Unfortunately, it’s expensive to buy your own newspaper or cable network.
Home publishing your own print newsletter or magazine is a more accessible,
although you still have to have significant expertise and shell out for paper,
ink, and postage at the very least. The solution for the non-millionaire wannabe
publisher is the internet. It’s great fun to publish your club’s
games online for all to see. Or you can build a shrine to your favorite player
or to yourself.
All the ChessBase Cafe columns are saved in Adobe Acrobat format in the ChessCafe
archives. For your convenience we've listed all of them below with direct links
to the archived versions. (You'll need the Adobe
Reader to read these documents. It may already be installed on your computer.)
| #16,
August, 2004. Release Your Inner Chess Publisher. Putting games
on the internet with online and automatic replay using ChessBase 8. Step-by-step
instructions, explanation of the variation options with examples. Frames
or no frames, controlling text color and size, advanced tricks like using
just the board without the notation visible. Making interactive puzzles
using the variants option. Plus Q&A. |
| #15,
July, 2004. Q&A Marathon. The readers take over again. Some
common and not-so-common questions about Fritz and ChessBase. Why does it
say Shredder when I load Fritz? What is the piece probability function?
Can I make my own video lessons in Fritz? Why can't I upgrade my Fritz?
Should I get Fritz or ChessBase, and which database is right for my kid?
Answers to those questions and more. |
| #14,
June, 2004. I Want My Chess TV. ChessBase products that use the
new Chess Media System. Chess publishing has a history as long and interesting
as the history of publishing itself. In 1474 William Caxton printed Game
and Playe of the Chesse, the second book ever printed in English. The first
was a collection of Trojan War tales, the third was a Korchnoi game collection.
The CMS is in regular use for lectures and live event coverage at Playchess.com
and now they have taken the next step by releasing pre-recorded lessons
on CD and DVD. These are part of the “Fritz Trainer” series
and the first is Strategy and Tactics by English GM Peter Wells. |
| #13,
May, 2004. Start Your Engines. Using Fritz 8 and the various engines
for game analysis. Automated and assisted techniques. Still if you do care,
here are a few thoughts. In my extensive experience the last few versions
of Shredder are significantly better in the endgame than the other top engines.
Junior finds many tactical motifs faster than its peers and in many cases
will suggest sacrificial lines other engines undervalue and ignore. Fritz
doesn’t have any weak spots, but its main advantage seems to be something
more related to how it is attuned to the interface. |
| #12,
April, 2004. Opening Sesame. In a previous column we looked at quick
and dirty opening preparation using the “games to book” function
in ChessBase. This month we’ll take a step-by-step tour of creating
your own opening course with ChessBase and a large game database. Using
and supplementing the ChessBase 8 Opening Report function. |
| #11,
March, 2004. More than a Magazine. What is ChessBase Magazine on
CD-ROM and what is it good for? How can you best use it for training? It’s
not news that computers and the internet have revolutionized the study and
play of chess. Millions play against computer opponents at home and against
other humans online. Databases make it easy to find and play over games;
plus chess engines put a Grandmaster analyst at your beck and call. |
| #10,
February, 2004. The Multimedia Circus. A huge number of questions
have arrived in the past month. Before diving in to the mailbag we will
take a look at something that has inspired more questions than any Fritz
function in memory, the new Chess Media System. Fritz and family now has
live and recorded audio and video capability. Here's how to get into the
action. Then, on to the many reader questions, including rating searches,
tablebase installs, and more. |
| #9,
January, 2004. Help for the Handicapped. When commercial chess programs
got strong the quest to make them weak started. Training tips and suggestions
for how to best use the handicap levels in Fritz and friends programs. Tweaking
the personality of the machine to get more "human" play. Q&A
on auto-annotation, endgame DVDs, and automatically saved games. |
| #8,
December, 2003. Something New, Something Improved. Breakdown and
differences between new ChessBase products. MegaBase, Encyclopedia, PowerBook.
Many of the questions I receive start with “what’s the difference
between…” but even explaining the exact differences doesn’t
really tell inexperienced users what would best suit their needs. I just
received a pile of new products and what follows is a combination buyer’s
guide and tutorial for the latest and greatest. Remember, it’s never
too late to give yourself a Christmas present! |
| #7,
November, 2003. In Playchess.com, No One Can Hear You Scream. Tips
and tutorial for improving your chess with online play. Analyzing your games,
statistics, and game data. Playchess has turned into one of the most active
online gaming sites in the world with over 100,000 games played per day.
You can even watch GMs like Adams, Short, Susan Polgar, and Nakamura battle
it out. (Some will even play YOU.) Fancy stuff like audio/video broadcasts
and anti-cheating algorithms add to the cool factor. |
| #6,
October, 2003. Q&A Marathon: Advanced Tips and Problems. It’s
all about the readers this month. I’ve been saving (hiding from) the
really tough questions that have come in so this time I’m tackling
a few of the mind-bending inquiries that have arrived over the past few
months. As always, I try to pick questions that have been sent in by several
people and/or will be useful for all readers. |
| #5,
September, 2003. Training by Becoming a Tournament Organizer with Fritz.
Our project this month is getting personalized opening training material
from Fritz using the Tournament function. It can be very helpful to have
sample games between strong opponents to study the openings. The best way
to get a feel for an opening is to go over complete games. Basically what
we are going to do is have our mighty engines play a thematic tournament
amongst themselves. |
| #4,
August, 2003. Better than Books: ChessBase Training CDs. Most people
buy chess books in a sincere attempt to improve the quality of their play.
Instructional books make up the huge majority of books offered and purchased,
but the problem is how inefficient they are for a majority of readers. ChessBase
produces enhanced chess books in CD-ROM format. A sampling and how to use
them. |
| #3,
July, 2003. Quick Opening Preparation for Mortals. The study masters
do before and during tournaments largely revolves around preparing for specific
opponents. So let’s look at how mere mortals can use ChessBase to brush
up on a few openings before a tournament or a game. Create custom opening
books from databases in minutes using the book and repertoire functions. |
| #2,
June, 2003. The Fritz Fairy Analyzes and Annotates While You Sleep.
Chess isn't all that hard – when you have a slave to do all the tedious
stuff for you. In his Chess Cafe column Mig Greengard tells you exactly
how to give Fritz the job of analyzing your games, checking for blunders
and writing annotations in plain English. He also answers email and answers
your questions. |
| #1,
May, 2003. Inside Output: Publishing with Fritz and Friends. In
the first installment of ChessBase Cafe Mig tells us about automatic HTML
and diagram output with ChessBase 8, with lots of useful links and tips.
Put games online or in print, make diagrams that look just the way you want,
and export ready-to-publish HTML and word processor documents. |
Mig
Greengard writes a monthly column on getting the most from your ChessBase software.
It includes tutorials and an essential Q&A section where you can send in your
questions. Called "ChessBase Cafe" it appears at the ChessCafe.com website.
The latest column always appears at this link: 
