Contents

Modern Chess Openings

© 2004-2007 Convekta Ltd.

FOREWORD

The series of programs called “Modern Chess Openings” is aimed at a wide range of players, from club level upwards, and consists of a number of volumes on the most popular modern openings. We hope that these programs will help our users to play their favorite openings well, while eliminating the danger of “drowning” in the flood of opening information.

In contrast to the usual books on openings that contain only reference data, “Modern Chess Openings” has the aim of revealing to its users the conceptual sense of the openings and their inseparable links with the middlegame, demonstrating typical plans, procedures, and tactical subtleties characteristic of the opening in question. At the same time, the user will gain a complete impression of the modern theoretical situation. For this purpose, “Modern Chess Openings” contains complete games played in the last ten years, thus combining recent achievements in theory with examples of middlegame strategy. This approach enables the series to be used in several ways: as a reference program on opening theory, as a source for systematic study, and as a useful tool for broadening one's chess horizons.

This program is devoted to the French Defense, a very sound, “fireproof” opening, a favorite weapon of many of the world's leading players. The program acquaints the user with the current state of theory in all the main lines of this opening, and with typical procedures and plans in the resulting middlegame. Some of the games given here were played in the period prior to the 1990's. They have been included for their instructional value; all these games were milestones on the road of opening theory, and without them our account would be incomplete.

The compact symbolic language used in the games will not prevent the user from finding typical plans, procedures, and combinations that require his particular attention. All these important fragments are marked with the TM (“typical method”) sign. In the final section, the user will find a number of exercises on strategy and tactics for self-testing.

1. Software License Agreement2

2. Introduction3

2.1. System Requirements3

2.2. Technical Support4

2.3. Installation4

3. First Steps5

3.1. Starting the Program5

3.2. Browser pane6

3.3. List Mode8

3.4. View Mode9

3.5. Test Mode11

3.6. Demonstration mode14

3.7. Report Mode16

3.8. Viewing game as ECO table17

4. Search18

4.1. Header Search18

4.2. Position Search20

4.3. Material Search21

4.4. Advanced Search22

4.5. Search for Maneuvers22

4.6. Search for Comments23

4.7. Combining Searches23

5. Commenting24

5.1. Annotating Moves25

5.2. Adding Variations25

5.3. Working with the Clipboard26

5.4. Saving a Game28

6. Playing Engines and Analysis28

6.1. Linking Playing Engines28

6.2. Adjusting Playing Engines29

6.3. Playing Against an Engine29

6.4. Analyzing with Engines30

6.5. Using the DGT Board30

7. Sets of Games31

7.1. Selecting Games31

7.2. Classifying Games and Positions32

7.3. Operations with Datasets34

8. Chess Trees35

9. Printing37

10. Miscellaneous Options39

1. sOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT

IMPORTANT!

READ CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS PRODUCT

BY USING THE ENCLOSED SOFTWARE YOU ARE AGREEING TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT, PROMPTLY RETURN THE SOFTWARE AND ALL ACCOMPANYING MATERIALS TO THE PLACE YOU OBTAINED THEM FOR A FULL REFUND.

LIMITED USE LICENSE – This agreement grants you the right to use one copy of the enclosed program (the SOFTWARE) on any single computer provided that the software is installed on only one computer at a time.

COPYRIGHT – The SOFTWARE is owned by Convekta Ltd. and is protected by British Copyright Laws, international treaties, and other national laws. You must treat the SOFTWARE like any other copyrighted material except that you may install the SOFTWARE onto a single computer, provided that you keep the original CD solely for backup or archival purposes. You may not copy the written materials accompanying the SOFTWARE.

OTHER RESTRICTIONS – You may not rent, lease, or license the SOFTWARE but you may transfer the SOFTWARE and accompanying materials provided that you retain no copies and the recipient agrees to the terms of this Agreement. You may not reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or create derivative works of the SOFTWARE.

LIMITED WARRANTY – Manufacturer warrants that the enclosed SOFTWARE will perform substantially in accordance with the accompanying written materials and that the supplied media will be free from defects for a period of 12 months from the date of purchase. The customer’s sole remedy is return of the price paid or repair or replacement of defective merchandise. This Limited Warranty is void if failure has resulted from accident, abuse, or misapplication.

NO LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES – in no event shall Convekta Ltd. or its suppliers be liable for any amount above the price paid, or for any damages whatsoever arising out of the use or inability to use this product.

2. Introduction

This program includes:

· Program files:

· Database management system Modern Chess Openings;

· Playing engines Crafty and Dragon.

· Data:

· Theory and Practice database including commented games and fragments those illustrating typical features, methods and principles of play in the selected opening (in our case, the French defense and the Sicilian defense);

· Sample Games database including full text of all the games used in this program product;

· Database with Master Evaluations;

· Chess Assistant Opening Encyclopaedia;

· Direct Tree (abridged).

Modern Chess Openings is an abridged version of Chess Assistant, powerful chess database management system. This lets you perform different searches, add your own comments, print games, analyze with different playing engines, etc. The abridged version, however, has some restrictions, almost all of which are listed in Section 2.5 Quick Guide for Chess Assistant Users.

This manual is mainly intended to explain the unique features of Modern Chess Openings, which are not available in Chess Assistant, while the Chess Assistant’s modes are described rather briefly; some of them are not mentioned at all.

(Tip:If you are interested in the features, which are not mentioned in the manual, you should use Chess Assistant instead of its abridged version (

This manual uses the following conventions:

Menu commands are written as follows: Base | Exit (the command Exit from the Base menu). Screen messages are written in Italics. Keys are shown as, for example, [Alt]. Clicking with the left button of the mouse is referred to as “clicking” and clicking with the right button of the mouse as “right-clicking”.

You can also use the help file at any time. Press [F1] to open the help file.

2.1System requirements

To use Modern Chess Openings, you will need the following:

Essential: IBM-compatible PC with Pentium 100 CPU, 64 MB memory (RAM), Hard Disk (100 MB of free disk space for the program), VGA graphics, Windows 98/2000/NT/ME/XP, CD-ROM drive, Microsoft-compatible mouse.

Recommended: 1 GHz CPU, 256 MB or more RAM, 1 GB of free disk space, Windows 2000/NT/XP, Super VGA graphics with 16 bit colors and 1024x768 screen mode.

2.2technical support

Convekta provides unlimited technical support. Technical support is available only to registered users, so mail or e-mail your registration card or information today. (Convekta technical support policies are subject to change without notice.)

Mail:Convekta Ltd., c/o IPS 666 Fifth Avenue

Suite 572 New York NY 10103 USA

E-mail: Sales@chessassistant.com

Please refer to the documentation and on-line help system before contacting technical support. When you e-mail technical support, please provide the following information:

· Registered user’s name

· The wording of any messages that appear on your screen

· A list of what steps were taken leading up to the problem

Convekta technical support is available as follows: Support@chessassistant.com

2.3installation

Modern Chess Openings program files must be installed on hard disk. The program cannot be started from the CD. Follow this procedure to install Modern Chess Openings on a standalone computer:

· Close all other Windows applications.

· Insert the CD into your CD-ROM drive.

· The Setup program will start.

