John Hartmann is the Digital Editor for uschess.org, the website for the US Chess Federation (US Chess), and he writes the monthly review column for Chess Life magazine. He won the 2018 Best Column Award from the Chess Journalists of America. You can find him on the web at Chess Book Reviews and First Look Chess.
2/13/2019 – Courtesy of our friends at USChess.org. The new digital editor JOHN HARTMANN recently penned a "Books & Beyond" article featuring a look at the new ChessBase 15, and we share excerpts from his review, for your review. Of course, we can only agree with his conclusion, "ChessBase is a mature, best-of-class product, and I cannot imagine seriously studying chess without it"!
12/11/2015 – "You can buy the fanciest GUI," writes John Hartmann, "and you can collect all of the strongest engines around, but if you’re working with poor quality data, your research will suffer for it." He takes a look at the chess databases that are available for ambitious players and takes a special look at the Big and Mega Databases from ChessBase, each currently with 6.46 million games.
6/9/2015 – Currently there are two programs vying for the title of strongest chess engine in the world, and both have seen new releases in recent months. Komodo and Stockfish currently top all computer lists, in that order. But they have different personalities, as John Hartmann shows in his engine review. "Shows" includes both engines simultaneously analyzing in an interesting realtime video.
11/24/2014 – "If you are an ambitious chess player, no matter your age or rating, you
should be using ChessBase," says John
Hartmann, award-winning chess book reviewer, teacher, organizer and tournament
director. He takes a critical look at the latest ChessBase 13, released this
week, describing all the new features he encountered, with screen shots and explanations..
The Dutch Defence Powerbook 2023 consists for the greater part of engine games (77 000), to which have been added high value material from Mega and the Correspondence Chess Database (34 000).
Dutch Defence Powerbase 2023 is a database and contains a total of 8024 games from Mega 2023 and the Correspondence Database 2022, of which 695 are annotated.
The Leningrad Dutch Defence is a dynamic and aggressive opening choice for Black, perfect for players who want to add some adventure and spice to their repertoire.
Over an hour of video training: Nico Zwirs (Najdorf Variation with 6.Bg5), Sipke Ernst (3.h4 against the Gruenfeld), Romain Edouard (Critical Lines in the Dragon II). Lucky bag with analyses by Anish Giri, Spyridon Kapnisis, Adrian Mikhalchishin et al.
In this Fritztrainer: “Attack like a Super GM” with Gukesh we touch upon all aspects of his play, with special emphasis on how you can become a better attacking player.
The Dutch Defence Powerbook 2023 consists for the greater part of engine games (77 000), to which have been added high value material from Mega and the Correspondence Chess Database (34 000).
Dutch Defence Powerbase 2023 is a database and contains a total of 8024 games from Mega 2023 and the Correspondence Database 2022, of which 695 are annotated.
The Leningrad Dutch Defence is a dynamic and aggressive opening choice for Black, perfect for players who want to add some adventure and spice to their repertoire.
Over an hour of video training: Nico Zwirs (Najdorf Variation with 6.Bg5), Sipke Ernst (3.h4 against the Gruenfeld), Romain Edouard (Critical Lines in the Dragon II). Lucky bag with analyses by Anish Giri, Spyridon Kapnisis, Adrian Mikhalchishin et al.
In this Fritztrainer: “Attack like a Super GM” with Gukesh we touch upon all aspects of his play, with special emphasis on how you can become a better attacking player.
€39.90
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, analysis cookies and marketing cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies. Here you can make detailed settings or revoke your consent (if necessary partially) with effect for the future. Further information can be found in our data protection declaration.
Pop-up for detailed settings
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies, analysis cookies and marketing cookies. You can decide which cookies to use by selecting the appropriate options below. Please note that your selection may affect the functionality of the service. Further information can be found in our privacy policy.
Technically required cookies
Technically required cookies: so that you can navigate and use the basic functions and store preferences.
Analysis Cookies
To help us determine how visitors interact with our website to improve the user experience.
Marketing-Cookies
To help us offer and evaluate relevant content and interesting and appropriate advertisement.