ChessBase 9 Questions

1. What does "improve" mean (found under "tools" when you click on a DB)? CB doesn't bother to explain this option anywhere in the program (that I can find) and I haven't had any luck using a search engine either

2. Is there anyway to delete "GM draws" and bogus game scores from the BIG DB 2011 without going thru the DB game by game? I was unpleasantly surprised to discover a lot of games with no game score at all, or with not enough moves to have any significance other than to help create inaccurate statistics and I can't find any way to have the DB sort these games out. "Check integrity" has nothing to do with what I'm looking for BTW

improve = add to ?

SORRY no guessing allowed - I could do that myself!

I was afraid you would react this way

NimzoRoy, have you e-mailed CB support from the Chessbase website, they've always got back to me within a couple of days with answers to my technical questions? Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about Chessbaseusa. Cheers, John C.

Not yet I've found them to be hit-and-miss but I will and will also check out some forums for techno-geek chess matters like this. So far I've found out the hard way once you corrupt a BIG DB it's time to start out with a fresh version no amt of "repairs" or "integrity checks" makes it trustworthy again

How does one corrupt a BIG DB ?

By using another program to force CB to shut down in the middle of an operation that it refused to stop doing on its own - that I initiated and then got tired of waiting for it to complete.  I already knew this was a moronic thing to do, it's OK to use the OS or another program to shut down a non-responsive program with, but not one that is in the middle of doing something (unless what it's malfunctioning, ie stuck in an endless loop of error messages for example).

ALL Windows files (and I would guess MAC, Linux, other OS files as well) can get corrupted by viruses, malware, improper Windows shutdowns, physical problems on the hard drive, power surges or failures and lots more reasons that I haven't personally discovered - yet.

NimzoRoy, I was playing around in CB 11 and I looked at the "improve" button in the database window. Apparently what this function does is to improve tournament spelling and data. Hope this helps, best wishes, John C.

Thanks it aint in the CB9 Help Files.

Cheers!