Player dossiers

Answer

One of my favourite functions in ChessBase is the Dossier. By using it you can obtain a detailed overview of the preferences of any player who is included in the database. That might be a player whom you are to meet in a tournament or team match of one of the chess giants of the past.

Let us suppose you are interested in the leading players in the history of chess and would like to obtain an overview of their work with the help of the dossier. We shall take as an example of the dossier function the achievements of the first official world champion Wilhelm Steinitz.

In the starting screen, the database window, we shall launch the player index with the button “Prepare against”. We then enter into the search line “Steinitz”. The first information we see is that in our reference database there are 767 games by the first world champion.

We now highlight the entry for the player and start the function with a click on the button Dossier.

Before things get going we can specify the extent and the amount of detail in the information which will be presented in the report after the dossier has been completed.

Generating the dossier now proceeds apace and offers the user much illuminating information.

Any details about the development of a rating are missing because at the time when Steinitz was active there was not any recognised rating system. Under Statistics the dossier offers an overview of the number of games played in the individual years.

You can see at first glance that Steinitz also had very good results with Black.  After that we come to  Career where we get a survey of his most successful matches and tournaments and a then list of the opponents against whom Steinitz played particularly frequently.

Direct links are available within these lists.

By using them you can display the tournament crosstable and from the table have direct access to the relevant games in the board window.

Based on the games stored in the database the dossier function generates a complete overview of the opening repertoire. The dossier lists both for White and for Black the variations with the highest success rate. A link to the relevant games is also integrated.

The study of the player’s repertoire in the dossier is rounded off with an automatically generated positional tree for White and one for Black. You can see at a glance the systems with which Steinitz was particularly successful.

 The next section of the dossier displays fragments from spectacular games by Steinitz and mates. If you wish the dossier with all its information can be saved permanently.

Naturally the dossier function is valued above all by professional players. But amateurs too can procure an extensive survey of the achievements of their favourite players. Moreover, MegaBase contains not only top tournaments but also numerous tournaments and games involving amateurs. With the help of the dossier therefore it is possible for players at a less exalted level to prepare very well for future opponents.

 

 

 

Tags
Created on
08.07.2019
Rating
Feedback

Back to List