chessdb-users Mailing List for ChessDB - a Free Chess Database (Page 2)

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On 02/ 2/11 03:27 PM, Huber, Edwin wrote:
> Dear Mr. Kirkby,
>
> is there a way to search the database for a position given in FEN
> notation?
>
> Kind regards
> Edwin Huber
>

This is possible, but with one minor issue. The FEN notation indicates if the 
players have castled, whereas the following method will find the position 
corresponding to the FEN, but will ignore castling rights.

On the "Edit" menu, click "Setup Start Board" and enter the FEN. That will 
create a game with that position.

Once you have done that, use the Search Menu and select "Current Board". Make 
sure the "Exact Position" radio button is selected - that should happen by default.

That will any position in the database with the pieces of those exact squares. 
But if your FEN shows black has castled, the search fill  find positions where 
black has not castled too. But only if the pieces are in the exact same 
position, so in practice this will almost certainly do what you want.

-- 
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

Dave

http://aikido-san-benedetto-del-tronto.it/index-sl122.php

On 11/21/10 05:35 AM, garyf wrote:
> Hi Dave
>
> Thank you for the link for version 3.6.24. I have a HP dual core Laptop,
> with 3 gigs memory, running Vista Home Premium. I followed your
> instructions for installing and it comes up without a hitch. I ran the
> new feature to download >=3.5 million games from the US server. It
> downloaded and converted to chessdb in about 14 minutes! Although it
> completed with a error (unable to find.md5) it seems to have all
> 3,561,471 games. I played the first, last and one in between and they
> seem to be ok.
>
> Let me know if there's anything else you want me to try on a Vista machine.
>
> Thank you very much for your help.
>
> Gary

Gary,

Does the version show the latest one now? That's the main issue.

Vista (at least the business edition I used to use until I upgraded to 
OpenSolaris), had some sort of Virtual File system, which made it difficult to 
add a file into c:\program files\ without using a Windows installer. If the 
program has been updated, and you have the 3.5 million game database, then the 
only thing to do it update the database (after making a backup) from TWIC. Start 
at TWIC number 630. That will mean your database will grow to about 3.9 million 
games, though you should try to remove any duplicates there might be.

New games are available from twic every week - usually on a Monday. So you 
should get the latest games if you want to be up with the latest.

Depending on your level, you might wish to create a database of higher quality 
games, where both opponents are rated above say 2000. That is often more useful 
in the opening, to see how good players play. How 5 year olds played in junior 
competitions is often not so important. 	

-- 
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

Dave

On 11/16/10 12:16 PM, garyf wrote:
> Hi Dave
> Thank you for your speedy response. I am presently on 3.6.15. When I run
> "check for updates" I get a dialog box indicating 3.6.24 was released
> 2010-03-27 and is available.
> Gary

Hi Gary.

There is a later version, though updating under Windows is not as easy as I'd 
like, as I've yet to update the windows installer.

But if the file

http://boxen.math.washington.edu/home/kirkby/chessdb.gui

is copied over the file of the same name on Windows, it will upgrade the copy. 
On XP the file will be something like

c:\Program Files\ChessDB\bin\chessdb.gui

I've never updated this under Vista or Windows 7. (I deleted Vista from my 
machine long ago, and don't have any machines with Windows 7 on them).

I know Vista has some annoying system which makes updating files in one of the 
protected directories like C:\Program Files, rather difficult. If you have XP, 
its easy though.

If you use Linux or a real Unix system, just rename that file to chessdb, then 
copy it over the old one - it's much easier.

Dave
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dr. David Kirkby"
> <dav...@on...>
> To: "garyf" <ga...@ro...>
> Sent: Monday, November 15, 2010 9:59 AM
> Subject: Re: chessdb
>
>
>> On 11/15/10 01:56 PM, garyf wrote:
>>> Hi David
>>>
>>> Thank you for releasing Chessdb. I'm just learnig to use Chessdb. I
>>> was wondering how I can get the program to display the captured
>>> pieces of both players.
>>
>> No. the best you can do is show the points of each player (pawn =1,
>> knight/bishop=3, rook=5, queen=9)
>>
>> Also, is there a way to combine the various windows into a single
>> tabbed window?
>>
>> No, sorry there is not.
>>
>> It would be quite hard to add. Can you run the "check for updates" and
>> see if there's an update. If so, I will tell you how to get it, as
>> it's not as easy as I'd like it to be.
>>
>>> TIA
>>>
>>> Gary
>>
>>
>> Dave
>>
>
>

-- 
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

Dave

On 11/ 7/10 04:37 AM, Jeremy Waterman wrote:
> Huh, I checked the 'check for updates', and it doesn't find that an update is needed.  (3.6.24), for which I did a similar overwrite.  Is that a newer one?
>
> Jeremy

3.6.24 is the latest.

