Chess Assistant 7.0

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Chess Assistant 7

11/14/02

Many of you wait for this review every year, since it is one of the more comprehensive guides to the new features that are introduced with each version of Chess Assistant (CA). I will try not to disappoint these individuals, but I know I will leave some features out of this discussion. I would also recommend that you go to the Convekta server, they have additional details on the program for download.

This year, CA has undergone some major changes "under the hood". There has been an extensive rewrite of many of the kernel functions that underlie the program. This was necessary to incorporate some major new analysis functions and capabilities. Even though there is a new piece set, and a number of other usability enhancements, the basic look and feel of CA is unchanged. Convekta has always placed emphasis on function over form.

As with previous new releases, Convekta has updated their reference database and move tree, and included new analysis engines. This year, there is a brand-new version of Tiger (Tiger 15), along with Tiger Gambit III. The surprise is the inclusion of Ruffian, a very hot winboard/UCI engine that is catching the attention of computer chess cognoscente.

Some of the major new functions in CA include new analysis modes, a tutorial mode, greatly expanded infinite analysis capabilities, background operation, and a player encyclopedia. There are also numerous usability enhancements and tweaks to existing functions.

It can be said that CA has every core function that a user would want. This includes a wide variety of fast database search and management tools, a very good database management system, output to HTML or paper, game play, automatic game analysis, and an Internet Chess Club (ICC) graphical user interface. Rather than catalog each and every existing function, I would instead refer you to my previous review of Chess Assistant 6, and to the Convekta website for more information. If you are serious about the game, or can only afford one program, then you really need to look at CA. It simply does more than any other piece of chess software available, at any price.

Ok, now on to the rest of the review.

Analysis Functions

CA has always been an extremely strong program in the area of game analysis functions. Of course this encompasses both engine analysis and manual/human analysis. With this release, CA has added some innovative new techniques for accomplishing analysis tasks. Perhaps the most sweeping is the addition of new background analysis functions.

In simple terms, the addition of background analysis allows the user to perform multiple tasks at the same time. For instance, let’s say that you entered a variation that you wish to check with a chess engine. In version 6 of the program, you would mark the variation, and perhaps other positions as well, and then start a batch analysis of the data. You’d come back some time later, and the job would be finished. You can still do it the same way in CA 7 if you want, but now you have the option of having that variation checked, and those positions analyzed in the background, while you continue to annotate the game, or do other searches.

In addition to the ability to analyze variations in this manner, there is also an autoplay feature, and a function that looks for improvements in a game, all of which work in the background as well. You can also use autoplay when an improvement to a variation is found.

To make the background analysis viable, Convekta went to a client/server architecture for some of the engine functions. This means that analysis tasks are submitted to analysis engines that automatically run in the background. These engines are also capable of responding to requests from other computers for remote analysis tasks. This architecture works with all the old engines that CA supports (i.e. UCI, previous versions of Tiger, winboard, etc), as well as with the new Tiger 15 engine. This architecture also allows you to say, run CA on one computer on a local network, and display analysis from it (in real time) on another computer.

One thing that you might be worried about is having your computer tied up running background or remote analysis tasks when you want it to be analyzing another position instead. This is not a problem, since your foreground jobs pre-empt any of the background ones. If your PC is providing remote analysis, this is also pre-empted. So the local user, and the current task always take priority.

There are some users that will be totally unconcerned with all this gee-whiz client/server technology. These people should note that there are a host of other engine analysis refinements and additions. For instance, major improvements have been made to the infinite analysis functions, which used to be called "monitor" mode, but now use the same moniker that the rest of the industry uses.

CA 6 was limited to running two engines at once. CA 7 no longer has this limitation, and is capable of running as many simultaneous engines as you want. You also have the ability to have a certain engine analyze specific moves, or to exclude moves from analysis.

You can have up to two distinct analysis windows. Each analysis window is controlled separately. So for instance, you can have Tiger 15 running in one window in k-best mode (i.e. the k-best variations are shown), while running Shredder and Nimzo in another. You can also exclude moves from analysis, or analyze only the moves of the opponent (to see threats). There is even an option to automatically show the opponent’s threats with colored arrows on the board. Overall, these are major improvements to this mode, which now is incredibly flexible. In fact, I think CA’s implementation of this function is way ahead of any other program on the market.

There are also some new automated game analysis modes. These new modes allow analysis based on time and level. What this means is that you can specify, for instance, that CA take 10 minutes to analyze a game. Or, if you use the method that works by level, you can specify that the engine use different settings to analyze the opening, middle, and endgame. This latter method has a great deal of flexibility.

Either analysis function can be used without knowledge of how the different settings work. This is because there are a number of presets that Convekta has included. And surprisingly enough, it works as advertised. Of course, if you like, you also have the option of tweaking the analysis parameters to your satisfaction.

Database and Usability

Like I mentioned previously, the manual analysis functions have also been upgraded. An example of this would be the increased number of options for searches now. The advanced search now supports up to fourteen different regions over which material equations can be specified. It is difficult for me to conceive of a situation where you might want to exceed this number. There are a number of other minor enhancements to the search functions as well, but I won’t say much about these.

