As a result, about 200 examples have been corrected.

Since there are over 4,100

examples in total, the reader can judge the work we did in the 1950’s and 1980’s,
when we did not have the benefit of computer assistance. That is why much of
the text remains unchanged, and often times, we only needed to supply a few
corrections. These are highlighted and marked with the sign “RR”. Having
reached this sign, an interested reader can compare the human investigations
with the computer verdict.
FOREWORD
Acknowledgements
by Yuri L. Averbakh First of all I would like to remark that the first three-volume edition of
Shakhmatnye Okonchaniya, published in 1956-1962, was prepared with the
assistance of the Soviet masters N.Kopayev, V.Chekhover, V.Khenkin and the
famous endgame theorist I.Maizelis. The first English edition, published in 1983-
1987 by Pergamon Press, was based on the second Russian edition, and was
translated by Kenneth P. Neat. The latter was published in 1982-1986 by
The first English edition of Comprehensive Chess Endings was published almost "Fizkultura i sport".
twenty years ago. Since then, the rapid proliferation of computer technology has This revision has made use of the endgame tablebases by Eugene Nalimov, the
affected many aspects of life. Indeed, chess is no exception to this rule. A database management system Chess Assistant and several playing programs. I
computer program has already defeated the world champion, and now computers am particularly grateful to the chess staff of Convekta for their preparation of the
are infallible in the late endgame, when very few pieces remain. database, and to the many chess players throughout the world who have offered
Furthermore, ever faster time controls have led to a drastic acceleration of play - advice, suggestions and comments on the previous edition. Finally, I am very
adjournments and resumptions are now a thing of the past. Previously, one could grateful to Convekta’s development team for their untiring work on the software.
adjourn the game and analyze the position calmly, but now play must continue
without abatement. This means that a good fundamental knowledge of basic
endgames is even more important.
The main objective of this new edition is to unite the experience accumulated by
many generations of chess players with the latest computer technologies. Thus it
is released not as a printed book, but as a software product, and is made in co-
operation with the famous chess software company Convekta. Together we have
done the following:
1. We have corrected all the previous edition’s shortcomings discovered
by readers. Additionally, two supplementary articles are included, by
GM Sergey Shipov and IM Maxim Notkin.
2. All positions with five or less pieces on the board have been verified
with the Nalimov endgame tablebases. The most significant changes
were made in the two sections: “Queen and pawn vs. queen” and
“Queen vs. rook and pawn”.
3. All positions with a larger number of pieces on the board were checked
by playing programs. Furthermore, whenever an improvement was
suggested by an engine, it was verified by a human player.

1
Contents 1. SOFTWARE LICENSE
3
AGREEMENT
1. Software License Agreement 4
2. Introduction 5 IMPORTANT!
2.1. System Requirements 6 READ CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS PRODUCT
2.2. Technical Support 6
2.3. Installation 6 BY USING THE ENCLOSED SOFTWARE YOU ARE AGREEING TO BE
2.4. Copy Protection 7 BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT. IF YOU DO NOT
2.5. Quick Guide for Chess Assistant Users 7 AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT,
3. First Steps 8 PROMPTLY RETURN THE SOFTWARE AND ALL ACCOMPANYING
3.1. Starting the Program 8 MATERIALS TO THE PLACE YOU OBTAINED THEM FOR A FULL
3.2. Browsing the Contents 9 REFUND.
3.3. List Mode 10
3.4. View Mode 12 LIMITED USE LICENSE – This agreement grants you the right to use one copy
3.5. Using the Tablebases 14 of the enclosed program (the SOFTWARE) on any single computer provided
3.6. Testing Yourself on the Browser Pane 16 that the software is installed on only one computer at a time.
3.7. Testing Yourself in View Mode 16
3.8. Active Window, Current Dataset 18 COPYRIGHT – The SOFTWARE is owned by Convekta Ltd. and is protected
4. Search 18 by British Copyright Laws, international treaties, and other national laws. You
4.1. Header Search 18 must treat the SOFTWARE like any other copyrighted material except that you
4.2. Position Search 20 may install the SOFTWARE onto a single computer, provided that you keep the
4.3. Material Search 22 original CD solely for backup or archival purposes. You may not copy the
2
4.4. Advanced Search 22 written materials accompanying the SOFTWARE.
4.5. Search for Maneuvers 23
4.6. Search for Comments 23 OTHER RESTRICTIONS – You may not rent, lease, or license the
4.7. Combining Searches 23 SOFTWARE but you may transfer the SOFTWARE and accompanying
5. Commenting 25 materials provided that you retain no copies and the recipient agrees to the terms
5.1. Annotating Moves 25 of this Agreement. You may not reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or
5.2. Adding Variations 26 create derivative works of the SOFTWARE.
5.3. Working with the Clipboard 27
5.4. Saving a Game 28 LIMITED WARRANTY – Manufacturer warrants that the enclosed
6. Playing Engines and Analysis 28 SOFTWARE will perform substantially in accordance with the accompanying
6.1. Linking Playing Engines 28 written materials and that the supplied media will be free from defects for a
6.2. Adjusting Playing Engines 29 period of 12 months from the date of purchase. The customer’s sole remedy is
6.3. Playing Against an Engine 29 return of the price paid or repair or replacement of defective merchandise. This
6.4. Analyzing with Engines 30 Limited Warranty is void if failure has resulted from accident, abuse, or
6.5. Using the DGT Board 31 misapplication.
7. Sets of Games 31
7.1. Selecting Games 31 NO LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES – IN NO EVENT SHALL
7.2. Classifying Games and Positions 32 CONVEKTA LTD. OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY AMOUNT ABOVE THE
PRICE PAID, OR FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR
7.3. Operations with Datasets 35
INABILITY TO USE THIS PRODUCT.
8. Chess Trees 35
9. Printing 38
10. Miscellaneous Options 40
 You can also use the help file at any time. Press [F1] to open the help file.
2. INTRODUCTION
2.1 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Your CD includes: 5 , you will need the following:
To use COMPREHENSIVE CHESS ENDINGS
 Program files: 4
 Database management system COMPREHENSIVE CHESS Essential: IBM-compatible PC with Pentium 100 CPU, 64 MB memory (RAM),
ENDINGS; Hard Disk (150 MB of free disk space for the program), VGA
 Playing engines CRAFTY and DRAGON. graphics, Windows 98/2000/NT/ME/XP, CD-ROM drive, Microsoft-
compatible mouse.
 Data:
 AVERBAKH database, the latest edition of five-volume Recommended: 1 GHz CPU, 256 MB or more RAM, 8 GB of free disk space
COMPREHENSIVE CHESS ENDINGS edited by Yuri Averbakh, for the tablebases, Windows 2000/NT/XP, Super VGA graphics with
thoroughly revised and updated; 16 bit colors and 1024x768 screen mode.
 Sample EXAMPLES database;
 CAP data (500 000 positions); 2.2 TECHNICAL SUPPORT
 Database with MASTER EVALUATIONS;
 CHESS ASSISTANT OPENING BOOK; CONVEKTA provides unlimited technical support. Technical support is available
 DIRECT TREE (abridged). only to registered users, so mail or e-mail your registration card or information
today. (CONVEKTA technical support policies are subject to change without
The full set also includes a DVD with the most complete version of the three-
notice.)
four-five-piece NALIMOV ENDGAME TABLEBASES (290 files) which are highly
recommended because they allow you to take advantage of the program’s extra Mail: Convekta Ltd., c/o IPS 666 Fifth Avenue
features, such as, for example, Endgame zones (see Section 3.5 Using the Suite 572 New York NY 10103 USA
Tablebases for details). E-mail: [email protected]
COMPREHENSIVE CHESS ENDINGS is an abridged version of CHESS ASSISTANT 7, Please refer to the documentation and on-line help system before contacting
powerful chess database management system. This lets you perform different technical support. When you e-mail technical support, please provide the
searches, add your own comments, print games, analyze with different playing following information:
engines, etc. The abridged version, however, has some restrictions, almost all of
which are listed in Section 2.5 Quick Guide for Chess Assistant Users.  Registered user’s name
 The wording of any messages that appear on your screen
This manual is mainly intended to explain the unique features of COMPREHENSIVE
CHESS ENDINGS, which are not available in CHESS ASSISTANT, while the CHESS  A list of what steps were taken leading up to the problem
ASSISTANT’s modes are described rather briefly; some of them are not mentioned CONVEKTA technical support is available as follows:
at all. [email protected]