Sorry, I was not aware you were using that.

Dave
>
>
> --- On Sat, 11/6/10, Dr. David Kirkby<dav...@on...>  wrote:
>
> From: Dr. David Kirkby<dav...@on...>
> Subject: Re: chess DB
> To: "Jeremy Waterman"<the...@ya...>
> Cc: drk...@us..., Che...@li...
> Date: Saturday, November 6, 2010, 5:48 PM
>
> On 11/ 6/10 09:36 PM, Jeremy Waterman wrote:
>> Hi there!
>>
>> I love chess DB!  I wondered if there is an option to find the 'score sheet', I don't see it.  What I mean, is that I have a game with lots of analysis, and variations, and subvariations.  I can't look at the pgn and easily follow the move order; it'd be nice to have a separate window that listed the move order to a certain position.  Thanks for reading!  Best,
>>
>> Jeremy
>
> Hi, thank you. I'm glad you love ChessDB.
>
> I'm afraid it is not something that is implemented.
>
>
> I don't know if you are aware of it, but I have updated ChessDB, though it's not on the main sourceforge site, as I've not got the tools installed to build the windows binary.
>
> But if you are using Windows, overwrite chessdb.gui with this file
>
> http://boxen.math.washington.edu/home/kirkby/chessdb.gui
> (I would copy the old one to chessdb.gui.bak first).
>
> Note, it is important to keep the right extension, which windows might want to change, to a .txt. (I hate windows, it tries to be too clever, and is something just a pain in the butt).
>
> But there are some new features there.
>
>
>
>
>
>

On 11/ 6/10 09:36 PM, Jeremy Waterman wrote:
> Hi there!
>
> I love chess DB!  I wondered if there is an option to find the 'score sheet', I don't see it.  What I mean, is that I have a game with lots of analysis, and variations, and subvariations.  I can't look at the pgn and easily follow the move order; it'd be nice to have a separate window that listed the move order to a certain position.  Thanks for reading!  Best,
>
> Jeremy

Hi, thank you. I'm glad you love ChessDB.

I'm afraid it is not something that is implemented.

I don't know if you are aware of it, but I have updated ChessDB, though it's not 
on the main sourceforge site, as I've not got the tools installed to build the 
windows binary.

But if you are using Windows, overwrite chessdb.gui with this file

http://boxen.math.washington.edu/home/kirkby/chessdb.gui
(I would copy the old one to chessdb.gui.bak first).

Note, it is important to keep the right extension, which windows might want to 
change, to a .txt. (I hate windows, it tries to be too clever, and is something 
just a pain in the butt).

But there are some new features there.

  Hi,

Recently, one user of Scid pointed out that some stuff related to me is 
present on Chessdb's site, and showed some astonishment, requiring
explanations. Having discovered that :

1. I was surprised SF allowed this kind of rubbish (it's hard to see the 
relationship with opensource development or any added value), and
I complained about that to Sourceforge staff (no result so far)
2. I posted my own reply, so nothing is left unanswered : see 
http://scid.sourceforge.net and more precisely 
http://scid.sourceforge.net/dr_david_kirkby.html

Note that I am not proud to use Sourceforge for this, but David Kirkby 
does not seem to be concerned by that, so let's go for it. I used to 
reply to his attacks, but finally removed all this sterile stuff from my 
web site, but now, it seems I have to let this online and highly 
visible, for symmetry's sake.

I post here so people can have a different version of the "truth" that 
may be written by David Kirkby.

Pascal

On Fri, Sep 24, 2010 at 8:08 PM, manu johansen <man...@gm...> wrote:
>
> what is better in Chessdb ? or do I need to use scid ?
> i see some things in ChessDB but scid looks best : correct ?

I don't know them enough, but use Scid in Linux because it is on
Ubuntu's repositories.

I feature in Chessdb which Scid lacks is the ability to download ICC
games. I use Windows Chessdb version for it.

Maybe you coud ask the same question in Scid-users list, because it is
slightly more active than this one.

-- 
Saludos.
Gerardo.
http://www.ajedrezvasco.com

Hello,

I look http://chessdb.sourceforge.net/
http://scid.sourceforge.net/
and
http://prolinux.free.fr/scid/dr_david_kirkby.html

I see big problem but want a good chess software
some people say scid is better (version 4 is there)

what is better in Chessdb ? or do I need to use scid ?
i see some things in ChessDB but scid looks best : correct ?