Another new function is the ability of CA to open EPD files directly. This simplifies life for those that work with test sets extensively. One nice feature is that it will also display the stored principal variation is a true variation (rather than a comment). Something that may also be helpful for creating test sets (or opening texts) is the ability to quickly create game fragments.

Some users will also be happy to hear that keyboard shortcuts can be redefined at will. This is quite similar to functions I have seen on other programs, and can make working with CA easier.

In keeping with this versions focus on multitasking, there are some improvements to the way CA does time-intensive tasks. One of these is the new progress dialog that comes up when you do searches, database compression, and other things of this nature. Using this dialog, you can pause an operation (for completion later), or send CA to the background, in which case, the program minimizes to a small tray icon with a progress indicator. These new features make the program a bit easier to use for those that like to do several things at once on their machines.

Some of you may remember that a function called "Prepare for Opponent" debuted in CA 6. It allowed the user to get an opening profile of a specific player, with color-coded folders containing the games for each variation. This function has been improved markedly in version 7. For instance, there are additional options to generate folders on an ECO or move basis (for those that think in terms of ECO codes). The most important variations are also listed in this window, and are hyperlinked to the relevant folders that contain the games. While this function is clearly most useful to stronger players (since their opponents will be in Hugebase), you can also use the feature on your own game collection as well. And incidentally, Hugebase has been updated to two-million games.

Related to this function is a new player encyclopedia. While it does not contain photographs, it does allow you to quickly search for players, show their ELO history, and easily access their games by tournament. CA uses a special database of 500,000 games from only the highest rated players for this purpose.

For those that like to tweak the way information is displayed, there is a new move styles function that can be used. It allows you, with a few keystrokes, to change the way different types of information are displayed. It is somewhat like the style controls that you see in many word processors. For example, different styles are assigned to engine analysis and background analysis positions. Regular users of CA know that engine analysis is displayed differently from the game body. With the styles function, you can do things like underline it, change its color, or make it look more like the other moves in the game.

There are some minor modifications in the HTML department as well. Earlier versions of Netscape would sometimes not display pages generated with CA properly. This has been addressed in version 7. You also have additional control over DHTML output, and you can add headers and footers to each generated frame.

For power users, there are also some enhancements to the scripting utility. All the old tree commands are present, but now there are some additional command relating to processing databases. These are mostly basic functions like copy, move, compress, etc. Additionally, any script can now be run at a specified time, with a plethora of options. For instance you can specify a maximum running time, where the computer should run it if on battery power, or only run if idle, etc.

If you are an engine author, it may interest you to know that CA allows you to automatically log on to ICC, play some games, log off, and update opening books, or databases.

ICC

As far as ICC mode goes, there are not too many changes - most of them are fairly minor. The most important of these is probably the automatic reconnect mode, so this minimizes down time in the event that your connection is lost. You now also have the ability to automatically run a script at the completion of a game.

Other new features include automatic acceptance of draw offers (optional), and the addition of an "Events" tab to the ICC console. This allows you to double-click on any event, and have the relevant game open. This was a nice addition, IMO. While I never got used to using this feature on Blitzin, many people find it invaluable.

Classifiers and Tutorial

Classifiers now support the addition of additional search criteria. There have also been extensive improvements that are not readily apparent.

CA 7 boasts a new tutorial function that was implemented with guidance from Maxim Blokh (of CT-ART fame). This mode supports a timer, and a variety of criteria for determining when an exercise should be presented. What this means is that exercises do not have to be explicitly created by the user. So you can take any annotated database, and transform it into a training database. This magic occurs because you can tell the program, for instance, to look for moves with a "!" after, or "better is" before the position, and the program will stop before the move, and present the exercise dialog. I could also conceive of using this feature in conjunction with the new analysis modes to automatically produce training exercises.

Game Play

There is also a new dialog box that pops up before the game starts which allows you to set all the most-used playing options in one place. IMO, this is a welcome change, and improves the usability of this function a great deal. While I have not had a chance to look at it, Convekta informs me that Winboard support has improved as well. I did not try every Winboard engine, but I did download a few of the newer ones and install them. Since CA support both UCI and Winboard, the user has a couple of alternatives for making an engine work.

The processing of EPD test sets has also been improved, with a new mode that allows easier scoring of results.

Support

As I was preparing to put this review up on the web, I received some unsolicited e-mail from a couple of early CA 7 users, and long-time readers of this web page. These people heaped superlatives on the technical support department at Convekta. To be honest, all I usually get are complaints from people, so I felt that I had to mention it when things were being done right.

Final Remarks

I simply cannot understand how Convekta can keep adding so many new functions to the program. The capabilities of this version simply boggle the mind, and it becomes difficult to keep track of them. Thankfully, this is one of the few programs that still includes a printed manual.

My overall impression of CA 7 is that it is an excellent piece of software, even at twice the price. CA has always been extremely strong in the analysis department, and this version only increases its capabilities. Generally speaking, the functionality of this new version is so comprehensive, that just about any task can be supported.

And speaking of price - the upgrade is only $60 USD for owners of version 6+, while the full program goes for $110. This includes free game updates over the internet from Convekta’s servers.

In 2003, I started a Chess Assistant help site at www.chessassistance.com.

Copy Protection

Must install from original CD, no refueling necessary.