Author: Jürgen Hartmann
Date: 03:09:08 09/28/00
Some experiences with ChessBase 8.0 after a week with the german version.
1. Good
- GUI is nicer and more flexible. I was unimpressed by CB7 design, but CB8 has a
very modern and look&feel. I find the handling intuitive, maybe because its
similar to Fritz/Junior. In general all functions are integrated better.
Consequent right-click menus.
- Database management in explorer style with folder tree.
- One can access an online database which is always up-to-date. Searches work
fast. (But scrolling lists is slow like a floppy).
- Database list window has all keys and indexes in tabs.
- Game window selection through task bar.
- Browsing search results is improved a lot. Games are presented in an
integrated board window.
- Position search is faster and shows all possible moves like a virtual tree.
- Player database has new photographs. Photos directly in the game window look
beautiful.
- Finding double games works faster and seems to get a lot more doubles than
CB7. Can now ignore game results.
- Can transfer the current game to the Fritz GUI (new update on the CB8-CD) and
continue working there. Can transfer game back from Fritz to CB8.
- Emailing games and databases in HTML/RTF/CBV/PGN is handy.
- There is a (rather slow) search function for real sacrifices in games which I
find spectacular.
- Can generate Java script for game replay in web pages.
- Can paste analysis of all running engines simultaneously into notation.
- Can load/save configuration for all running engines.
- Sorting game lists is fast.
- Nationality flags in cross tables directory look nice.
- Printing in color.
- Annotation games more comfortable.
- Engine parameters like in Fritz.
- Openings book ("tree") integrated in board window.
- A major stupidity of CB7/Fritz6 is finally gone: Databases are not locked
exclusively anymore, so you can work in a network. That goes also for the Fritz6
on the CB8-CD. I can load the games of a running engine tournament from
another network machine.
- Team tournaments management.
- Help file is easier to use.
2. Bad
- ECO-display in the statistics function doesn't work.
- Player Dossier sometimes fails to find games but they are definitely there.
- Once I had a crash when exiting the options dialog. Weird - the program
realized it had crashed and asked me to save a changed game before it
terminated.
- Taking back moves in the engine variation board screws up the position.
- Opening many board windows with full wooden or marble texture consumes a lot
of resources on Win98, its ok on Win2000.
- Standard Windows color settings are violated, cannot display white font on
black background (handicapped people).
- Cannot edit the players/photo database.
- New email correspondence functions cannot automatically get mail from the POP
account, need to use email client.
- Need more practical usage examples in the documentation.
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Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
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