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In the last tutorials, we showed you how to systematise a database and add more games to it, and how you can use the “Tactical Analysis” function to conveniently analyse your game, including training questions.
When doing this, and when inserting comments, opening variations, reference games, etc., it often happens that more and more editing windows are open, and things quickly become confusing. A hardware tip would be to purchase a second monitor—if you don't already have one. Whether with or without a second monitor, ChessBase 26 offers a great way to keep an eye on everything important.
We'll show you how to create your own custom layout for displaying a single game (we'll explain how to coordinate multiple game windows in a future article). Simply select a game from your database and play around with the menu items:
In the main "View" menu, you can choose from preset options under "Default Layout." Explore a few alternatives and then stick with the one you like best. You can change this at any time if new menu windows make a different display more convenient.
In our example, the option “Large Photos” was selected (which would also be possible using the shortcut CTRL+5 – the shortcuts for the respective options can all be seen in the menu window):
You can change this view further: For example, if you want to make the board smaller and the two windows on the right larger, you can enlarge or reduce the frames as you wish by holding down the left mouse button in the transition between the windows, just as you can do in Windows Explorer, for example.
If you want to arrange the windows individually by hand or with the mouse, go to the area containing the window name and hold down the left mouse button. You can now move the window freely, and it will move to the front. If you click on one of the opening crosses with the arrows and release the mouse button over one of the arrows, the selected window will be inserted in the selected fixed position next to the other windows – here, too, the proof of the pudding is in the eating:
If you release the mouse over the highlighted downward arrow, you will get the following new screen image – if you also add the standard window, as you can see in the last screenshot, and move it to the bottom right and enlarge it a bit in the same way:
If you like this new version, you can save the layout and open it again at any time by clicking "Load Layout." If you don't like it (yet), you can continue to edit it or return to the original view by clicking "Reset All Settings."
Here are two more examples of how to arrange windows on the screen:
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In this example, you can see the board at the top, with the notation and game data adjacent. The online database is active across the entire width below, divided into the move statistics and the game overview.
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A three-column layout was chosen here. On the left is the "Book" window, allowing you to view the opening moves in detail. The board is located in the middle. On the right is the notation with the "Large Photos" layout option described above.
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ChessBase has developed over decades to become what it is now in its 2026 version. The program has countless options, which we will present here in small portions – so you can design your interface for pleasant daily use and keep learning about new options and how to use them to get the most out of ChessBase´26 and save time.
We hope that this tip will help you to have more fun and be more successful when using ChessBase´26. You can find more tips and hints on our support pages and FAQ pages.
All parts of the series and more links:
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