ChessBase 9 or 11: Para--Pro, Besides, Next to, Near, With, Any of These Words Work.

I have been feeling guilty about my last post.  But I also stand by it.  So now let me take the other side, so that I do not take unwary readers by surprise.  I don't always but usually do like to provoke.  But I love chessBase, consider it to be a necessarily if not MOST worthwhile investment for serious and aspiring chess players.

If I say less now, and have said less in the past, it is like two old friends taking a long drive in silence.  Or a short drive might be a better analogy.  They decide not to talk, knowing that it must be a gigantic conversation.  Maybe not a difficult one, but once started cannot stop.

I have a LOT, a very lot to say about chessBase, and over many years evolved my own ways of organizing the material, my games, the work in progress.  This day will come.  When I will talk.  I am very, very particular as to how I do it.  To me, it is Zen chess work.  It is heuristical art.



The day to day mechanics of chessBase, despite what some think, is relatively easy.  Does it take some getting used to?  Of course.  Some very odd quirks?  Of course.  Germanic circumlocutions if you will....

The harder part is not how to use it or use it well, but how to organize the vast forestt--reference games, our own games, studies, openings, current GM games, problems, tactics, files.  I love chessBase.  I really want to make videos on it, but how much time does a man have?

I eat very, very well.  I am actually interviewing with the top organic grocer in Tacoma Washington.  I make all my own food.  I run three to four hours on Saturdays, and it takes me two days to prepare, two to recover, sometimes three.  I study chess, have my blog, my work on sustainability.  All that.  I am very directed in my tactical study, running, diet.



The Elvis of Asia.  Serious.  ... He is the Michael Jackson of Asia.  Only near 1B hits, 3M comments.  This cannot be just a fad.  It is art.   That he is a genuinely real, nice person who has worked to create his art, cannot hurt.  Lovely interview here.  If I were gay I would track him down and ask him out.  Not that he is gay.  Just a lovely man....

Love to you all.  So let me close by saying that I worship upon the alter of chessBase.  Daily.

PS:  I have prepared my second article for ChessCafe (published on in early April).  I plan to submit, but need to work on it more.  I have all the source data, my own measures, like alchemy, comparing ICC to PlayChess to Chess.com, and a bit of chessCube.  So much to do.  The limitation is NOT mental, but as my guru Joy always said, 'Enlightenment is always embodied in physicality'.  So here.  It is the limitation of fingers, typing, revision, typing, mental energy, will, time, choices.