ChessBase tips for beginners - How to add variations

by ChessBase
1/6/2026 – Anastasia Corotcova explains how to create, manage, and organize variations in ChessBase when analysing games. It shows how to promote side lines to the main line, correct incorrect continuations, and safely replace moves. Finally, it demonstrates how to insert missing moves so game notation stays clear, accurate, and well-structured.
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ChessBase tips for beginners - Enter and save your games

by Anastasia Corotcova

ChessBase tips for beginners introduces a wide range of ChessBase features and demonstrates how to use the program efficiently.

Viewers learn everything from entering their first moves to applying powerful analytical tools that improve understanding.

Anastasia Corotcova guides us through each step, explaining the functions with clarity and practical examples, and shows how to unlock the full potential of ChessBase and build confidence from the very start.

  • 00:00 – What this lesson covers
  • 00:13 – Creating a new variation from any position
  • 00:34 – The variation dialogue box explained
  • 00:47 – Choosing “New variation” correctly
  • 00:53 – Adding variations without a dialogue box
  • 01:03 – Why keeping a move as a variation is useful
  • 01:16 – Promoting a variation to the main line
  • 01:36 – Correcting an incorrect line in the game
  • 01:55 – Using “Exchange moves” safely
  • 02:10 – Inserting missing moves into a game
  • 02:28 – “Insert into game” explained
  • 02:46 – Key takeaway: clean and organized notation

Anastasia Corotcova is a chess player from Moldova who actively played and trained until starting university, around which time she also obtained her first FIDE Arbiter licence. Meanwhile, she is an international arbiter.

She has a background in computer science and has been working professionally in IT for the past seven years, which is her main occupation today.

Alongside this, Anastasia contributes educational chess content for ChessBase and previously hosted an educational TV program for children.

EXPAND YOUR CHESS HORIZONS
Data, plans, practice – the new Opening Report In ChessBase there are always attempts to show the typical plans of an opening variation. In the age of engines, chess is much more concrete than previously thought. But amateurs in particular love openings with clear plans, see the London System. In ChessBase ’26, three functions deal with the display of plans. The new opening report examines which piece moves or pawn advances are significant for each important variation. In the reference search you can now see on the board where the pieces usually go. If you start the new Monte Carlo analysis, the board also shows the most common figure paths.

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Topics: anastasia corotcova, chessbase, ChessBase 26, Tutorial, Tutorials
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