All the games you manage are saved as databases. While performing Chess Academy installation you can install the “Pro” Database, which would be registered in the application’s *.INI-file if installation completes successfully. You can then reinstall it again. The only restriction is that the Main Program must be already installed on your PC before installing a Database (and before installing Tutorial modules as well).

Note: There is no limit to installations of the Database from the original compact disk (or DVD), no matter about variant of installation: CD-ROM/DVD or complete.

How to load a Database

You can load the “Open Database” window to select and load the database: by clicking the toolbar button , or by choosing Open Database from the File menu. Moreover: the program retains the full path of the active Database file. On concluding work, this address is recorded in the program’s *.INI-file. The next period of work always starts with this Database.

Alternatively: press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+B.

The program gives some concise information about the registered databases. It displays all titles of registered databases (each database has the icon), the original name, the file name, and the full path, through which it can be accessed. Here you can see information about the type of database and the total number of games in it. Your program’s serial number, information about the owner of this copy of the Chess Academy software as well as the installation date for each database are also accessible.

Note: If some database was accidentally damaged the corresponding line will be displayed in a light gray color. Obviously, you can not open such a database.

How to add and register a Database in the “Open Database” window?

Chess Academy differentiates between databases by their various types. There are the following types of databases that can be registered by Chess Academy: “Pro”, “User”, “Converted”, “Update”, “Joined”, “Packed”, “Temporary”, and “Openings”. The icon for the newly registered database always appears in the “Open Database” window.

If you want to update your Database list, there are several ways to do it, namely:

click the Add… button and select the path to the folder “/MAIN” which contains a Database previously installed with another copy of Chess Academy software version 6.x, 5.5, 5.0, 4.5, or 4.0. Open the folder and select “CHACBASE.CHX” file in it. Then click the OK button.

Of course, you can also type the file name manually and register it by pressing Enter or clicking the OK button. The database is registered now for further use by Chess Academy software.

How to delete the registered database from the “Open Chess Database” window

If you want to delete any registered database from the list, click the Delete button in the “Open Chess Database” window.

You can also remove all associated files and folders from your hard disk by simply answering “Yes” on the program’s request.

Note: Exercise caution when answering “Yes for All” on the program’s request to delete all files from the folder.

As for functioning “Backup…” and “Restore…” buttons in the window and how to create Chess Academy Database backup copies and restore them, please see the Chess Academy Database Backup and Restore options.

Hints:

Check the free amount of space on a hard disk before installing the main program, databases, chess opening and middlegame books and tutorial libraries.

Do not put identical names of the installation directory for both previously installed and currently installed database files.

If you want to create a new file or if you open a file for writing, make sure the disk is not write-protected.

Chess Academy provides you with a huge game collection of about 2.100,000 games. Naturally, you may want to refresh the Database by yourself. You may also compose your own game’s collection. In both cases, you have to import new games to Chess Academy format first (see Chess Academy convert options). Then you may join up to 16 databases simultaneously into one large database.

How to join up to 16 databases simultaneously

Select the Join Databases… command from the File menu to start with joining. The “Select Databases to Join” window appears on the screen.

Alternatively: click the toolbar button .

The top part of the window displays a list of all registered databases in your system in exactly the same way as the “Open Database” window does. The only difference is that this list allows multiple selections in the standard Windows way (by holding down the shift and control keys) to select 2 or more (up to 16) databases to join. The total number of games in selected bases is reflected in the “Total games” box. In other words, here you can estimate the volume of the resulting database.

The bottom part of the window contains a “checklist” of databases selected to join. You may check bases whose files you want to remove from the hard disk (and from the list of registered databases as well) after joining is complete.

If it is necessary to delete all parent databases, press the Delete All button. Depress it to uncheck all lines (i.e., you want to preserve old bases).

The original Chess Academy Database may be installed either fully or partially (see Setting up the Chess Academy Main Package). When joining a partially installed database (version 7.x), you may select Copy game files from CD/DVD (version 7.x) option. The game files from the original Chess Academy CD/DVD will be copied to the location of the resulting base (only!) and will be appended with games from other joined bases, so the resulting base appears to be fully installed. However, this is not necessary, and the program will successfully find games on CD/DVD, which becomes common both for original and joined Databases. You may append the resulting base with the new game’s collections later on without any restrictions.

When joining a partially installed database of a previous version, the program will ask you for the original Chess Academy CD of the previous version and will copy game files onto the hard disk. The join option fails if the required CD/DVD is not found.