· Read the License Agreement.

· Type in your Name and Company (optionally).

· Select Installation Directory. Modern Chess Openings is installed in the ‘C:\Program files\Modern Chess Openings[OpeningName]’ directory by default. However, before the files are copied you have the option to change the path.

For your convenience, the setup program will offer you to create a desktop shortcut.

3. First steps

3.1starting the program

Start Modern Chess Openings. The screen is divided into three parts: the object bar on the left, the browser in the center, and the Contents on the right.

Contents is a detailed classifier window opened in the right pane, browser in the middle pane shows diagrams and/or comments to a current theme, and the object bar displays all the open objects, chess game bases, and windows. All open windows are displayed next to the corresponding bases so you can easily understand which base the window refers to. The program remembers all the windows open from the moment you exit and restores them when you start the program again.

There are three databases in the object bar, Theory and Practice, Games and Opening Encyclopedia. The Games database contains complete game scores of all the games from Chess Assistant’s HugeBase, in which positions from the Theory and Practice database occurred.

You can hide the object bar by clicking on the

icon or pressing the [Ctrl] [C] key combination. To make the object bar visible once more, just click on this icon or press [Ctrl] [C] again.

Two main folders are given in the right pane, The Sicilian defense and The French defense. Expanding them produces similar content structure (the second level folders are listed below):

Code system – this folder may be viewed in the browser pane. It contains list of the symbols used for annotating games and their description;

Practice – this folder refers to a subset of annotated games that have emerged from a relevant opening (Sicilian or French defense). Here the most recent games of the top-players are included, those illustrating the trends in modern practice in connection with implementing the relevant opening;

Theory – this folder contains a subset of games annotated and commented by GM А.Kalinin. Here the particular traits of the relevant openings are highlighted, along with typical methods of play, typical mistakes and typical traps to avoid. This folder and the previous one contain several embedded folders corresponding to the particular lines in the considered opening;

Test – this subset of the games is used within the Test mode (see below).

We recommend you to start your work with viewing the games from the Theory database, those containing valuable verbal commentary. This will help you to get acquainted quickly with the main principles of play, typical methods and strategic devices of the opening in question.

On the toolbar, you can find the List and View buttons:

Clicking on the List button activates the List mode and displays a list of games corresponding to the currently selected folder. This operation is equivalent to double-clicking the highlighted item in the classifier’s window. Clicking the View button activated the View mode and displays the notation of the first game in a subset corresponding to the currently selected folder in the classifier window.

3.2browsER PANE

Each line of the Contents corresponds to an opening theme, and some themes are marked with a “+” which denotes second level branches. In other words, the Contents is built like a tree. The first level branches present different opening themes, the second level branches stand for sub-themes, etc. When you unfold a branch, the “+” is replaced by a “–”.

Each branch can be folded and unfolded by double-clicking on it, clicking on the “+” or “–” signs, or by using the left and right arrow keys. You can move along the Contents with the [(] and [(] arrow keys or with the mouse. The diagrammed positions correspond to the highlighted opening theme.

The lowest level branches, which cannot be unfolded, have neither “+” nor “–“ next to the folder icon. Double-clicking on such a branch opens a new window with a list of examples of the opening theme in question, and its icon will appear on the object bar. The same result is achieved by clicking on the List button on the toolbar, or by pressing [F5]. (List mode is described in Section 3.3.) You can also open the list below the Contents. To do this, press the [Spacebar]; and the list will appear in the lower pane. To close it, press the [Spacebar] again.

The # Games field displays the number of included examples as N1/ or N1(N2), with N1 standing for the total number of examples, including nested folders; N2 for the number of examples in the lowest level branches.

The browser pane in the middle part of this window displays diagrams and/or commentary for the current theme (highlighted in the Contents). By moving the right border of the browser pane to the right or to the left you can increase or decrease the size of diagram.

The buttons below the chessboard allow replaying a game. They are shown below:

Double-clicking on the chessboard opens the Position operations dialog box (Chess Assistant 7.1 manual on operations with positions).

Right-clicking on the chessboard gives you access to the local menu, in which you can increase or decrease the chessboard and the size of the control buttons, as well as execute other commands:

Here all of the specific operations with the chessboard are enlisted. Note that selecting the Define position… item, or pressing the [Ctrl]+[B] shortcut, will display the Position operations dialog box from the previous picture.

(Tip:Right-clicking on an object produces menu – a list of operations specific to this object. This is known as the local menu. Most commands are available from the local menus. (Later, as a rule, we will not remind you about this).

If you mark the Test mode check box with a tick, the program will hide evaluations, offering you to guess them (see Section 3.6. Testing Yourself on the Browser Pane for details).

3.3List mode

You can open a list of the current set of games in several different ways described in the previous section. You can also do this with the Dataset | List command from the main menu or by selecting the Open list command in the local menu.

The lines in this list are the game headers, and the current game is highlighted with a blue frame. Use the arrow keys, the green arrows on the toolbar, or the mouse to move along the list. You can also jump to the desired game by entering its number on the keyboard.

There are small letters at times next to the numbers.

a stands for games supplied with at least one annotation or diagram;

v stands for games with at least one variation;

c stands for commented games with both text annotations and variations;

p stands for games starting from a specific position.

Modify the list window to suit your taste. For example, clicking on the divider and moving it in the title bar will change the width of any column. Furthermore, the number and order of columns may also be changed. Right-click on it, select This window’s properties, and the Properties window will appear.

When you open a new list, its appearance will depend on the options set in the Tools | Options | List window. To copy the options you have set for the active window to other lists, press the Copy to global options button.

Split mode

You can move along the list and at the same time replay games and annotations on the chessboard. To do this, select the Split command in the local menu or press the [Shift] [F5] key combination. This will divide the list window into two parts. Use the [Tab] key to switch between the top and bottom parts of the screen.

3.4view mode

To access a single game, use the View mode. There are two ways of switching from the list to the View mode:

1. Click on the

icon or press the [F4] key. Click on it or press [F4] again if you wish to return to the list.

2. Open a new window for the View mode. These are four ways to accomplish this: by selecting the Dataset | View command in the main menu; clicking on the

icon; double-clicking on the needed game in the list or pressing [Enter] key.

The View mode presents a chessboard, game header, the notation, a fragment of Tree, and the Game progress diagram. (You can modify the window just as in List mode: selecting This window’s properties in the local menu.)

The program’s toolbar also changes in the View mode. Here you can find following buttons:

Report – pressing this button enables the Report feature, activating a cross-reference from the currently viewed game to the Opening Encyclopedia database (if available);

ECO – represents the currently viewed game in form of the ECO table (if possible);

Test – pressing this button activates the Test mode;

Demo – pressing this button activates Demonstration mode.

To replay moves and annotations, use the arrow keys or two button bars below the chessboard. The buttons are similar to videocassette recorder controls.

In the upper row (from left to right):In the lower row (from left to right):

Jumps to the starting position

Jumps into the variation

Steps back one ply

Goes to the upper level

Deletes the last ply

Goes to the next variation

Steps forward one ply

Jumps to the end position

To go to the next game, press [F8] or click on the

icon on the toolbar. To return to the previous game, press [F7] or click on the

icon.

