Detailed description of Chess Assistant 7.1

Chess Assistant offers a huge amount of possible searches allowing you to search for just about anything. Enhancements were made to some of the pre-existing searches, and a new category for maneuvers (simple or complex) was created. You will also find that it is unbeaten as for the speed of its searches.

The following are the types of searches available, with a brief description, which can be used individually or in any combination:

8.1. Search for header

Headers: name, ECO, dates, annotator, range of moves, etc.

You can also now search for undefined fields. This means that you can search specifically for an empty field, i.e. the absence of information.

8.2. Search for position

Position: setup a specific position or choose specific conditions such as squares where any piece, or only certain pieces can appear. Here you can also set it to look in variations, mirror flank situations, and bishops of opposite (or the same) colors.

8.3. Search for material

Material: a number of pieces, material imbalances, the time the imbalance lasted, and the total number of pieces.
Advanced: set up searches on only the specific parts of the board.

We have increased the number of fields that can be used in the advanced search. This allows increased flexibility when looking for certain types of endgames. The maximum number of regions is now 14. An option to quickly shift regions has been added to the local context menu for the board.

Comments: search for commented games, as well as any specific commentary.
Maneuvers: This new category permits you not only to search for one-step maneuvers such as the Greek gift (bishop sacrifice on h7/h2), but also more complex ones in several steps such as the common Sicilian exchange sacrifice on c3 followed one move later by a knight capture on e4. For example, you can determine how many moves are between the two steps, and whether the rook came from a specific square on the c-file or any square on the c-file.

All the searches can be saved and organized into a special classifier that can be used later at any time, plus they can be exchanged between other users.

When working within a specific game, it goes without saying that there are certain types of searches you will want more often, so presets were added to the search button allowing you in a single click to:

Search for current material
Search for current pawn structure
Search for current material difference
Search for current pawn structure and material

Coupled with these features is the ability to add search results to open datasets. This allows for the easy aggregation of search data without saving intermediate datasets to disk.

9. ICC support

9.1. Introduction

9.2. Detailed descriptions:

9.2.1. Tabbed Toolbar

9.2.2. Personal toolbar

9.2.3. Main Console and Message Window