In addition to the complete Fritz Powerbook, ChessBase offers Powerbooks and Powerbases for many special openings. Although they sound similar, they are very different and, at only €9.90 each, are a real bargain:
This demonstrates the fundamental difference between the two products. Powerbooks can be used to systematically analyse openings or, as we will show later in this tutorial, to train with Fritz. Powerbases are ideal for understanding opening ideas and the typical positions that arise from them, using annotated top-level games.
After installation, you can access Powerbook and Powerbase in ChessBase and Fritz as a "book" – one of the tabs in the notation window. Here is an example from the Fritz mask, which looks identical in ChessBase:
The index fingers (from top to bottom) indicate the clicks required to open a Powerbook: 1. Click on "Book" in the tabs of the notation window. 2. Click on "Open Book" in the Notation window. 3. Select the desired book in the window that opens; the selection is already preset to "Trees (*.CTG)".
For this example, we have chosen the latest Powerbook on the Pirc Defence. After opening, the following picture appears:
If we now click on the top move, which is the most frequently played move, we can see how the number of games (N) decreases. However, we can also see that after eight moves, there are still a large number of variations available:
After five more moves, we have the following picture:
Here we see five remaining 13th moves by White. Both the number of games (N) and the Elo ratings (Av and Perf) indicate that 13.Rfd1 is a frequently played variation.
Here are two examples that show different ways of using Powerbooks in ChessBase and Fritz.
Example ChessBase:
Lines have been added here by going back in the notation and selecting moves other than the most common ones. This allows you to build your own opening database. If you then add the Online or Megadatabase, as has been done here under the board, you will find suitable game material. This can of course also be inserted into the notation (right-click on the desired game and select "Copy to notation ..."):
Example Fritz:
This (next screenshot) is an example showing the board, book and notation. Choose whether you want to start from the starting position or a specific position, and whether you want to play White or Black. You can prompt Fritz to move by clicking "Move Now!" (see finger).
You can also start a completely new game against Fritz and the opening book with "New Game White" or "New Game Black", or examine the desired positions with "Infinite Analysis".
In all cases, Fritz will select variations from the tree, and you can decide how much you want to think for yourself or look at the moves in the tree. In any case, you will get a good overview of the variations.
You can open the Powerbase in the same way as the Powerbook. However, working with ChessBase is more useful here and corresponds to the databases we have already introduced in previous episodes.
As always, we hope you enjoy trying out and discovering the many great features of ChessBase 18! With Powerbook and Powerbase, you have a huge knowledge advantage over players who do not use these resources. If you systematically exploit this advantage and continue to develop your working methods, you will quickly see the results...
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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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