 Tip: 2.3 INSTALLATION

If you are interested in the features, which are not COMPREHENSIVE CHESS ENDINGS program files must be installed on hard disk.
mentioned in the manual, you should use CHESS The program cannot be started from the CD. Follow this procedure to install
ASSISTANT instead of its abridged version  COMPREHENSIVE CHESS ENDINGS on a standalone computer:
This manual uses the following conventions:  Close all other WINDOWS applications.
Menu commands are written as follows: Base | Exit (the command Exit from the  Insert the CD into your CD-ROM drive.
Base menu). Screen messages are written in Italics. Keys are shown as, for
 Select Run from the Start menu.
example, [Alt]. Clicking with the left button of the mouse is referred to as
“clicking” and clicking with the right button of the mouse as “right-clicking”.  Select Browse, and select the CD-ROM drive.
  Double-click on SETUP.EXE. The SETUP program will start. The latest innovations, introduced in CHESS ASSISTANT 7.1 (build 723), are
 Read the License Agreement. explained in Section 3.5 Using the Tablebases and Section 3.6 Testing Yourself
 Type in your Name and Company (optionally). on the Browser Pane. Other sections describe CHESS ASSISTANT’s old modes
6 and may be skipped in order to save time.
 Select Installation Directory. COMPREHENSIVE CHESS ENDINGS is
installed in the ‘C:\PROGRAM FILES\COMPREHENSIVE CHESS ENDINGS’ 3. FIRST STEPS
directory by default. However, before the files are copied you have the 7
option to change the path.
3.1 STARTING THE PROGRAM
 The program will ask you about the tablebases. You have three
options: a) to install them from DVD; b) to link them (if they are Start COMPREHENSIVE CHESS ENDINGS. The screen is divided into three parts:
already present on your hard disk); c) not to install (in this case you the object bar on the left, the browser in the center, and the Contents on the right.
can do this later.)
For your convenience, the setup program will offer you to create a desktop
shortcut.

2.4 COPY PROTECTION

There is no limit to the number of times that COMPREHENSIVE CHESS ENDINGS
can be installed from the original CD. You can back up all the program files on
any hard disk of your computer, pack/unpack files etc. However, you cannot
transfer these files to another computer.
If you upgrade your computer and change its configuration, you will get an error
message (Error 501), in which case you will have to reinstall the program from
the CD. Therefore keep the original CD available.

2.5 QUICK GUIDE FOR CHESS ASSISTANT USERS

COMPREHENSIVE CHESS ENDINGS is an abridged version of CHESS ASSISTANT 7,
therefore it is deprived of some CHESS ASSISTANT’s possibilities. You cannot
enter new games, load other databases and create the new ones, create your own
classifiers and edit the existing one, edit main lines, play against CHESS TIGER
and analyze with it (if you don’t have it on your computer), automatically
analyze games, play on the INTERNET. Almost all other CHESS ASSISTANT’s
features are available. The detailed Contents is based on the printed edition, the browser shows
diagrams of a current theme, and the object bar displays all the open objects,
If you have CHESS ASSISTANT installed on your computer, you can load the chess game bases, and windows. All open windows are displayed next to the
AVERBAKH and EXAMPLES databases, as well as the classifier, and operate them corresponding bases so you can easily understand which base the window refers
in all CA modes. In this case, however, you will be unable to use a unique to. The program remembers all the windows open from the moment you exit and
feature of COMPREHENSIVE CHESS ENDINGS, which is not available in CHESS restores them when you start the program again.
ASSISTANT. This is jumping to referenced games, described in Section 3.4 View
Mode. There are two databases in the object bar, AVERBAKH and EXAMPLES. The latter
contains complete game scores of all the games from CHESS ASSISTANT’s
HUGEBASE, in which positions from the AVERBAKH database occurred.
You can hide the object bar by clicking on the icon or pressing the [Ctrl] [C]
key combination. To make the object bar visible once more, just click on this
icon or press [Ctrl] [C] again.
3.2 BROWSING THE CONTENTS
8
Each line of the Contents corresponds to an endgame theme, and some themes
are marked with a “+” which denotes second level branches. In other words, the
Contents is built like a tree. The first level branches present different endgame
themes, the second level branches stand for sub-themes, etc. When you unfold a
branch, the “+” is replaced by a “–”.
Each branch can be folded and unfolded by double-clicking on it, clicking on the
“+” or “–” signs, or by using the left and right arrow keys. You can move along
the Contents with the [] and [] arrow keys or with the mouse. The The buttons below the chessboard allow to replay a solution shown below:
diagrammed positions correspond to the highlighted endgame theme. 9
The lowest level branches, which cannot be unfolded, have neither “+” nor “–“ Jumps to the starting position
next to the folder icon. Double-clicking on such a branch opens a new window
with a list of examples of the endgame theme in question, and its icon will Steps back one half-move
appear on the object bar. The same can be done by clicking on the icon in the Steps forward one half-move
control panel, or by pressing [F5]. (List mode is described in Section 3.3.) You
Jumps to the end position
can also open the list below the Contents. To do this, press the [Spacebar]; and
the list will appear in the lower pane. To close it, press the [Spacebar] again. Double-clicking on the chessboard opens the View window with the current
The # Games field displays the number of included examples as N1/ or N1(N2), example (see Section 3.4 View Mode for its description). Right-clicking on the
with N1 standing for the total number of examples, including nested folders; N2 chessboard gives you access to the local menu, in which you can increase or
for the number of examples in the lowest level branches. decrease the chessboard and the size of the control buttons, as well as execute
other commands.
The browser pane in the middle part of this window displays diagrams
with all examples of the current theme (highlighted in the Contents). By
moving the right border of the browser pane to the right or to the left you
can increase or decrease the number of columns correspondingly.  Tip:
Each diagram is supplied with class markers (see Section 7.2 Classifying Games Right-clicking on an object produces a menu of
and Positions for explanations), example’s number in the theme and in the operations specific to this object. This is known as the
database, indication who is to move (white or black triangle), evaluation, and local menu. Most commands are available from the
players (or author). local menus. (Later, as a rule, we will not remind you
about this).
If you mark the Test mode check box with a tick, the program will hide
evaluations, offering you to guess them (see Section 3.6. Testing Yourself on the
Browser Pane for details).
3.3 LIST MODE button. The and buttons will do the opposite. To change the order of