Manuel

On 09/ 3/10 10:18 AM, R & C wrote:
> Hello Dave,
>
> After playing around a bit more (and installing tk.devel) I managed to
> compile and install my favourite chess interface (chessdb) and it is now
> running fine.
> Thank you anyway!
>
> Regards,
> Rein Mann

Great. Glad you are up and running now.

On 09/ 3/10 07:53 AM, Reica wrote:
> Dear David,
>
> Where would I go for help when in trouble with compiling chessdb?
> I've had absolutely no trouble with previous versions of Ubuntu linux
> and have used chessdb for a number of years.
> The latest version of Ubuntu (10.04) does not let me compile from the
> sourcefile.
> Where can I send the output of the compiler for analysis and help?
> The old chessdb forum seems to have disappeared.
> I appreciate a pointer in the right direction.
>
> Regards,
> Rein Mann
>

Can you send me the error messages.

It could be an issue with the tcl/tk version, but without seeing the error 
messages, i have no idea.

Dave

On 08/22/10 05:35 PM, Markus Huelsmann wrote:
> Hello David,
>
> in your ChessDB the function "Check for Updates" tells there is a
> version 3.6.24 to be found on sourceforge, but when I look at the given
> address http://sourceforge.net/projects/chessdb the most recent version
> I find is 3.6.19-beta-1, the version I am using.
>
> Would you please tell me where I can find the new version?
>
> Great work by the way. The download function made me switch from Scid. A
> pity that the efforts to develop Scid did fork. I wish they could be
> united.
>
> Thank you very much!
>
> Yours
> Markus

Hi,

I'm sorry I have not got around to putting all the source code on the 
Sourceforge site. All the code that's updated gets put into one text file. Copy 
this file

http://boxen.math.washington.edu/home/kirkby/chessdb.gui

and overwrite the old version of chessdb.gui in C:\program files\ChessDB\bin\

Back up the old version first. But make sure windows does not try to append a 
.txt or similar extension. It is a text file, but it must be called chessdb.gui

If you use Unix or Linux, just change the name to chessdb.

That should upgrade the release for you.

I will (one day!) get around to putting all the changes on the sourceforge site. 
But I don't have the development tools installed for Windows any more, and to be 
honest Windows never was my favorite platform.

Hello!
I've got a problem with my databases.
For instance,I had two databases on ChessDB:let's name it A and A.pgn (A.pgn is for ChessBase and Fritz 12).
Always,when I enter a game in A,I copy it onto A.pgn so that it can be read by ChessBase and Fritz 12.
But I had a problem:when I wanted to erase a game (let's name it K) from A,it erased all other games and kept K in A.
It's the first time I have this problem with the filter (compact a database in the "maintenance" window).
So the database A contains now only one game:K.
But A.pgn is normal,but doesn't contain the game K in A.
Is it possible to copy a game .pgn onto a database not .pgn?I don't know what is the main shape for files.
If yes,how to copy all the games of A.pgn onto A without copying each game (if possible)?
Thanks a lot for your response.

PS:Sorry for my awful English,I'm French!

chess landmark wrote:
> Thanks very much.  I ran through this and it all works properly.

Great

> Interesting that the chess engines are now better than the GM's.  How
> do the GM's maintain their interest and their livelihood?

People can't run as fast as F1 cars, but it does not stop people being serious 
about athletics. A decent crane can lift more than a human, but it does not stop 
people taking weightlifting seriously.

Although engine-vs-engine competitions exist, and attract some interest, I don't 
think there is anything like as much interest as in human vs human contests.

Also, whilst having a computer look over your games to analyse for tactical 
errors is useful, they are not going to be as useful as having a strong human 
look over them and make more useful suggestions.

I don't think there is that many GMs in the world able to make a living from 
playing chess, though there is a much larger number, of weaker players able to 
make some sort of living from teaching chess.

