ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024
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SPARKASSEN |
The TV ChessBase show in Dortmund started on Monday, July 11, with round four – officially. On Sunday, after round three, we did a "test transmission", which of course went so well that a full room of spectators watched and enjoyed it.
With the start of the official TV broadcasts the show began in proper. It was supposed to be at 19:30h each day, but of course we could not stick to this schedule. Sometimes the games lasted longer, often someone had won a great game before the announced time and turned up in our studio corner to do commentary. Believe us, you do not turn away Adams, Kramnik or Naiditsch, when they want to show you (and the world) the brilliant win they have just completed.
Live transmission on TV ChessBase, here with Emil Sutovsky
The shows were a great success, a first in the coverage of a chess tournament. It is an extraordinary experience to see a player immediately after a tough game, still flushed from the excitement, showing us all the lines he had been looking at – actually executing them on the graphic chessboard. A typical example was Emil Sutovsky, who played what a superficial observer might have called a lack-luster game against Peter Svidler in round five. But watching his rapid-fire post-game analysis on TV ChessBase made you realise that what goes through these players minds during the game is infinitely more interesting and exciting than the relatively staid moves they eventually execute on the board.
A special treat was the round eight broadcast which saw both winner Vladimir Kramnik and his opponent Peter Heine Nielsen analysing their game together for the audience. It is a remarkable experience, something only a few players and journalists have thus far experienced, when players analyse together in the press room of the big tournaments. The additional invaluable advantage is that you don't have to stand there trying to take notes, as the journalists do during the postgame sessions. Everything is recorded in the gamescore, so you can run through the lines and continue analysing with Fritz, once the show is over.
If you did not catch the live reports when they were originally transmitted this is not a problem. The video streams (with synchronised game replay) are all stored in the archives of the Playchess server and can be watched at any time after the event. This is how you do so:
Dortmund_2005_3 | Dortmund3 - van Wely |
Dortmund_8a | Dortmund8 - Kramnik, Nielsen |
Dortmund_6a | Dortmund6 - Adams part 2 |
Dortmund_6b | Dortmund6 - Pfleger |
Dortmund_6 | Dortmund6 - Adams part 1 |
Dortmund_5 | Dortmund5 - Sutovsky |
Dortmund_5b | Dortmund5 - Bischoff |
Dortmund_7 | Dortmund7 - Gustafsson |
Dortmund_2005_4b | Dortmund4 - Lutz |
Dortmund_2005_4 | Dortmund4 - Bacrot |
Dortmund_8 | Dortmund8 - Gustafsson |
Dortmund_2005_9a | Dortmund9 - Naiditsch |
Dortmund_2005_9 | Dortmund9 - King, Naiditsch |
The TV ChessBase replay is not free. It costs you two ducats to watch a show. Ducats are the server currency and are worth about ten cents, so that you will be paying twenty cents (26 US cents) to watch a session that lasts 30-40 minutes. You can watch the first minutes free, and will be asked to pay the viewing fee only after that. The transaction requires just one click of the mouse.
So where do you get ducats (assuming you do not have a fair sum on your account already. Many Playchess members have accumulated ducats by playing in tournaments or for ducats against each other. But the best way to get ducats quickly is to purchase them in the ChessBase Shop.
Clicking on the above picture will take you directly to the relevant section of the shop, where you can buy ducats using your credit card. Ducats are purchased in batches of 100, and will be automatically added to your Playchess account. Note that first-time buyers get a bonus of 10 ducats in addition to the amount they purchase.
Checking your account on Playchess
Ducats can be used to view archived transmissions and lectures (e.g. those of the Glasgow 3rd Floor and the Dennis Monokroussos), but you can also play for ducats or offer titled players a sum for them to play you. You can also use the ducats on your account to purchase items in the ChessBase shop. So it is advisable to stock up on a small amount of ducats and gain one-click access to the many interesting features that Playchess has to offer. Like the Dortmund lectures described above.