You can open a list of the current set of games in several different ways columns, click on one or several items and move them with the and
described in the previous section. You can also do this with the Dataset | List buttons.
command from the main menu or by selecting the Open list command in the In the General, Chessboard settings, Field options, Chess notation and Start
local menu. notation from sections you can set many different options to modify the list
accordingly. In the Background type drop-down list you can choose between
The lines in this list are the game headers, and the current game is highlighted
Black and white, Color, Wood, Marble and From File.
with a blue frame. Use the arrow keys, the green arrows on the toolbar, or the
mouse to move along the list. You can also jump to the desired game by entering When you open a new list, its appearance will depend on the options set in the
its number on the keyboard. Tools | Options | List window. To copy the options you have set for the active
window to other lists, press the Copy to global options button.
There are small letters at times next to the numbers.
a stands for games supplied with at least one annotation or diagram; Split mode
v stands for games with at least one variation; You can move along the list and at the same time replay games and annotations
c stands for commented games with both text annotations and variations; on the chessboard. To do this, select the Split command in the local menu or
p stands for games starting from a specific position. press the [Shift] [F5] key combination. This will divide the list window into two
parts. Use the [Tab] key to switch between the top and bottom parts of the
10 screen.
3.4 VIEW MODE
11
To access a single game, use the View mode. There are two ways of switching
from the list to the View mode:
1. Click on the icon or press the [F4] key. Click on it or press [F4]
again if you wish to return to the list.
2. Open a new window for the View mode. These are four ways to
accomplish this: by selecting the Dataset | View command in the main
menu; clicking on the icon; double-clicking on the needed game in
the list; pressing [Enter].
The View mode presents a chessboard, game header, the notation, a fragment of
Tree, and the Game progress diagram. (You can modify the window just as in
List mode: selecting This window’s properties in the local menu.)
Modify the list window to suit your taste. For example, clicking on the divider
and moving it in the title bar will change the width of any column. Furthermore,
the number and order of columns may also be changed. Right-click on it, select
This window’s properties, and the Properties window will appear.
Look at the Order of fields in list section. The Selected window shows the
displayed columns. If there is a column you don’t wish to see, move it to the Not
selected window. In order to do this, click on the undesirable item in the Selected
window and press the button. Should you wish to hide all the items, press the
 To go to the next game, press [F8] or click on the icon on the toolbar. To
return to the previous game, press [F7] or click on the icon.
Many examples have references to others. The numbers of the referenced
examples are colored blue and given in brackets; they follow after the right
arrow key. Click on the referenced example’s number, and the program will give
you the Select reference window, offering to jump to the selected example. To
return to the source game, click on the small red left arrow next to the Game
header title below the chessboard.
If you mark the Open in the notebook panel check box, the program will display
the referenced example in a separate window on the left, next to the current
example (instead of the object bar).
The buttons on the Notebook pane mean as follows:
Explorer – the program will close the referenced example window and
display the object bar.
Move to workspace – the program will close the Notebook panel and display
the referenced example in View mode.

To replay moves and annotations, use the arrow keys or two button bars below Close – the referenced example window will be closed.
the chessboard. The buttons are similar to videocassette recorder controls.
In the upper row (from left to right): In the lower row (from left to right):  Tip:
Jumps to the starting position Jumps into the variation When you’re viewing games, hide the object bar by
clicking on the icon or pressing [Ctrl] [C], as this
Steps back one half-move Goes to the upper level will give you a larger board and a larger notation
Deletes the last half-move 12 Goes to the next variation window as well. To make the object bar visible once
more, just click on this icon or press [Ctrl] [C] again.
Steps forward one half-move
13
Jumps to the end position
3.5 USING THE TABLEBASES
The View section in the toolbar includes four buttons (from left to right):
The endgame tablebases will tell you exactly how to play out any position once a
Begins replaying the game certain amount of pieces is left on the board. For the time being, the Nalimov
tablebases include all positions with 3, 4, and 5 pieces and a comparatively small
Starts next games automatically number of positions with 6 pieces on the board. If you want to have the five-
piece tablebases available on your hard disk, note that they occupy 8 GB (the
Adjusts the replaying speed six-piece tablebases occupy 100 GB!).
During preparation of the AVERBAKH database, all positions with five or less
Press this button if you wish to stop auto-replaying.
pieces on the board have been verified with the Nalimov endgame tablebases.
Nevertheless, it makes good sense to link the tablebases to COMPREHENSIVE
CHESS ENDINGS. This can be done either during installation (see Section 2.3
Installation for details), or at any moment later by selecting the Engines | Link Right-click on the notation pane and select Endgame zones in the local menu.
tablebases command in the main menu. The Endgame zones window will appear. Choose both sides from the Display
zones for drop-down list.
After you have linked the Nalimov endgame tablebases, you can see drawing and
winning zones in endgames with five or less pieces on the board. These zones
can be displayed for every piece.

Example 1:
Open the View window with Example 1 in the Rook against two pawns theme.
Right-click on the Notation pane, select Endgame zones in the local menu, and
the Endgame zones window will appear.

If you right-click on any piece in this window, the program will mark it with the
zugzwang marker. To see what the markers mean, click on the Legend button.
You can change a position on the board in two ways:
1. by dragging pieces on the board;
2. by pressing the Edit position button.
To save all the Endgame zone markers in the current game, press the Save
button.
To define the zones for the white king, right-click on it. Losing zone (i.e. if the 3.6 TESTING YOURSELF15
ON THE BROWSER PANE
white king is positioned in this zone, White
14 loses) is colored blue, Drawing zone
(if the white king is inside this zone, the position is drawn) is colored yellow, and Select the Contents of AVERBAKH, mark the Test mode check box on the browser
Winning zone (if the white king is there, White wins) is colored red. pane with a tick, and the program will hide evaluations, offering you to guess
If you selected Both sides in the Display zones for drop-down list, the program them. Click on the icon above the chessboard, and select your evaluation
will display the zones for both Black’s and White’s turn to move. To see what from the drop-down menu.
the markers mean, click on the Legend button.

Example 2:
Open the View window with Example 7 in Pawn endings. 1. Basic theory and
terminology. The final position of this example is a position of mutual zugzwang:
the side to move loses.
 In the Test conditions pane you can select which “good” and/or “bad” moves will
constitute an exercise. You will have to make the moves that match the criteria
selected in the Prefer move section, and not to make the moves that match the
criteria selected in the Avoid move section. The two lower check boxes offer you
Statistics of your progress are given above. Depending on your results, positions the most often used cases (!!, !, !?, ¹ and ??, ?, ?! correspondingly).
are included either into the Right solution, or into the Wrong solution class.
If you wish to find evaluations, annotations, or particular combinations of marks,
You can also test yourself with the EXAMPLES database. In this case, however, press the Advanced button.
please note that you will guess not the correct evaluations, but the game results.
For example, if White lost in a won position, the program will consider 0:1 to be The Use regular expressions check box lets advanced users set more
the correct answer. complicated criteria.
The Side for test mode pane allows to choose for which player (or a group of
3.7 TESTING YOURSELF IN VIEW MODE players) you will “play”. The upper button turns the Test mode Off.

With this mode, you can set up exercises to be automatically presented as you go The Show hint pane defines a way in which the program will give you various
from game to game in a database. There are a large number of criteria that can be hints. If you start with a wrong move, the program displays all comments to the
selected for determining which moves constitute a good exercise. This quiz move. If your second suggestion is wrong, it shows a piece which is to
timesaving approach means that the user does not have to construct each exercise move.
by hand.
The time given for one exercise is set on the Timer pane.
Open the prepared test game in View mode, call the local menu of notation and
select the Test mode command (or press the [Ctrl] [Enter] key combination). The When the options have all been set, press OK.
Test mode window will appear.
If you have chosen Any color in the Side for test mode section, all moves become
16 invisible. Try to guess the moves by yourself, making them with the mouse. If
you have guessed right, the program makes this move on the board; otherwise it
opens the New move window, offering you to select one of the three options:
Keep on guessing, Make the game move, or Insert suggestion as a variation.
To quit this mode, call the local menu of notation and unmark the Test mode
command.