(Tip:When you’re viewing games, hide the object bar by clicking on the

icon or pressing [Ctrl] [C], as this will give you a larger board and a larger notation window as well. To make the object bar visible once more, just click on this icon or press [Ctrl] [C] again.

3.5TEST MODE

When viewing notation of the game, Test mode is available. Press Test button on the toolbar; this will hide the remaining part of notation.

Another way to activate this mode is selecting the Test mode item in the notation local menu (or press the [Ctrl] [Enter] key combination). Before you start testing, you must adjust the parameters of this mode in the Test mode dialog box.

This feature allows setting up and modifying the parameters of the tests to be automatically presented as you go from game to game in a database. There are a large number of criteria that can be selected for determining which moves constitute a solution to a test. This timesaving approach means that the user does not have to construct each test by hand.

In the Test conditions section of this dialog you can select which “good” and/or “bad” moves will constitute a solution. You will have to make the moves that match the criteria selected in the Prefer move section, and not to make the moves that match the criteria selected in the Avoid move section. The two lower check boxes offer you the most often used cases (!!, !, !?, ¹ and ??, ?, ?! correspondingly).

If you wish to find evaluations, annotations, or particular combinations of marks, press the Advanced button.

The Use regular expressions check box lets advanced users set more complicated criteria.

The Side for test mode pane allows choosing the side (or a group of players) you will “play”. The upper button turns the Test mode Off.

The Show hint pane defines a way in which the program will give you various hints. If you start with a wrong move, the program displays all comments to the quiz move. If your second suggestion is wrong, it shows a piece that is to move.

The time given for one task is set on the Timer pane.

The Maximum variant depth box enables you to define, whether the test will include the variations to the game, or not. The default value given is 1, which means that only the moves from the game’s main text and from the embedded lines of the 1st level shall be taken into account for the test. Setting this value to 1 includes the variation of 1st level, 2 – includes the sub-variation of the 2nd level, etc.

If you have chosen Any color in the Side for test mode section, all moves become invisible. Try to guess the moves by yourself, making them with the mouse. If you have guessed right, the program makes this move on the board; otherwise it opens the New move message window, offering you to select one of the three options: Keep on guessing, Make the game move, or Insert suggestion as a variation.

There is also another possibility to set the tests parameters. Select the main menu item Tools | Options and open the Test mode tab in the Options dialog box. Here you can set the following parameters. The radio buttons group On | Off | If game is marked with Test class enables you to define, what database you shall use in Test mode: On – all the games in all databases supplied with the program are opened in Test mode; Off – all the games in all the databases are opened in View mode; If game is marked with Test class – default option that opens in View mode games from all the databases except the Test database. Games in the Test database are marked with Test class.

Setting the mark in Move to next Test automatically does just what the label suggests – that is, after completing one task, another one is displayed automatically. And finally, you can regulate the speed of autoplay in Test mode by pulling the slider bar.

After you have set all the parameters of the test and pressed OK button, the test starts. The program displays several moves from the game automatically, then stops and hides the remaining part of notation.

The test procedure itself assumes entering the moves on the chessboard. A correct continuation entered discloses the remaining part of notation up to the next test in the selected game (if any), while a wrong continuation produces the following message window below the chessboard:

As we can see, the user is prompted here to enter another move, and some additional information is given, which may facilitate finding the solution: the piece to move and evaluation of the correct move. Side to move is marked by a colored triangle in the upper right part of this window (Black in the given case). This message will reappear after each unsuccessful try until you find the solution, which displays the hidden part of notation. There can be several tests in one selected game. You can switch off the hint information in the Test mode dialog box.

Quite a different situation arises when you have set the Maximum variant depth parameter other than 0, and entered a move from an embedded variation. In this case program replays this variation automatically and displays the following message

Pressing the Further button causes the program ro exit the variation returning to the main line and to continue in Test mode until the next text occurs within the same game.

By pressing the Stop button, you quit the Test mode. To resume testing you must click the Test button on the toolbar again.

After you have completed with a single game, the program issues Task Solved message:

By pressing the Stop button you quit the Test mode. Pressing another button, Further, allows continuing tests with a new task.

There is Test set presented in classifier, which is designed for using in Test mode. When you complete the last task, the program informs you with the following message

Here pressing the Stop button quits the Test mode.

You may also try the Test mode on any other database supplied with this program. However, the games in the Test database have special test markers that enables program to run the tests automatically for your convenience.

To quit the Test mode at any other moment, press Test button on the toolbar again. Note that selecting the Test mode item in the notation local menu (or pressing [Ctrl]+[Enter] key shortcut) does not leave the Test mode but displays the Test mode dialog box instead.

3.6DEMONSTRATION mode

The Demonstration mode, or simply Demo mode resembles the Test mode with only one slight difference. Open a game from the List and press Demo button on the toolbar. This operation hides the part of notation immediately after the cursor (similarly to the Test mode). Thus the user is prompted to enter a move on the chessboard.

However, in contrast to the Test mode, entering a wrong move – the one that did not happened either in the game, or in some variation to this game – calls the New move dialog box.

Here you can select one of the three proposed actions: Keep on guessing, Make the game move and Insert suggestion as a variation. We recommend you to select Keep on guessing for a while.

For example, if you try to make the Bb1-e2 move from the position after 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c3 Qb6 5. Nf3 Bd7, then the program will respond with the New move dialog box, though the move suggested is not a mistake, being quite a possible (perhaps, not the best) continuation.

Note one more time that this is not the Test mode; it was just so that your suggestion did not coincide with the text of the game in question.

While remaining in the Demo mode, you can make several suggestions. When your suggestion coincides with the text move (the move that has actually been made in the game), the program discloses you not the remaining part of notation (like it did in the Test mode) but only the move made. In our case, 6.a3 is a ‘correct’ move for White.

Now you have to enter the next move of another side, i.e. Black’s move 6.

While remaining in Demo mode, you can move backwards in the game’s notation by clicking in the selected move. This immediately hides the remaining moves, and you can start it all over again. This feature makes the Demo mode especially useful for memorizing a single game.

Similarly to the Test mode, you can navigate in the list of a subset of games selected for the Demo mode by pressing [F7] and [F8] keys, or by pressing

and

buttons on the toolbar. Anytime you can leave the Demo mode either by un-pressing the Demo button, or by selecting the Demonstration mode item in the notation’s local menu.

The Demo mode may be used for memorizing particular variations and sub-variations. Possible scenario for this technique may go as follows:

1) select some particular variation you want to study in the classifier window;

2) double-clicking this item will open the list of games, it is a subset of games that corresponds to the selected variation;

3) select the first game in the list and double click it, which will activate the View mode with the game’s notation in the right pane;

4) the cursor is blinking in the location within the text of the game that corresponds to selected variation. It is the last position common to the given subset of games, starting from it, each game within the given subset proceeds in its own way. You may briefly look through the entire given subset of games to create your own impression about how play must go in this variation;

5) select the first game in the list again and press the Demo button. This activates the Demo mode, and you can start guessing your moves. Proceed with guessing until you correctly reproduce the entire game; remember, that anytime you can go back in the notation by clicking the mouse;

6) when you’re done with the first game, press [F8] key or the button with the green triangle in the toolbar, while remaining in the Demo mode. The next game of the given subset will be displayed. Repeat the steps 4-6 for each game in the given subset.

