ChessBase Support

Creating and working with cloud databases

Answer

With the App MyGames everyone with a ChessBase Account has available to him or her a powerful tool for the management of and working with databases. The databases are stored online on our servers and so all that is required for unrestricted use of them is a computer with an internet link and an up-to-date browser.

Access to the databases/App is possible directly from the start page of our website. The cloud databases can be worked on and edited with our database program ChessBase. But the App too offers numerous useful functions for working on databases when you are travelling!

After the start you will see that the image on the screen is very similar to that of the Live Database. As a first step, let us take a look at how to create a new cloud database and add content to it directly from the App.

Menu: Databases – Create Database takes us where we want to go.

Enter in the dialog box displayed the name for your new database.

In the file selection dialog you will see the new cloud database you have created.

This new database still does not have any games; these are seen in the column “Games”. You can now use various methods to save games into your newly created database. The first way: you yourself input on the graphic board the moves including – if so desired – text commentary and variations.

You can save the game including its attributes in the newly created database. Al the functions need for that can be found under Save above the chess board.

The variation which you have previously entered is now displayed in the games list of the new database and can be loaded and edited at any time.

If you already have another database, you can load a game from it on in your board window and then open again the newly created database. Save the game as previously described and it will be stored in the newly created database.

This procedure is helpful above all if you would like to take a look at the relevant game and then save it into a separate database.

Of course, in the long run it would be tedious if you could only transfer one game at a time from another database. For that reason the App offers the option of copying several games at the same time and importing them like that. The following example shows how that works:

Highlight in the list the games which are to be copied into the new database. You have two different options for doing that:

You can copy a complete block of games, for example all those from a specific tournament. To do that, hold down the Shift key and click on the first and last game entry in the list of games to be copied. The entries for the games selected turn dark in the list.

Alternatively this method of selection can also be achieved by holding down the Shift key and the arrow key. You highlight individual games by holding down the Ctrl-key and clicking on the game with the mouse.

The games highlighted for copying are also darkened here.

After you have pressed the Copy button below the list window the entries from the list are copied into the Windows clipboard. Now you change via the files selection dialog to the target database into which you would like to import the games.

A click on Paste now adds the games to the target database. Before it does so, an information dialog box is displayed.

Confirm with OK and the games are pasted into the new database.

PGN Import

The interface to the text-based PGN format offers a further simple option for extending the database and importing games. The PGN format is a text based standard format for saving games and very popular on the internet. You will find many websites that offer games databases for downloading.

The following example shows you how to add to a sample database games from a PGN database. As a first step we downloaded quite a large PGN database from the net and saved it on to the hard disk of our computer.

In the toolbar you will find a clearly marked button for the opening of PGN databases.

Navigate to the folder into which you saved the PGN database. On many computers the database will be found in the download folder for internet files.

In the file selection dialog box, highlight the desired PGN database and confirm your selection.

The games list for the selected database will now be displayed in the App and you can – as described above – select the games you wish (in the example there are 2216 games) and import them into one of the existing databases!