17
3.8 ACTIVE WINDOW, CURRENT DATASET Result: The possible values are: 1:0, 0:1, 1/2:1/2, or an evaluation; ? stands for
an unknown result.
COMPREHENSIVE CHESS ENDINGS is a WINDOWS application, therefore you ECO: Opening index according to the Chess Informant classification. Select the
should be familiar with WINDOWS to use it efficiently. At any time you can open way of setting it in the Enter new value text box.
several windows with different sets in different modes. To make a window
active, click anywhere on it or click on its icon on the object bar, so if a window Site: The city where a tournament took place.
is hidden under other windows use the icon in the object bar on the left. The Date: The year and month (optionally) when a tournament was held. This
current active window will be highlighted on the object bar. You can also select criterion can be set as a single year, a range of years, a single date or a
Windows in the main menu and mark the line with the desired window with a range of dates.
tick. As well as many other WINDOWS based programs, COMPREHENSIVE CHESS Event: The type of competition (match, interzonal, championship etc.).
ENDINGS allows you switching between windows within the program with the
[Ctrl] [F6] key combination. Round: The number of the round.
Annotator: The author of game’s annotations.
Many operations in COMPREHENSIVE CHESS ENDINGS use the notion of a
“current set”. If an active window contains a list with a set of games this set is Remark: There are three ways to set this criterion: a whole remark (Exact), a
the “current set”. If a base’s name is highlighted on the object bar then the entire part of a remark (Substring) or its beginning (Prefix). Select the setting in
base is in fact the “current set”. the Type text box and type the criterion on the keyboard in the
Value/Pattern window.
In View mode the current set is the one from which the View mode was called.
The program always remembers where a game was called from. This Source: The source of the game record.
information is displayed on the object bar as # N1/N2, with N2 standing for the White ELO/Black ELO: Ratings of players.
amount of games in the original set and N1 for the current game number in this
Moves: Number of moves in the game.
set.
Possible values for the White, Black, Site, Event, Annotator and Source fields are
stored in the library. You can type them in the Find text box.
4. SEARCH
Setting criteria for the values stored in the library
There are six types of search in COMPREHENSIVE CHESS ENDINGS: Header,
Position, Material, Advanced, For Comments and For Maneuvers; all these types Games are stored as game headers, consisting of several fields, and notations.
may be combined. The names of players are stored in a special file called library. Besides the
players’ names, the library stores possible values for some other header fields
(Site, Event, Annotator and Source). This concept of libraries greatly increases
4.1 HEADER SEARCH the search speed and allows one to avoid mistakes in names with difficult
spellings.
This type of search is based on “header” information, such as the players’ names,
result, year, place, etc. If you don’t remember an exact spelling, press the Mark button, enter a fragment
of the name in the Value/Pattern text box, and select Substring in the Type
Select Search | Header in the main menu. (You can also click on the small down window. If you are sure that the entered fragment is the name’s beginning then
set the Prefix type. If you have entered the complete name, select Exact, and then
arrow next to the icon on the toolbar and select Header search in the drop-
press the Search button (This button refers to the search through the library list,
down list). The Search dialog box appears, with the header fields listed on the
so don’t confuse it with the search in a set of games!).
left.
The elements found will be marked in the list. To see them all, select Show
White: The player (players) with the white pieces.
marked. Press this button (which is now called Show all) to return to the library
Black: The player (players) with the black pieces. list.

19
18
To delete all the entered criteria, press the Clear markers button. Any piece of any color or an empty square
To remove a criterion, press Unmark. A dialog box similar to the one produced
by the Mark button will appear. Enter the criterion (or its fragment) that is to be Empty square
removed, press Search, and the chosen elements of the library list be unmarked.
Sign of negation
Negation of a piece means that this piece cannot stand on this square.
Searching: through an entire database or a set of games?
Negation of an empty square means that any piece may stand on this
The Search dialog box gives you the choice of either searching through an entire square but it can’t be empty.
database or through the current dataset. Choose between Set and Whole base in
the Search in section. Negation of the white question mark means any black piece or an empty
square.
To select an entire database to be used as the dataset in this operation, select
Negation of the black question mark means any white piece or an empty
Dataset | Reset or press [F6]. The old set will be erased and a base list will
square.
appear in the window. Before you start searching make sure the current set is the
right one. Negation of the doubled question mark stands for negation of pawns of
any color.

4.2 POSITION SEARCH You can search for several pieces on the same square. To do this, put the first
piece on the desired square. Then choose another piece from the palette, press
The positional search function looks for a specific position, a partial position, or the [Ctrl] key and while maintaining it pressed drop it on the same square. Any
a structure. number of pieces may be put on one square though only three of them will be
displayed. To see them all, click on the arrow on the palette and then on the
Select the Search | Position command in the main menu. (You can also click on square.
the small down arrow next to the icon on the toolbar and select Position


search in the drop-down list). In the Search dialog box there is a chessboard with
the starting position where you can set up the position you want to search for. Tip:
You can perform every type of search (except the header
Partially defined positions search) in both bases simultaneously. While in the Search
You can search for a fragment of position or for a pawn structure. To set a partial dialog box, click on the small button with 3 dots above the
position, use the piece palette just below the chessboard. Help button. The Select bases to search in window will
appear. Select the bases you want to search through and
Clear the board with the [Ctrl] [C] key combination. Take the pieces from the perform the search. The results will be given for each base in
palette and set up a position on the chessboard. To set a piece on the board, first separate windows.
click on the piece icon on the palette. The mouse pointer will turn into the piece
icon. Now click on the square (or squares) on the board where you want to put
Search for horizontally and/or vertically symmetrical positions
the piece, and return to the palette and repeat this procedure with the other pieces
until the position desired is set up. When this is done click on the arrow on the To search for horizontally symmetrical positions, while in the Search dialog box,
palette. set Ignore colors to On and Side to move: either.
Besides the chess pieces, there are some other symbols on the palette. You can To search for vertically symmetrical positions, enable the Mirror flanks option.
put them on the board too. Their meaning is as follows:
These types of search are very useful in the endgame, especially in conjunction
Any white piece with each other – an instructive example is given in Section 4.7 Combining
Searches.
Any black piece