7) You have completed working with the selected subset of games in the Demo mode. Now you are pretty well prepared for playing this variation.

3.7Report mode

Pressing Report button activates the Report mode. The program displays another window with the chessboard and notation in the leftmost pane, over the object pane. There is a button in the bottom of this window, which allows switching between the explorer and the report views.

Essentially, the Report mode creates an immediate cross-reference to the content of Opening Encyclopedia database, reflecting the current state of the modern chess theory in connection with the opening variation in question, which occurred in the viewed game (the right pane of the window).

The set of controls on the toolbar also changes – the new button Follow is added.

Pressing the Follow button synchronizes the content in the left pane and in the right one. The case is that Opening Encyclopedia database represents a restricted aspect of the opening, including only theoretically approved lines. Therefore, it may happen so that theoretical lines and variations from the Opening Encyclopedia do not coincide with the contents of a currently viewed game. You may acknowledge this by yourself by moving forward and backward in notation of the selected game by pressing the arrow keys (with the Follow button pressed). The contents of the leftmost pane will change accordingly.

Click mouse within the Report pane. The set of controls on the toolbar changes again.

Pressing Undock button does just the same, what its name suggests – the report pane disappears, being replaced by the opening report window, which can easily be found in the windows list (the main menu, Window item).

Close button closes the Report pane.

Add button allows embedding variations from the Report pane into the currently viewed game in the right pane. This procedure changes the content of the game, and after closing its window you will be asked whether to save changes in the game.

3.8VIEWING GAME AS ECO TABLE

This mode is essentially the same as the one in a full version of Chess Assistant, except that you cannot create an ECO table for a set of games. The ECO Table mode is activated either by clicking the ECO button, or by selecting the topmost item in the local menu of notation, View as ECO table:

The ECO Table mode is especiallu useful when you are viewing the game with a large number of variations and sub-variations. For your convenience, we recommend to turn off the object pane by pressing [Ctrl] + [C] keys and expand the table window by dragging ith mouse its borders. Columns in the table represent the moves’ numbers. The last column in the table is reserved for the evaluation of entire variation. Rows are united in groups of two separate rows, the upper row for White’s moves and the lower one for Black’s moves. You can easily navigate in the ECO table by clicking mouse or by pressing the arrow keys. The arrow right key moves you to the next ply and the arrow left key moves you to the previous ply. The arrow down key moves to the next embedded variation (if any variations present) and the arrow up key moves you to the next variation of the upper level (or to the main line). Each transposition within the ECO table is accompanied by changes in position on the chessboard.

You can also print the currently viewed game as an ECO table (Print | Print item in the main menu) or export it (Print | Export).

To quit the ECO Table mode, click on the ECO button or select the View as commented game item in table’s local menu.

4. Search

There are six types of search in Modern Chess Openings: Header, Position, Material, Advanced, For Comments and For Maneuvers; all these types may be combined.

4.1Header search

This type of search is based on “header” information, such as the players’ names, result, year, place, etc.

Select Search | Header in the main menu. (You can also click on the small down arrow next to the

icon on the toolbar and select Header search in the drop-down list). The Search dialog box appears, with the header fields listed on the left.

White: The player (players) with the white pieces.

Black: The player (players) with the black pieces.

Result: The possible values are: 1:0, 0:1, 1/2:1/2, or an evaluation; ? stands for an unknown result.

ECO: Opening index according to the Chess Informant classification. Select the way of setting it in the Enter new value text box.

Site: The city where a tournament took place.

Date: The year and month (optionally) when a tournament was held. This criterion can be set as a single year, a range of years, a single date or a range of dates.

Event: The type of competition (match, interzonal, championship etc.).

Round: The number of the round.

Annotator: The author of game’s annotations.

Remark: There are three ways to set this criterion: a whole remark (Exact), a part of a remark (Substring) or its beginning (Prefix). Select the setting in the Type text box and type the criterion on the keyboard in the Value/Pattern window.

Source: The source of the game record.

White ELO/Black ELO: Ratings of players.

Moves: Number of moves in the game.

Possible values for the White, Black, Site, Event, Annotator and Source fields are stored in the library. You can type them in the Find text box.

Setting criteria for the values stored in the library

Games are stored as game headers, consisting of several fields, and notations. The names of players are stored in a special file called library. Besides the players’ names, the library stores possible values for some other header fields (Site, Event, Annotator and Source). This concept of libraries greatly increases the search speed and allows one to avoid mistakes in names with difficult spellings.

If you don’t remember an exact spelling, press the Mark button, enter a fragment of the name in the Value/Pattern text box, and select Substring in the Type window. If you are sure that the entered fragment is the name’s beginning then set the Prefix type. If you have entered the complete name, select Exact, and then press the Search button (This button refers to the search through the library list, so don’t confuse it with the search in a set of games!).

The elements found will be marked in the list. To see them all, select Show marked. Press this button (which is now called Show all) to return to the library list.

To delete all the entered criteria, press the Clear markers button.

To remove a criterion, press Unmark. A dialog box similar to the one produced by the Mark button will appear. Enter the criterion (or its fragment) that is to be removed, press Search, and the chosen elements of the library list be unmarked.

Searching: through an entire database or a set of games?

The Search dialog box gives you the choice of either searching through an entire database or through the current dataset. Choose between Set and Whole base in the Search in section.

To select an entire database to be used as the dataset in this operation, select Dataset | Reset or press [F6]. The old set will be erased and a base list will appear in the window. Before you start searching make sure the current set is the right one.

4.2Position search

The positional search function looks for a specific position, a partial position, or a structure.

Select the Search | Position command in the main menu. (You can also click on the small down arrow next to the

icon on the toolbar and select Position search in the drop-down list). In the Search dialog box there is a chessboard with the starting position where you can set up the position you want to search for.

Partially defined positions

You can search for a fragment of position or for a pawn structure. To set a partial position, use the piece palette just below the chessboard.

Clear the board with the [Ctrl] [C] key combination. Take the pieces from the palette and set up a position on the chessboard. To set a piece on the board, first click on the piece icon on the palette. The mouse pointer will turn into the piece icon. Now click on the square (or squares) on the board where you want to put the piece, and return to the palette and repeat this procedure with the other pieces until the position desired is set up. When this is done click on the arrow on the palette.

Besides the chess pieces, there are some other symbols on the palette. You can put them on the board too. Their meaning is as follows:

Any white piece

Any black piece

Any piece of any color or an empty square

Empty square

Sign of negation

Negation of a piece means that this piece cannot stand on this square.

Negation of an empty square means that any piece may stand on this square but it can’t be empty.

Negation of the white question mark means any black piece or an empty square.

Negation of the black question mark means any white piece or an empty square.

Negation of the doubled question mark stands for negation of pawns of any color.

You can search for several pieces on the same square. To do this, put the first piece on the desired square. Then choose another piece from the palette, press the [Ctrl] key and while maintaining it pressed drop it on the same square. Any number of pieces may be put on one square though only three of them will be displayed. To see them all, click on the arrow on the palette and then on the square.