Dave

> On 22/04/2010, Dr. David Kirkby <dav...@on...> wrote:
>> chess landmark wrote:
>>> Another question, Dr Kirby.  I have been running searches, for example
>>> on all the games in the 100,000 game database for all of Fischer's
>>> games.  What I don't understand is how to keep those searched or
>>> filtered games as the ones I am going forward and backward on.  When I
>>> click load next game, the program reverts back to the large database.
>>> One partial work around that works for a player's games, although not
>>> necessarily for all Reti opening games, is to load the games into the
>>> clipfile from the player report.  What's the right way to handle this?
>> If you want to look at Fischer's games for just this session, and not save
>> them,
>> then the best thing to do is to search for Fischer (click ignore colour if
>> you
>> want both his games as black and white).
>>
>> Then open the "Database Switcher"  on the ChessDB "Windows menu"
>>
>> Windows -> Database Switcher
>>
>> Then drag the games from the 100,000 games database to the clipbase. The
>> number
>> copied should be a lot less than 100,000 - only the number played by
>> Fischer.
>>
>> You then have a temporary copy in the clipbase. You can then change to the
>> clipbase
>>
>> File -> Switch to Database -> Clipbase.
>>
>> Then you will see only Fishers games. However, these will be lost when you
>> close
>> ChessDB, as they are not written to the hard disk - only kept in memory.
>>
>> If you want to save Fischers games to the hard disk, then create a new
>> database
>> (called it Fischer for example). Then instead of copying the files to the
>> Clipbase with the Database Switcher, copy them to the Fischer database
>> instead.
>>
>>> Thanks very much.
>>>
>>> Also when you say that Rybka is a demo--does that mean that if I use
>>> it I'm not getting its full functionality?
>> Yes. Rybka is commerical, and I can't distribute the full version. The demo
>> version is limited to 1 second of thinking time. The best chess engine
>> supplied
>> is Toga.
>>
>> When you run the engine, make sure to select a number of lines greater than
>> one.
>> Otherwise the moves are shown like b1c3, rather than Nc3. I generally look
>> at
>> about 5 lines or so. The longer you leave the engine running, the more
>> accurate
>> it will be.
>>
>>> I ran Crafty 20.14 and Toga II alongside a game between Fischer and
>>> Karpov.  Curious but they don't give the GMs' moves, but there own
>>> idea of what should be done.  Are the GMs smarter or stupider than the
>>> chess engines?
>> The strongest chess engines today (Rybka, Deep Fritz etc) are certainly
>> stronger
>> than any GM. (Kramnik lost a match to Deep Fritz) and a lesser GM (I forgot
>> who), lost to Rybka in an 8 round match, even though he had the advantage of
>> one
>> extra pawn each game. (First game the a2 pawn was missing, then the b2 ..
>> etc).
>> I'm not sure if he managed to draw any, but he did not win any.
>>
>> But the same is not true of Crafty or Toga. However, generally engines are
>> much
>> better at tactics than GMs, but they are not so good positionally. They are
>> also
>> not so good in the opening.
>>
>> It's impossible to know if Fischer could be Toga, but I'm pretty certain he
>> could never beat Rybka.
>>
>> The strongest point of engines is their tactics, and tactics tends to be the
>> most important thing. You and I wont stand a chance even against Toga! Some
>> GMs
>> will do however.
>>
>>> Thanks very much.
>>>
>>> CL
>>
> 

chess landmark wrote:
> Another question, Dr Kirby.  I have been running searches, for example
> on all the games in the 100,000 game database for all of Fischer's
> games.  What I don't understand is how to keep those searched or
> filtered games as the ones I am going forward and backward on.  When I
> click load next game, the program reverts back to the large database.
> One partial work around that works for a player's games, although not
> necessarily for all Reti opening games, is to load the games into the
> clipfile from the player report.  What's the right way to handle this?

If you want to look at Fischer's games for just this session, and not save them, 
then the best thing to do is to search for Fischer (click ignore colour if you 
want both his games as black and white).

Then open the "Database Switcher"  on the ChessDB "Windows menu"

Windows -> Database Switcher

Then drag the games from the 100,000 games database to the clipbase. The number 
copied should be a lot less than 100,000 - only the number played by Fischer.

You then have a temporary copy in the clipbase. You can then change to the clipbase

File -> Switch to Database -> Clipbase.

Then you will see only Fishers games. However, these will be lost when you close 
ChessDB, as they are not written to the hard disk - only kept in memory.

If you want to save Fischers games to the hard disk, then create a new database 
(called it Fischer for example). Then instead of copying the files to the 
Clipbase with the Database Switcher, copy them to the Fischer database instead.

> Thanks very much.
> 
> Also when you say that Rybka is a demo--does that mean that if I use
> it I'm not getting its full functionality?

Yes. Rybka is commerical, and I can't distribute the full version. The demo 
version is limited to 1 second of thinking time. The best chess engine supplied 
is Toga.

When you run the engine, make sure to select a number of lines greater than one. 
Otherwise the moves are shown like b1c3, rather than Nc3. I generally look at 
about 5 lines or so. The longer you leave the engine running, the more accurate 
it will be.

> I ran Crafty 20.14 and Toga II alongside a game between Fischer and
> Karpov.  Curious but they don't give the GMs' moves, but there own
> idea of what should be done.  Are the GMs smarter or stupider than the
> chess engines?