20 21
4.3 MATERIAL SEARCH
The material search function looks for games within certain material restrictions.  Tip:
Select Search | Material, and set the limits for Black and White in the Position, Material and Advanced searches can also be
corresponding boxes. The lines with the large black and white question marks performed in variations by enabling Search in
are to set ranges for the total number of Black’s and White’s pieces. When the variations in the Search dialog box.
options have all been set, press Search to start searching.
Search for positions with a certain material advantage 4.5 SEARCH FOR MANEUVERS
This type of search allows you to find games in which one of the opponents had Using this tool, you can search for common piece maneuvers.
an extra pawn (piece, exchange, etc.). While in the Search | Position and Select Search | Maneuvers in the main menu, and the Search dialog box will
material window, set the difference in number of pawns, knights, bishops, rooks, appear, with the Maneuvers pane on the right. Search for maneuvers irrespective
and queens in the Imbalance box on the right. The line with the large white of a position on the board is hardly useful; it makes more sense to combine the
question mark instead of a piece is to set a range for the total amount of White’s maneuver and positional searches.
extra material on the board. It is calculated on the assumption that the value of
the pieces is as follows: Set up a desired partial position, using the piece palette below the chessboard (as
Queen = 9 points Knight = 3 points described in Section 4.2 Position Search). When this is done click on the arrow
Rook = 5 points Pawn = 1 point on the palette. Then drag the desired piece from a source square to a destination
Bishop = 3 points square. Repeating this action with other pieces, you can search for a sequence of
moves.
You can also set the limits for Total number of pieces and indicate for how long
this material imbalance continued in the Imbalance time (moves) box. If the
Imbalance time is indicated as 0 then the material imbalance set above may last 4.6 SEARCH FOR COMMENTS
for any number of moves.
You can search for commented games by selecting the Search | Comments
Search for bishops of opposite colors command in the main menu, and then specifying the type of comments in the
Bishops of opposite colors can be specified in the Search dialog window, which Search dialog box.
appears after calling the Search | Material command in the main menu. Select You can search for any textual fragments of game annotations (naturally, as with
Of opposite colors in the Bishops drop-down list, and the number of bishops will all other searches, in both bases simultaneously). To do this, select the Search |
automatically be set to 1 for both Black and White. Comments command in the main menu, enable the Annotation criteria option in
the Search dialog, click on the Set annotations button, and then specify the
desired text annotations in the Set search parameters window.
4.4 ADVANCED SEARCH
You can even search for several textual fragments at once: just type them in
The Advanced search is a material search in which the material restrictions are different lines of the Set search parameters window. In this case the program
set independently for several different groups of squares. Call the Search | will search for any of them, thus the resulting list will include all the games with
Advanced command in the main menu. annotations containing at least one of the fragments you have searched for.
There are 14 markers of different colors. The current color is indicated below the
chessboard. To define the first area, click on all the squares you want to include,
then set the material restrictions for the selected area as described above. With
4.7 COMBINING SEARCHES
the help of the local menu you can Shift markers: Left, Right, Up, or Down. You can combine different types of search. Select them in the Criteria included
To set the material restrictions for another group of squares, click on the Blue section of the Search dialog box, and then set the criteria for each one. Let’s
marker tab. Likewise define another area and set the corresponding material find, for example, all the rook + bishop endings with 4 pawns vs. 3 pawns, in
restrictions. An example of this kind of search is given in Section 4.7 Combining which both players had three pawns on one wing and the strongest side had a
Searches. passed lateral pawn on the other wing (the bishops are of opposite colors).

22 23
  Call Search | Position. Fill the chessboard with doubled question  Press the Search button. A list with the only found game will appear
marks (press [Ctrl] [Q]) and enable Ignore colors and Mirror flanks. (Browne – D.Gurevich, USA 1984).
 Click on the small button with 3 dots above the Help button. The In this example we combined several types of search (Position + Material +
Select bases to search in window will appear. Mark both bases, Advanced + For bishops of opposite colors + For horizontally and vertically
AVERBAKH and EXAMPLES, with a tick. symmetrical positions).
 Mark the Material check box in the Criteria included section with a
tick and set the material restrictions. There mustn’t be any queens or 5. COMMENTING
knights on the board, and both Black and White have one rook and one
bishop each. Select Of opposite colors in the Bishops drop-down list. To comment a game in View mode, just click on the Comments tab in the left
Set 4 pawns for White and 3 for Black, then set Ignore colors to On part of the toolbar and the Comments toolbar will appear.
and Side to move: Either.
 Mark the Advanced check box in the Criteria included section with a 5.1 ANNOTATING MOVES
tick. Fill the chessboard with doubled question marks.
To annotate a move, click on the icon. A small drop-down menu will
 Click on all the squares inside the f7-h7-h2-f2 (right) rectangle. In both appear. Select Annotate move and you will get the Annotations editor dialog box.
White and Black sections enter 3 on both the left and right of the pawn
icon.
 Press the Blue marker tab and click on all the squares (left) from a2 to
a7 as in the diagram below. In the White section enter 1 on both the left
and right of the pawn icon.
The screen should appear as follows:

The Informant-style symbols may be used in short comments. Highlight Short

Before if you wish to insert a symbol before the current move or Short After to
insert one after, then click on the appropriate symbol. You can also press the
Evaluation tab and select the desired evaluation.
You may also insert any text in the notation. To do this, click on Long Before or
Long After and type the text commentary in the text window. Use the
Introduction and Afterword tabs to insert annotations before the first and after
the last move of the game.
To delete annotations, click on the icon and select Delete annotations in the
small drop-down menu. Press the [Delete] key if you wish to delete the current
commentary directly in the notation.
To insert a diagram, click on the icon, and to delete a diagram, click on it
again.

24 25
5.2 ADDING VARIATIONS 5.3 WORKING WITH THE CLIPBOARD
To comment a move with a variation, place the cursor before the move in the You can use the standard WINDOWS clipboard which allows one to copy games
notation window and just play out the variation on the chessboard. and analysis from the INTERNET and other sources, and to paste them to the
AVERBAKH or EXAMPLES database. With its help you can also export data from
Entering moves COMPREHENSIVE CHESS ENDINGS to other programs, and last but not least, it lets
All moves are entered with the mouse. In order to make a move, move the cursor you share data inside COMPREHENSIVE CHESS ENDINGS.
to a piece, press and hold down the mouse button, drag the cursor to the The PGN and EPD formats are the de facto standard for sharing information
destination square, and then release the mouse button. between different chess programs. They are also the standard formats for posting
games and analysis on the INTERNET. The *.PGN and *.EPD files are text files
Commenting the last move in the game
which can be edited manually with a text processor. They can also be produced
If you place the cursor after the last move and enter a new one, it will be added by chess programs, which support these formats.
to the main body of the game. To avoid this, press [Ctrl] and only then enter your
PGN stands for “portable game notation”, and is intended for exchanging game
variations to the last move.
scores and analysis. EPD stands for “extended position description” and is
Replacing the entered move intended for exchanging board positions.
Press the [Ctrl] key while entering a new variation. The Changing move dialog To export a game from COMPREHENSIVE CHESS ENDINGS to the PGN
box will appear. Existing variations are displayed on the left. Use the buttons on format:
the right to control them. 1) Open the View window with this game.
The New variation button inserts the entered move as a new variation. If you 2) To copy the game to the clipboard, press [Ctrl] [Ins].
select Insert and check moves, the new move will replace the old one, with all 3) Switch to the program this game is to be exported to (This can be any
the next moves being checked and the illegal ones being deleted. The Replace text processor or a chess program supporting both the PGN format and
button will overwrite the old move with the new one and delete all the following WINDOWS clipboard).
moves. 4) To paste the game, press [Shift] [Ins].
There is also another method. While in the View window, place the cursor at
Changing the order of variations
the desired position. If you now press [Ctrl] [>], the program will copy the
Clicking on the icon will bring up the Variations control dialog box. To moves from the selected position until the game’s end, in PGN format, to
change the order of variations in the window, drag and drop them or click on the the WINDOWS clipboard. If you press [Ctrl] [<], the program will copy the
up and down arrows. moves from the beginning of the game until the selected position, in PGN
format, to the WINDOWS clipboard. Once in the WINDOWS clipboard, the
Deleting a fragment of notation contents can be pasted anywhere at the user’s discretion.
Pressing the [Backspace] key deletes the last entered move. If you wish to delete To export many games from CCE to the PGN format:
all moves from the current one until the game end, press the [Shift] [Ctrl] 1) Open the list window with these games.
[Backspace] key combination. Clicking on the icon will bring up the 2) Highlight the desired games in the list.
Deleting moves dialog box. Select the desired options according to what you 3) To copy these games to the clipboard, press [Ctrl] [Ins].
want to delete and press OK. 4) Switch to the program these games are to be exported to.
5) To paste the games, press [Shift] [Ins].
Painting on the chessboard
To export a board position from CCE to the EPD format:
Clicking on the icon will produce the Color markers setup dialog box, with 1) Open the Position operations window.
the current position on the left and the color markers on the right. This window 2) In the Position to be saved pane, set up the desired position on the
contains five tabs: Markers, Lines, Blocks, Chars and Text that allow to place chessboard.
various color objects on the chessboard. 3) To copy the position to the clipboard, press [Ctrl] [Ins].
4) Switch to the program this position is to be exported to (This can be