(Tip:You can perform every type of search (except the header search) in both bases simultaneously. While in the Search dialog box, click on the small button with 3 dots above the Help button. The Select bases to search in window will appear. Select the bases you want to search through and perform the search. The results will be given for each base in separate windows.

Search for horizontally and/or vertically symmetrical positions

To search for horizontally symmetrical positions, while in the Search dialog box, set Ignore colors to On and Side to move: either.

To search for vertically symmetrical positions, enable the Mirror flanks option.

These types of search are very useful in the opening, especially in conjunction with each other – an instructive example is given in Section 4.7 Combining Searches.

4.3Material search

The material search function looks for games within certain material restrictions.

Select Search | Material, and set the limits for Black and White in the corresponding boxes. The lines with the large black and white question marks are to set ranges for the total number of Black’s and White’s pieces. When the options have all been set, press Search to start searching.

Search for positions with a certain material advantage

This type of search allows you to find games in which one of the opponents had an extra pawn (piece, exchange, etc.). While in the Search | Position and material window, set the difference in number of pawns, knights, bishops, rooks, and queens in the Imbalance box on the right. The line with the large white question mark instead of a piece is to set a range for the total amount of White’s extra material on the board. It is calculated on the assumption that the value of the pieces is as follows:

Queen= 9 points

Knight= 3 points

Rook= 5 points

Pawn= 1 point

Bishop= 3 points

You can also set the limits for Total number of pieces and indicate for how long this material imbalance continued in the Imbalance time (moves) box. If the Imbalance time is indicated as 0 then the material imbalance set above may last for any number of moves.

Search for bishops of opposite colors

Bishops of opposite colors can be specified in the Search dialog window, which appears after calling the Search | Material command in the main menu. Select Of opposite colors in the Bishops drop-down list, and the number of bishops will automatically be set to 1 for both Black and White.

4.4Advanced search

The Advanced search is a material search in which the material restrictions are set independently for several different groups of squares. Call the Search | Advanced command in the main menu.

There are 14 markers of different colors. The current color is indicated below the chessboard. To define the first area, click on all the squares you want to include, then set the material restrictions for the selected area as described above. With the help of the local menu you can Shift markers: Left, Right, Up, or Down.

To set the material restrictions for another group of squares, click on the Blue marker tab. Likewise define another area and set the corresponding material restrictions. An example of this kind of search is given in Section 4.7 Combining Searches.

(Tip:Position, Material and Advanced searches can also be performed in variations by enabling Search in variations in the Search dialog box.

4.5SEARCH FOR MANEUVERS

Using this tool, you can search for common piece maneuvers.

Select Search | Maneuvers in the main menu, and the Search dialog box will appear, with the Maneuvers pane on the right. Search for maneuvers irrespective of a position on the board is hardly useful; it makes more sense to combine the maneuver and positional searches.

Set up a desired partial position, using the piece palette below the chessboard (as described in Section 4.2 Position Search). When this is done click on the arrow on the palette. Then drag the desired piece from a source square to a destination square. Repeating this action with other pieces, you can search for a sequence of moves.

4.6Search for comments

You can search for commented games by selecting the Search | Comments command in the main menu, and then specifying the type of comments in the Search dialog box.

You can search for any textual fragments of game annotations (naturally, as with all other searches, in both bases simultaneously). To do this, select the Search | Comments command in the main menu, enable the Annotation criteria option in the Search dialog, click on the Set annotations button, and then specify the desired text annotations in the Set search parameters window.

You can even search for several textual fragments at once: just type them in different lines of the Set search parameters window. In this case the program will search for any of them, thus the resulting list will include all the games with annotations containing at least one of the fragments you have searched for.

4.7combining searches

You can combine different types of search. Select them in the Criteria included section of the Search dialog box, and then set the criteria for each one. Let’s find, for example, all the rook + bishop endings with 4 pawns vs. 3 pawns, in which both players had three pawns on one wing and the strongest side had a passed lateral pawn on the other wing (the bishops are of opposite colors).

· Call Search | Position. Fill the chessboard with doubled question marks (press [Ctrl] [Q]) and enable Ignore colors and Mirror flanks.

· Click on the small button with 3 dots above the Help button. The Select bases to search in window will appear. Mark both bases, Averbakh and Examples, with a tick.

· Mark the Material check box in the Criteria included section with a tick and set the material restrictions. There mustn’t be any queens or knights on the board, and both Black and White have one rook and one bishop each. Select Of opposite colors in the Bishops drop-down list. Set 4 pawns for White and 3 for Black, then set Ignore colors to On and Side to move: Either.

· Mark the Advanced check box in the Criteria included section with a tick. Fill the chessboard with doubled question marks.

· Click on all the squares inside the f7-h7-h2-f2 (right) rectangle. In both White and Black sections enter 3 on both the left and right of the pawn icon.

· Press the Blue marker tab and click on all the squares (left) from a2 to a7 as in the diagram below. In the White section enter 1 on both the left and right of the pawn icon.

The screen should appear as follows:

· Press the Search button. A list with the only found game will appear (Browne – D.Gurevich, USA 1984).

In this example we combined several types of search (Position + Material + Advanced + For bishops of opposite colors + For horizontally and vertically symmetrical positions).

5. Commenting

To comment a game in View mode, just click on the Comments tab in the left part of the toolbar and the Comments toolbar will appear.

5.1Annotating moves

To annotate a move, click on the

icon. A small drop-down menu will appear. Select Annotate move and you will get the Annotations editor dialog box.

The Informant-style symbols may be used in short comments. Highlight Short Before if you wish to insert a symbol before the current move or Short After to insert one after, then click on the appropriate symbol. You can also press the Evaluation tab and select the desired evaluation.

You may also insert any text in the notation. To do this, click on Long Before or Long After and type the text commentary in the text window. Use the Introduction and Afterword tabs to insert annotations before the first and after the last move of the game.

To delete annotations, click on the

icon and select Delete annotations in the small drop-down menu. Press the [Delete] key if you wish to delete the current commentary directly in the notation.

To insert a diagram, click on the

icon, and to delete a diagram, click on it again.

5.2ADDING VARIATIONS

To comment a move with a variation, place the cursor before the move in the notation window and just play out the variation on the chessboard.

Entering moves

All moves are entered with the mouse. In order to make a move, move the cursor to a piece, press and hold down the mouse button, drag the cursor to the destination square, and then release the mouse button.

Commenting the last move in the game

If you place the cursor after the last move and enter a new one, it will be added to the main body of the game. To avoid this, press [Ctrl] and only then enter your variations to the last move.

Replacing the entered move

Press the [Ctrl] key while entering a new variation. The Changing move dialog box will appear. Existing variations are displayed on the left. Use the buttons on the right to control them.

The New variation button inserts the entered move as a new variation. If you select Insert and check moves, the new move will replace the old one, with all the next moves being checked and the illegal ones being deleted. The Replace button will overwrite the old move with the new one and delete all the following moves.

Changing the order of variations

Clicking on the

icon will bring up the Variations control dialog box. To change the order of variations in the window, drag and drop them or click on the up and down arrows.

