Enc of Semiclosed Games Vol I

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Encyclopaedia of Semiclosed Games, Vol 1.

Reviewed in 1999

This program is a new electronic opening reference from the makers of Chess Assistant. There are a couple of components to this software. The first component is the program itself, which is a version of Chess Assistant 4.0 with a reduced feature set. The second component is a set of database files. One database contains theory, while another database contains about 95000 illustrative games, of which about 350 are commented. A chess tree file is also included - it gives information on how often each opening occurs, along with success statistics for each variation. While following a variation in the theory section of the DB, you can right click, and bring up a set of illustrative games for that and similar openings. You can also get success statistics for any position you desire. Furthermore, you can search for a particular position within either database, analyze variations using the built-in chess engines (DRAGON and Crafty),comment games, and print ECO tables and games.

The program concentrates on providing coverage for the Gruenfeld, Benoni, Modern Benoni, Old Indian, some miscellaneous non-QG d-pawn openings, and anti-indian systems like the Torre and Trompowsky. If you have specific questions about a particular variation, I would suggest that you e-mail Chess Assistant. It would be a little cheeky of me to render a judgement about how good or bad the coverage is. However, I think Benoni players will be very happy with it (I play the Benoni, but not many of the other openings that are covered by this program).

Obviously, this software will be of most use to those that play the openings that are covered in the program.

Copy Protection

CD based. You must have the original CD to install the program. The program must be reinstalled if your computer's configuration changes appreciably. Otherwise, the CD is not needed. This is the same copy protection for all CD software from the CA people - it is probably the best scheme that I have seen.

Advantages

1. Opening lookup is very fast.
2. The program is organized by descriptive name, and not just by ECO code, thus making it a bit easier to use than some other competing products.
3. It is superior to a book in many respects, due to the ease with which you can search for and print positions and variations.
4. You can use the supplied databases with Chess Assistant, which really increases the utility of this software.
5. It is useful for picking up/learning a new opening because of the presence of both the ECO-like reference and the illustrative games.
6. Many of the features of Chess Assistant are supported (see the review of CA 4.0 for windows).
7. While it was impossible for me to check for the existence of every game that was referenced in the theory section of the program, I believe (based on my experience) that all the games referenced in the theory section are present. This makes the program much more useful for studying middlegame plans.

Disadvantages

1. One of the main features that is missing is the ability to create a new game. However, you can modify existing games, and save those changes.
2. There is no ability to open other databases. I suspect there is a work-around for this (i.e. editing the .ini file of the program, but I have not tried it).