The strongest chess engines today (Rybka, Deep Fritz etc) are certainly stronger 
than any GM. (Kramnik lost a match to Deep Fritz) and a lesser GM (I forgot 
who), lost to Rybka in an 8 round match, even though he had the advantage of one 
extra pawn each game. (First game the a2 pawn was missing, then the b2 .. etc). 
I'm not sure if he managed to draw any, but he did not win any.

But the same is not true of Crafty or Toga. However, generally engines are much 
better at tactics than GMs, but they are not so good positionally. They are also 
not so good in the opening.

It's impossible to know if Fischer could be Toga, but I'm pretty certain he 
could never beat Rybka.

The strongest point of engines is their tactics, and tactics tends to be the 
most important thing. You and I wont stand a chance even against Toga! Some GMs 
will do however.

> Thanks very much.
> 
> CL

chess landmark wrote:
> What I did to backup was to load the database (into memory it seems; I
> have a difficult time navigating around the program and understanding
> its features) and then hit backup.  I got a message that it was going
> to create the database that you describe with the concatenated date
> and time and there was a lot of churning around, but when things
> finished I only found a file with most of the name and 0 kb.  I did
> this twice.  There must be some bug somewhere.
> 
> I realize that you don't need to keep the zips and the decompresses,
> but what struck me is that the message seemed to be asking for
> permission to do the deletions 'automatically'--i.e. by the program
> code.  But they're still there.  Again, if the program is asking for
> permission to do the deletion by itself (without my having to go
> through 114 data sets), then there's a bug.

I will look at those. These features certainly were working, but it is possible 
a bug has crept it.

> I will try to sort out the TWIC downloads.  I will have to find out
> where they are located.

See the Tools menu.

1) Open the huge database
2) Tools -> Download games from -> Twic.
3) Click 'manually select the first issue' and set that to 640
4) Click 'download to the latest issue' (that should be the default anyway).
5) Click download. That will download the updates. It will take a while, but if 
you regularly do this, it will only take a couple of minutes each time - depends 
on the speed of the Internet connection of course.

> I have a friend who is a serious amateur who might find the large and
> the 100 000 game database (I also downloaded that with the same
> characteristics as above).  I wonder if there's a 25 word description
> of what he would get if I were to put everything on a DVD and send it
> to him.  Seems to me that he would be able to search for games of a
> type that he was interested in to see how a particular line of play
> might unfold.

A suitable description might be, there is

============
1) A chess database program similar to Chessbase which you install via a Windows 
installer. It is an old version, and some of the things don't work, as web site 
addresses have changed.

2) Various chess engines for analysing games.

3) An updated file chessdb.gui which updates the program to the latest version, 
which has the latest web sites, and more features. This much be copied to 
c:\Program Files\ChessDB\bin.

4) A database of about 3.5 million games, of games of various quality - some are 
super GM's, others are very weak players.

5) A database of 100,000 games of reasonably high quality games - Elo is around 
2450 or higher for both players.

The only difference between the 100,000 game and the huge database is the number 
of games, and the quality of the games. The 100,000 database has the highest 
100,496 rated games from the huge database. They are simply a subset.
==========

I also created a database of games where both players are greater than 2000 -- 
again using the huge database as a start. That will give you around 2.5 million 
games. You can create the database using the search facility

Search -> Header Search

and set the rating ranges for black and white to be 2000-4000 rather than the 
default 0-4000. Click 'IGNORE (reset filter)' and then click search. This will 
have created a filter set of the games where both players are 2000 or more. You 
can then copy that to a new database. Call it say 2000 (File -> New -> Create 
database). Once you have done that, you need to copy the filtered games to the 
new database. Use 'Windows -> Database switcher' then drag the games from the 
huge database to the empty 2000 Elo database.

> Also, what is the difference between your DB (huge) and Hiatt's that
> he uses to generate his book for his chess engine?  Apart from issues
> of formatting--the two DB's are not equivalent functionally.

I don't know what the source of his database is. Mine is based on an older 
version of Chessbase, but has other games I've found around, then it is updated 
from the TWIC web site. I suspect there are a lot of common games.

One thing I have removed, which some may not like, is very short games. I do 
this as I find it useful to look at statistics of games (the Tree Window on the 
Tools menu is my favorite). That is less useful if there are silly games, where 
neither player moved, or one player moved, and the other never did. As such, you 
will not find the Kramnik vs Topolov game in the database in which Kramnik did 
not show because of the bathroom issues.

