Mega Database 2003

Best represented players:

Kortschnoj Viktor, 3954
Gligoric Svetozar, 3101
Hort Vlastimil, 3083
Timman Jan H, 3028
Karpov Anatoly, 2969
Uhlmann Wolfgang, 2912
Portisch Lajos, 2857
Miles Anthony J, 2797
Farago Ivan, 2753
Westerinen Heikki MJ, 2730
Ivkov Borislav, 2725
Jansa Vlastimil, 2713
Smyslov Vassily, 2711
Tal Mihail, 2554
Csom Istvan, 2456
Larsen Bent, 2433
Andersson Ulf, 2401
Taimanov Mark E, 2329
Geller Efim P, 2326
Spassky Boris V, 2321
Romanishin Oleg M, 2291
Beliavsky Alexander G, 2291
Sax Gyula, 2278
Kasparov Garry, 2253
Tukmakov Vladimir B, 2251
Kholmov Ratmir D, 2251
Gheorghiu Florin, 2173
BYE , 2150
Bronstein David I, 2149
Balashov Yuri S, 2101
Petrosian Tigran V, 2075
Alekhine Alexander, 2075
Lukacs Peter, 2072

Chessbase Mega Database 2003

Reviewed on 05/28/03

Chessbase has released their yearly update to Megadatabase, which is the largest reference database that they offer. It contains more annotated games (over 50,000) than any other competing product on the market. It also comes with the latest update to the Chessbase player database. This particular database has about 150,000 players in it, along with about 14,000 photos.

The difference between this and last years version is about 300,000 games, so you can draw your own conclusions about whether the update is worthwhile or not. The latest games to appear in this version of Mega are from November of 2002.

It is always surprising to me to see which players are best represented in the database, and Mega 2003 is no exception. I ran some statistics on the base, with the results shown in the sidebar to the right. While it is not too surprising to see the Kortschnoi is near the top, there are some other players on this list that I am surprised to see (Ivan Farago, for instance).

I've seen many people ask why you need a product like this if you can download new games off the internet for free. Well, it all comes down to what your time is worth. If you've got the time to correct  game scores, make sure tournament location names are consistent, along with player names, etc, then downloading might be a viable option. If however, you have better things to do with your time, then buying a yearly database update is your best option.

While it is not mentioned that often, this game collection also includes a number of keys that can be used with Chessbase. These include endgame, tactical, and strategic keys, which can not now be purchased separately (the only way to get them is with one of the large game collections).

If you want more information on the player database and mega 2003, then visit the Chessbase website.

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