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NiC Sicilian Defense and Yearbook 51/52

Reviewed in 2000

Since this original review was written, there have been some changes to the NiC yearbook. I recently received yearbook 52, and there have been a few improvements in the program, not the least of which is the inclusion of CBF, CBH and PGN files containing commented games. In yearbook 52, these databases contain over 1000 games with languageless annotations. Not every game in this database contains variations and comments, but about 90% do. If you want to read the symbols in the PGN file properly, you need to use Chessbase (which also reads CBF and CBH without a hitch). Chess Assistant users are best off reading the .CBF format files, which translate quite well.

There are articles on a wide variety of opening variations, and you should really go to the NiC web page to see a list. For example, the openings covered include: Sicilian Gothenburg Variation, Sicilian Dragon, Closed Sicilian, Ruy Lopez, Evans Gambit, Scotch Opening, Max Lange Attack, Slav Defence, Nimzo-Indian Classical, King's Indian/Benoni: Four Pawns. Annotators include (but are not limited to): Shirov, Gufeld, Svidler, Adams, Leko, Van Wely, Anand, Serper, Langeweg, Korchnoi, and Golubev.

Another improvement is the ability to use Fritz 5.32 as an external analysis engine.

Ok, here is the old review, based on Yearbook 51:

Overview

For some years, New in Chess (NIC) has published print periodicals that concentrate on the latest developments in opening theory. NIC magazine comes out eight times a year, and the NIC yearbook is issued quarterly.

For the purposes of this review, I looked at two New In Chess (NIC) products. The first of these, NIC Yearbook 51, is an electronic version of the NIC periodical by the same name, but contains more games than the print version (because it includes relevant games from prior yearbooks also). This particular version of the yearbook contains articles on the Sveshnikov Sicilian, Gruenfeld (with Bc4), Winawer French and more. Among the contributors to this CD are Adams, Gallagher, Gelfand, Morozevich, Polgar and Anand. There are 33 opening surveys and 38,000 games on the CD. I would recommend that you go to the NIC website for more information on the contents of the CD, because I have only scratched the surface.

The second of these, The Sicilian Defense in the Nineties, discusses recent advances in the Sicilian defense and looks at the Schevenginen, Rauzer, Dragon and Najdorf variations, along with more offbeat lines like the Grand Prix, Rossolimo, Kalashnikov and Alapin. The CD contains 85,000 games, of which 4,000 are commented. Contributors to this CD include Kasparov, Anand, Kramnik, Shirov, Timman and Sosonko. Once again, you should check the NIC website for more information. Both CDs share the same interface and method for accessing information. The openings CDROMs also include illustrations of players and other personal information not found on the Yearbook.

When you start either program you are greeted with a menu which allows you to chose from among the following choices:

• Introduction - This choice displays a few paragraphs describing what you will find on the CD. Database - This is essentially a key (and not tree) view of the games database on the CD. You need to rely on commentary provided by the author of a particular opening survey to get an idea of which lines are better. The manufacturers claim that the NIC key system is more detailed than any other key system, but I am unable to comment on whether this is true or not. At first glance, it does seem more detailed than the informant ECO code, but this should not be taken as the definitive statement on this subject. All games included in the database are master level games (no weak players, so there are fewer games with obvious blunders).
• Game viewer - Here you can do a header search for any game that is on the CD. For instance, you can search for Kasparov's latest games. Any games that match your search criteria are placed in a list. The games can then be accessed in succession (but not randomly). They appear on a chessboard with a move list to one side. You can step through the moves of the games. When stepping through the game, you can stop at variations or annotated moves. You can use a pop-up analysis board for looking at variations you might want to consider, and you can also call an external chess program to analyze moves that you might think are important. If you use Fritz, then the whole game score is exported, and you need to step through the game to the position you are interested in. If you use rebel, then you are automatically presented with only the position (EPD export is used for rebel).
• Surveys -These are hypertext documents that take the form of a short text introduction that explains some of the main ideas of the opening. You can click on game moves in the text and have them appear on a chessboard. Each introductory paragraph is followed by a list of games that are important for that particular variation.
• Theory - Contains an index of opening theory articles present on the CD. It is organized by NIC opening code. It is another method for accessing the surveys.
• Forum - Contains an index of hypertext articles present on the CD. Mostly these articles deal with opening theory. It is organized by article author.
• Index - This is just an index to the current and previous issues of NIC. It does not seem to be hypertext enabled. It is organized by English opening name - for example, you can look up the King's Gambit and find out which issues of NIC cover this opening.

I think the primary audience for these CDROMs is the very strong player that does not need heavily annotated games, and those that need the latest and greatest in opening theory. The openings CDROMs provide more detail (in the form of an introductory essay) that will be more helpful to players of moderate skill.

Incidentally, Chess Combinations Inc (a distributor of NiC products) also offers an e-mail subscription service that reports on over 100 OTB tournaments a year. This data is provided in NiCBase and old Chessbase (cbf) format, the latter can be read by both Chessbase and Chess Assistant.

Strengths

1. The format of the opening surveys is fairly intuitive to use - click on a move, and a small board appears, showing you the variation you're studying.
2. Having GM/IM commentary and analysis for studying an opening is mostly what you are paying for. I cannot stress this enough - this is the main selling point of this software.
3. A fair number of programs are supported for external analysis Fritz 4/5 (does not work with Fritz 5.32), Kallisto II, Mchess 5/6, Rebel 7,8,9,10.
4. Overall, information is much easier to access in this form than on paper.
5. You can search for almost anything (player name, tournament, NIC opening code, etc).
6. Unlike some of the other electronic opening e-books, games are provided in a
7. non-proprietary format (PGN) and can be printed (but only one at a time). If you use a PGN reader/database program in conjunction with the CDROM, you can print out multiple games if you wish.
8. There are reasonable search facilities - you can look for games by player, place, source, author, year, result, NIC code, game length, etc.
9. The program has modest hardware requirements, and will run on both win3.1 and win9X.
10. NIC issues these CDs on a regular basis (four times a year), so the information contained in them is fairly current. This is obviously quite important if you need to keep abreast of the latest opening developments.

Weaknesses

1. The program has a confusing layout. There are many ways to access the opening information, but the English names given to the different menus items are not especially intuitive.
2. There is no tree view of the game data. While the key system is fairly decent for navigating through specific variations of interest, it does not show you success statistics for each move. However, I do think the aim of the program partially offsets this weakness (i.e. You are relying on some IM/GM to tell you what the topical lines and ideas are). So, you will need to decide for yourself whether this is a detriment or not.
3. You cannot see entire variations at one time (i.e. You only see one move of a particular variation at a time). I think that doing your own visualization of variations is somewhat important, and the way that the NIC programs present the data does not encourage this kind of visualization. It is also not the way one normally reads a game score in a chess book.
4. You cannot export variations in game scores (just the main line). This was probably done for copyright concerns. I have been informed by the manufacturers that you can access these variations if you use Nicbase3 (a database program published by the same company). Tascbase has the ability to import NiCbase files as well, so you may be able to get at the variations this way.
5. I thought that analysis tended to be somewhat sparse.
6. There is no way to search by board position (although once again, this is offered with the Nicbase3 program).

Copy Protection

Data resides on CDROM. The NiC browser application assumes that the databases will reside there.