The Opening Table mode in Chess Assistant presents many useful features of other modes
brought together to facilitate the study of opening theory. Yes, you can find any of the
components of the Opening Tables mode in other modes of Chess Assistant - , etc. However,
in this case various kinds of chess information are neatly brought together, which results
in a new system quality of representing the chess data. Such integrate approach places
Chess Assistant 8.1 far above any piece of chess software available in market.
The Chess Opening Encyclopedia 2004 includes rich theoretical material on all the
openings, over 8,000 annotations from GM Kalinin as well as 500,000 key opening positions
expert evaluations. Access to the opening encyclopedia improved thanks to a new
revolutionary mode – Opening Tables, presenting theoretical material in the form of
encyclopedic table and allowing to replay opening lines on chessboard.
Normally you launch the opening table mode from within the Chess Opening Encyclopedia 2004
classifier by selecting some folder there and double-clicking it.
However, you can also start the Opening Tables mode from any other Chess Assistant's mode where the chessboard and notation present. For example, you can open any game for viewing and click on the Create table button on main toolbar when you encounter position that you want to study deeper.
While in the Opening Table mode you can replay the table variations and they are automatically displayed on the chessboard. You read GMs' annotations and compare expert evaluations with data presented in the Tree window under the chessboard. You can add variations and annotations of your own to moves and positions using the Annotation editor. Any time you can select and launch analytical program that will analyze the selected position:
The Opening Tables mode allows you to build several opening tables while you move along some opening line. You can print any of them or export into *.pdf or *.bmp file. The navigation between the previously built tables is easy. Click the History button on the Opening Tables toolbar, which will open the History dialog box:
Usually you build a new opening table when you replay some variation from the initial one, the opening table that you started your working session with. This technique helps you to find some opening table that is easily perceivable and suitable for memorizing. Apart from facilitating the process of studying the opening variation, it helps you to develop your opening repertoire. When you click the Add variations to classifier button, the entire structure of the opening tables you have built is inserted as new ierarchically organized folders of the Chess Openings 2004 classifier. This is the main method of storing the results of your work, which you can retrieve later - just double-click any of these folders in classifier.
The example of working with opening tables can be found in flash animation wideos Reviewing the Opening Tables Part I and Part II.