Introduction
There are many enhancements that have been made to Chess Assustant version 8.1. First of all, when purchasing Chess Assistant you obtain the reference database with 2,710,000 games, pre-built direct tree (480 Mb) and CAP data. You can opt for the Mega Packet that includes: Correspondence Database, full CAP data (451 Mb), Endgame Tablebases (all 3-4-5 piece endings on two DVDs) and Commented Game Service 2004-2006 databases.
CA 8.1 also includes the latest edition of Christophe Theron's chess engine - Chess Tiger 2004. This new engine is appreciably stronger than last year's versions, and complement the new analysis capabilities of the program. CA also comes packaged with other analytical programs including older versions of Chess Tiger and Tiger Gambit (CHESS TIGER 15.0 and TIGER GAMBIT III), Ruffian (program by Perola Valfridsson, is the strongest among the freeware engines), Delfi (recently emerged strong playing program by Fabio Cavicchio), the latest version of Crafty (this Robert Hyatt's program is the most popular freeware engine) and Russian Dragon.
Our development team has been working hard on Chess Assistant 8.1 and has produced the most powerful version of the program to date. Every major functional area has been updated and a number of new features have been added. We have paid special attention to the classifier module of the program, which now provide capabilities that are unmatched by any other chess software. Two entirely new modes have been added - Opening Tables and Players Encyclopedia - that heavily depend on the classifier module's work. Both these modes constitute a new unprecedented standard of integrating chess information and presenting it to the user.
At the same time CA retains many useful features available in previous versions such as background processing. Its allows you to continue with game analysis while an engine analyzes the current, or other games automatically. Searches and long database operations can also be performed while the computer is performing background analysis.
Chess Assistant 8.1 features special Video Help reference developed for many of its modes described in documentation. This is a flash animation collection explaining why a particular mode has been created and how to use it. Video Help is stored on CD #3 and it is being installed by default into C:\\Program Files\Chess Assistant Video. During an installation, the Intro icon is being added onto your desktop. To start the Video Help, double-click Intro icon; the Intro.htm will be opened in your web browser giving you links to flash files. Some of the flash animations may be called from corresponding topics of Chess Assistant Help system.
We recommend that you read this document, since it focuses on the new features, and provides an easy overview. The flash animation videos contain many useful information on specific functions and can be accessed via the hyperlinks.
New Opening Tables mode
A superficious look at the Chess Assistant's interface in Opening Tables mode will reveal an obvious advantage of this mode - a possibility of replaying the contents of an ECO table on the chessboard. But there is much more about it.
When replaying a table variation, anytime you can construct a new opening table for
selected position. Moreover, you can build several opening tables for your favorite
opening and instantly add correspondiong folders to the Chess Openings 2004 classifier.
Later you can access opening tables that you have built with the aid of History function
of this mode. The Opening Tables mode allows you to customize the appearance and other
parameters of the tables.
In this mode, an opening table presents you the expert evaluations together with
annotations found in the Annotation window. However, you always can compare these data
with evaluations stored in trees. Any position from a table variation or a sideline can be
analyzed with the aid of selected analytical engine.
Printing and exporting the opening tables to *.pdf file is also supported.
Generally, working with the Opening Tables is an exciting experience. Though it greatly
promotes memorizing the opening variations, you may find that it is not absolutely
necessary to learn an opening variation by heart. You can concentrate on other tasks and
let the entire process to develop by itself with no less efficiency. The Opening Tables
mode has an immense potential and we hope that it will become your main working mode in
Chess Assistant. Examples of implementing the Opening Tables mode can be found in flash
animation demos Reviewing the Opening Tables Part I and Part II.
The Players encyclopedia contains 800 photographs of rated players together with information about their performance organized by year and tournament:
Search Enhancements - Composite search and CQL search
Chess Assistant 8.1 supports CQL, the Chess Query Language. Moreover, the Composite search mode introduces more than 100 chess criteria built-in into Chess Assistant’s search facility, which are actually based on the CQL implementation:
While direct encoding of the CQL themes may appear quite difficult for users who are not familiar with it, here we find the means of Chess Assistant interface together with a set of predefined conditions.
Enhancements in Test/Demo Mode
CA 8.1 includes a new test mode that is accessible from the context menu in game view. This mode was developed with specific input from Maxim Blokh, the man responsible for the exercises and presentation in CT-ART. With this mode, you can set up exercises to be automatically presented as you go from game to game in a database. There are a large number of criteria that can be selected for determining which moves constitute a good exercise. This timesaving approach means that the user does not have to construct each exercise by hand. Conditions can also be specified for determining when exercises should be automatically presented (accessible through the Advanced... button).
The new test mode that can be used for opening preparation or chess exercises.