26
27
 any text processor or a chess program supporting both the EPD format according to the following procedure. Naturally, the program you’re linking to
and WINDOWS clipboard). COMPREHENSIVE CHESS ENDINGS must already be installed on your computer.
5) To paste the position description, press [Shift] [Ins]. The Engines window, which is intended for linking playing engines, can be
Instead of calling the Position operations window, you can simply press called up in five ways:
either [Ctrl] [/] or [Ctrl] [\], and the current position, in EPD format, will be  By selecting Engines | Engines setup;
copied to the WINDOWS clipboard. If you press [Ctrl] [/], the position  By selecting Tools | Options | Engines;
description will be supplied with the game header and indication whose  By selecting Tools | Chess engines setup;
move it is.
 By clicking on the small arrow to the right of the icon in the
toolbar and selecting Chess engines setup from the drop-down menu;
5.4 SAVING A GAME
 By pressing [Alt] [F11].
This program does not allow you to save changes in the main lines, but you can
save changes in variations. To do this, select Edit | Save game in the main menu
or click on the icon, or press the [Ctrl] [S] key combination. If the current
6.2 ADJUSTING PLAYING ENGINES
base is not Read only then the game will be saved to disk. Don’t be afraid to After you have linked the desired engines to COMPREHENSIVE CHESS ENDINGS,
accidentally damage the database, because you can restore it from your CD. you can adjust them. Options, which are common for all the linked engines, are
Base properties adjusted in the General analysis options and Play Options panes. Specific
options of individual programs are adjusted with the help of the Personalities
To get more information about the current base, call Base | Properties. This will button.
produce the Base properties dialog box that displays the base Type, its full name
(Path), Length (number of games) and Comment. Mark the Read only check box
with a tick if you wish to prevent undesirable changes from being made to the 6.3 PLAYING AGAINST AN ENGINE
base. You can also specify whether to show deleted games in the list.
To start a new game from the starting position, select Engine | Play against an
Engine | Play from starting position in the main menu, or click on the icon
6. PLAYING ENGINES AND ANALYSIS on the toolbar, or press [F11]. To start a new game from the current position (in
View or Tree mode), select Engine | Play against an Engine | Play from current
COMPREHENSIVE CHESS ENDINGS provides complete playing program facilities position in the main menu or press [Shift] [F11]. In View or Tree mode, you can
with the built-in playing engines. Apart from them, many other chess engines
(i.e. programs that play chess) can be linked up to COMPREHENSIVE CHESS also click on the icon in the Engines section on the toolbar and then select
ENDINGS. This permits you to play against a computer and analyze with different Play from current position or Play a new game from the drop-down list.
engines.
In all cases, the Startup window will appear, allowing you to select an engine, set
Your CD includes: time control and adjust some other options.
 The latest version of CRAFTY. This program by Robert Hyatt is the most
popular freeware engine. Select an engine from the drop-down list, adjust other settings and press Start.
 DRAGON. This engine is obviously weaker than CRAFTY, but many users The program will open the base ENGINEGAMES (if it was not already open) and
say that playing against DRAGON is amusing. the window for the new game. To play as White (if you selected Human -
Computer), simply make your first move, and to play with the black pieces, press
the [Spacebar] (or select Computer – Human beforehand).
6.1 LINKING PLAYING ENGINES
In the pane below the notation the program displays the lines it considers the
CRAFTY and DRAGON are built-in and do not require linking. All other programs best, with the evaluations and calculation depth (in half-moves) to the left. The
you plan on using, must be linked to COMPREHENSIVE CHESS ENDINGS time spent by both players is shown above. Two button bars below the
chessboard were described in Section 3.4 View Mode.

28
Use the buttons below the chessboard, toolbar icons and hot-keys. because it is the deepest, and after the analysis is finished, it will be inserted into
 To set up a position to play, click on the small arrow to the right of the the notation as a comment.
To quickly switch between positions in the analysis lines, use the arrow keys or
icon on the toolbar and select
29 the desired command from the drop- just click on any move in any line in the analysis pane, and the position after this
down menu.
move will appear on the chessboard. Make your move from this position on the
board, and the engine will immediately start to analyze it.
 To set time control, click on the icon on the toolbar.
 To stop the clock for a while, no matter who is to move, click on the
icon, and to resume the game, click on it again.
6.5 USING THE DGT BOARD
 You can save the game in the ENGINEGAMES base and (optionally) fill If you find it unpleasant to play on the screen and miss the feel of a wooden
in the game header fields. If the game is not finished yet, but you don’t board, you can connect the DGT board and play on it instead. The DGT board is
want to continue it, press [Esc], and the program will offer you to an electronic wooden auto-sensory chessboard by DGT Projects from the
Assign game result. Press one of the four radio buttons (1:0, ½, 0:1, or Netherlands. Once connected to your computer, it permits you to play against the
None), click on OK, and the Stop game window will appear. Select the built-in engines, analyze with them, and input your analysis.
desired action and press OK. Connect the DGT board to COM1 or COM2 port of your computer. Select Tools
 To adjourn the game, just save it in the ENGINEGAMES base as | DGT board options in the main menu and choose the port. To check the
described above. To resume it, open the desired game in View mode connection, select Tools | DGT board options | Test.
and select Engines | Play against an engine | Resume in the main While in View mode, right-click on the notation and select Enable input from
menu or press [Shift] [Ctrl] [F11]. DGT board in the local menu. Now you can analyze on the DGT board. When
you make your moves in View or Infinite analysis modes, they instantly appear
6.4 ANALYZING WITH ENGINES on the computer screen as if they were made with the mouse.
While analyzing the game, you can set up on the DGT board any position from
Infinite analysis can be called in View mode. Place the cursor at the position you this game or its variations. If you have not mistaken and this position really
wish to analyze; further you have two options. occurred in the game (or in its variations), it will instantly appear on the
computer screen.
1) If you select the Engines | Infinite analysis command in the main
menu, or click on the icon in the Engines section on the toolbar, or
press the [Spacebar], the program will run the engine that was used the 7. SETS OF GAMES
last time.
It is usually more convenient to work from a set of games instead of an entire
2) If you select the Engines | Infinite analysis… command in the main base. The expression “set of games” (or “dataset”) has been used many times in
menu, or click on the small arrow to the right of the icon in the the previous sections. For instance, every search produces a set. You can also
toolbar and select Infinite analysis… from the drop-down menu, or create a set by selecting desired games in the List mode.
press [Ctrl] [Spacebar], you will get the Start analysis dialog box with
a lot of different settings. 7.1 SELECTING GAMES
The first method is the simplest type of Infinite analysis and does not require any
First you have to mark the games you want to select. You can mark games in the
adjustment. In a few seconds after you pressed the [Spacebar], a pane with
list in two ways:
results of the analysis will appear.
1) By highlighting
The program shows the lines it considers the best, with evaluations and depths of 2) By coloring
these lines to the left. The upper variation is bold-faced; it is the main one
What’s the difference between “highlighted” and “colored?”

