I've heard of it. I played around with it just long enough to see that it has a steep learning curve. I decided to not spend a lot of time trying to learn it until I saw that I really needed to use it.
I don't do programming. Anyway, I don't think the source code is available for CQL, is it? (Btw, there's a small GUI front end available for CQL, called VisualCQL.)
Is there a reason why you need something better than Scid vs. PC's search capabilities?
With Scid vs. PC, you can search databases for...
...an exact match.
...a "pawn only" match. (the pawn structure you stipulate must match exactly, but other pieces can be anywhere)
... a material match (pawns and pieces can be anywhere)
... pattern matches. (bishop on f7, for example, or a pawn of the f-file.)
and much more. It's amazing and fast.
http://www.edcollins.com/chess/scidvspc/index.html
Is there a reason why you need something better than Scid vs. PC's search capabilities?
With Scid vs. PC, you can search databases for...
...an exact match.
...a "pawn only" match. (the pawn structure you stipulate must match exactly, but other pieces can be anywhere)
... a material match (pawns and pieces can be anywhere)
... pattern matches. (bishop on f7, for example, or a pawn of the f-file.)
and much more. It's amazing and fast.
http://www.edcollins.com/chess/scidvspc/index.html
I have just plain old Scid but now that you mention it, I will give Scid PC a try. But what I would like to do is to be able to find specific tactics, for example if I want to study zugzwang, I would like to be able to find games in which this tactic is used. I understand a database using CQL is able to do this, but the only one I know of is a commercial one that costs a lot of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
So I think that it would be great if someone came up with a freeware database such as Scid and included CQL. I understand that CQL is a difficult language to program and it may be too hard for someone who calls himself a "coder" to do it. If someone wants to take up the challenge and show off their programming skills, it would be a great day for the chess world.
PS to MrEdCollins. I have gone to your webpage. It is very interesting but you may want to embed some of the best YouTube instructional videos on Scid PC to make it even more interesting.
Huh, automatically look for zugzwang? I had no idea that zugzwang was as well-defined as that. Any idea how that works, technically?
Huh, automatically look for zugzwang? I had no idea that zugzwang was as well-defined as that. Any idea how that works, technically?
Zugzwang is when someone has to move and all of his move choices result in a loss one way or another. I was using it as an example. Another example may be a knight fork or Alekhine's Gun or Greek Gift or whatever. I want to be able to search games to find such things. With CQL it is possible but there is only one database that incorporates CQL and of course it is expensive.
Anyway, the CQL homepage is here: http://www.rbnn.com/cql/
Can't you use the cql.exe from there manually?
The hard part of CQL isn't the interface. It's the language. Very powerful, but mind-bendingly complex. At least it seemed that way to me.
The hard part of CQL isn't the interface. It's the language. Very powerful, but mind-bendingly complex. At least it seemed that way to me.
It has me baffled. Maybe someone who knows about such things could explain it all in simple english or make some sort of interface to use with Scid.
Is there a reason why you need something better than Scid vs. PC's search capabilities?
With Scid vs. PC, you can search databases for...
...an exact match.
...a "pawn only" match. (the pawn structure you stipulate must match exactly, but other pieces can be anywhere)
... a material match (pawns and pieces can be anywhere)
... pattern matches. (bishop on f7, for example, or a pawn of the f-file.)
and much more. It's amazing and fast.
http://www.edcollins.com/chess/scidvspc/index.html
I have just plain old Scid but now that you mention it, I will give Scid PC a try. But what I would like to do is to be able to find specific tactics, for example if I want to study zugzwang, I would like to be able to find games in which this tactic is used. I understand a database using CQL is able to do this, but the only one I know of is a commercial one that costs a lot of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
So I think that it would be great if someone came up with a freeware database such as Scid and included CQL. I understand that CQL is a difficult language to program and it may be too hard for someone who calls himself a "coder" to do it. If someone wants to take up the challenge and show off their programming skills, it would be a great day for the chess world.
It's not hard to code once one understands the keywords. Because the keywords are quite related to chess board geometry and chess game mechanics someone who is a coder but who doesn't know chess may well have difficulties.
Second, the only commercial database I know of which includes CQL is one of the least expensive commercial databases on the market. So while it may well be a lot of money to some people, it is relative to the market fairly inexpensive.
Lastly, yes, there's plenty of things you can't find using the simplistic static search features of SCID, CA, CB, or other databases.
The commercial database with CQL costs more than $100 which is more than I care to spend right now. I have found a video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Madh976SEQ
I have also found a manual at http://www.rbnn.com/cql
I have downloaded cql.zip and after having unzipped it i clicked on the exe file and all i got was a dos window that opened and closed by itself. I do not know how to use dos.
So I would appreciate it if someone would take a look and explain it all here.
http://www.vlasak.biz/vcql.htm
At the above link, there's a GUI front end available for CQL called VisualCQL 1.0 (along with the PGN viewer for VisualCQL). If I remember correctly, I just unzipped the VisualCQL and PGN viewer files into the same folder containing all of the CQL files. To start, just double-click on the VisualCQL.exe file (or create a shortcut to that file).
Has anyone heard of CQL--Chess Query Language. It is used to find positions within pgn games in a database. I know there is commercial software out there that does just that, but it is rather expensive, especially nowadays. If someone could find a way to incorporate CQL into Scid and make it available as free software it would be great. Are there any programmers out there who are up to the challenge?