Chess Base Lite FAQ

I. Database - the basic organization of ChessBase *

A. What is a database? *

B. How do you get or create databases? *

C. What does the clipboard do *

D. Limitations of CBLite *

II. Getting Games in or out *

A. ChessBase files *

B. PGN files *

III. Entering and Analyzing your own games *

A. Suggested process *

B. Entering moves *

C. To enter a variation, simply make a different move than the one already made and you will be presented with various options. *

D. To start an analysis engine, select the engine icon, which looks like an Integrated Circuit chip, at the bottom of the screen when editing a game. You may stop the engine by hitting the button again or pressing the escape key. *

E. To copy moves from the analysis window to your game score, click down on the move, wait a moment and then drag the mouse anywhere into the notation area. *

F. At the bottom of the screen there is a promote and delete variation button. *

G. If you want to delete all moves prior to or after a particular move, use the scissors button at the bottom of the screen. *

H. Entering your own comments *

I. Making a diagram print out *

J. Adding on screen move highlights *

K. Viewing the path which a piece has traveled during the game *

IV. Customizing important settings. *

A. Turning on float over help *

B. Color your variations for readability *

C. Setting the notation *

D. Printing *

V. What all the letters next to a games in the database mean *

1. Database - the basic organization of ChessBase
1. What is a database?
1. A database is a collection of games within CB
2. Each database is represented by an icon with some text below it in the main portion of the CB window.
3. CB has a number of predefined Icons to help identify what kind of games. If you right click on one of the icons and select properties, you can veiw and change the icon.
4. The following are the available icons and their intended uses: Unknown, Work file, Own games, Large database, Informator, Openings disk, ChessBase Magazine, Historical Material up to 1945 , Tournaments, Correspondence chess, Tactics, Analysis,Training, Endgames, Study, Lightning and speed chess, Computer chess, Chess problems, Patzer, Match, Biography, Multimedia, Important, Text. In addition there are a large number of national flags.
2. How do you get or create databases?
1. Existing Databases are added through the Database, Add to Window screen.
2. New databases are done through the Database, New screen.
3. What does the clipboard do
1. The clipboard is essentially a temporary database.
2. Whenever you do a search for position or novelty, the results are put into the clipboard.
4. Limitations of CBLite

According to "Komputer Korner" <korner1@netcom.ca> as pulled in from the rec.games.chess.computer newsgroup Wed, 4 Nov 1998 22:56:23 -0500

The following of CB 6.03 are disabled in CB Light version 2:

1. Players' encyclopedia.
2. WYSIWYG editor.
3. Administration of your correspondence games.
4. Multimedia write capability.
5. Very detailed openings index unless you have the cko and cpo files from a Fritz or ChessBase database. There is then a workaround to create them in CB Light.
6. Training feature.
7. Creation of user keys.
8. Nodes per second info being shown when engine is calculating.
9. No save or replace in Pedro workaround to CB Light limit of 8000 games per DB, but you can drag and drop the games in Charles Gould workaround to 8000 games limit.
10. Support for the cbf format
11. Game Quotations feature
12. Showing of piece/pawn structures
13. Showing of critical positions
14. Install base to hard disk feature
15. Search booster deletion from within CBLIGHT program
16. Automatic scan of hard disk to install database icons
17. Use of the endgame CDROM engine
18. Editing of tournament data in tournament index so that each game is changed. Only the tournament header info changes.
2. Getting Games in or out
1. ChessBase files
1. Importing / Opening Archive files
1. An archive has the file extension .cbv
2. An archive file is a single file, specific to Chess Base that has all the files associated with a database, compressed and combined into a single file.
3. From the Database menu select Open and navigate to the .cbv file.
4. Open the .cbv file as you would any other Chess Base file. All the database files contained in it will now automatically be extracted out and placed into the directory where the .cbv file was and the .cbv file will disappear.
2. Exporting / Creating Archive files
1. To create and Archive file, from the Technical menu, slecect Archive database. A file with the extension .cbv will now be created that contains all the files associated with the database. The original database and its files will not be affected.
2. PGN files
1. Importing from a file
1. Open the pgn file as you would any other database.
2. You may now convert the file to CB format by right clicking on the database icon that was created.
2. Exporting to a file
1. To export a game or database to pgn you must first create a new pgn style database file.
2. From the Database menu, select New.
3. At the bottom of the dialog box, select pgn from the Save as pull down menu
4. You may now copy games by dragging and dropping from a database or the clipboard into the pgn database.
3. Pasting moves
1. If you have properly formatted game notation that you can copy to the windows clipboard (cntrl C) or drag from another program, you can past or drop the game score into the notation window of an open empty or not empty game.
3. Entering and Analyzing your own games
1. Suggested process
1. See Mark Kaprielian's personal process
2. Entering moves
1. You may drag a piece from it's current location on the board diagram to its destination.
2. You may click on a destination square and ChessBase will take a guess at what piece will go there.
3. You may click on a source square and ChessBase will take a guess where that piece is going.
4. If you make an error while entering a move, you may right click a the mouse to go back a move and have it not think you are making a variation when make the next move or you may hit the Red back arrow under the board.
3. To enter a variation, simply make a different move than the one already made and you will be presented with various options.
4. To start an analysis engine, select the engine icon, which looks like an Integrated Circuit chip, at the bottom of the screen when editing a game. You may stop the engine by hitting the button again or pressing the escape key.
5. To copy moves from the analysis window to your game score, click down on the move, wait a moment and then drag the mouse anywhere into the notation area.
6. At the bottom of the screen there is a promote and delete variation button.
7. If you want to delete all moves prior to or after a particular move, use the scissors button at the bottom of the screen.
8. Entering your own comments
1. To enter a comment before or after a move, use the Pre or Post text buttons on the bottom of the screen while editing a game.
9. Making a diagram print out
1. You can have of the position appear after any move in your printed out game score by inserting a diagram into your game.
2. You must first open the Pre or Post text button at the bottom of the screen when editing a game.
3. Do a cntrl-D to make a little graphic square appear in the text window.
10. Adding on screen move highlights
1. Move to the position in the game for which you wish to add on screen highlights.
2. To create an arrow, while holding the ALT button on the keyboard, click down on the start square and release on the destination square.
3. To remove the arrow, repeat the operation.
4. To color just a single square, click on the square and release the mouse
5. Using ALT key by itself creates green, ALT Shift creates red and ALT ctrl creates Yellow
11. Viewing the path which a piece has traveled during the game
1. Click on the move of the piece for which you want to see its path of movement for the game.
2. Type an Ampersand (Shft 7) and you will see all the square that the piece has traveled on up to that point in the game.
4. Customizing important settings.
1. Turning on float over help
1. Doing an ALT F1 will toggle float over help on or off.
2. Color your variations for readability
1. Go to the menu items Status, Options
1. Check off both the Paragraphs and Justify check boxes
2. Click the Color 1 button and select a Blue that you think would be readable ( I picked e3 for you algebraic types) then OK out
3. Click the Color 2 button and select a a Dark Purple (g3) and OK out.
2. When you look at the notation of games now, the format is neater and the commentary shows up in the colors you've selected. The color 2 you selected is applied to sub-variations.
3. I had no problem reading the colored text when printing out the game on a black and white printer.
3. Setting the notation
1. From the Status menu, select options. There you will be able to set the notation style and other attributes as well.
4. Printing
1. Settings to get you started
1. Set your margins to 36 point and use three columns as a generic setting for games of any length.
5. What all the letters next to a games in the database mean