30
The highlighted games are marked only until the next operation is executed. The COMPREHENSIVE CHESS ENDINGS offers you 30 standard classes. Call the Tools |
games selected and colored will remain colored in the dataset in which you Options | Classes command, and a dialog box will appear.
marked them, for as long as the dataset is open. Please note that they will not
stay colored in the database list. If you want to mark a game in the database, you
should include this game into a class. 31
32
To highlight a game, click on a cell with the game number. To select a game by
coloring it, click on this game in the list and press the [Insert] key. If several
games are highlighted, pressing [Insert] will color them all.
When the required games have been marked in some way (highlighted or
colored), choose one of the following commands in the main menu: Dataset |
Create dataset from | Create dataset from highlighted games or Dataset |
Create dataset from | Create dataset from colored games. You can also call
these commands from the local menu or by hitting [F9]. Note that the new set
will be displayed in the same window and the original set will be erased.

How can I quickly select succession of games?

First you have to highlight the games. To do this, click on the first game and
then, pressing the [Shift] key, click on the last game of the succession. To
highlight the entire list, click on the cell above the game numbers on the title bar.
Press [Insert] when the desired games have been highlighted. If there are both Two numeric boxes in the Layout section allow you to adjust the number of
selected and non-selected games among the highlighted ones, you will be asked classes displayed in the List window in the cells next to the game numbers. The
to choose Selection type. classes are also displayed in the View window (in the Game header section
If the colored games were highlighted then pressing [Insert] would cancel the below the chessboard).
selection. To cancel the whole selection, call the Edit | Clear selection If you want a class to be displayed, you have to attach some color to it. To do
command. this, right-click on the class name in the Available classes list and click on one of
the Colors. To “uncolor” a class, click on the icon.

7.2 CLASSIFYING GAMES AND POSITIONS

To speed up access to games in a database, your chess database management
 Note:
One of the standard classes is called Marked. Don’t
system should have convenient tools for classifying games and positions, and
confuse it with games marked with color. The blue
COMPREHENSIVE CHESS ENDINGS offers you two such tools: the WINDOWS
marks are forgotten as soon as the window is closed
EXPLORER style classifier and standard classes.
but the class is stored for future use.
The WINDOWS EXPLORER style classifier is based on the printed edition and You can include into classes not only entire games, but positions as well. For
cannot be altered (see Section 3.2 Browsing the Contents for its description). example, if there are several instructive test positions in a game, you can mark
The standard classes allow you to classify games according to any criteria. A them all. To do this, “color” the Tests class in the Available classes list and make
class may include any games that you want, and of course the same game may be sure that it is displayed in the Layout section. Then, while in the View window,
included in several classes. click on the Comments tab in the Game header section below the chessboard.
Place the cursor after the move, which has led to the first test position, in the

33
 
Notation pane. Click on the corresponding class cell, and the highlighted Tests
line will appear in the Game header section. (Of course, the same position may
Tip:
be included in several classes). Repeat this procedure with the other test
positions. Leave the Wrong solution class marked and unmark all
other classes in the Include pane, and the browser will
You can also include a position in some class(es) in another way. Place the present only those positions in which you failed to
cursor on the move, which has led to this position, in the Notation pane. Click on guess a correct evaluation.
the icon in the Comments section in the toolbar, and the Select classes
window will appear. Mark the desired class(es) with a tick, type in Comment 34
(optionally), and press OK.
Next time you open this game in the View window, you can jump between the
test positions you have marked. To do this, click on the Comments tab in the
Game header section below the chessboard, then click on the button, and the
Set parameters window will appear. Press the Class navigation button, mark the
Tests class with a tick, press OK, and you will return to the game View window.
Now you can jump to the next test position or to the previous one by clicking on
the or icon correspondingly.
The Dataset | Create dataset from… | command allows you to select sets of
games with multiple classes. Clicking on Other class will produce the Select
classes window described above. The resulting dataset will contain only those
games, which include all the classes you have marked.
To transfer some games from one class to another, select Dataset | Change |
Delete classes in the main menu.
To include a game in a class in the View mode, select the Edit | Add | remove
from classes in the main menu. To include a set of games in a class in the List
mode, call Edit | Add dataset to classes; and to exclude it, select Edit | Remove
dataset from classes.
7.3 OPERATIONS WITH DATASETS
Using filters
Select Dataset | Disk operations | Other (The operations used most often, Save
Browsing diagrams in the Contents, you can give the program an order to display to disk and Load from disk, are put as separate items though they can be reached
only those examples that are included in one or several selected classes. To do by selecting Other too).
this, right-click on the browser pane and enable the Use filter option, then call
this local menu again and select the Filter settings command. The Selected The Dataset operations dialog box will appear. It displays the Current dataset
classes window will appear. (above), Operation (on the drop-down list), second operand (in the Selected
line), and the resulting set.
By default all classes are included, but you may exclude any of them. The local The following current database objects are included into the Operands list:
menu allows you to instantly Select all or Unselect all.
 All open windows;
 All existing classes;
 All previously saved datasets.
In the Operation drop-down list you can select the following logical operations
with datasets: Join, Intersect, Subtract, Load, Save.
 There are several types of trees, but functionally they are nearly identical from
8. CHESS TREES the user’s point of view. In the drop-down box you can select one of them:
A chess game may be considered as a set of positions connected by moves, and a Current base tree, Huge base tree, Direct tree, Evaluations, or Indexer.
sequence of moves that leads from one position to another. Let’s call this
The diagram displays the current position, with buttons below the chessboard
sequence of moves a path. Thus every game may be considered as a path that
similar to those in View mode. The path leading to the current position is shown
begins at the starting position and ends at the final one.
in the lower pane, and the statistics of the current position are present in the
The same approach may be used for a set of games and even for an entire
35of games. As far as we know, each lower left-hand corner. You can move36 along the tree either by replaying moves
database, because every database is a set
on the chessboard, or with the arrow keys, or by double-clicking on the desired
game is a set of positions connected by paths; consequently, a database may be
move; the tree will automatically update the information.
considered as a set of positions connected by different paths.
The Move column displays a list of moves from this position, some of which are
If one approaches a database from this point of view, it’s quite possible that the evaluated. Detailed statistics for the current move are shown to the right and
same position may occur in several different games but the paths leading to this below the list.
position are different. Likewise, there might be several paths from any position
or, in other words, several moves have been played.  The Q-ty column displays the number of games in which a move
occurred.
Therefore, there are two possible approaches: every database may be considered  The % column shows the percentage of success for each move
either as a set of games or as a tree, i. e. a set of positions connected by different (calculated as % of won games + % of draws divided in 2).
paths. COMPREHENSIVE CHESS ENDINGS offers you good tools for operating the
 The following column displays the CAP data (see below for
chess trees.
explanation).
Operating a Tree  The Theory column shows information from the Nalimov endgame
tablebases.
To enter the Tree mode, select the Search | Tree command in the main menu or
 The Compute column displays evaluations obtained with the help of
click on the icon, and the Tree window will appear. computer analysis within COMPREHENSIVE CHESS ENDINGS.
 The Annotations column shows the user’s comments.
 Below the list you can see how many games with the current move
were won by White, won by Black, or drawn (as numbers and as a
percentage; the red bar stands for won games, yellow – for draws,
green – for losses, and blue bar – for games with an undefined result).
Below the words Other moves you can see all the moves available in the other
trees, which weren’t played in a game of the current database.