> Thanks very much.
> 
> On 15/04/2010, Dr. David Kirkby <dav...@on...> wrote:
>> chess landmark wrote:
>>> Just to let you know that I now have the huge database installed.
>>> Relatively painless.
>> Great. Now download the files from TWIC, starting with issues 640. That will
>> install all new games since the database was created. Repeat that each week
>> and
>> your database will remain up to date. The TWIC files are usually updated on
>> a
>> Monday, but will no doubt change over holiday periods.
>>
>>> However, the backup function produce a single
>>> file of 0 bytes. So I simply copied and pasted the three final
>>> components of the database elsewhere.
>> What did you try to back up? I can't understand why the database files will
>> be
>> zero bytes. They should be the same size, but have a name which (if I recall
>> correctly) includes the date and time.
>>
>>> I was prompted to allow the
>>> program to delete the intermediate files; I'm not too sure what they
>>> were, but the zip files that were downloaded and the unpacked zip
>>> files remain in the databases folder along with the assembled database
>>> of three components.
>> When you download the database, it does 3 things.
>>
>> 1) Downloads the zip files
>> 2) Decompresses them.
>> 3) Concatenates the decompressed files to make the large database files.
>>
>> The zip files, along with the decompressed parts may all be deleted. Perhaps
>> I
>> should have made that clearer. The *only* 3 files you need to keep are
>> huge.si3,
>> huge.sn3 and huge.sg3. However, I would keep a backup of those, in case
>> something goes wrong at some point in the future. It will avoid you having
>> to
>> download all the files again.
>>
>> Dave
>>
>>> Thanks.
>>>
>>
>>
>>
> 

chess landmark wrote:
> Just to let you know that I now have the huge database installed.
> Relatively painless.  

Great. Now download the files from TWIC, starting with issues 640. That will 
install all new games since the database was created. Repeat that each week and 
your database will remain up to date. The TWIC files are usually updated on a 
Monday, but will no doubt change over holiday periods.

> However, the backup function produce a single
> file of 0 bytes. So I simply copied and pasted the three final
> components of the database elsewhere.  

What did you try to back up? I can't understand why the database files will be 
zero bytes. They should be the same size, but have a name which (if I recall 
correctly) includes the date and time.

> I was prompted to allow the
> program to delete the intermediate files; I'm not too sure what they
> were, but the zip files that were downloaded and the unpacked zip
> files remain in the databases folder along with the assembled database
> of three components.

When you download the database, it does 3 things.

1) Downloads the zip files
2) Decompresses them.
3) Concatenates the decompressed files to make the large database files.

The zip files, along with the decompressed parts may all be deleted. Perhaps I 
should have made that clearer. The *only* 3 files you need to keep are huge.si3, 
huge.sn3 and huge.sg3. However, I would keep a backup of those, in case 
something goes wrong at some point in the future. It will avoid you having to 
download all the files again.

Dave

> Thanks.
> 

chess landmark wrote:
> Dear Mr. Kirby:  I'm a little confused.  I finally got to a fast line
> to make the download possible and what I see at the link given looks
> like source code (unless its Java or something that's going to be
> automatically interpreted).  Here's a sample
> 
> #!/bin/sh
> # This is the top of the file 'start1.tcl'
> # ChessDB (based on Scid)

Yes, that is correct. It is a text file, and gets interpreted by the tcl 
interpreter, which is included in the main ChessDB distribution.

So assuming you are running Windows, overwrite c:\program 
files\chessdb\bin\chessdb.gui with the file you can download from

http://boxen.math.washington.edu/home/kirkby/chessdb.gui

If you are running Vista, this can be more of a problem, as it normally prevents 
a user from writing in c:\program files. If so, then you will probably need to 
be administrator to do this. Vista uses a virtual file system, which I find very 
confusing. But if you can somehow overwrite the old chessdb.gui with the new 
version, the download of the database should proceed ok.

dave

Dear Mr. Kirby:  I'm a little confused.  I finally got to a fast line
to make the download possible and what I see at the link given looks
like source code (unless its Java or something that's going to be
automatically interpreted).  Here's a sample

#!/bin/sh
# This is the top of the file 'start1.tcl'
# ChessDB (based on Scid)
#

#
# This is freely redistributable software; see the file named "COPYING"
# or "copying.txt" that came with this program.
#
# To contact the maintainer of ChessDB, email drk...@us...
# ChessDB is based heavily on Scid, the author of which is
# Shane Hudson. His email is sg...@us...

