Readme.txt June 2025 bookbuilder setup)
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Bookbuilder Opensource/donate-ware
NEW File Preliminary Update /Prerelease Bookbuilder 4.4a with setup file bb44-setup.exe (with this new readme.txt )
Thx to Artur Ron in Latvia who deciphered the source codes and got it compiled again (with BCB6), this now is a complete New Update of Bbuillder
Many improvements in version Bookbuilder44, of which the most important are:
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- extended opening names list, with more accurate Eco nrs (by A.Ron),
- adapted list of opening names in the opening list of the program (Eco nr above right)
- userns extended by Jefk, with almost all relevant gambits, (note adding a new variation name
by the user has been disabled for the moment as this slowed down the program)
- - book training feature completely Debugged (and thus now an outstanding feature of Bbuilder
- with rightclick it's now possible to categorize openign variations again into easy/normal/difficult (with colors)
- the install program from the Bbuilder setup now is using the install.iss program (formerly Nsis).
- etc
June 2025 ; For further comments see the text file BB-Prerelease44.txt
NB - copy board FEN with rightclick (paste position may cause a bug, to be fixed later)
April 2025: when installing on your C disk with windows 10 (and possibly win11), depending on safety
settings and virus program (eg Avast), the crafty engine online analysis may not work. What i (jefl)
did with my Avast security system, is install the program in a D:/propgramfiles directory
(less stringent security requirements) and now the program works properly again.
(April); book(*) (now > 4 mil pos) based on endnodes analyzed with Obsidian
(latest version of the book in directory Updates)
Note in the update subdirectory on sourceforge i may later post some newer books.
The new sourcecode (Borland BCB6)s and files for making setup file added in directory Prerelease.
NB coloring of the opening variations (for beginner/intermediate/expert) were moved in the
newer version, but for beginner openings have a look at the end of this file.
ALthough a 'trial version' for a week, the serial codes are now given for free (as donateware) Normally if someone would like
to continue the program after this period, they would have to register (for 25 Eur) But now you can register for FREE:
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Method for 'registration': go to help entry on menu
username: customer@2013
serial code(s) FA95 997
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Compatibility settings for windows10: set at WinVista (servicepack 2)
otherwise the 'pipe'exe (communication with the crafty engine (wcrafty.exe) won't work
Enjoy, but use (and/or modify) at your own peril :)
NB based on the last commercial Bookbuilder VERSION 4.3b (similar to 4.3 Sources will have been added to sourceforge, in the
sources subdirectory. The program Bbsetup.exe these source was compiled (with a project file) with Borland Cbuilder_ version 6,
Installation:
doubleclick file bbsetup4 .exe
NB website www.bookbuilder.nl not exist anymore, but new
is continued at www.superchess.blogspot.com
Crafty analysis engine updated , now latest version 25.6 with now x64 version default; OFcourse not so good as SFNnue
but it's adquate to spot/check tactics regarding the wcrafty.exe engine now default 6 threads (defined in crafty.rc)
if you still have a 32bits (win) operating system which works properly, then in bookbuilder directory rename wcraftyx32
to wcrafty.exe . (the crafty version (32 or 64) should be compatible with your computer).
Also in the crafty.rc file you can edit the number of threads for a multicore PC. Now default 2 (so not working for single Cpu!) .
If you have more cpu threads you can increasse this ofcourse (eg mt=4). Also now updated 'default'book
again book.pbs (>1 million positions),
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NB1 the help file bb40.chm did not work anymore on most computers, so in line with the latest IT customs, i've converted it to
bb40.pdf, which now is included in the bb40setup.exe file again; when accessing it from the menu, it will work if your computer
can recognize .pdf files; on the left you can see (via bookmarkst) the table of contents.
(*) In the update directory on sourceforge you can find the book 'merged'(0.6) which is a
combination of positions analyzed by Dann Corbit (with SF) and the default book,
and thus becomes a bit bigger, but also a bit more inaccurate
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Description of latest Bookbuilder(4.3) info,
(for details on USING THE PROGRAM: see the HELP File (F1)
Note running it under Linux Wine it works fine.