Database with master evaluations

COMPREHENSIVE CHESS ENDINGS incorporates a database with opening
evaluations. About 130,000 opening positions and more than 150,000 moves
have been evaluated by our openings experts (international masters).
In fact, the database with the master evaluations is a Direct Tree that is stored in
the EVAL.HSH and EVAL.ELM files. These evaluations are accessible from both
databases and are shown next to the moves in the Move column in any mode that
displays the Tree pane. If they disturb you, just turn them off.
CAP data in the local menu. The three lower commands at the bottom of this menu (Tab,
Print if the previous field is not empty and Print if the next field is not empty) let
CAP (the COMPUTER ANALYSIS PROJECT) unites a number of enthusiasts from
you adjust the layout of these fields. The Tab item in this local menu does the
different countries, whose intention is to analyze as many positions as possible.
following: the text entered before the first Tab will be aligned to the left; the text
The project includes many branches and mainly evolves in two directions: from
entered between the two Tabs will be centered; and the text entered after the
the game beginning to its end and from the game end to its beginning.
second Tab will be aligned to the right.
COMPREHENSIVE CHESS ENDINGS presents the CAP data in the form of a Direct
In the Print options window, you can watch the changes in the page header and
Tree stored in the CAP.HSH and CAP.ELM files.
footer in the upper and lower Pattern lines correspondingly.
Opening book To insert an Empty line after the page header or an Empty line before the page
37
Similar to a human chessplayer, a playing engine may have its own opening footer, mark the corresponding check box with38 a tick.
repertoire. It is stored in the opening book which allows the engine to recall
instantly all the moves it will play in the opening phase of the game. You can watch the page setup changes in the Page preview pane.
COMPREHENSIVE CHESS ENDINGS comes with an abridged opening book based
on 500,000 positions (CHESS ASSISTANT’s opening book is based on 10 million Print options
positions). The Print | Print options command brings up the Print options dialog box
Unlike the majority of playing programs, which store every opening book in a intended to define how a set of games will look in print.
separate database, COMPREHENSIVE CHESS ENDINGS uses text files with settings,
basing on which the program picks out moves from several sources. These To adjust the appearance of game headers, click on the Game header tab, and the
settings are stored in the CAOBOOK.INI file in the COMPREHENSIVE CHESS program will suggest six standard headers. To use one, press the Use a
ENDINGS folder and in the COMPREHENSIVE CHESS ENDINGS\BOOK folder. predefined layout radio button and select the desired header in the drop-down list
in the upper right-hand corner of the window.

9. PRINTING To set your own header, press the Customize patterns radio button and define the
header layout in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd pattern line. To access any of these three
The program is capable of printing notations and lists of games. In View mode lines, press the corresponding small button with dots. This will bring up the Edit
the Print | Print command prints header and notation of the current game. In List pattern dialog box, similar to the one described in the previous section.
mode the Print | Print command prints the game headers and notations of all the You can specify the Line spacing in half-lines as well as whether you wish the
listed games. To print a current set of games, use the Print | Print current Name format to be Full or Partial by pressing one of the two radio buttons. The
dataset command. contents of the Empty player string will be printed instead of an undefined player
Page setup name, while the contents of the Empty field string will be printed in the other
undefined fields. If the Empty field string is empty, “?” will be printed in
To adjust a page setup, select Print | Page setup. This will bring up the Print undefined fields.
options window, with the activated Page setup tab.
To adjust the appearance of game notations, click on the Game notation tab.
Select a printer from the Printer name drop-down list. To adjust the printer, press
the Setup button. You can set the Left, Right, Top and Bottom Margins (in
centimeters), as well as the Number of Columns and Space between them, and Print preview
even have the option to Draw a line between the columns. To see how the games will appear in print, call Print | Print preview, and the
To adjust Page header or Page footer, press the corresponding small button with Print Preview window will appear. In the Zoom box you can enlarge or reduce
dots. This will bring up the Edit pattern window in which you can type your text the picture on the screen (this does not affect the printing). To print all the pages,
and Select font. click on Print All, or to print the current page, click on Current.
To insert specific fields, such as Page number, Page count, Year or Time to the The left box in the Page section shows the current page number, while the right
page header or footer, right-click on the Pattern line and select the desired item window displays the total number of pages. You can turn the pages over by
clicking on the < and > buttons. You can also type the page number in the left Convekta Ltd.
box and press [Enter]. The << and >> buttons jump to the first and last pages c/o IPS 666 Fifth Avenue
correspondingly. To close the Print Preview window, press Close or hit Suite 572 New York NY 10103 USA
[Escape].
E-mail:
Exporting Support: [email protected]
Sales: [email protected]
The Print | Export | Rich Text Format menu command converts a current set of
games to the RTF format, which is widely used in desktop publishing. Selecting Internet: http://www.chessassistant.com
this command will bring up the Save as window in which you can set the
exported file name. 39
40
To adjust the layout of the RTF documents, select Print | Print options in the
main menu and then click on the RTF setup tab.

10. MISCELLANEOUS OPTIONS

Select Tools | Options in the main menu or press [Alt] [F9], and the Options
window will appear. It has nine tabs that allow you to adjust the appearance of
different windows in different modes. For example, to choose fonts and colors
for the chessboard, notation, list etc., click on the Fonts and colors tab.
The objects that can be modified are displayed in the Element section. Clicking
on a plus sign next to a folder icon brings up a list of the enclosed elements.
Select the element you wish to adjust and set the Font, Color and Align. If an
option is dimmed then the default settings are used. See the results of the
changes in the Preview section.

Dear customer,
Thank you for using this product.
Your notes and suggestions are most welcome. Because we at Convekta
Company value your comments, we will use the information you provide
to continuously improve our products. Thank you for your cooperation.
Please contact us:
Mail:
Convekta Ltd., PO Box 302 c/o IPS
Suite 2, Global House, Poyle Road ColnBrook SL3 0AY
Berkshire UK
or
 TOTAL CHESS TRAINING
Chess Assistant 7.1 Total Chess Training consists of five magnificent educational programs,
covering every phase or aspect of chess:
(Universal program for amateur and professional chess players) Openings – Instead of learning what you must play in the opening, learn what
not to play by learning the opening mistakes and traps that have been discovered
Everything a chess player needs – over time. Be ready to trap your opponent, and avoid being trapped, with
Database management system CHESS ASSISTANT Encyclopedia of Opening Blunders.
Playing programs CHESS TIGER 15, TIGER GAMBIT III, Middlegame – Become a wizard in the art of combinations with the intensive
RUFFIAN 1.0, CRAFTY and Russian DRAGON course in tactics, CT-Art 3.0, and learn the positional methods used by
grandmasters in Strategy 2.0. Plus, to help make the transition from the opening
Game analysis NEW SYSTEM OF DEEP AUTOMATIC to the middlegame as painless as possible, study the typical middlegame
ANALYSIS structures and their plans, organized according to the opening they came from,
Client software for playing in Internet ICC SUPPORT with Encyclopedia of Middlegame.
Endgame – Instead of boring lectures on the endgame, learn endgame technique
Opening Encyclopedia CHESS OPENINGS 2003
with the use of breathtaking artistic endgame compositions, chosen for their
Game Database 2,117,300 games (on 01.01.2003) relevance with normal play, with Endgame Studies 2.0.
Game Service 2002-2003 years 9,000 NEW GAMES MONTHLY Altogether Total Chess Training includes more than 9000 commented games and
FOR FREE positions to be solved for chess players with an ELO rating from 1800 to 2400!

Total Chess Training is the product of the efforts of some of the best
chess instructors in Russia. Take advantage of their training and
knowledge here, and take your playing level to a new standard. Total
Chess Training may be the only instructive program you’ll ever need!