Deleting a fragment of notation

Pressing the [Backspace] key deletes the last entered move. If you wish to delete all moves from the current one until the game end, press the [Shift] [Ctrl] [Backspace] key combination. Clicking on the

icon will bring up the Deleting moves dialog box. Select the desired options according to what you want to delete and press OK.

Painting on the chessboard

Clicking on the

icon will produce the Color markers setup dialog box, with the current position on the left and the color markers on the right. This window contains five tabs: Markers, Lines, Blocks, Chars and Text that allow to place various color objects on the chessboard.

5.3Working with the clipboard

You can use the standard Windows clipboard which allows one to copy games and analysis from the Internet and other sources, and to paste them to the Averbakh or Examples database. With its help you can also export data from Modern Chess Openings to other programs, and last but not least, it lets you share data inside Modern Chess Openings.

The PGN and EPD formats are the de facto standard for sharing information between different chess programs. They are also the standard formats for posting games and analysis on the Internet. The *.pgn and *.epd files are text files which can be edited manually with a text processor. They can also be produced by chess programs, which support these formats.

PGN stands for “portable game notation”, and is intended for exchanging game scores and analysis. EPD stands for “extended position description” and is intended for exchanging board positions.

To export a game from Modern Chess Openings to the PGN format:

1) Open the View window with this game.

2) To copy the game to the clipboard, press [Ctrl] [Ins].

3) Switch to the program this game is to be exported to (This can be any text processor or a chess program supporting both the PGN format and Windows clipboard).

4) To paste the game, press [Shift] [Ins].

There is also another method. While in the View window, place the cursor at the desired position. If you now press [Ctrl] [>], the program will copy the moves from the selected position until the game’s end, in PGN format, to the Windows clipboard. If you press [Ctrl] [<], the program will copy the moves from the beginning of the game until the selected position, in PGN format, to the Windows clipboard. Once in the Windows clipboard, the contents can be pasted anywhere at the user’s discretion.

To export many games from Modern Chess Openings to the PGN format:

1) Open the list window with these games.

2) Highlight the desired games in the list.

3) To copy these games to the clipboard, press [Ctrl] [Ins].

4) Switch to the program these games are to be exported to.

5) To paste the games, press [Shift] [Ins].

To export a board position from Modern Chess Openings to the EPD format:

1) Open the Position operations window.

2) In the Position to be saved pane, set up the desired position on the chessboard.

3) To copy the position to the clipboard, press [Ctrl] [Ins].

4) Switch to the program this position is to be exported to (This can be any text processor or a chess program supporting both the EPD format and Windows clipboard).

5) To paste the position description, press [Shift] [Ins].

Instead of calling the Position operations window, you can simply press either [Ctrl] [/] or [Ctrl] [\], and the current position, in EPD format, will be copied to the Windows clipboard. If you press [Ctrl] [/], the position description will be supplied with the game header and indication whose move it is.

5.4saving a game

This program does not allow you to save changes in the main lines, but you can save changes in variations. To do this, select Edit | Save game in the main menu or click on the

icon, or press the [Ctrl] [S] key combination. If the current base is not Read only then the game will be saved to disk. Don’t be afraid to accidentally damage the database, because you can restore it from your CD.

Base properties

To get more information about the current base, call Base | Properties. This will produce the Base properties dialog box that displays the base Type, its full name (Path), Length (number of games) and Comment. Mark the Read only check box with a tick if you wish to prevent undesirable changes from being made to the base. You can also specify whether to show deleted games in the list.

6. PLAYING ENGINES AND Analysis

Modern Chess Openings provides complete playing program facilities with the built-in playing engines. Apart from them, many other chess engines (i.e. programs that play chess) can be linked up to Modern Chess Openings. This permits you to play against a computer and analyze with different engines.

Your CD includes:

· The latest version of Crafty. This program by Robert Hyatt is the most popular freeware engine.

· Dragon. This engine is obviously weaker than Crafty, but many users say that playing against Dragon is amusing.

6.1linking playing engines

Crafty and Dragon are built-in and do not require linking. All other programs you plan on using, must be linked to Modern Chess Openings according to the following procedure. Naturally, the program you’re linking to Modern Chess Openings must already be installed on your computer.

The Engines window, which is intended for linking playing engines, can be called up in five ways:

· By selecting Engines | Engines setup;

· By selecting Tools | Options | Engines;

· By selecting Tools | Chess engines setup;

· By clicking on the small arrow to the right of the

icon in the toolbar and selecting Chess engines setup from the drop-down menu;

· By pressing [Alt] [F11].

6.2adjusting Playing engines

After you have linked the desired engines to Modern Chess Openings, you can adjust them. Options, which are common for all the linked engines, are adjusted in the General analysis options and Play Options panes. Specific options of individual programs are adjusted with the help of the Personalities button.

6.3Playing against AN engine

To start a new game from the starting position, select Engine | Play against an Engine | Play from starting position in the main menu, or click on the

icon on the toolbar, or press [F11]. To start a new game from the current position (in View or Tree mode), select Engine | Play against an Engine | Play from current position in the main menu or press [Shift] [F11]. In View or Tree mode, you can also click on the

icon in the Engines section on the toolbar and then select Play from current position or Play a new game from the drop-down list.

In all cases, the Startup window will appear, allowing you to select an engine, set time control and adjust some other options.

Select an engine from the drop-down list, adjust other settings and press Start. The program will open the base EngineGames (if it was not already open) and the window for the new game. To play as White (if you selected Human - Computer), simply make your first move, and to play with the black pieces, press the [Spacebar] (or select Computer – Human beforehand).

In the pane below the notation the program displays the lines it considers the best, with the evaluations and calculation depth (in plys) to the left. The time spent by both players is shown above. Two button bars below the chessboard were described in Section 3.4 View Mode.

Use the buttons below the chessboard, toolbar icons and hot-keys.

· To set up a position to play, click on the small arrow to the right of the

icon on the toolbar and select the desired command from the drop-down menu.

· To set time control, click on the

icon on the toolbar.

· To stop the clock for a while, no matter who is to move, click on the

icon, and to resume the game, click on it again.

· You can save the game in the EngineGames base and (optionally) fill in the game header fields. If the game is not finished yet, but you don’t want to continue it, press [Esc], and the program will offer you to Assign game result. Press one of the four radio buttons (1:0, ½, 0:1, or None), click on OK, and the Stop game window will appear. Select the desired action and press OK.

· To adjourn the game, just save it in the EngineGames base as described above. To resume it, open the desired game in View mode and select Engines | Play against an engine | Resume in the main menu or press [Shift] [Ctrl] [F11].

6.4AnalyZING WITH ENGINES

Infinite analysis can be called in View mode. Place the cursor at the position you wish to analyze; further you have two options.

1) If you select the Engines | Infinite analysis command in the main menu, or click on the

icon in the Engines section on the toolbar, or press the [Spacebar], the program will run the engine that was used the last time.

2) If you select the Engines | Infinite analysis… command in the main menu, or click on the small arrow to the right of the

icon in the toolbar and select Infinite analysis… from the drop-down menu, or press [Ctrl] [Spacebar], you will get the Start analysis dialog box with a lot of different settings.