Contents
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I.1 system requirements, install notes
I.2. How to install the program
I.2.1 Getting started with opening study (NEW !!)
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I.3. Miscellaneous Install stuff
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II. About registration, etc.
III. Known problems, limitations, bugreporting, etc.
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IV Opening repertoire; for beginners (NEW !!)
IV.1 Explanation of opening codes (+=, etc.)
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V. Final notes, copyright, etc.
I.1. System requirements
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Operating Systems: older Windows 95/98/and so on but Win7 recommended .. Win8/10 alsos work , change
compatibility settings on Windows 10 to 'Win Vista SP3 !!so recommended to change the compatibility settings
to run it as administrator (right click on icon for properties, and then adjust). NB it still is a system32 program,
but it also works on windows64; especially if you set the compatibility settings to win95 as advised above.
Screen resolution at least 1024* 768 recommended (lower resolution is possible, but the design is not
optimal anymore or such settings, eg the ' add variation' or change details for a certain opening cannot be seen
anymore; DISC space: about 350Mb or (more recommended, especially
when you want to generate pgn output files).
RAM Memory: at least 100 Mb free space (more is certainly recommended especially when using WinX7 and/or when
using the large book, 200Mb) NB you can adjust the amount of RAM used by the online engine Crafty in the
crafty.rc file; for more info please visit the ftp site of dr Hyatt. In the file crafty.rc (part of Bb install package) it is
specified that crafty (23.8) is using 64 Mb (and 32 for pawn-hashing). However if you don't have enough Ram memory
available, you can reduce this with 50 %, eg. to 24 Mb resp 8Mb.
(this will slow down the Crafty engine, however).
NB please note that the evaluation with the Crafty engine may be different than the evaluation of the (end)nodes in
the book, as we have analyzed most of them recently with the worldchampion chess engine Rybka, to improve the quality of
the book. Thus the online Crafty engine should mainly been seen as a tactics-checker (in the opening phase), or as a tool
to suggest some other moves or opening ideas.
CPU: the faster the better.. (although the backsolving/minimaxing in Bookbuilder is a very fast algorithm, the
online analysis will benefit from a fast CPU!). (i've tried Crafty smp on a double core cpu and it seems
to work, also with win64 edition) For special Crafty compiles eg for win32 or win64 you can use google.
Please ensure your graphics driver is up to date with your windows version otherwise some problems might occur
(see II). Monitor resolution recommended : 1024*768 lower is possible, and in later versions you can resize
the board, but we then maybe another piece set is better)
Finally it is recommended *not* to use other CPU-(and or -RAM) intensive programs simultaneously with Bookbuilder, when making
an online analysis, as this will make the program (and the other progam) considerably slower..
I.2. How to install the program
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Simple: just run the install file (SetupBBuilder4.exe) from the download. It will unpack the program,
create the structures, initialize the shortcuts. After that you can run the program either from the start menu, or
by clicking the BookBuilder icon on the Desktop. Carefully watch the text presented during installation,
as there are some notes about Windows requirements. WinMe(millennium) users: see the technical info in the
license.txt file.
I.2.1 Getting started with Opening study
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A quick start to study opening theory, especially for beginners (see also the Help command (F1))
after having started the program press the icon 'Display' (above right the chess board, right from 'Opening);
Now a list of (basic) opening names appear; the variants (sub-openings) will be displayed in the right window.
Example:
Lets assume you want to study (after 1.e4!) the French Defence (e6 after 1.e4); click with the mouse on one opening,
Now press ENTER. Now you the cursor is automatically transferred to thewindow with variants, and you can scroll
again with the arrows, up and down. For beginners, scroll to the 'definition' variant, and then press ENTER again.
Now above the window with variants commands are displayed to ANIMATE the opening. Go with the cursor to 'Animate'
(NB sometimes you have to press it TWICE to get it working), and the opening line will be animated on the board.
