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A copy of Pawn Power in Chess by Hans Kmoch was delivered
to me from Amazon. No name as to who sent it.

Thanks who ever ir was.

"The most amazing queen sacs ever" written by H. Kat is on its way too

Originally posted by Paul Leggett
In chessbase, if you open up the "bigbase" that comes with the program, there are a series of tabs at the top for different functions.

One of those tabs is labeled "strategy". There is a subheading for pawns, and under that subheading is a section for isolated pawns. When you click the "+" to expand the menu, it will give you a choice of a variety of isolated pawns from which to choose.

Wow, I wasn't aware of that!

OK, so there are features like that. But how to use them? I mean, for example, Robbie, what are you going to do with them?

The only thing I do in chessbase is create databases for various purposes (like a separate Kramnik database, a separate 2500+ database, a huge database that has everything etc) and create opening books from them.

Originally posted by philidor position
Wow, I wasn't aware of that!

OK, so there are features like that. But how to use them? I mean, for example, Robbie, what are you going to do with them?

The only thing I do in chessbase is create databases for various purposes (like a separate Kramnik database, a separate 2500+ database, a huge database that has everything etc) and create opening books from them.

my idea was to look up master games with say a positional feature and see how the masters exploited this positional feature, so for example one can look up pawn chains, and it gives an index of pawn chain formation, therefore if you are interested in say a particular formation, one can look at the games of the masters and see how they approached it. the more games ones looks at the more strategic ideas may come to mind in our own games. The only problem that i have found so far, which is fundamental to my theory, is that, one needs to understand what is going on, without annotations, this can be very difficult and frustrating, although i think, in trying to determine the mind of the master, there should at least be some merit.

in the case of Vlad the impaler , it would be of course very interesting to isolate his games in a Vlad the impaler database and see how he handles strategic patterns.

Originally posted by philidor position
Wow, I wasn't aware of that!

OK, so there are features like that. But how to use them? I mean, for example, Robbie, what are you going to do with them?

The only thing I do in chessbase is create databases for various purposes (like a separate Kramnik database, a separate 2500+ database, a huge database that has everything etc) and create opening books from them.

Here's what turned out to be most useful for me:

I have a database of my OTB games. From that database, I set up an endgame key. The key has broken down all of my endgames from OTB tournaments by type and result. I now have a very good idea of what kinds of endgames I routinely get into by percentage, and how I score in each type.

The result has really focused my practical endgame study, and helped me to identify weaknesses.

I am a 1700-1800 USCF OTB player, but I learned that in 9 pure queen endings I have a 1450 performance rating (but rising, as I studied, learned some tricks, and won the last three), and my most likely ending is a multiple minor piece ending, where with 2 bishops vs bishop and knight I have a 2225 performance rating in 23 games.

My overall performance rating in endings is 1990, which is higher than my actual rating. That result shocked me, because I thought that I was weakest in endings. It turns out that I often win the ending, if I don't get mated first!

I hope this isn't info overload, but there are features in chessbase that aren't often used, but they have helped my study a bunch.

Paul