The first method is the simplest type of Infinite analysis and does not require any adjustment. In a few seconds after you pressed the [Spacebar], a pane with results of the analysis will appear.

The program shows the lines it considers the best, with evaluations and depths of these lines to the left. The upper variation is bold-faced; it is the main one because it is the deepest, and after the analysis is finished, it will be inserted into the notation as a comment.

To quickly switch between positions in the analysis lines, use the arrow keys or just click on any move in any line in the analysis pane, and the position after this move will appear on the chessboard. Make your move from this position on the board, and the engine will immediately start to analyze it.

6.5USING THE DGT BOARD

If you find it unpleasant to play on the screen and miss the feel of a wooden board, you can connect the DGT board and play on it instead. The DGT board is an electronic wooden auto-sensory chessboard by DGT Projects from the Netherlands. Once connected to your computer, it permits you to play against the built-in engines, analyze with them, and input your analysis.

Connect the DGT board to COM1 or COM2 port of your computer. Select Tools | DGT board options in the main menu and choose the port. To check the connection, select Tools | DGT board options | Test.

While in View mode, right-click on the notation and select Enable input from DGT board in the local menu. Now you can analyze on the DGT board. When you make your moves in View or Infinite analysis modes, they instantly appear on the computer screen as if they were made with the mouse.

While analyzing the game, you can set up on the DGT board any position from this game or its variations. If you have not mistaken and this position really occurred in the game (or in its variations), it will instantly appear on the computer screen.

7. Sets of games

It is usually more convenient to work from a set of games instead of an entire base. The expression “set of games” (or “dataset”) has been used many times in the previous sections. For instance, every search produces a set. You can also create a set by selecting desired games in the List mode.

7.1Selecting games

First you have to mark the games you want to select. You can mark games in the list in two ways:

1)By highlighting

2)By coloring

What’s the difference between “highlighted” and “colored?”

The highlighted games are marked only until the next operation is executed. The games selected and colored will remain colored in the dataset in which you marked them, for as long as the dataset is open. Please note that they will not stay colored in the database list. If you want to mark a game in the database, you should include this game into a class.

To highlight a game, click on a cell with the game number. To select a game by coloring it, click on this game in the list and press the [Insert] key. If several games are highlighted, pressing [Insert] will color them all.

When the required games have been marked in some way (highlighted or colored), choose one of the following commands in the main menu: Dataset | Create dataset from | Create dataset from highlighted games or Dataset | Create dataset from | Create dataset from colored games. You can also call these commands from the local menu or by hitting [F9]. Note that the new set will be displayed in the same window and the original set will be erased.

How can I quickly select succession of games?

First you have to highlight the games. To do this, click on the first game and then, pressing the [Shift] key, click on the last game of the succession. To highlight the entire list, click on the cell above the game numbers on the title bar. Press [Insert] when the desired games have been highlighted. If there are both selected and non-selected games among the highlighted ones, you will be asked to choose Selection type.

If the colored games were highlighted then pressing [Insert] would cancel the selection. To cancel the whole selection, call the Edit | Clear selection command.

7.2CLASSIFYING GAMES AND POSITIONS

To speed up access to games in a database, your chess database management system should have convenient tools for classifying games and positions, and Modern Chess Openings offers you two such tools: the Windows Explorer style classifier and standard classes.

The Windows Explorer style classifier is based on the printed edition and cannot be altered (see Section 3.2 Browsing the Contents for its description).

The standard classes allow you to classify games according to any criteria. A class may include any games that you want, and of course the same game may be included in several classes.

Modern Chess Openings offers you 30 standard classes. Call the Tools | Options | Classes command, and a dialog box will appear.

Two numeric boxes in the Layout section allow you to adjust the number of classes displayed in the List window in the cells next to the game numbers. The classes are also displayed in the View window (in the Game header section below the chessboard).

If you want a class to be displayed, you have to attach some color to it. To do this, right-click on the class name in the Available classes list and click on one of the Colors. To “uncolor” a class, click on the

icon.

(Note:One of the standard classes is called Marked. Don’t confuse it with games marked with color. The blue marks are forgotten as soon as the window is closed but the class is stored for future use.

You can include into classes not only entire games, but positions as well. For example, if there are several instructive test positions in a game, you can mark them all. To do this, “color” the Tests class in the Available classes list and make sure that it is displayed in the Layout section. Then, while in the View window, click on the Comments tab in the Game header section below the chessboard. Place the cursor after the move, which has led to the first test position, in the Notation pane. Click on the corresponding class cell, and the highlighted Tests line will appear in the Game header section. (Of course, the same position may be included in several classes). Repeat this procedure with the other test positions.

You can also include a position in some class(es) in another way. Place the cursor on the move, which has led to this position, in the Notation pane. Click on the icon in the Comments section in the toolbar, and the Select classes window will appear. Mark the desired class(es) with a tick, type in Comment (optionally), and press OK.

Next time you open this game in the View window, you can jump between the test positions you have marked. To do this, click on the Comments tab in the Game header section below the chessboard, then click on the

button, and the Set parameters window will appear. Press the Class navigation button, mark the Tests class with a tick, press OK, and you will return to the game View window. Now you can jump to the next test position or to the previous one by clicking on the

or

icon correspondingly.

The Dataset | Create dataset from… | command allows you to select sets of games with multiple classes. Clicking on Other class will produce the Select classes window described above. The resulting dataset will contain only those games, which include all the classes you have marked.

To transfer some games from one class to another, select Dataset | Change | Delete classes in the main menu.

To include a game in a class in the View mode, select the Edit | Add | remove from classes in the main menu. To include a set of games in a class in the List mode, call Edit | Add dataset to classes; and to exclude it, select Edit | Remove dataset from classes.

Using filters

Browsing diagrams in the Contents, you can give the program an order to display only those examples that are included in one or several selected classes. To do this, right-click on the browser pane and enable the Use filter option, then call this local menu again and select the Filter settings command. The Selected classes window will appear.

By default all classes are included, but you may exclude any of them. The local menu allows you to instantly Select all or Unselect all.

(Tip:Leave the Wrong solution class marked and unmark all other classes in the Include pane, and the browser will present only those positions in which you failed to guess a correct evaluation.

7.3operations with datasets

Select Dataset | Disk operations | Other (The operations used most often, Save to disk and Load from disk, are put as separate items though they can be reached by selecting Other too).

The Dataset operations dialog box will appear. It displays the Current dataset (above), Operation (on the drop-down list), second operand (in the Selected line), and the resulting set.

The following current database objects are included into the Operands list:

· All open windows;

· All existing classes;

· All previously saved datasets.

In the Operation drop-down list you can select the following logical operations with datasets: Join, Intersect, Subtract, Load, Save.

8. Chess trees

A chess game may be considered as a set of positions connected by moves, and a sequence of moves that leads from one position to another. Let’s call this sequence of moves a path. Thus every game may be considered as a path that begins at the starting position and ends at the final one.

The same approach may be used for a set of games and even for an entire database, because every database is a set of games. As far as we know, each game is a set of positions connected by paths; consequently, a database may be considered as a set of positions connected by different paths.

