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Detailed description of Chess Assistant 8.1
Index
5.1. Database
As a database management system, Chess Assistant comes with a base containing 2,710,000
games of which no less than 8,000 are commented, CAP information with 10,000,000 positions
analyzed thoroughly by computers (openings mostly), and Chess Openings 2005 Encyclopedia.
If this isn’t enough, it supports numerous other database formats as well (CA DOS, CBH,
CBF, and PGN), allowing you to access games from a wide variety of sources, which you can
convert on the fly by simply dragging and dropping them into your database. If you wish to
send it to someone else, there is a special e-mail function that'll zip a base, in as many
pieces as you wish in case you have size constraints when sending files, and send/mail it
to a person of your choice.
You can also take advantage of a free weekly download more than 2000 games directly out
of the program, and if you are in constant need of the most up-to-date information.
With its Windows Explorer style layout, switching between windows and moving around
games between databases is a simple drag and drop process, from moving a few selected
games from an open list, to transferring an entire dataset or base. Apart from joining
databases (at a record speed), there are special functions that allow you to subtract one
set of games from another in order to see the difference, or intersect them so that you
may see the games they have in common. In order to preserve the quality of the
information, you can get rid of doubles with its extremely meticulous remove duplicates
function, and if a base happens to be corrupted (imagine what a tragedy it'd be to lose a
base over/through a sudden power failure), it is possible to repair and salvage games from
it.
Finally it is also possible to pack a base in .zip format and send (or receive) it via
e-mail directly from Chess Assistant.
Player Ratings Stored in Game Header
Previous versions of Chess Assistant stored this information in the player library, which
meant that each player could have only a single ELO. Chess Assistant 8.1 allows this
information to be stored in the game as well, which means that the player's rating
progress can be recorded.
Player ELO and Tournament History
Chess Assistant 8 includes a separate database of over 500,000 games from players with ELO
over 2450. A pre-built classifier is attached to this database, and it easily lets you see
the ELO rating progress of the player over time. Every tournament that the player
participated in is also only a click away.
5.2. Windows explorer layout
Here you can see the basic layout of the program. On the top you have the main toolbar
with various buttons permitting you to access program's basic functions, and below it, to
the left there is a navigator panel where you can see all the open bases, datasets, games,
classifiers, and ICC console (when activated). Here Windows style flexibility is absolute,
and you can move games from one base to another by simply dragging one set onto the next,
or drag and drop a few selected games from an open list onto a base, or finally append
games to a single game as a notation (to build an ECO table for example) by dragging the
selection onto an open game window. Adding and removing games is provided extremely fast
(even in case of libraries and classes), so that adding the latest e-mail installment of
2000 games to your Hugebase of 2,710,000 games for example takes only a few seconds. The
principal procedures reveling benefits of the Windows Explorer layout are perfectly
illustrated by the flash demo.
5.3. Removing doubles
Chess Assistant has an advanced function for finding and removing duplicates from a
database. This mode allows one to find and eliminate duplicate games either inside a
single database or by comparing two bases.
The program can do this in several ways, the default which is to produces two files,
one containing games it proposes to keep (based on settings a user will have chosen
beforehand) and the other containing games it proposes to delete. You can simply accept
this by selecting all or some of the games, marking them for deletion and then asking the
program to remove them (always done as a second step to give you a chance to change your
mind about a game you chose to delete). You can search in up to two bases at a time and
all the games in both bases will be treated as a single base in order to duplicate
searching purposes.
Comparisons can be made for both game headers on any of the header fields and game
moves for any range of moves. You can specify whether one game is included into another,
denote games that differ only in their comments, and whether text is to be used or not
when deciding if games match. You can also choose the order of importance for its
selection process. I.e., you can have it give priority to the longest game first, then the
one with the most complete headers, and finally the one with most comments, or move these
around (or de-activate them).
Besides, if you prefer to see the games chosen for deletion and the games reported to
be repeated, you can set it to show the results in a clear table for manual editing. A
flash demo on removing the duplicate records from a database is also available.
5.4. Subtracting and intersecting datasets
Chess Assistant allows you to perform various Boolean operations on different sets of
games.
Comparing sets of games can be interesting for a number of reasons, and you can
subtract a predetermined set of games from another or intersect two datasets to see the
games they have in common. Here you can see the results of intersecting two datasets.
Index
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