(in this case only e4, and then e6, which is French definition). Now press Finish (below animation), and lets find
how to play ideally both for white and black. For this first open the book, with File (above left),
and and then Open book, and choose book.pbs (only if you cannot see moves in the 'recommended moves' window,
otherwise the book.pbs has been loaded automatically). Now just press ENTER to play the 'best' move (out of
book) to continue attacking the French defense. Press Enter again, until you dont see anymore
moves in the recommended moves window. Above the recommended moves box, you can now find a
description for the played variant. Ofcourse this is only one variant; if you want to study more variants,
repeat the procedure above and choose any variant you want (NB some can be very odd for a beginner,
but its learnful to know how to play against such variants in the long run).
See IV for a recommended repertoire (beginners only).
You can also start the engine for analysis, by pressing 'space' (see the Help file for further info).
Please note that with WinXP and/or NT the online analysis (Crafty) may start slowly sometimes; in such a case we recommend to press the
spacebar a few times, and if necessary scroll back and forth a few moves with the arrows (right-left etc.). (the message tellicsnoalias is a
built-in Crafty command wich means tell ICS (Internet Chess Club) no-alias-(name) which you can disregard..
(in the next version i'll try to compile a Crafty 20.x version myself..)
II About registration, etc. (Not Neede anymore
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Although the program says 'trial version' for one week, Registration nr now is given for Free !
See above how to registrate
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III. Known problems, limitations, bugs etc.
(more info about the source, later)
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As version(4.3b) iwas only a slightly newer version some bugs might still occur; yet we don't support it anymore
Yet for questions about the open source version you can mail superchess@ziggo.nl and i'll see if i can respond.
NB known problems/bugs mentioned below will be fixed asap.
For the time being the full minimax (as in Bbuilder 3.5-7) has been disabled, as it still was a bit slowly for big
books (we are planning to make it even faster, and add a progress indicator for such cases in release 5. And
for the (high quality) book.pbs which is included in BBuilder 4.1 we believe the line recalc feature is enough
(users who wish to use the full minimax feature, can still download Bbuilder 3.6 on superchess.com for this purpose).
WARNING: although its possible to create a booksize almost the size of your RAM memory, before doing so its
highly recommended *not* to use other programs simultaneously with Bookbuilder, when making such a book,
eg. when reading in huge pgn files (when Ram memory is fully loaded, the program starts swapping memory to disk;
this also will make the program considerably slower).
Small note about version 4.2x+: the gerenate Crafty-pgn output option is not enabled; may be fixed again later
(for the time being you can use Bbuilder-3.6 for this purpose).
Other limitations: - the evaluation codes aren't perfect yet; at a later stage we will add moves for unclear, prevent
the switching of black/white codes += to =+ etc. (occurs sometimes in case of transpositions)
- when using the booktraining feature (which gets more useful when you have larger books) at the end the engine plays
automatically a move (8 halfmoves deep) when you play with white (computer plays black); with opposite colors you
only get the online analysis, and can decide yourself. - when using enter to play a recommended move, there still
is a small bug which can cause switching color of a piece
Finally, some bugs can appear of which the cause presently (4.4) still is not known precisly ; hopefully fixed later
old error messages (may have been fixed with Bb44)
- sometimes there is a message like 'canvas doesn't allow drawing' or occasionally something like 'access denied'(), or '
system resources exceeded' (the latter hopefully now solved with 4.2) In case you are working with the program, and one of such
error messages appear, we recommend to *straightaway* save you latest book version (using Alt-Cntrl-S) in order not to lose
your work, then leave the program (Alt-F4), and then restart again; this should temporarily fix the problem..
When using a slow Win(XP), it also is recommended then to check in the 'processes' list of the taskmanager if the crafty engine
has been disabled (wcrafty.exe), and if not, terminate it.
Technical comments latest version (4.2):
- some minor changes
- much better book.pbs book, although small
good enough for beginners to start learning some theory
IV. OPENING LIST (REPERTOIRE) FOR BEGINNERS (version JUNE 2006;
NB recommended (to be known) for white player is indicated below with a (W) on the left (BLUE)
All other openings/variants only have to be known when playing black (RED) !
For beginners we recommend to start always with 1.e4 ! Then learning some basic defences against 1.d4
For more advanced players ofcourse 1.d4 also is good.
