CHESSBASE IS MAKING TRICKS

Chessbase is undoubtedly the best PGN editor out there. Nowadays, most chess databases, including the Chess Informator and Encyclopedia of Chess Openings (ECO), are in the Chessbase format.

One cannot avoid Chessbase if one is playing chess seriously.

Unfortunately, Chessbase misuses its monopoly status. Its behaviour, its databases, and the chess programs associated with it violate consumer rights and business ethics codes.

Chessbase forces to buy new versions of it

I had the Chessbase PGN editor, version 14. This old program could create, open, and edit all the PGN files and databases in Chessbase format. I was pretty satisfied with this version and did not intend to upgrade it or buy a newer version. Free updates of Chessbase 14 were sometimes available anyway.

Recently, Chessbase started advertising that I had to buy a newer version. When using the automated analyses of the games, it ceased to make comments in the style "peredecessor", referring to earlier games from the same position. 

I did not need that superficial feature anyway. It is strange, however, that Chessbase announced that the program is outdated and that the feature requires an update. 

When I bought Chessbase years ago, where did they say such features would expire? - Nowhere!

Things became worse, however. 

Suddenly, Chessbase 14 suggested I make a free update, which I did. Unfortunately, the updated version did not work correctly, so I could not create new games with the correct data. Thus, I was forced to buy Chessbase 17, wasting 189 Euros.

It seems that the sudden "update" was specially designed to make the program unusable and force consumers to buy a newer version.

That is a robbery.

Chessbase behaves as a spy program

There is the "Let's Check" feature on Chessbase. If you are analysing a position using the chess engine, then "Let's Check" allows you to see the analyses of other users with different chess engines and depth of analysis.

Sometimes, if you make a move in the position, the "Let's Check" feature turns on, but sometimes it does not. 

On its homepage, Chessbase somewhere declares that your analyses are "yours", but you can see the analyses of others. However, Chessbase does not explain in what sense exactly your analyses are "yours". And it does not explain how it gets the analyses of others.

Thus, there is a suspicion that Chessbase will take your engine analysis from your local computer, store it in the cloud, and make it visible to others.

The general feature of Chessbase is that, seemingly on purpose, it does not give exact information concerning several disputable features.

Suppose you are a top grandmaster preparing for an important match or competition. In that case, I suggest you use chess engines for your opening preparation only if you are not logged in to Chessbase and your computer is not connected to the internet.

Perhaps you should even use Chessbase only on a computer, never connected to the internet.

There is another feature of Chessbase that makes it look like a spy program

Newer versions of Chasbase are stealing the clipboard content. If you are copying a chessgame in another program and do not use the clipboard cleaner, what happens if you open the Chessbase?

Your clipboard content immediately appears in Chessbase as a new game. Worse, it is already saved in the file named "My PGN Downloads."

The user has not been informed about such a feature. It is also difficult to find how to switch off that feature.

No other chess program I know steals or even saves the clipboard's content. For example, Shredder pastes a game from the clipboard only if you click the "Paste" button, and it saves it only if you click "Save."

In this sense, Chessbase is similar to the spy program Microsoft Edge, which steals the addresses of the web pages you visit on other browsers. 

Of course, Chessbase does not steal your passwords from the clipboard unless you use the PGN file as a password.

If you need to be cautious, do not keep the Chessbase open while working with other chess programs, and remember to use a comfortable clipboard cleaner.

Chessbase app is not working

There is a cheaper version of Chessbase—the Chessbase app for Android. It can be used on a mobile phone.

Unfortunately, it is a waste of money. Chessbase still sells that app on Google Play. However, it seems abandoned, and its real name should be "No Games Found." For years, it has been unable to find games from the databases and constantly hangs. To exit, one must use the "Stop" command from the mobile phone's settings.

The Chessbase app malfunctions independently of the speed of the internet connection and the Android version or mobile phone used.

Playchess malfunctions

I have played hundreds of chessgames on some chess platforms, and never something suspicious happened. I was playing for free, without charge.

Some chess platforms, however, behave strangely. 

I wrote about Chessbase's "Playchess" earlier. 

You pay money for the service, but it downloads the wrong games onto your local computer, deletes them, makes them inaccessible, etc. 

You are setting the rating difference in the "formula", but the system ignores your command and gives you an opponent with the ELO 500 points above or below your strength. 

You have a perfect internet connection and receive messages during the game, but the chessboard suddenly hangs, and you lose an important match. Playchess declares that you have been disconnected, which is considered a forfeit. But it never happened on some other platforms.

The new version of Chessbase malfunctions

While Chessbase forced me to buy a new version of Chessbase, the latest version does not work correctly.

The "Tactical Analysis" feature never failed on Chessbase 14. Unfortunately, on Chessbase 17, it gives a "Runtime error" message and stops working.

To use the automated analysis feature, I have to use Shredder, which is five times cheaper than Chessbase, or Scid, which is entirely free.

***

And so on.

So let's pay more and more money for the monstrum.

I ABANDON THE PLATFORM PLAYCHESS

Chessbase's playing platform, Playchess, cheated again. 

Today, it robbed 30 points of my ELO. 

It is interesting to note that it always happens then and only then when I have reached the top 5 or 10 on the list of current-day players.

Today, in my rapid game Nanomaster—Sd75, I had white pieces. I suddenly couldn't make a move, and the system announced that my opponent had left the game and was playing another one.

Do I really have to wait politely? It is a rapid game that was interrupted.

Earlier today, the server was down for a while.

After approximately 5 minutes, I tried different buttons on Playchess, like "Refresh", etc.

Suddenly, Playchess declared I had lost a game because my opponent CLAIMED I had disconnected the game.

