Ask the experts: With Matthias Wüllenweber and Mathias Feist

by ChessBase
2/28/2012 – Last year we introduced a new series on playchess.com: “Ask the experts”, a show which gives the audience an opportunity to direct questions to chess experts in the ChessBase studio. This year’s first episode will go on air Tuesday, 28th February, and two of our programmers are ready to answer your questions: Matthias Wüllenweber and Mathias Feist.
Your personal chess trainer. Your toughest opponent. Your strongest ally.
FRITZ 20 is more than just a chess engine – it is a training revolution for ambitious players and professionals. Whether you are taking your first steps into the world of serious chess training, or already playing at tournament level, FRITZ 20 will help you train more efficiently, intelligently and individually than ever before. 

Mathias Wüllenweber founded ChessBase back in 1986. His ideas about restructuring chess knowledge with the help of computers and chess databases were groundbreaking. He was the first to develop a digital database with thousands of chess games, nowadays a standard tool for every chess player, at that time a formidable weapon. Many more ideas followed: ChessBase, a chess database program, the chess engine Fritz, playchess.com, the biggest chess server in the world, and last but not least, Ludwig, a program which composes, writes and arranges music for you.

Matthias Wüllenweber and Garry Kasparov back in the mid-1980s discussing the
technical progress of the newly published ChessBase program

Mathias Feist is also a programmer and one of the brains behind the Fritz engine. Today, improving the engine is more and more difficult, but Mathias is keen on doing just that. He also plays a crucial role in the development of all Chessbase interfaces and thus is the man to ask when it comes to explaining certain software features.


World Champion Vladimir Kramnik facing Matthias Feist and Fritz in 2002

As the title indicates, the show is all about asking questions. Tomorrow, Tuesday, February 28th, Matthias Wüllenweber and Mathias Feist will be ready to them on playchess.com. Be ready to ask them whatever you always wanted to know about ChessBase programs and computers. The show starts at 17:00h Central European time or 16:00h British time, 20:00h Moscow, 9:30 p.m. New Delhi, 24:00h Beijing, 03:00 a.m. Melbourne, 05:00 a.m. Auckland, 08:00 a.m. San Francisco, 11 a.m. New York. You can check the corresponding time at your location here.

To whet your appetite, here are some examples of previous episodes of "Ask the experts":

GM Jan Gustafsson and GM Peter Svidler

GM Dorian Rogozenco and GM Victor Bologan

IM Oliver Reeh and GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov

Order Fritz 13 in the ChessBase Shop:

Reports about chess: tournaments, championships, portraits, interviews, World Championships, product launches and more.