Chessbase 13: first trial

November 23, 2014

I upgraded from CB12 to CB13, mainly out of curiosity to see what the new features are like, or more particularly, their relevance to how I use the program, as a keen amateur and blogger.

First impressions are fairly positive: I like the new annotation panel, though wish the 'frequently used symbols' could be user defined, since for instance I often use the 'better is' half moon and 'only move' square, and even having on the panel the 'insert text' 'insert diagram' would be good. I think the splitting into two of repertoires, one for white, one for black, must be good, and after forty some years of playing chess I really ought to start work on creating a repertoire (I never have, I play what I feel like). The cloud database concept looks good, and this morning I chose to see how it works. 'Fairly' positive because I don't see the changes as mind-blowing or that significant, but I am only a few hours into using it, so I might be commenting without knowledge.

Maybe soon Albert Silver or another correspondent will explain how to use cloud databases (note to Chessbase: better user guides published on release of new software) but this morning I got up early, and decided to spend time on last night's Aronian-Nakamura game which intrigued me.

I have written up my notes, in which I wrote that I hoped Chessbase would have some GM commentary on the game, since it hadn't at the time I finished my analysis. However, by the time I had worked out how to publish the blog database, a news item had come out. From a quick glance, I got most of the main points more or less right, but the article as always gives me food for further investigation.

To give access to a blog database, click on the cloud database tab, and open a new database in the normal way, and copy/paste whatever you want to put on your blog into your blog database. Then right click on the database icon, click on Database Sharing, tick the check box Make Public in Web, Click on Open Web Site (note to Chessbase: for a future release, let users copy and paste the URL and PGN links which are set out but at present can't be copied), click on the address box, and copy/paste the line. As far as I can see, but I could well be wrong, it is not possible to copy and paste the pgn line.