Chessbase 9.0, a couple user questions

I received chessbase 9.0 starter pack about a week ago.  Great software!  It’s so nice for manual analysis to have the engines not turn on all the time, compared to Fritz.  Multiple board windows and multiple active databases is great, too.  This is the life!

I do have a couple questions.

1.  I’ve figured out how to turn off all help and suggestions, except possibly one.  When I go to move a piece, a candidate square will show a blue outline.  If I let go of the piece at that point it will jump to the blue outlined candidate square.  Is there a way to turn that off?  I’m not even sure that the candidate square is intended to be the best move for that piece.  It often doesn't seem so.  But I want it off. 

2.  It appears that the engines are only used for help functions like kibitzing and  don’t actually move pieces like they do in Fritz.  You can’t play against the engine or do things like engine shootouts, is that right?  If so, that’s fine as I also have Fritz, but wondering.

Excellent software.  Would definitely recommend it.

I don't have Chessbase 9.0, but there are lots of articles about it here, which should be useful, if you aren't already aware of them.

JoseO, $145 US including shipping.  Chess Central or Amazon.  Includes 3.8 million game database.  Chess Central web site showed out of stock, but shipped next day through Amazon with Chess Central as the after seller. 

Found the answer to 1. 

http://www.chessbase.com/support/support.asp?pid=257

Options, Engines, uncheck Heumas. 

SonofPeal, thanks for the support index page.  I've found various chessbase articles by google search but didn't have that index page. 

Aquaman> 1. When I go to move a piece, a candidate square will show a blue outline.  If I let go of the piece at that point it will jump to the blue outlined candidate square.

It's under Engines | Heumas. I see you already found it. Under the same toggle I turned off Threats & Generate Threats. I like to see the position first with my own eyes.

Aquaman> 2.  You can’t play against the engine or do things like engine shootouts, is that right?  If so, that’s fine as I also have Fritz, but wondering.

Correct. You can use Fritz or Arena for engine shootouts, playing against an engine, or asking an engine to analyze a whole game in one shot. Then again, I rarely analyze my games in one shot... using Chessbase I analyze each position in turn with my mind, an engine or two, and the game databases. 

Oh! And be sure to try holding down "alt", "alt+shift", and "alt+ctrl" and then move a piece. That creates colored arrows. I find including those in my annotations to be a very useful way to describe some positions. And selecting Tools | Opening Report can be interesting for critical positions 5-15 moves into a game or so.

likesforests, thanks!  It's great to get some teasers on additional features.  Here's a nice article on adding colored arrows and squares.  http://www.chessbase.com/support/support.asp?pid=227

I'm gonna try using colored squares to help me recognize mating patterns, for example.

OK, another couple questions.

1.  The first is really a tech support question and I have an email in to chessbase support.  I'm on Win XP.

The program was working fine for the first week or so.  Now I frequently get the message, "info: your serial number is not valid" and the entire chessbase program just shuts down."  At least it asks me if I want to save before it shuts down.

I made sure to register the program with the serial number that is printed on the front of my owners manual.  The program did not ask me to enter a serial number on installation.

I installed CB 9 right over CB light.  I wonder if that was the problem?

2.  On a related note.  I tried to uninstall CB 9 and reinstall it to see if that would help.  I absolutely can not find a way to uninstall.  Nothing in control panel, add and remove programs.  Fritz is there, but CB isn't.  Nothing in Start > Programs > Chessbase, except the CB main application and the Fritz main application.  Nothing on the DVD either.  Just Start, Install, and something else, I think (from memory) but no uninstall.  Weird.

> Now I frequently get the message...

Ouch! I've never seen this. Sounds like a good question for technical support. 

> I absolutely can not find a way to uninstall.

Yes, they make it very difficult to uninstall. Folks try this from time to time... it's not a recommended operation if you plan to keep the software.

PerfectGent, yeah, I've seen that remedy reported on the web, related to problems with logging onto the the playchess.com website.  (Google is your friend.) 

I'm hoping I get a similar remedy.  Thing is, this problem is with the chessbase application on my computer rather than with playchess.com, and I haven't found any way to enter a serial number in the chessbase application itself.  If I had a way, I'd re-enter my serial number to see if that helps.  

Anyone know a way to enter the serial number in the chessbase 9 application itself?  I know in chessbase light demo, you are asked for an SN every time you try to do something, because it's just the demo until you buy a license.  But in CB 9, I've never seen a way to enter the SN.

I'd like to know if there is a cool statistics feature. Cos the statistics button on the toolbar is not that good. I'd love to see some kind of graphic with my evolution over time or how successful my openings are or something like that :P

Masky, you could find out how successful your games are by creating two DBs, one consisting of your games as white and one consisting of your games as black.   Then when you run statistics you'll get the pie chart of wins, losses, draws.  Not sure if that's what you're looking for when you say "or how successful my openings are."

I'm not aware of how to get trends over time.  That would be interesting.  Someone else my know how.

I looked through the help menu pretty thoroughly in CB 9 and didn't find anywhere to enter the SN.  I also looked for a text file in programs > chessbase folder and didn't find anything.  If CB support gives me a new SN it will be intersting to find out how to enter it.  This may be my whole problem, that I was supposed to enter the SN somewhere.  But I don't know where.  Any CB 9 owners know?  Did you need to enter the SN when you installed?  It almost seems like it's on the DVD and is entered automatically on install, but I don't imagine that each DVD is an original with a different SN in the code.

thanks aquaman,
the feature with the medals is really cool, but what really got me was getting opening DB for chessbase. I find it the best way to practice openings, better than books.

My problem should be solved now.  My version of chessbase 9 actually had no way of inputing the serial number.  Go figure.  This reply from customer support explains the fix.

Update 3 days later.  Works great.  Problem solved. 

-- 

Dear Mr. Stivers

Thanks for your mail. We are very sorry for the problem. You can easily fix
it with an upgrade of CB9 through our website.

Please download and install the latest upgrades for CB 9 through our
download site (it is no longer possible to upgrade CB9 through the
playchess.com server).

Click the link "Service and Download" www.chessbase.com
-> Service and Download.

Here you must select ChessBase 9.0 in the field next to the "Download"
buttom:

Click "Download" now.

That will bring up the CB9 download page. Scrall down to the very end of
this page. Download and install the CB9 upgrade from March 2008.

When this upgrade is installed you must start CB9 again and go to menu Help
- Enter serial number.
Type in the CB9 serial number from the cover of the manual here.

Yours sincerely,
Steffen Giehring

another question,

is it possible to view clocks? i cant seem to find them anywhere. 

Masky, I don't think so on clocks.  Because you can't play against an engine in chessbase, there probably isn't any game clock.

I wish there was the flip board button like in Fritz.  Instead I use ctrl-f. 

yeah, another thing, how the hell to di change the opening tree?

Masky, to create an opening tree from a position, click on Tools | Opening Report.  The deeper into the game you are, the faster it will generate, and vice-versa.

Here's a question.  How do you get nice formatting on variations?  Nice labels, indenting, etc so that they stand out.  For example, the a) and b) in the image below, indented with the first move underlined.

Sometimes it just happens when I create a new variation.  All of a sudden I get the a) and b), indented and underlined.  Usually I don't. It looks like maybe once I get a certain number of layers deep in the tree then it just happens, but I haven't recognized a consistent rule.

Is there a way to force a new line (carriage return) for a variation?  

Is there a way to control indenting or other highlighting of new variations other than variation color? 

 I'm aware of the 'before' button on the annotation pallet.   That will give me an annotation before the move but doesn't otherwise manage the formatting of the variation as far as I can tell.