OPENING VARIANT
(W)Alekhine's defense Alekhine's def, 3.d4
Birds opening Bird opening 1.. d5
Bishops opening Definition
" " Berlin defense
(W)Caro-Kann defense Exchange
" " Anti-Caro-Kann
Catalan opening Definition
Colle system Main Line
English Defense English, 1..e5
(W)French Defense Exchange variation
Giuoco Piano (Italian) Main Line
Giuoco Pianissimo Definition
Kings Gambit Accepted 3.Nf3 (Kings Knight)
Nimzo Indian Defense Definition
Nimzo Indian Defense Saemisch variation
Petrov's (Russian) Defense Definition, 3 Nxe5
(W)Petrov's (Russian) Defense Modern(Steinitz) attack
(W)Philidor Defense Exchange variation
(W)Pirc Defense 150 attack
Ponziani opening Definition
Reti's opening 1..d5
(W)Ruy Lopez (Spanish) opening Berlin defense, Mortimer var.
Ruy Lopez (Spanish) opening 4.0-0
Ruy Lopez (Spanish) opening Open variation, Showalter var.
(W)Ruy Lopez (Spanish) opening Closed, 9.. h3
(W)Ruy Lopez (Spanish) opening Classical (Cordel) defense
(W)Ruy Lopez (Spanish) opening Steinitz defense deferred
Scotch opening Main line
(W)Scandinavian (center couner) definition
(W) Sicilian opening Rossolimo variant
Three Knights opening Definition
Vienna opening Definition
General comments for beginners: against 1.d4 we recommend Nf6 (and then aiming for
NimzoIndian after Nc3 or Bogo-Indian after Nf3)
Against 1.e4 we recommend ..e5 (lots of variations..) for absolute beginners,
and thereafter, ie after more study to choose c6 (Caro Kann)
or e6 (French) as this will be more difficult for the white player.
NB later openings for more advanced players are indicated with GREEN in the program, but
you have to study yourself which variations to choose, and whether you want to choose
them for white or black in your repertoire..
IV.1 Explanation of opening codes
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(form white perspective)
+- considerable advantage for white
+= slight advantage for white
= equal (drawish) position
+= slight advantage for black
-+ considerable advantage for black
(unclear has not been implemented yet).
When using the engine, evaluations still have to be inputted as numerical score (100 = one pawn);
via the file score.dat such values are then converted to the above mentioned opening codes.
V. Final notes, copyright, etc.
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Programming by:
- Bas Hamstra (The Netherlands, Groningen (first versions))
- Michel Langeveld, (The Netherlands, Noordwijk (version 3.8))
- Deak Ferenc, (Romania, Brasov (versions 3.9-4.0.3))
Ideas, testing, evaluation
- Didzis Cirulis (Estonia)
- Jef Kaan (Netherlands)/originator/coordination
- Tony Werten(xinix)
Board & Piece graphics, Graphical Themes layout by Anca Schlupek (Romania)
- Artur Ron, Latvia, (2025) made the Bb44 update
All rights reserved, copyright protected by international
law; Crafty 'engine' by dr. R. Hyatt, USA.
Copying of the package is now allowed under the GLP licence
(Bookbuilder/tm was registered at Shieldmark, Rotterdam, Netherlands,
software concept at mr.v.d.Bout & ten Hoopen, Voorburg, NL,
Although the program has been properly checked and has been found to work
normally on a high-performance personal computers, under different operating
systems, K.E.C and/or a (possible) other distributor of this program cannot accept
any liabilities, especially not outside Netherlands because above mentioned jurisdiction.
Support, guidelines how to make an optimal book, etc. was only be given to those who have registered
as open source program, official support now is not given anymore.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED KEC, COPYRIGHT KEC
The Hague, The Netherlands.
Although properly checked, I (jefk) cannot accept any liabilities as result of using this software or
its content (eg. the chess openings itself).
some comments and feedback possible to
superchess@ziggo.nl
Only giving support, eg answering questions, to those who make a donation:
https://coff.ee/jefk
or to charity:
https://olanesti-md.info/en/ngo-en/associatie-ok-sopport-2
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Download Latest Version
Bb44a_Setup_MultiPV3.rar (160.2 MB)
