ChessBase facts for kids
ChessBase is a German company that creates and sells chess software. They also run a popular website with chess news and an internet chess server where people can play chess online. The company started in 1986. They are known for their huge databases that store millions of recorded chess games. These databases help players study past games and analyze them with powerful computer programs.
ChessBase also has a very popular YouTube channel in India called ChessBase India. As of August 2023, it has over 1.2 million subscribers and more than 1 billion total views!
History
ChessBase began in 1986. Before that, in 1983, Frederic Friedel and his friends published a magazine about computer chess. In 1985, Friedel met the famous world chess champion, Garry Kasparov. Kasparov thought it would be amazing to have a computer database of chess games. This would help him prepare for his opponents much more easily.
Friedel then worked with Matthias Wüllenweber, a physicist. Matthias created the very first chess database program, called ChessBase 1.0. It was made for the Atari ST computer. In 1987, this new database program was introduced, along with a special ChessBase magazine. This magazine came with a floppy disk that had chess games on it, edited by grandmaster John Nunn.
In 1991, ChessBase started selling the Fritz chess program for PCs. This was a big change because most chess programs at the time were on special chess computers. Mathias Feist helped bring Fritz to different computer systems, including Microsoft Windows.
Over the years, many famous chess players joined ChessBase. In 1994, German grandmaster Rainer Knaak started working full-time, adding notes to games for the ChessBase magazine. British grandmaster Daniel King also created many training materials, which later became the popular Fritztrainer DVDs.
In the late 1990s, ChessBase added other strong chess engines to its products. These included Hiarcs and Junior. In 1998, Fritz 5 was released with a cool "friend mode." This mode would automatically adjust the computer's playing strength to match the player's skill level. This feature is still available in ChessBase programs today.
Also in 1998, ChessBase made its huge database of chess games available online. They also started offering training CD-ROMs by grandmasters like Robert Hübner and Daniel King.
In 1999, Stefan Meyer-Kahlen's Shredder program won the world computer chess championship. ChessBase soon added Shredder to its product line. They also made it possible for their programs to work with other chess engines using a new standard called Universal Chess Interface (UCI).
In the early 2000s, there were exciting matches where world champions like Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik played against versions of the Fritz or Junior chess engines.
In 2003, ChessBase launched the Chess Media System. This allowed chess players to create videos where they could show chess moves on a chessboard within a ChessBase program. Famous world champions like Garry Kasparov, Viswanathan Anand, and Vladimir Kramnik used this system to create training DVDs.
Later, other powerful chess engines like Rybka, Houdini, and Komodo were also added to the ChessBase family of products. More recently, ChessBase has added features like cloud engines, a web interface for Playchess, and a tactics trainer app.
The company
The main ChessBase company is located in Hamburg, Germany. They have partners who help sell their products in other countries, like ChessBaseUSA in the United States and ChessBase India. ChessBase India is managed by International Master (IM) Sagar Shah and his wife Amruta Mokal.
The database
The ChessBase database was first created by Matthias Wüllenweber. It uses a special file format (CBH) to store games. This format is very efficient and can hold more information than other common formats like portable game notation (PGN). However, ChessBase software can easily convert files between its own format and PGN.
The program lets you search for games in many ways. You can search by player names, chess openings, specific moves, or even how the pieces are arranged on the board. ChessBase can also use powerful chess engines like Stockfish to analyze games.
As of November 2020, the ChessBase database contained over 8.4 million chess games! You can access this huge online database directly through their software programs.
Playchess server
Playchess Playchess is an online service where chess players from all over the world can play games against each other. It's also a place where they can chat and discuss chess.
News site
ChessBase also runs a website called ChessBase News. This site provides the latest chess news, tournament results, and information about their products. The news site is available in several languages, including English, German, Spanish, and Hindi.
Other publications
Besides software, ChessBase creates many other helpful resources for chess players. They produce CDs and DVDs that focus on famous players, offer tactical training exercises, and teach specific chess openings.
They also publish the ChessBase Magazine six times a year. This magazine comes on a DVD and includes video interviews, articles about new opening ideas, updates to the game database (with games that have notes from experts), and other interesting articles. All these materials are designed to be viewed using their database software or the free ChessBase Reader program.
See also
- Chess Assistant
- Chess engines
- Chess Informant
- Fritz (chess)
- Shane's Chess Information Database
- Internet Chess Servers
- Rules of chess
