the pioneers of Chess-Opening Novelties and update your repertoire with games from the new Correspondence Database.
Correspondence games are usually very good – after all, the players can consult computers and engines during the game and correspondence players often have a deep chess understanding and enrich their games with interesting new ideas. Thus, the games are not decided by tactical blunders but by strategic understanding, long-term preparation, and passionate, patient scientific work.
It is no surprise that a lot of grandmasters already use correspondence games to prepare their openings.
The Correspondence Database 2022 gives you a unique opportunity to explore the fascinating world of correspondence chess and to enrich your opening repertoire with ideas from a wealth of unknown top-class games.
New features of the Correspondence Database 2022:
- The Correspondence Database enhances usability: a new design and a new menu make access and navigation easier and faster, e.g. see the recent World Championship Cycles, look for specific players and their games or look for your own openings within the Corr Database:
- The Correspondence Database 2022 offers more than 400,000 new games. The Corr 2020 had 1.6 million games, the new Corr 2022 database offers over 2 million games. Search for your favorite opening positions, e.g. all Correspondence games starting from the Sicilian Najdorf position:
Search for games by a specific player or prepare versus players by entering the name and click on prepare vs. White or vs. Black, e.g. search for all games by strong Correspondence player Dronov:
- The Correspondence Database comes with 20 high-class videos covering selected games from the 29th-32th Correspondence Chess World Championship cycles presented by popular ChessBase authors such as GMs wie Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Markus Ragger, Vidit Gujrathi, Christian Bauer, Romain Edouard, Yannick Pelletier, Mihail Marin and others
20 selected games with Video presentation from the Correspondence World Championships 29-32
The Austrian Number 1 GM Markus Ragger presents the game Muck - Herfurth | WC 31, Final ICCF 2019
GM Jan Werle presents the game Osipov vs. Schwetlick | WC 32, Final ICCF 2020
- 9 videos by endgame expert GM Karsten Müller provide fascinating insights into the endgame from selected world-class Correspondence games.
Quotes by Top Grandmasters within the new Correspondence Database 2022 Videos:
GM Markus Ragger (Number 1 Top GM from Austria) : “(…) To reach chances in Correspondence games, you need to reach a strategical very very complex position, because in these complex positions there are many lines which a computer would show 0.00 and you have to go extremely deep to have long term plans and there you have a chance to outplay your opponent (…)”
GM Erwin L’Ami (Top GM from the Netherlands): “ I’m really intrigued by the enormous depth that goes into these games – these are the best games out there, there are no chess games of a higher level than Correspondence games!”
GM Simon Williams (“Ginger GM, commentator, attacking player from England): “There is a lot of things you can learn from correspondence chess, I learnt a lot by looking at the games – basically Correspondence Chess involves you’re allowed to use computers nowadays to help you process along, but also to guide the computer with human intellect, so a combination which should lead to the strongest factors out there. The level of chess we see in the Correspondence World Championships is the highest out there.”
GM Vidit Gujrathi, Super Grandmaster Elo 2727 (Nov. 2021 Fide list, number 2 in India): “
(…) First of all let me note before I dive in all the details of the game, I wanted to tell you the importance of searching games; when I prepare for my own games I always not only track the over-the-board games, but I always keep an eye on all the games which have been played in the Correspondence. The reason for that is many times all these Correspondence Players have found brilliant ideas in the opening, which I have used myself on countless occasions and not only me, I think many of my colleagues also have had similar experiences and they also constantly keep a track of all the Correspondence games that have been played”
Let yourself be inspired as chess at the highest level available awaits you. Lots of success and joy with the new Correspondence Database 2022!
- New, refined layout!
- EXCLUSIVE! Twenty selected games from the 29th-32th Correspondence Chess World Championship cycles presented in video analysis by wellknown GMs such as Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Markus Ragger, Vidit Gujrathi, Christian Bauer, Romain Edouard, Yannick Pelletier, Mihail Marin and others.
- Let yourself be inspired as chess at the highest level available awaits you!
Endgame Turbo 5 USB flash drive
Perfect endgame analysis and a huge increase in engine performance: get it with the new Endgame Turbo 5! Thanks to a new format the Endgame Turbo 5 is smaller, faster and yet has more scope. The USB 3.0 flash drive (128 GB) covers 143 of the most important six piece endgames, allowing top engines such as Fritz, Komodo Chess and Houdini to play these endgames perfectly. But they also generally play the endgame much better because they can access the perfect knowledge of the Endgame Turbo in the search! A powerful tool for anyone who wants to study the endgame, for correspondence players, endgame theoriticians and friends of engine matches!
In ChessBase or Fritz you can load the Endgame Turbo 5 directly from an USB stick. Provided there is enough memory on your hard drive you can also install the endgame databases on your computer. However, the endgame turbo 5 requires about 120 GB disc space.
Overview of the included six piece endgames (PDF)
System requirements Minimum
Dual Core, 2 GB RAM, Windows 8.1, Fritz 15 or ChessBase 14 or Komodo Chess 11/12 or Houdini 6. Recommended: PC Intel Core i7 or AMD Ryzen3, 8 GB RAM, Windows 10, Fritz 16 or ChessBase 14 or Komodo Chess 11/12 or Houdini 6.
ChessBase Magazine one year
For more than 20 years ChessBase Magazine has been one of the leading international chess journals. The bilingual magazine (English /German) appears every two months and coming as it does as a combined issue of a printed magazine and a DVD it offers the best possible training material for club players and professionals alike. What are you waiting for? With ChessBase Magazine you are programmed to win! The advantages this offers are unbeatable!
