ChessBase´26 – Tips for beginners, part 21: Maximum Training Effect with the Power Tool "Replay Training" (Part 1)

by Stefan Liebig
6/28/2026 – Do you know the powerful training tool in ChessBase´26? It's called "Replay Training"! This great feature lets you actively go through games move by move—sharpening your strategic and tactical understanding in a targeted way. Whether under time pressure or not, the choice is yours. Train in a realistic setting, get instant feedback, and systematically improve your play—whether you're a beginner or an ambitious tournament player. In this tutorial, we'll guide you step by step through how Replay Training works. Let's get started!
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
FRITZ is more than just a chess engine – it’s a training revolution! Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.

Replay Training in ChessBase is much more than simply playing through master games—it's an interactive training system that puts you right in the middle of the action. Instead of passively following the moves, ChessBase challenges you to find the best continuations yourself. As soon as you enter a move, the program tells you whether it was correct—or whether there was a stronger alternative. This way, you experience the game actively, with maximum learning impact.

Select a game and start Replay Training!

Getting started with Replay Training is easy. Simply select any game from your database. Using the game Tal vs. Smyslov—which you may remember from the previous tutorial—we'll show you how to proceed. You can view the entire game in the Replayer:

On this DVD Dorian Rogozenco, Mihail Marin, Oliver Reeh and Karsten Müller present the 8. World Chess Champion in video lessons: his openings, his understanding of chess strategy, his artful endgame play, and finally his immortal combinations.

Smyslov cultivated a clear positional style and even in sharp tactical positions often relied more on his intuition than on concrete calculation of variations. Let our authors introduce you into the world of Vasily Smyslov.

In the notation window of ChessBase´26, start Replay Training mode via the menu. Even before the first move, you can set specific parameters: for example, whether you want to play as White and/or Black, and whether you'd like to receive hints.

We'll explain the remaining tools in a later tutorial and start here from the initial position:

It wouldn't make much sense, of course, to guess the first move from the starting position and have it evaluated. While the ECO code might give you a hint on how the game begins, the more useful tool is the "radar board" at the bottom, which always shows an upcoming position—so in this case, the game starts with 1.e4.

Above the preview board, you'll see the game data, the hint bar, and the evaluation box for your suggested moves, starting with the green bar that shows the evaluation of the current position.

We play a few moves on the main board, respond to Black's replies, and observe how the display changes accordingly:

We followed Tal's moves up to his novelty 5.d4. On move six, we played Nxe5. ChessBase´26 immediately corrected this and replaced it with the stronger move Nxe4. At the same time, both moves were added to the evaluation box, and the score now shows less than a full 100%—meaning we didn't find the best continuation. However, just above that, you can see a note saying that Nxe5 wasn't a mistake either—so we still received partial credit for the move.

A few moves later, the position might look like this:

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.

We can see that White now has a clearly better position. However, we only reached this point with computer assistance. The score clearly shows that several mistakes were made while guessing the moves, which has negatively impacted the statistics.

We also notice that the radar board is now empty—this typically happens after the opening phase. However, it can be permanently reactivated by clicking on the radar screen (we'll cover that in more detail in the next tutorial).

In the meantime, text-based hints are still available, so you can easily find your way and decide for yourself how much you want to think independently and how much support you'd like to use.

During training, you receive continuous feedback:

  • For each move, you'll see whether your choice matches the original game. This allows you to quickly recognize where your thinking aligns with that of a grandmaster or where it differs. These insights strengthen your chess intuition and help you evaluate typical positions more effectively.

  • At the end of the game, a summary shows your overall performance: how many moves were correct and where there's room for improvement.

Pro tip

Train exactly what you want to train:

For example, you can start from move 20—right when a game enters its critical phase. Or you can focus specifically on the middlegame to practice tactical patterns and strategic ideas. The flexibility of Replay Training makes it an ideal tool that you can tailor precisely to your training goals.

Conclusion

For beginners, Replay Training offers an excellent introduction to active learning. Instead of just watching games, you play them yourself—without any risk, but with great learning benefits. Mistakes are immediately noticeable, and variations become more memorable through repetition. And if you use Replay Training regularly, you'll noticeably gain confidence in your move selection and overall thinking process.

In the end, Replay Training is more than just a nice extra—it's a tool that helps you learn to think like a master. You'll develop the ability to recognize patterns, calculate variations in advance, and avoid common mistakes. And the best part: you control the pace, content, and intensity of your training.

Give it a try. Open a game, start Replay Training—and experience how passive replay turns into active, effective chess learning. You'll be surprised how quickly your playing strength improves.

We hope you enjoy this great tool for interactive training. Stay tuned for the next installment with more tips on how to get the most out of Replay Training.

------

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:

<< Last call for FIDE Excellence Awards nominations
World Youth Chess Championships conclude in grand style >>
Topics: ChessBase´26, 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.
Discussion and Feedback Submit your feedback to the editors

See also

ChessBase 18 – Tips for Beginners, part 32: Training with style

9/21/2025 – It’s once again time to think about aesthetics in ChessBase 18 training: Have you ever noticed the “Style” option? If not, in this episode we’ll explain briefly and concisely how you can better adapt your screen display to your own taste.
More...
 2

See also

ChessBase 18 – Tips for Beginners, part 31: Endgame expert with the "LiveBook"

9/14/2025 – How do you train endgames? To be honest, the question might be better phrased as: Do you even train endgames at all? After all, the magical richness of the final phase of a game is something not everyone appreciates. This makes it all the more important that training is enjoyable and not bogged down by unnecessarily long searches for the right solution. In this regard, the LiveBook feature of ChessBase 18 may not be familiar to everyone. All the more reason, then, to introduce this highly practical tool in this tutorial.
More...
 6

Video

60m English A solid scandinavian surprise

On this 60 mins video we are going to concentrate on a simple, very solid idea in the main line Scandinavian, which even Magnus Carlsen has used to win games. Black focusses on making his life easy in the opening and forces White to work very hard to get advantage – but it is doubtful if White can get an advantage. Club players are always on the lookout for effective, time-saving solutions and here we have just that. Accompany FIDE Senior Trainer and IM Andrew Martin on this 60 mins video. You can learn a new opening system in 60 mins and start to play it with confidence on the very same day!