#
# The following few comments are only for Unix versions of ChessDB:
#

# The "\" at the end of the comment line below is necessary! It means
#   that the "exec" line is a comment to Tcl/Tk, but not to /bin/sh.
# The next line restarts using tkchessdb: \
exec tkchessdb "$0" "$@"

# For the above to work, tkchessdb must be in a directory in your PATH.
# Alternatively, you can set the first line to start tkchessdb directly
# by specifying the full name of tkchessdb, eg:
# #!/home/myname/bin/tkchessdb

############################################################

set chessdbVersion "3.6"

# Determine operating system platform: unix or windows
#

set DownloadingNow 0
set windowsOS 0

Am I just supposed to copy all this text to a text file and then
replace the gui?  Or is there more to it?  It doesn't look like a
binary to me.  Perhaps you need to give another link to a binary.

Thanks very much.

Chess Lover

On 30/03/2010, Dr. David Kirkby <dav...@on...> wrote:
> Mark Little wrote:
>
>> *From:* Mark Little
>> *Sent:* Monday, March 22, 2010 8:35 PM
>> *To:* che...@li...
>> *Cc:* Mark Little
>> *Subject:* Cannot download games databases for ChessDB
>>
>>
>>
>> It appears to be looking at the wrong url. It is not a firewall problem:
>> I’ve opened the port, and even turned off the firewall, with no change.
>> I have no trouble accessing the sourceforge page for chessbd, and could
>> download the files through my browser, but I would have no way to get
>> ChessDB to unpack the files and create the database if I did it that way.
>>
>>
>>
>> The error dialog window image is attached. The window is titled “ChessDB
>> Problem accessing web site”, for the url
>
> Mark,
> the version of ChessDB on the Sourceforge site has the URL's of some mirrors
> which no longer work. Because of this, I have decided to store the database
> files on two servers where I have more control. Both domains are owned by
> me,
> and one of them (the slow one) is hosted on my own computer. The faster
> server
> is hosted professionally. As such, these domains should be more stable than
> the
> sourceforge ones.
>
> I've created an update to ChessDB. It is only one file that needs the
> update,
> which I've not put on Sourceforge yet. The main reason being I need to
> install a
> load of software (and remember how to use it), to create the binary for
> Windows.
> However, if you just overwrite the file C:\program
> files\ChessDB\bin\chessdb.gui
> with the file from the following location, it will work. (Linux or Unix
> users
> should just rename the file to chessdb then overwrite the old chessdb).
>
> http://boxen.math.washington.edu/home/kirkby/chessdb.gui
>
> That will add
>
> * Access to the online database of 3.5 million games.
>
> * Improved TWIC support, which will allow you to update your collection of
> games
> on a weekly basis (usually Mondays). I suggest you start updating from TWIC
> issue 600 rather than all the TWIC issues, as anything before 600 is
> included in
> the database. I can't recall the exact number of the last TWIC issue from
> which
> games in the database exists, but I know it is over 600.
>
> * Some new features to add support for finding weaknesses and strenghts in
> the
> opening. This is not fully documented, and is quite hard to use, so I'll
> answer
> any questions on this. Please direct them to the chessdb-users mailing list,
> which I do receive of course.
>
> Dave
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Download Intel&#174; Parallel Studio Eval
> Try the new software tools for yourself. Speed compiling, find bugs
> proactively, and fine-tune applications for parallel performance.
> See why Intel Parallel Studio got high marks during beta.
> http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-sw-dev
> _______________________________________________
> Chessdb-users mailing list
> Che...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/chessdb-users
>

Mark Little wrote:

> *From:* Mark Little
> *Sent:* Monday, March 22, 2010 8:35 PM
> *To:* che...@li...
> *Cc:* Mark Little
> *Subject:* Cannot download games databases for ChessDB
> 
>  
> 
> It appears to be looking at the wrong url. It is not a firewall problem: 
> I’ve opened the port, and even turned off the firewall, with no change. 
> I have no trouble accessing the sourceforge page for chessbd, and could 
> download the files through my browser, but I would have no way to get 
> ChessDB to unpack the files and create the database if I did it that way.
> 
>  
> 
> The error dialog window image is attached. The window is titled “ChessDB 
> Problem accessing web site”, for the url

Mark,
the version of ChessDB on the Sourceforge site has the URL's of some mirrors 
which no longer work. Because of this, I have decided to store the database 
files on two servers where I have more control. Both domains are owned by me, 
and one of them (the slow one) is hosted on my own computer. The faster server 
is hosted professionally. As such, these domains should be more stable than the 
sourceforge ones.

I've created an update to ChessDB. It is only one file that needs the update, 
which I've not put on Sourceforge yet. The main reason being I need to install a 
load of software (and remember how to use it), to create the binary for Windows. 
However, if you just overwrite the file C:\program files\ChessDB\bin\chessdb.gui 
with the file from the following location, it will work. (Linux or Unix users 
should just rename the file to chessdb then overwrite the old chessdb).

http://boxen.math.washington.edu/home/kirkby/chessdb.gui

That will add

* Access to the online database of 3.5 million games.

