Simplifying database management

Answer

One way in which our database program ChessBase differs from our chess programs is its extended management functions for games and databases. Within a database games or chess positions are stored together with texts and textual commentary.

Every user has his or her own preference for a system to organise these. This article presents some basic reflections on how to manage one’s databases sensibly and with clarity.

Generally speaking, you are recommended to work with thematically organised databases. The database window, that is to say the starting screen of the program, offers the opportunity to organise different types of database in such a way as to be visible at first glance. Databases may contain historical games, recent tournaments or your own games. The criteria for sorting and organising are determined by the individual user.

In order to better structure and manage game collections, the program distinguishes between various types of database. Typical categories are, e.g., the reference database, analyses, tactics, endgames, training, etc. In order to see more clearly the types of databases, each is displayed in the database window with the appropriate icon.

In the case of new databases a user-defined icon for the type of database can be selected. A right click on a database entry in the Database window – Properties starts the relevant dialog for the choice of the type of database.

There are many possibilities for acquiring new games or databases. You can either input and save new games yourself or import new games from the internet, e.g. from our website at en.chessbase.com. 

Most users install one of the carefully edited reference databases such as the Big or Megabase. These databases represent an enormous amount of work concerning the standardisation of the spelling of players’ names, tournaments, etc.  Only a carefully edited games database allows you to come up with meaningful statistics and evaluations.

  • The Big/Mega Database guarantees accurate statistical evaluations because a great amount of effort has gone into the standardising of the games data. When importing new games data there is always the danger that, e.g., several entries appear in the database for the same player and thus that the statistics no longer take into account all entries. Here you should simply trust the ABO (subscription) service with bringing your reference database up to date. These downloads guarantee accurately standardised preparation of all the games data.
     
  • The reorganisation of a huge database when importing new data takes a lot of time. The classification, allocation and reorganisation of an enormous database with over six million entries requires of course a great deal of time.
     
  • If you manage your games more clearly in smaller, thematically organised databases, handling this is obviously much simpler and quicker.

An argument which is frequently advanced for managing all the games data in a single games database is that in such a case you only have to define and carry out a single set of search criteria.

When there are several databases the problem is to carry out the search several times one after the other in the various databases, is it not?

This is definitively incorrect. Unlike in the case of chess programs, ChessBase can search through several databases simultaneously looking for the pre-defined criteria.

In the database window, you highlight by holding down the Ctrl-key and clicking with the mouse on those databases which the program is to search through with the criteria defined in the search mask. A right click on one of the marked database symbols starts the context menu which contains the option “Search”.

Those who prefer keyboard shortcuts can also get there quickly with the shortcut Ctrl-F. ChessBase  then does not limit its search to a single database but performs it according to the pre-defined criteria on all the databases selected.

 

 

 

 

 

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Created on
31.03.2017
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