At the same time, I had a perfect internet connection, but I was technically unable to press the "Claim win" or "Abort" buttons.

It was technically impossible to report the problem. As always, the "Help" button gave an error message.

According to Playchess, my opponent closed the game and, therefore, I lost the game!

In a 15-minute game, I had used 5 minutes, and 10 minutes were left. I was not thinking about my last move for more than 2 minutes. 

Tell me, how could my opponent start a new game and make an official complaint if I had been disconnected for only two minutes?! What normal person would complain if the opponent was disconnected for only one minute?

Please explain how I could have been disconnected if my clock was running and Playchess was able to send me messages that my opponent started a new game, that my opponent made a complaint, and that the arbiter ascribed me a loss?

You are cheaters, Chessbase and your Playchess!

Despite paying for the service for one year, I will no longer play a single game on Playchess.

STUPID TACTICS TRAINING

I found such a solution from the Chessbase's Playchess, Tactics Training: 1...Rg3+!!

White to move

Playchess's Tactics Training (similar to Chess24's, for example)—I seriously dislike such a fever.

They are trying to train you to be a superficial robot. 

Some stupid psychologists probably invented such a system.

Instead, I recommend using, for example, Chesstempo's tactics training. It trains you to calculate difficult, complicated positions and see nuances. 

On Chesstempo, you have to start by understanding the material balance of the position and its structure. It is important to know if you are a pawn down, etc., because the rightness of the solution depends on the final material balance.

I have received a rating above 2400 on such training systems. True, I often had to waste 30 minutes to find the right solution.

Let's return to Playchess's system. My tactics rating there is below 1800, and I will probably not use that system anymore.

Often, they give only 30 seconds to "solve" the problem.

Often, I have made the "right move" without having time to understand whether the final position's material balance and structure are good enough. After the "successful" solution, a new problem is immediately presented, while your brain is dissatisfied and still wondering whether the "right" solution was indeed right.

Often, I have lost time because I am still counting the dissipated pawns and exchanges.

Obviously, they are training you to be a blitz-idiot.

In a real game, the player remembers how many pawns and exchanges one has sacrificed!

PLAYCHESS LOST MY GAME

Recently, I criticized the chess platform Chess King Play. Among other things, that platform lost one of my wins against a player with a high ELO. I did not see a notation of that game while the result was recorded, and, accordingly, my ELO was increased. The support team never answered my complaint. I abandoned that platform.

Now, I was playing on the Chessbase's platform Playchess. 

If you pay for it, it has some comfortable features. For example, if you enter Playchess through your Chessbase program, all the games played will appear directly on your computer in Chessbase without you needing to download them.

Unfortunately, not all.

Today, I achieved an ELO higher than 2050. Suddenly, a player with an ELO around 1400 accepted my challenge to a rapid game. That was some grandmaster or, instead, some bastard using the chess engine during the game. That opponent played exceptionally quickly and precisely. Its opening preparation turned out to be the best of the day. In a rapid game, I lost a lot of time. I do not know the opening theory. 

I lost the game. I lost about 30 points of ELO.

I do not know the username of that player. I do not remember the game except for the first ten moves.

While Playchess decreased my ELO, that game does not appear on my games list. Playchess has lost that game, and it has disappeared.

These are clear signs of manipulation.

Someone creates an account to decrease someone else's ELO. That account has a very low ELO. It plays against a chosen opponent using the chess engine. The account owner also has another account with a high ELO.

It is probably some admin of the platform, as it was able to delete the evidence.

So why should I continue to pay for such services?

And isn't it sick to use such manipulation to get revenge for a lost game? Is winning in a chessgame really so all-important?

Post Scriptum

A few days later...

When the time comes, I will not renew my subscription to Chessbase.

The only reason I subscribed was that I started playing on its Playchess. Playchess does not even record the games if not paid. No downloads are allowed, either. 

Unfortunately, even in the paid version, some games are lost.

Today, two games disappeared. The system announced that it failed to save the games:

Playchess failed to download the game

Fortunately, these games are still on Chessbase on the internet. Because of some technical mistake, they were not downloaded to my local computer's Chessbase program. I had to download the games manually.

But one game that disappeared earlier (I wrote about it above) has vanished altogether.

The other reason is that cheaters are not ruled out. 

I am pretty sure that today and yesterday, some of my opponents used chess engines during the game. They played very fast and, as my computer analysis shows, almost without any mistakes. During the game, the rhythm of their moves was also robotic. Human players take a pause when facing a surprise. And so on. 

How do you explain if a player with the ELO 2200 makes perfect novelties in two rapid games in random openings, improving the mistakes made by correspondence chess grandmasters?

There is one more problem. I do not know how to switch off the chat on Playchess. 

It is interesting to note that precisely those players playing very fast and without mistakes (as the computer analysis shows) disturb the opponent with improper remarks like "Why do you not move?" etc. You are in a zeitnot, and your opponent has wasted only one minute from fifteen. And he disturbs you with such comments.

Later, one of these players accused me in the chat of being impolite because I did not answer his comments during the game. He knew I was in serious zeitnot!

So, why is the option of turning off the chat not salient, and why cannot I find it?

Why should I pay for such services?

Today, I had some nice games. It is always a pleasure to lose a chessgame to a resistant opponent who plays human chess, makes some mistakes, but finally wins by masterfully exploiting your blunder.

More Technical Mistakes

It is very interesting. On my computer, in the Chessbase program, the file with my Playchess games was inaccessible for a while. 

Chessbase program cannot access the Playchess file

Later, it contained a large number of chessgames that did not belong to me. Finally, it started to include only my games, but some were still missing.

What else does the Chessbase program upload and download from the users' personal computers without their consent and knowledge?