ChessBase facts for kids
ChessBase is a German company that makes computer programs for playing and studying chess. They also run a website with chess news and an online place where people can play chess against each other.
The company started in 1986. It sells huge collections of past chess games. These collections, called databases, help players learn from old games. They also offer tools that analyze games using powerful chess engines. ChessBase also has a popular YouTube channel in India, called ChessBase India. As of December 2024, it has over 2.5 million subscribers and more than 2.5 billion total views.
Contents
How ChessBase Started
The Idea for a Chess Database
In 1983, a person named Frederic Friedel started a magazine about computer chess. This was when computer chess was becoming popular. In 1985, Friedel met with the world chess champion, Garry Kasparov. Kasparov thought that a computer database would be very helpful. It would make it easier for him to get ready for games against different opponents.
Friedel then worked with a scientist named Matthias Wüllenweber. Wüllenweber created the very first ChessBase program. It was called ChessBase 1.0 and worked on the Atari ST computer. In February 1987, the magazine introduced this new database program. They also launched the ChessBase magazine, which came on a floppy disk. It had chess games chosen by chess grandmaster John Nunn.
Introducing Fritz and Other Programs
In August 1991, the magazine announced a new chess program called Fritz. A Dutch programmer named Frans Morsch created it. Fritz was sold as software for PCs, which was a new way to sell chess programs. Before this, most strong chess programs were on special chess computers.
Mathias Feist joined ChessBase and helped make Fritz work on different computer systems. He made it work on DOS and then on Microsoft Windows.
Growing the Content and Team
In 1994, German chess grandmaster Rainer Knaak started working full-time for ChessBase. He added notes to games for the ChessBase magazine. He also created CD-ROMs with game databases on specific chess openings. British grandmaster Daniel King was another early author of these CD-ROMs. These later became the "Fritztrainer" series, which were multimedia DVDs.
In the mid-1990s, ChessBase also released print books. These books were about chess openings and were part of the ChessBase University Opening Series.
Adding More Chess Engines
In December 1996, ChessBase added the Hiarcs 6 chess engine to its products. They sold it using the existing Fritz program's look and feel. In March 1998, they added Junior 4.6 and Nimzo99. That same year, ChessBase released Fritz 5. This version had a "friend mode" that could make the computer play weaker. This way, it would match the player's skill level. This feature is still in all of ChessBase's programs.
In 1998, ChessBase also put its huge collection of chess games online. In November, they started offering training CD-ROMs. These were made by grandmasters like Robert Hübner, Rainer Knaak, and Daniel King.
In 1999, Stefan Meyer-Kahlen's Shredder program won the world computer chess championship. Meyer-Kahlen and Huber created a new way for chess engines to talk to programs, called the Universal Chess Interface (UCI). ChessBase hired Meyer-Kahlen and added Shredder to their products. Their programs could now use UCI engines.
In April 2000, ChessBase released a CD with several new chess engines. They also released Chess Tiger and Gambit Tiger as ChessBase engines.
Chess Champions vs. Computers
In the early 2000s, famous chess champions played matches against ChessBase's computer programs. These champions included Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik. They played against versions of the Fritz or Junior engines.
New Ways to Learn Chess
In 2003, ChessBase introduced the Chess Media System. This allowed players to make videos where they showed chess moves. Users could see these moves on their own chessboard within a ChessBase program. ChessBase asked world champions like Garry Kasparov, Viswanathan Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, and Rustam Kasimdzhanov to make DVDs using this new system. They also made "Fritztrainer Opening" DVDs by grandmasters like Alexei Shirov and Viktor Bologan. For players who were not as strong, they created the "Power Play" series by British grandmaster Daniel King.
In April 2006, after winning a big computer chess championship, the Zappa chess engine was released by ChessBase as Zap!Chess.
Later, other strong engines like Rybka, Houdini, and Komodo were also added to ChessBase's products.
More recently, ChessBase programs and engine interfaces like Fritz can use "cloud engines." These are powerful engines that run on the internet. By 2013, ChessBase and Playchess also had web versions. In 2015, ChessBase added a tactics trainer app for the web. They also released a web app to play Fritz and a place to store your own games online.
The Company Today
The ChessBase company is located in Hamburg, Germany. ChessBaseUSA sells their products in the United States. Some of their popular programs are sold by Viva Media. In 1998, another German company released a program that included the Shredder engine and the Fritz interface. ChessBase India sells products in India and nearby countries. International Master Sagar Shah and his wife Amruta Mokal run ChessBase India.
The ChessBase Database
How the Database Works
The ChessBase database was first made for the Atari ST computer by Matthias Wüllenweber. He was a scientist and one of the company's founders. Mathias Feist helped make the program work on other computers. Later, Lutz Nebe, Wolfgang Haar, and Jeroen van den Belt also helped develop the program.
ChessBase uses its own special way to save games. This is called the CBH format. But it can also use a common format called portable game notation (PGN). The special CBH format takes up less space on the computer. It can also store more information than PGN. The software can change files from PGN to ChessBase format, or from ChessBase to PGN.
Searching and Analyzing Games
The program lets you search for games or positions within games. You can search by player names, openings, or even by certain moves and patterns. You can also look for games based on how the pieces are set up. ChessBase can use different chess engines. It can use engines like Fritz or Shredder, which are made for ChessBase. It can also use Universal Chess Interface (UCI) engines like Stockfish.
As of November 19, 2020, ChessBase's database had more than 8.4 million games. You can look at this online database directly through their programs.
Playchess: Play Chess Online
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Type of site
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Internet chess server, Social media website |
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| Registration | Yes |
| Current status | Active |
Playchess is an online chess service run by ChessBase. Players can play and talk about chess there. They can also play different types of chess games. In February 2011, more than 31,000 players were online at Playchess. This included many strong players whose names are known, like Hikaru Nakamura, Nigel Short, and Michael Adams.
ChessBase provides the special Playchess software. This software comes with popular computer chess programs like Fritz, Junior, or Shredder. When you buy one of these programs, you get one year of access to the Playchess server. You can also download a simpler version of the software. New users can try the server for a short time for free. Guests can always log in for free, but they have limited access.
The software has tools to try and find players who are using chess programs to cheat.
Playchess is a competitor to other online chess sites. These include the Internet Chess Club (ICC) and the Free Internet Chess Server (FICS).
Playchess uses its own special money called Ducats. You can use Ducats to buy things like chess lessons or interviews. You can buy Ducats online with a credit card or PayPal. One Ducat is worth €0.10 (about 11 cents in US dollars).
ChessBase News Site
ChessBase also has a website called ChessBase News. This site shares chess news and information about their products. The site is available in English, German, Spanish, and Hindi.
Other Publications from ChessBase
ChessBase creates CDs and DVDs. These include studies on famous players and exercises to practice chess tactics. They also offer training for specific chess openings. They publish the ChessBase Magazine six times a year. This magazine comes on a DVD. It includes video interviews, articles about new opening ideas, and updates to their game database. All these materials are made to be viewed using their database software or the free ChessBase Reader.
Related Computer Programs
In 1991, a version of ChessBase for the BBC Micro computer was made. It was called "BBChessBase" and only had the database part.
A chess program called Der Bringer is a rare example of an engine that uses the ChessBase format but was not released by ChessBase itself.
See also
In Spanish: ChessBase para niños
- Chess Assistant
- Chess engines
- Chess Informant
- Fritz (chess)
- Shane's Chess Information Database
- Internet Chess Servers
- Rules of chess
