ChessDB - a Free Chess Database News

Someone pointed out to me that he was unable to install ChessDB since the installer needed admin rights. I have released a zip file containing the Windows files. You should be able to install that someoene where you have permission, then run chessdb.exe from the 'bin' subdirectory.

It is now possible to download games from ICC for anyone you choose. This happens quite rapidly - you can get the full 20 game history into a ChessDB database in about 15 seconds or so. This should be very useful for analyzing the games of your potential opponents. To the best of my knowledge, none of the other chess databases support this.

There is a bug in version 3.6.12-beta-7 which causes an error message when you try to exit. The bug has been fixed in 3.6.12-beta-8, but the web site still says 3.6.12-beta-7 is the latest. I can't change that, as Souceforge's shell access is once again broken. Please upgreade to 3.6.12-beta-8 (or later) if you are using 3.6.12-beta-7.

I've put a small database (just 2150 games), all of which are the Smith-Morra gambit. This will hopefully help new users who might have problems creating a database. At least you can be sure this database is OK.

It is now possible to use ChessDB to check
a) The latest stable release
b) Whether there is a more recent stable release.
c) Whether of not there is a new beta release.

A small text file is stored on the Sourceforge web site, which details the latest stable and beta versions. ChessDB uses this information, as well as its version number, to determine what if any updates are available, and whether they are are considered stable, or are beta releases.

In the last two releases of ChessDB, it is now possible to use the program to download chess games directly the TWIC web site. This feature was requested many times for Scid - the project on which ChessDB is based.