Author: José Antônio Fabiano Mendes
Date: 07:09:25 08/27/03
Please see ==> http://www.chesscafe.com/mig/mig.htm
Most people buy chess books in a sincere attempt to improve the quality of their
play. For others it’s a hobby, even an addiction, and they are bought for
pleasure or to build a collection. Instructional books make up the huge majority
of books offered and purchased, but the problem is how inefficient they are for
a majority of readers.
Unless you are a strong player it is hard to follow variations in your head
competently and you must work through the book with a chess board, real or
virtual, in front of you. This isn’t very convenient, particularly when you want
to look at different variations. Many people have taken to complementing books
with software. They enter the games into ChessBase, or download some of the many
book game collections available online.
For several years now ChessBase has been producing what are essentially enhanced
chess books in CD-ROM format. The obvious advantage is that you can zip through
the games on the screen with all the variations and comments built right in.
There are also video clips, links between related databases, and photos. The
only disadvantage is that unless you don’t mind toting your laptop all over you
can’t read them on the bus, in bed, or in the bathroom.
There are several categories of CDs available and the ChessBase catalogue tends
to be confusing as to what the CDs are for and who their intended audience is.
The main categories are training CDs on things like endgames and openings, and
“monographs” about famous players such as Fischer and Steinitz. For this article
I mainly looked at “English 1.c4 e5” by Marin, “World Champion Fischer” by
Huebner, and “Fritz Endgame Trainer, Pawn Endings” by Weteschnik. All are good
examples of their respective categories.
It can be a slow start when you buy one because the included instructions are
usually little more than two sentences on how to install the ChessBase Reader
program (ChessBase 7 Light) if you don’t already have a ChessBase program to
access the material.
After you install that program, or launch Fritz or ChessBase, you are pretty
much on your own. Paper chess books don’t have this problem. They usually go
left to right, starting at page one, and instructions are rarely required.
ChessBase seems to assume that using CD databases is just as easy, but from the
volume of mail I get about these things they are mistaken. This is a shame
because once you finally get to the content you begin to wonder why paper chess
books exist at all!
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