* Improved TWIC support, which will allow you to update your collection of games 
on a weekly basis (usually Mondays). I suggest you start updating from TWIC 
issue 600 rather than all the TWIC issues, as anything before 600 is included in 
the database. I can't recall the exact number of the last TWIC issue from which 
games in the database exists, but I know it is over 600.

* Some new features to add support for finding weaknesses and strenghts in the 
opening. This is not fully documented, and is quite hard to use, so I'll answer 
any questions on this. Please direct them to the chessdb-users mailing list, 
which I do receive of course.

Dave

I would like to join!?

-Talib Sly

I've been working on a new release of ChessDB. I need to resolve some issues 
uploading to Sourceforge and updating the CVS, but until then, if you want to 
try the latest release, just download this file

http://boxen.math.washington.edu/home/kirkby/chessdb.gui

and save it to

c:\Program Files\ChessDB\bin\

where you will overwrite the old (I'd keep a backup of the old one). When you 
restart ChessDB, the new version number will be seen. (3.6.24) and todays date 
(27th March 2010).

The download of the huge database should now work.

Users of Linux or Unix can download and install the latest version of ChessDB 
from sourceforge, then replace the file 'chessdb' (which is just a text file) 
with that file chessdb.gui (remove the extension on Linux or Unix, but Windows 
users must preserve the .gui extension).

If you download the 3.5 million database, download all the TWIC updates since 
issue 600, then clear out the duplicates, you should have a database with no 
duplicates and 3.9 million games. (I can't recall exactly what was the last TWIC 
issue on the online database, but I know it was over 600 - so start at 600.

Dave

james breeden wrote:
> TWIMC :-) ,
> 
> i'm confused :-( . i find no certain info on these two programs.
> it appears that scid's development terminated for about 5 years 
> beginning in 2004. after scid went into hibernation, someone began 
> working on ChessDB - based on scid. then scid 'resurrected' [up to v. 
> 4.2.2 which was launched in stable-state in January 2010]
> 
> 1. i got an email lamenting that scid could not handle a database larger 
> than 16,000 games [as you know, the also free CB Light 2009 handles 32,000].
> 
> 2. i keep running across stuff that repeats the 'news' that ChessDB is 
> based on defunct scid. =-O
> 
> 3. i would not be pleased to commit to one path and end up at a dead-end 
> or tumbling off a cliff edge. :-\
> 
> HELP! >:o
> 
> 
> peace,
> 
> 
> 
> james

1) Scid was started by Shane Hudson.

2) Shane gave up development

3) I forked Scid, but thought it better to give it a different names. I chose 
ChessDB

4) Pascal Georges helped a bit on ChessDB, but we had serious differences and he 
left.

5) Pascal then started developing from the ChessDB sources, but changed the name 
back to Scid. He denies using my sources, but I think the fact he even had the 
same typos as me proves he did.

6) Someone else worked with Pascal on Scid. He too fell out with Pascal, and 
created yet another fork. I forget what that is called.

To the best of my knowledge, the original Scid, ChessDB and what Pascal calls 
Scid all use the same database format. So you don't really have to commit to one.

ChessDB has tended to concentrate more on a chess database. Pascals fork has 
tended to add things like online play, tactical questions etc.

I was not aware Scid could not handle more than 16,000 games. But if that is so, 
then it is pretty useless. ChessDB can handle millions of games.

Dave

Blue Devil Knight wrote:
> Site 1 and Site 2 neither both give problems when trying to download the huge database (tools || download games from || etc).
> 
> Anyone have this problem, or know how to fix it?
> 
> When I go to site 1:
> http://belnet.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/chssdb/huge.database_info.txt
> couldn't open socket: connection refused.
> 
> When I go to site 2:
> http://www.chesstutor.net/databases/huge.database_info.txt
> HTTP/1.1 302 found
> 
> 
> Then it says 'There was a problem with the download' and suggests using the other site. Hence, I've been in this GOTO loop for the last three hours bouncing from site 1 to site 2. :)
> 
> Thanks for anyhelp I really don't want to buy chessbase this software is so much better for me.
> 
> Best,
> BDK

The files can be found on this web site

http://www.g8wrb.org/chessdb/databases/

If edit chessdb.gui (Windows) or chessdb (Unix/Linux) and change 'chesstutor' 
for 'g8wrb', then site #2 should work. I've not verified this though.

Dave

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