12 months subscription. It will be automatically renewed, if no notice of cancellation is received at least one month prior to renewal.
Which master trainer would you like to train you? Maybe Dorian Rogozenco, former coach of the German national team? This Hamburg-based grandmaster, knows the most important games in chess history inside out and also knows that ambitious players can learn a lot about strategy and technique from the classics!
Do you like to explore the openings? Then why not consult an opening expert like Mihail Marin or Yannick Pelletier who’ll serve as your companion and advisor. As active grandmasters and successful authors, both have an extensive and broad opening knowledge. Or do you love to surprise your opponents with new ideas in the opening? Daniel King knows one or two and is willing to share them with you.
And who's the best endgame coach? Of course, it’s Karsten Mueller! Do you know the Lucena position and how to use an “umbrella” in the endgame? If you want to perfect your endgame technique, the endgame expert from Hamburg is definitely your first choice!
What do you think: how good would you be if you could regularly work with these top trainers? It’s not just a hypothetical. You can!
ChessBase Magazine offers you several hours of video training with these experts in each issue. World-class players such as Caruana, Anand, Vidit, So, Giri, Gelfand, Yu Yangyi and many more analyse their best games and explain the ideas behind their moves. Each issue also includes at least ten new opening articles with exciting ideas for your repertoire, an extensive collection of training exercises on tactics, strategy and endgames, and much more.
What do you think: how good will you become after training for one year with the ChessBase Magazine and your favourite authors? Take the chance to make it happen! With ChessBase Magazine you'll receive 6 issues per year.
Save twice with the new ChessBase Magazine: For the annual subscription to ChessBase Magazine you’ll pay only €99.70 per year (compared to €119.70 for the 6 individual issues). Act now and get your 40 € voucher for the ChessBase Shop!*
IMPORTANT NOTES
12 months subscription. It will be automatically renewed, if no notice of cancellation is received at least one month prior to renewal.
* Bonus for new subscribers only! You will receive the voucher code right with the order confirmation by e-mail.
Premium annual membership (all payment methods)
Your ChessBase account will be activated as a Premium Account immediately after completion of the order (the entry of a serial number is no longer necessary). Payment via credit card, PayPal or immediate bank transfer. The membership ends after 12 months. There will be no automatic renewal.
ChessBase Account – Anytime and anywhere access to the whole ChessBase world
At the airport, in the hotel or at home on your couch: with the new ChessBase you always have access to the whole ChessBase world: the new ChessBase video library with hundreds of training videos, tactics server with more than 50,000 tasks, the brand new opening training App, the live database with eight million games, Let’s Check, and, of course, web access to playchess.com – all you need is an internet connection and a current browser, no matter whether you use iPad, a tablet PC, iMac, Windows-, Android- or Linux.
Playchess.com: The ultimate chess experience!
· Meet 20,000 fellow players daily: watch & play
· Unrated and rated games at different time controls
· Measure your own playing strength - “Playchess ELO”
· Live commentary on world-class events with Daniel King, Yasser Seirawan, Maurice Ashley and more!
· Live shows: “PowerPlay” with Daniel King or “Simon says” with Simon Williams and others!
· Training and simultaneous displays with professional coaches and GMs
Live database: 8 million games online!
· The fastest chess database in the world
· Always up-to-date: weekly updates with 5,000 games
· LiveBook: the world’s opening statistics online in one place
· Featuring “Let’s Check” with 200 million deeply analysed positions
Tactics app: Train chess tactics - wherever you are and whenever you like!
· 60,000 tactical exercises
· From one-movers to GM level
· Individually calibrated difficulty level for each position
· Get your own personal rating - “Tactics ELO”
· No pressure - solve without a clock and take time for your own analysis afterwards
· Fritz helps out: analyse with a Fritz engine in your browser!
· NEW: Tactics duel - who can solve the positions the fastest?
VIDEO: Your own private lessons with the masters!
· Over 13,000 chess videos online! Running time: over 6.500 hours
· Training from the opening to the endgame, shows, interviews, tournament reports
· With top trainers and world-class authors: Daniel King, Simon Williams, Mihail Marin, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Yannik Pelletier and many more!
Openings app: Create and practice your opening repertoire!
· Easy to build a repertoire by simply clicking moves
· Ideal support from the Live Database, LiveBook-statistics and Let’s Check engine analyses
· Learn variations in “Drill” mode
· Intelligent link to Live Database
· Use your smartphone to learn when on the move!
Fritz online - play & win!
· 5 levels: Beginner to GM
· Interactive assistance: get subtle hints by clicking on pieces
· No pressure: play in your own time without a clock
· No need to install anything!
· Also with live shows, analysis, calculation training, access to LiveBook and automatic game saving
MyGames Cloud: Your games and analysis - available 24/7!
· Always have your own games with you
· Secure back-ups prevent data loss!
· Individual analysis with browser-based Fritz engine
· All your games from playchess.com saved automatically
· Access to LiveBook opening reference database
500 Ducats
The currency on the chess server playchess.com. Use it to play against grandmasters, to rent strong Engines in the ChessBase Engine Cloud or to pay for private training. Ducats can only be used with a valid ChessBase Account (=ChessBase Membership) on Playchess. Ducats can also be used to buy ChessBase products.
Voucher for Profi Powerbook
Do you play the French, Ruy Lopez, Slav, Caro-Kann, King's Indian or the London System? Use the Powerbooks of the pros and improve your repertoire with tailor-made opening books!
