ChessBase Reviews 14

The biggest advantage - they are kind of monopolists
The disadvantages - terrible usability - almost nothing is intuitively clear, there is bunch of options which nobody uses but if you need something either need youtube or unavailable. Simple example copy A PART of the game with comments - impossible without saving it to PGN, copying it there. Why not to allow just copy and paste - no clue. Recently they just locked online databse without a waring for old CB versions - that's not they way how tio drive sales.
Hope there will be a competitor to Chessbase which will create cheaper userfriendly product, that would push them to another level.

I have bought Chessbase Dragon 3.2 for 99€ mainly to test my chess engine on Playchess.com server, since they give with the software a 6 months Premium Account to access to it. I have discovered that is full of bugs that make it almost impossible to use: 1.After crashes or internet disconnections it's impossible to resume a game since the user is locked as CENTAUR instead of COMPUTER and can't change his profile, being this option disabled! 2.Pressing more times the OFFER DRAW button you can rescue your game from lost positions, even if obviously the opponent doesn't want or agree to that. 3.Tablebases SYZYGY bug causes to lose draw games, choosing the wrong moves. 4.Configuring UCI settings on Fritz 18 GUI on offline tournaments, it doesn't store your choices (EG it uses only 1 CPU instead of 4) 5.When you start bullet or long times games, OFTEN wrong values are shown (EG 1620 ELO instead of 2500 ELO) on both Engine ranking list and games data header. 6.Score table with the list of accounts often doesn't show BULLET, BLITZ and LONG TIME values. Also Playchess.com is a mess. Full of bad users promoting Bitcoins, cheating, farming, cherry picking and offending each other. Moderators allow all this. I have reported bugs and bad users more times to admins and sysops also using the support email, but they absolutely don't care. They even never answer! About engine strength: Since Fritz 19 is a weak engine that cannot compete with free Stockfish, even if they claim to be 2022-2023 IGCA World Champion (an almost dismissed organization) after having played only against unknown and weak engines, I have bought the more expensive Dragon 3.2 that in the Komodo version 3.3 is a good choice, but the Chessbase version isn't at the same level, especially when playing in other FREE GUIs like BanksiaGUI, Arena or Cutechess. I'm in computer chess since 40 years, you can trust me. There are better commercial programs to buy, avoid this unreliable software!

Bought chess base and fritz.
Have issues with the software, but the support does not respond.

Greatest customer service i have experienced in a long time. I had a very old account at chessbase (havent used it for like 10 years), and decided that i would take up chess again. But the email i have my old account linked to, isnt working anymore. They helped me make a new account and transfered all my old purchases to my new account, in a glitch, no questions asked, no hassle, and they did it with a smile. Now i have access again, and I am a very happy customer. Thx Chessbase!

When downloading programs from the Chessbase Shop they don't often work in Chessbase 16. The program lacks basic features such as automatically loading Chessbase Shop purchases to Chessbase 16. There are good points to the program but the overall functionality is cumbersome unless you are prepared to spend many hours learning the features.

The guys at ChessBase do not take your customers seriously at all answering emails. I have never been so humiliated and offended by their lack of customer service, it's a disgrace, to say the least. It took over 2 months to get an answer from those guys that they could have answered me back in 1 minute and it would have worked out just fine. Instead, I had to report them to my credit card company for not giving me what I purchased. I ordered Chessbase 15 and Opening Encyclopedia 2019 and with CB 15 it should have included a serial for 3 months premium on playchess.com. It is not stated anywhere in my order where to find that serial, So I asked you them SO MANY times and no answer on this exact question just a bunch of other answers that did not make sense at all, avoiding the questions totally and ignoring me. If this would have happened in Norway they would have closed down the business a long time ago! Chessbase has a monopoly and is the largest chess company in the world and this is how they treat their customers?? I also had to file a police report and to my credit card company, this should not be necessary at all right?! After over 3 months I got an answer of where my serial number was, what a disgrace ChessBase, Shame on the company and all the rude people working there. I really hope that all people reading this would spend their money on someone else and boycott their company.
Also another matter in the news recently discovered that Fat Fritz 2.0 is a total Ripoff of the Stockfish, need I say more??.....

OPENING 'TRAINING' DVD's OF CHESSBASE - ONE HAS TO GET USED

Revised review

Finally I managed the DVD opening Catalan Bolognan to open

Most important: let CB Reader do the work. Install an 'inferior' version of CB Reader that is on disk, than update it for more modern version, go then to html page.

From there you can click on a picture to start video

To analyse yourself, pause video add kiebitzer and move>

Takes some ;find it out yourself', but once you succeed content of Bolognan is very good. Lears far quicker than a book!

Dr JP Blankert 30 March 2017