ChessBase 18 – Beginner's Tips Part 16: Setting up and analysing positions (Part 2)

by Stefan Liebig
6/1/2025 – We've compiled some additional tips for our latest tutorial. These allow you, for example, to quickly open endgame positions from Karsten Müller's articles in ChessBase, and compare structures you're interested in with positions from the Mega Database. Check out the example and use these practical features for your training!
Winning starts with what you know
The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.

In the last part of this tutorial, which dealt with the “Position Setup” menu, we briefly mentioned the window on the right in the menu window:

Here, because the "Search automatically" checkbox is checked, you'll see a list of all games from the Mega Database 2025 in which these pieces appeared. This means that there may be other pieces on the board in the three games shown. See how you can use this option effectively in practice:

Take a stand

Suppose you came across this post in our news feed and wanted to investigate the pawn structure there:

If you now click on the download arrow at the bottom of the analysis window, a menu will open where you can click on “Download” or “Download & Copy - PGN”:

The game will then be saved in your download folder, and a window with the game will automatically open when ChessBase 18 is open.

In this new ChessBase window, press the “s” key as explained in the last part of this tutorial and the "Position Setup" menu will open, with the diagram position from the downloaded game:

The right column displays all games in the database (here: MegaDatabase 2025) in which this piece arrangement (possibly with additional pieces) appears—in fact, this specific arrangement has never existed before. Only this original game is displayed in the right window.

But in pawn endgames, the structures are often treated equally, so it's possible that this position has already existed with the kings on other squares. Fortunately, you don't have to try every possible position—simply remove the kings from the board, as explained in Tutorial 15:

You now see the pure pawn structure, and 18 games are displayed in the display window. If you click on a game once, you will see the first position from that game where the pawns are positioned as you were looking for: 

Click the “Undo” button in the middle to return to your position.

Double-clicking on one of the games will open it in the game window. Using the "Undo" and "Redo" buttons in the main menu bar, you can jump back and forth between the selected game and the original game.

Now we hope you enjoy analysing your positions.

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ChessBase has evolved over decades to become what it is today with its 18th version. The programme has countless options, which we will introduce here in small chunks – so you can customise your interface for everyday use and continually discover and learn new options to get the most out of ChessBase 18 and save time. 

You can find more tips and hints on our support pages and FAQ pages.

All parts of the series:

Beginner's Tips Part 15: Setting up and analysing positions
Beginner's Tips Part 14: Save resources with remote engines
Beginner's Tips Part 13: Powerbooks and Powerbases
Beginner's Tips Part 12: Arrows and marks
Beginner's Tips Part 11: Multitasking with several windows
Beginner's Tips Part 10: "Standard Layout or Custom Layout"
Beginner's Tips Part 9: "Tactical Analysis"
Beginner's Tips Part 8: Putting Together What Belongs Together...!
Beginner's Tips Part 7: Organizing Your Database Correctly!
Beginner's Tips Part 6: Quick Command Bars and Variation Hierarchy 
Beginner's Tips Part 5: Annotating
Beginner's Tips Part 4: Figurines and Colours
Beginner's Tips Part 3: Inserting Variations from References and the Engine
Beginner's Tips Part 2: Creating Variations and Activating the Engine
Beginner's Tips Part 1: Entering and Saving Your Own Games

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Topics: ChessBase 18, Tutorial
Stefan Liebig, born in 1974, is a journalist and co-owner of a marketing agency. He now lives in Barterode near Göttingen. At the age of five, strange pieces on his neighbour’s shelf aroused his curiosity. Since then, the game of chess has cast a spell over him. Flying high in the NRW youth league with his home club SV Bad Laasphe and several appearances in the second division team of Tempo Göttingen were highlights for the former youth South Westphalia champion.
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See also

ChessBase 18 – Tips for Beginners, Part 15: Setting up and analysing positions

5/25/2025 – You want to analyse a position without having to enter all the moves first? No problem: with ChessBase 18, the position is quickly displayed on the board and you can analyse it with or without an engine, or import other game positions using FEN code. Learn how to use the “Position Setup” menu to start immediately at the point that interests you, and find out what FEN is all about...
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See also

ChessBase 18 – Tips for beginners, part 14: Save resources with remote engines

5/18/2025 – When you are on the move, it is particularly important that your computer does not consume too much power when analysing. With ChessBase 18, you can conserve your battery and connect to top-quality hardware via a remote engine whenever you need it. This means that the engine installed on your computer can remain off and the computing power is provided by an Internet server. But there are advantages at home too: the wide selection is sure to include engines that are more powerful than the one on your own computer, and the fan stays quiet. In this tutorial series, you will learn how convenient and resource-efficient you can analyse with your engine of choice.
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 3

Video

60m English New ideas in the Najdorf_E

‘New ideas in the Najdorf – a Power Play 18 Update’ aims to complement Daniel King’s popular DVD from last year ‘The Sicilian Najdorf - a repertoire for Black’. Such a dynamic and popular opening as the Najdorf is developing the whole time. On this download, Daniel King updates lines that were included on his DVD but also responds to viewers’ requests, considering lines that he omitted from his original repertoire. The lines examined on this update are: • 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 h3 e5 7 Nde2 • 5….a6 6 Bc4 in combination with the English Attack (Be3, f3 etc) • 5…a6 6 Be3 and the …a5 variation • 5…a6 6 Be2 and 9 Re1 • 5 f3 (instead of 5 Nc3) It isn’t necessary to have seen the original Najdorf DVD to understand the lines examined here – but it would help as they form part of a complete repertoire.
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