ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024

ChessBase 17

ChessBase is a personal, stand-alone chess database that has become the standard throughoutthe 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 2024

The ChessBase Mega Database 2024 is the premiere chess database with over 10.4 million games from 1475 to 2023 in high quality. Packing more than 112,000 annotated games, Mega 2024 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 2024. Let grandmasters explain how to best handle your favorite variations, improve your repertoire and much more.

• 10.4 million games contains the Mega Database 2024
• Includes Mega Update Service 2024: 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 2024!
• Enlarged Tournament menu! • Comfortable menu and more Top-level tournaments than ever before!
• More than 112,000 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 2023 were added to the new Mega Database 2024. 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.

Find all important tournaments: 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 and all games to the World Chess Championship Match Nepomniachtchi vs. Ding 2023; as well as for all the previous World Championship matches.

All the games and tournament tables of the recent top tournaments as Wijk aan Zee 2023, Biel Masters 2023 or Norway Chess 2023 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 2024 is the premiere chess database with over 10.4 million games from 1560 to 2023 in high quality. Packing more than 112,000 annotated games, Mega 2024 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 2023:

Accompanied by annotated games from all the top tournaments: e.g. from Wijk aan Zee tournament winner 2023 Anish Giri:

ChessBase Account Abonnement Premium annuel

Pour ne rien manquer des événements échiquéens et profiter des multiples applications développées par ChessBase, ouvrez un compte Premium annuel! Non seulement vous ne payez que dix mois au lieu de douze, mais vous recevez encore un treizième mois gratuit!

Grâce au compte ChessBase, accédez à l'univers de ChessBase depuis n'importe où et quand vous le désirez!

À l'aéroport ou à l'hôtel, à votre bureau ou dans votre lit, vous avez accès au monde de ChessBase qui comprend une vidéothèque comprenant des centaines de vidéos d'entraînement, un serveur de tactique avec plus de 60'000 exercices, ainsi que la toute nouvelle application spécialement conçue pour vous permettre de mieux mémoriser votre répertoire d'ouvertures. Et ce n'est pas tout: une base de données alimentées en direct vous donne accès à plus de huit millions de parties, vous pouvez également utiliser la fonction Let's Check et bien sûr accéder à playchess.com. Tout ce dont vous avez besoin, c'est d'une connexion internet et d'un navigateur. L'univers de ChessBase est accessible aussi bien sur Windows que sur Linus, ainsi que sur un iPad, une tablette PC ou un iMac.

Playchess.com: le nec plus ultra pour jouer à distance!

· Rencontrez quotidiennement plus de 20'000 compagnons de jeu.
· Jouez à votre choix des parties évaluées ou non, et définissez votre cadence de jeu préférée.
· Obtenez votre “Playchess ELO”.
· Suivez en direct des événements les plus importants avec les commentaires de Daniel King, Yasser Seirawan, Maurice Ashley et beaucoup d'autres!· Émissions en direct: par exemples, le “PowerPlay” de Daniel King ou le “Simon says” avec Simon Williams; mais bien d'autres encore!
· Entrainement interactif avec des coaches professionnels et des GMs.

Live database: 8 millions de parties en ligne!

· La base de données d'échecs la plus rapide du monde.
· Mise à jour constante: chaque semaine 5'000 parties sont ajoutées.
· LiveBook: toutes les statistiques au sujet des ouvertures en un même endroit.
· Fonction “Let’s Check” avec 200 millions de positions analysées en profondeur.

Tactics app: entraînez votre tactique depuis n'importe où et quand vous le désirez!

· 60'000 exercices tactiques.
· Des mats en un coup jusqu'au niveau GM.
· Niveau de difficulté adapté à votre force.
· Obtenez votre “Tactics ELO”.
· Pas de pression: résolvez les exercices sans pendula, et prenez votre temps pour approfondir ensuite vos analyses.
· Utilisez Fritz dans le navigateur pour obtenir de l'aide!
· Duel tactique: qui résoudra le problème le plus rapidement?

Vidéos: leçons privées avec les Maîtres!

· Plus de 13'000 vidéos d'échecs en ligne, pour une durée d'environ 6'500 heures!
· Entraînements pour tous les domaines: des ouvertures jusqu'aux finales; mais aussi des émissions thématiques, des interviews, des reportages sur les tournois les plus importants.
 Avec des entraîneurs de premier plan et des auteurs mondialement réputés: Daniel King, Simon Williams, Mihail Marin, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Yannik Pelletier et bien d'autres encore!

Openings app: créer et entraînez votre repertoire d'ouvertures!

Fritz online - jouez & gagnez!

· Assistant interactive: recevez des tuyaux subtils en cliquant sur les pièces.
· Pas de pression: prenez votre temps en jouant sans pendule.
· Il n'est pas nécessaire d'installer quoi que ce soit!
· Accédez au LiveBook, à des émissions en direct, à des analyses et des entraînements qui améliorent vos capacités de calcul.
. Vos parties sont sauvées automatiquement.

MyGames Cloud: toutes vos parties et analyses accessibles 24h sur 24 et 7 jours sur 7!

· Vous avez toujours vos parties avec vous.
· Un backup sécurisé pour prévenir toute perte de données!
· Analyses personnelles avec Fritz accessible dans votre navigateur.
· Toutes vos parties jouées sur playchess.com sauvées automatiquement.
· Accès au LiveBook, la base de données des ouvertures de référence.

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 download (incl. booklet as pdf) or on DVD with accompanying booklet 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!

ChessBase Magazine: first class training material for club players and professionals!

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 Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Markus Ragger, Ivan Sokolov, Daniel King, Mihail Marin or Jan Werle who’ll serve as your companion and advisor.

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 Giri, Gukesh. Duda, Vidit, So, Shankland, Gelfand 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 ChessBase Magazine and your favourite authors? Take the chance to make it happen!

IMPORTANT NOTES

12 months subscription. It will be automatically renewed, if no notice of cancellation is received at least one month prior to renewal.

250 Ducats

The currency on the chess server playchess.com. Use it to play against grandmasters or to pay for private training.  Ducats can only be used with a valid account on playchess (serial number entered). 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!