ChessBase´26 – Tips for Beginners, part 32: Training with style

by Stefan Liebig
9/20/2026 – It’s once again time to think about aesthetics in ChessBase´26 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.
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.

In this episode we once again focus on the individual look of your ChessBase´26 training. In episodes 11 and 17 we already showed how you can create pleasant views with multiple windows and your own customized layout. In this episode we turn to another option in this context:

The small "Style" option in the top right of the main view gives you several ways to adjust icons and background colors to your needs:

So simply click on the downward arrow next to "Style," and the menu shown — which is preset to "White" — will open:

Take a look at the overall view and compare it with the following displays:

In the view above, the color has already been changed to "Blue," and you can see the difference compared to the colors shown earlier. It becomes even clearer when you switch to "Gray"…

... or to "Black":

As you can already see in the examples above, it’s not only the bar background that changes in different ways when you adjust the colors, but also the selection icons. If you don’t really like the automatically suggested colors, you can also set them yourself. Enable or disable "Custom Icons," or go directly to the "Pick Icon Color" option, and this menu window will open:

Here you can now put together your color combination square by square. When you click on each square, the following field opens for precise color selection:

Here you can also choose between "Standard" and "Custom," and then either select the shades directly or use the eyedropper to pick a color from anywhere on the screen.

After a few selection steps, the result might look like this, for example:

And after the final OK, this example produces a screen like this:

If you come to the conclusion that you actually liked it better the way it was at the beginning, simply switch back to "White" and deactivate the "Custom Icons" window.

Conclusion

Some may see this option as just a gimmick, while for others it is very important to set everything up so that they feel comfortable with their ChessBase´26. And that’s exactly the nice thing about this program – everyone can use it in their own individual way, take advantage of different options, and make settings here and there that may seem unnecessary to another user. As so often: just try it out – you can’t break anything, and everything can always be reset! Have fun with your very own style ...

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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:

2.5 million games
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  • Access the ChessBase online database - with more than 13 million games: search for players, positions, openings etc.
  • Save your own games and analyses in cloud databases
  • Synchronise your personal databases across all your devices
  • Analyse your games with the built-in engine
  • Live opening book: use the most comprehensive and up-to-date statistics for every opening position
  • Access your opening repertoire in the cloud: create and edit your personal opening repertoire
  • 300 opening overviews, with repertoire suggestions: get started with new systems!
  • Practise opening variations with three modes.
  • Advanced notation: add comments, symbols, variations, arrows and markings to your games
  • Advanced sharing options: share games and positions via link, image, GIF, FEN or QR code
  • PGN compatibility: upload and download games or databases as PGN files

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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.
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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.
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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.
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Video

60m English The Elephant Gambit

The Elephant Gambit (1.e4.e5 2.Nf3 d5!?) has never really been given the attention it deserves. It is a very useful surprise weapon. Let us list the advantages of playing this particular opening: 1) Shock value 2) It is very aggressive. Black can take over the initiative early. 3) Many tricky lines 4) Unorthodox. Black is basically taking the game to the opponent as early as move two. Not many openings do that! It's a perfect opening for young players and club players to adopt. Let Andrew Martin select a repertoire for you on this 60 mins, which, if used with discretion, will rack up the points. I am sure that you will enjoy this unusual tour of the Elephant Gambit.