Hm, I don't see how this could get you flagged as a cheater.
I have Chessbase 10 open 99% of the time I'm logged in here. How else would I be able to use my database for cc games or my cbh and pgn opening books?
While I don't use them in live games, of course, I certainly don't bother to close Chessbase just because I play a couple of blitz games or something.
Never had a problem because of that.
If my computer is on, my database is open. Often both ChessBase 11 and Chess Informant Expert are open. I'll usually close CIE before playing blitz because it is a memory hog, and that sometimes will create lag on my end.
In truth, though, it's not always open. It's more like 95% of the time--far less than Alpenschach.
Is ChessBase, or any software like it, available for free online?
Is ChessBase, or any software like it, available for free online?
A lite (light) version of ChessBase is free. SCID vs PC (and improved version of SCID) and Arena are free. There are others. Having purchased ChessBase ten years ago, I've not kept up on the free stuff, but there are plenty of choices. SCID vs PC seems the best from what I read.
Chess Assistant (competitor) to ChessBase may still have a light version. Chess Informant Expert also has a free light version.
Awesome. Thank you.
How essential would you consider having a database like this to be?
Sometimes when I close out of Chessbase it gives a message with a red circle and x saying restart (recommended)? It doesn't of course, but when I run the task manager it's still running in the background!
I say this because it not only eats up valuable RAM but could get you unfairly flagged as a cheater simply for running (though not open in a window is technically running). It didn't happen to me personally, but always check task manager before playing a game!
I run Chessbase all the time when I play chess on chess.com. It is open right now. If I'm being good, when I lose a game I drop it into CB with some kibitzer and figure out what brain dead thing caused me to lose. Chess.com hasn't accused me of cheating because of this and I really hope they are not snooping around my list of running tasks. There is no way I am opening and closing the thing every time I lose.
Awesome. Thank you.
How essential would you consider having a database like this to be?
I dispute claims that it contributes 300 to my online rating, but it gets me into the middlegame with almost every opponent. It may contribute 50-100 to my rating. It's really hard to measure such things. I have won a handful of games due to annotations in books (including electronic books in databases).
For me, it's more about the pleasure of learning.
Database software has proven its worth teaching chess to kids. Say I want a complex position with bishops and rooks, and maybe one side has pawns. Doing a material search via ChessBase turns up hundreds of games for my to pore through. After less than an hour of research, I find this position that I've been using to teach kids for the past year:
White is lost and did lose, but had several drawing trick to try. Each of these tricks have proven instructive. The position comes from Leonhardt -- Mieses, London 1905. I don't know if it's in any books.
Quite interesting.
I have no software running but I use ChessTempo's database to examine a lot of the games that stem from various positions.
I'll look into some software, though. Thanks again.
@The ArtofWar:
Chess.com doesn't like it when you mention competing sites, but I'm sure a Google search for "free chess database" or something similar would yield good results. Chessbase is too intimidating for me but as a premium member I have access to the chess.com database (Explorer) and I use another one I found online. It's free, although I pay $10 a year for premium features and it's open 365 days a year. 
Sometimes when I close out of Chessbase it gives a message with a red circle and x saying restart (recommended)? It doesn't of course, but when I run the task manager it's still running in the background!
I say this because it not only eats up valuable RAM but could get you unfairly flagged as a cheater simply for running (though not open in a window is technically running). It didn't happen to me personally, but always check task manager before playing a game!