Chessbase 17… how will the updates help the average patzer?

Thanksgiving normally brings turkey, shopping discounts, and every other year, a new version of Chessbase. When it comes to shopping for computer software upgrades, there’s always the question of “is the upgrade worth the money?” So, since I can be (somewhat easily) bribed by the 25% discount that’s normally available twice per year, I went ahead and upgraded to Chessbase 17. This is a very quick review; I did purchase Chessbase on its first day of availability. Any updates to this post will be so marked.

Chessbase India leaked some of the details, so I’ll refer you there first. What I’ll do here is to highlight some of the little things I noticed, both good and bad.

The bad:

• It always seems like activation is a pain the first time around. This time was no exception. I think I had input my serial number five or six times before I finally received the “activation successful” message. I’m not sure if this is because I’m running this instance of Chessbase in a Windows 11 virtual machine, or if it’s just a bug, or if I was just unlucky. I didn’t have the same problem on my Windows 10 machine that has gone through several iterations of Chessbase. I did have to reboot the machine after installing on Windows 10, but not on Windows 11. Update: I did actually end up having the problem on Windows 10, and somehow, I ended up with too many activations on my Windows 11 virtual machine. Version 4 of the program seems to have solved this issue <knocking on wood>. But it did take Chessbase support 8 days to get back to me.
• If you buy the Mega Database, the online store will tell you that there’s a booster file to download for Chessbase 16 and 17; however, the installer says that it’s only for 16. It seems to me that the store should be updated, based on what the Chessbase India article referenced above mentions. If you plan on keeping Chessbase 16 on your computer while you test 17, then go ahead and download the 1.3 gig file.

The good:

• Finally, the ECO (Encyclopedia of Chess Opening) codes input correctly. This solves a MAJOR problem I had. Previously, when I input games from chess.com, I had to open every game and then re-save it in order for the ECO code to show up in the list of games. Now, the ECO code comes in automatically. I still have to re-save a couple of thousand games from the old version of Chessbase (not looking forward to that!), because some of my reports are off, and because Tactical Analysis still doesn’t save the file with the ECO code built in, even though it generates an ECO code based on its analysis of the game.^[1]One of the benefits of Chessbase or a subscription service such as Aimchess, is that it can quickly tell you if your use of a particular opening you’re using is not up to par, and will even … Continue reading
• Chessbase took a page from chess.com and other sites that analyze your games and tell you how well you did, with very similar breakdowns to chess.com. I just took one 5-minute blitz game and analyzed it through both Chessbase and chess.com, and here’s what each said (both used Stockfish 15):

Quality of Move	Chessbase-White	Chessbase-Black	chess.com-White	chess.com-Black
Loses Game (Chessbase), Blunder/?? (chess.com)	0	2	0	2
Inaccurate (Chessbase), Mistake/? (chess.com)	1	2	1	2
Mistake (Chessbase), Inaccuracy/?! (chess.com)	7	5	5	4
Missed Win	0	0	0	0
OK (Chessbase only)	3	5
Best (Chessbase only)	2	2
Book (chess.com only)			2	1
Good (chess.com)			7	7
Excellent (chess.com)			7	6
Best Move (chess.com)			11	11
Strong (Chessbase), Great Move/! (chess.com)	0	0	0	0
Brilliant (Chessbase), Brilliant/!! (chess.com)	0	0	0	0
Total moves not in a category	21	17	0	0
White advantage after move 8	1.00		0.84
White advantage at resignation	11.74		6.90
Weighted error value (centipawn loss, Chessbase), Overall Accuracy (chess.com)	1.01	0.92	73.7	68.6

I’m not sure what accounts for the differences in the Stockfish advantages, since both Chessbase and chess.com use similar versions of Stockfish.

Other random observations:

• The version of Tactical Analysis has been bumped to 6.3 (updated December 5, 2022), up from 5.2. The average suggested time to let the computer analyze each move also went down slightly. I also notice that Tactical Analysis stayed at the same version number for a relatively long time during the Chessbase 16 cycle; we’re already at a higher number of updates in the first month than we were for two years last time.
• I’ll have to update this post after I’ve tried the “Harvest Training Material” option.
• The Chessbase India site talks about the “find beauty” option. I don’t think many of my games will show beauty, so I’m not particularly worried about using it. If one of my games showed beauty on my behalf, I would be shocked. ^[2]Occasionally, chess.com will give me an overall accuracy rate in the 90’s, but my average accuracy is about 75.4 on 5-minute blitz.
• Total cost: $77.78 for the Chessbase 16 to 17 upgrade, and $58.33 for the Mega Database 2022 to 2023 upgrade. Your cost will vary based on the Euro-Dollar exchange rate on a given day, whether the sale is still on, and if your credit card tacks on foreign transaction fees. Hint: don’t take the option of paying Chessbase’s US dollar price – they tack on 3.75%, and your credit card may still add fees because Chessbase is based in Germany. Fortunately, we have a credit card that has no foreign transaction fees, and that’s what I used.
• Amusing annotation in the “Mega Database” – Aditya vs. Eric Hansen from a chess.com tournament: ” 9. …c6 was played by the boomers.”