If one approaches a database from this point of view, it’s quite possible that the same position may occur in several different games but the paths leading to this position are different. Likewise, there might be several paths from any position or, in other words, several moves have been played.

Therefore, there are two possible approaches: every database may be considered either as a set of games or as a tree, i. e. a set of positions connected by different paths. Modern Chess Openings offers you good tools for operating the chess trees.

Operating a Tree

To enter the Tree mode, select the Search | Tree command in the main menu or click on the icon, and the Tree window will appear.

There are several types of trees, but functionally they are nearly identical from the user’s point of view. In the drop-down box you can select one of them: Current base tree, Huge base tree, Direct tree, Evaluations, or Indexer.

The diagram displays the current position, with buttons below the chessboard similar to those in View mode. The path leading to the current position is shown in the lower pane, and the statistics of the current position are present in the lower left-hand corner. You can move along the tree either by replaying moves on the chessboard, or with the arrow keys, or by double-clicking on the desired move; the tree will automatically update the information.

The Move column displays a list of moves from this position, some of which are evaluated. Detailed statistics for the current move are shown to the right and below the list.

· The Q-ty column displays the number of games in which a move occurred.

· The % column shows the percentage of success for each move (calculated as % of won games + % of draws divided in 2).

· The following column displays the CAP data (see below for explanation).

· The Theory column shows information from the Nalimov endgame tablebases.

· The Compute column displays evaluations obtained with the help of computer analysis within Modern Chess Openings.

· The Annotations column shows the user’s comments.

· Below the list you can see how many games with the current move were won by White, won by Black, or drawn (as numbers and as a percentage; the red bar stands for won games, yellow – for draws, green – for losses, and blue bar – for games with an undefined result).

Below the words Other moves you can see all the moves available in the other trees, which weren’t played in a game of the current database.

Database with master evaluations

Modern Chess Openings incorporates a database with opening evaluations. About 100,000 opening positions have been evaluated by our openings experts.

In fact, the database with the master evaluations is a Direct Tree that is stored in the Eval.hsh and Eval.elm files. These evaluations are accessible from both databases and are shown next to the moves in the Move column in any mode that displays the Tree pane. If they disturb you, just turn them off.

CAP data

CAP (the Computer Analysis Project) unites a number of enthusiasts from different countries, whose intention is to analyze as many positions as possible. The project includes many branches and mainly evolves in two directions: from the game beginning to its end and from the game end to its beginning.

Modern Chess Openings presents the CAP data in the form of a Direct Tree stored in the cap.hsh and cap.elm files.

Opening book

Similar to a human chessplayer, a playing engine may have its own opening repertoire. It is stored in the opening book which allows the engine to recall instantly all the moves it will play in the opening phase of the game. Modern Chess Openings comes with an abridged opening book based on 500,000 positions (Chess Assistant’s opening book is based on 10 million positions).

Unlike the majority of playing programs, which store every opening book in a separate database, Modern Chess Openings uses text files with settings, basing on which the program picks out moves from several sources. These settings are stored in the CAOBook.ini file in the Modern Chess Openings folder and in the Modern Chess Openings\Book folder.

9. Printing

The program is capable of printing notations and lists of games. In View mode the Print | Print command prints header and notation of the current game. In List mode the Print | Print command prints the game headers and notations of all the listed games. To print a current set of games, use the Print | Print current dataset command.

Page setup

To adjust a page setup, select Print | Page setup. This will bring up the Print options window, with the activated Page setup tab.

Select a printer from the Printer name drop-down list. To adjust the printer, press the Setup button. You can set the Left, Right, Top and Bottom Margins (in centimeters), as well as the Number of Columns and Space between them, and even have the option to Draw a line between the columns.

To adjust Page header or Page footer, press the corresponding small button with dots. This will bring up the Edit pattern window in which you can type your text and Select font.

To insert specific fields, such as Page number, Page count, Year or Time to the page header or footer, right-click on the Pattern line and select the desired item in the local menu. The three lower commands at the bottom of this menu (Tab, Print if the previous field is not empty and Print if the next field is not empty) let you adjust the layout of these fields. The Tab item in this local menu does the following: the text entered before the first Tab will be aligned to the left; the text entered between the two Tabs will be centered; and the text entered after the second Tab will be aligned to the right.

In the Print options window, you can watch the changes in the page header and footer in the upper and lower Pattern lines correspondingly.

To insert an Empty line after the page header or an Empty line before the page footer, mark the corresponding check box with a tick.

You can watch the page setup changes in the Page preview pane.

Print options

The Print | Print options command brings up the Print options dialog box intended to define how a set of games will look in print.

To adjust the appearance of game headers, click on the Game header tab, and the program will suggest six standard headers. To use one, press the Use a predefined layout radio button and select the desired header in the drop-down list in the upper right-hand corner of the window.

To set your own header, press the Customize patterns radio button and define the header layout in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd pattern line. To access any of these three lines, press the corresponding small button with dots. This will bring up the Edit pattern dialog box, similar to the one described in the previous section.

You can specify the Line spacing in half-lines as well as whether you wish the Name format to be Full or Partial by pressing one of the two radio buttons. The contents of the Empty player string will be printed instead of an undefined player name, while the contents of the Empty field string will be printed in the other undefined fields. If the Empty field string is empty, “?” will be printed in undefined fields.

To adjust the appearance of game notations, click on the Game notation tab.

Print preview

To see how the games will appear in print, call Print | Print preview, and the Print Preview window will appear. In the Zoom box you can enlarge or reduce the picture on the screen (this does not affect the printing). To print all the pages, click on Print All, or to print the current page, click on Current.

The left box in the Page section shows the current page number, while the right window displays the total number of pages. You can turn the pages over by clicking on the < and > buttons. You can also type the page number in the left box and press [Enter]. The << and >> buttons jump to the first and last pages correspondingly. To close the Print Preview window, press Close or hit [Escape].

Exporting

The Print | Export | Rich Text Format menu command converts a current set of games or content of the opened window into the RTF format, which is widely used in desktop publishing. Selecting this command will bring up the Save as window in which you can set the exported file name.

To adjust the layout of the RTF documents, select Print | Print options in the main menu and then click on the RTF setup tab.

10. Miscellaneous OPTIONS

Select Tools | Options in the main menu or press [Alt] [F9], and the Options window will appear. It has nine tabs that allow you to adjust the appearance of different windows in different modes. For example, to choose fonts and colors for the chessboard, notation, list etc., click on the Fonts and colors tab.

The objects that can be modified are displayed in the Element section. Clicking on a plus sign next to a folder icon brings up a list of the enclosed elements. Select the element you wish to adjust and set the Font, Color and Align. If an option is dimmed then the default settings are used. See the results of the changes in the Preview section.

Dear customer,

Thank you for using this product.

Your notes and suggestions are most welcome. Because we at Convekta Company value your comments, we will use the information you provide to continuously improve our products. Thank you for your cooperation.

Please contact us:

Mail:

Convekta Ltd., PO Box 302 c/o IPS

Suite 2, Global House, Poyle Road ColnBrook SL3 0AY

Berkshire UK

E-mail:

Support: info@chessok.com

Sales: sales@chessok.com

Internet:http://www.chessOK.com

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