After you have selected bases to join and set “Delete parent Databases” flags, click on the Join button to proceed with joining.

Alternatively: press the Enter key.

Click on the Cancel button to cancel the process.

Alternatively: press Esc.

The only step remaining is to set the destination folder for the resulting database. The file selector window appears to select the path and to set the proper name. Next program starts to create a new base. This is accompanied by the depiction, on the screen, of a special Progress Report window with a scroll bar. Joining may be interrupted using the button Break in this window. In case of success, a new database of the “Joined” type will be created and registered.

Probably you have found a misspelling in the tournament name or several variants of the spelling of the same chess player (this is common for converted databases).

Select Edit Sources… from the Edit menu.

Alternatively: click the toolbar button   to edit sources.

The “Edit Sources” dialog window appears on the screen.

or Edit Names… command respectively from the Edit menu.

Alternatively: click the toolbar button to edit players’ names.

The “Edit Names” dialog window appears on the screen.

It presents a reference list containing the names of all those players whose games are in the Database, or the tournament locations, respectively. Now you can select any name or a set of names to edit them. Use the Locate field for quick access to the desired name in exactly the same manner as in the Header Search window. Any selection you have made is reflected in the “Items to link” window.

In case you have selected a single name it could be changed. To change the single selected name press the Rename button, or double-click the corresponding string either in the main or in the helper list. The “Enter new name” edit box becomes enabled and active. Here the name may be changed in any manner you like but no more than 25 characters in length. You must click on the Done button or press the Enter key to tell the program that the changes are valid and complete (any other action cancels the edit operation). Then the reference list becomes rearranged so that the new name appears to satisfy the alphabetical order.

In case you have selected several names they could be linked. Suppose you have selected Smith An, Smith Andy, and Smith Andrew names. It seems that all of them refer to one person. Select the appropriate variant of spelling in the helper list and double-click the corresponding line or press the Link button (Smith Andrew, for example). If you do not like any select the closest one. The “Enter new name” edit box becomes enabled and active. Here the name may be either changed or left as it is. Click on the Done button or press the Enter key to tell the program to display only the entered variant of the name instead of all others being selected (they will be deleted from the database). Any other action cancels the link operation. Deleted names are shown in light gray color in the list. There are no restrictions to link deleted or “new” names as many times as you want. However, it is impossible to rename deleted items or to link solely those items that were already deleted.

In case you have selected a previously deleted name, the window named “Linked with” displays the name with which it was linked. You may press the Unlink button to break the link previously set and to undelete the current name.

In case you have selected a single name you can find a piece of useful information in the “Inverted names” box. Suppose Smith Andrew is selected. A number of names like Andrew or Andrew Ian are presented in a drop-down list of inverted names. You then may unwrap the list and look for the Andrew Smith variant. If there is such an inverted name click on it.

Go to the button to quickly access it in the reference list and to link with the correct variant of the name.

Click on the Unmark button to unmark all previously marked items in the reference list and to clear the helper list.

Click on the Cancel button to discard all changes you have made.

Click on the Pack… button to rebuild the corresponding reference list and to re-index the database. This is accompanied by the depiction, on the screen, of a special Progress Report window with a scroll bar.

Packing may be interrupted using the button Break in this window.

Since renaming violates the index order, sorting options of all active lists of games from the current database are disabled all the time when the “Edit Names…” window is active. It is also impossible to use any other Database editing utility until you close the window.

Databases supplied by Chess Academy are free from duplicate games. However, this may be a very useful option in case you are working with a large database composed from a different source. Notice that this utility enables you to delete games, which occur more than one time in a database.

Select the Delete Duplicates… command from the Edit menu or click the toolbar button .

A dialog window named “Delete Duplicated Games” appears on the screen.

The detected duplicates may be either physically removed from the base or marked as deleted only. Select a proper mode from the “How to delete games” group.

Chess Academy uses a game file’s indices to look for candidates for “twins”. However, the program also checks game header information to decide whether these candidates are really duplicates or not. It is possible, in the “Consider…” group, to set particular elements of header consider or ignore when making a decision. The text of the game is never ignored.

Suppose the program has found several similar games. Now it has to decide which game to preserve. The necessary information could be set in the “Prefer to keep in Database games…” group. You may want to save those games that have all elements of the title valid (i.e., no ‘NN’ as any of Players and no ‘?’ as Source), or those having valid results (i.e., any but ‘?:?’), or those annotated or having additional game’s info. Finally, if two databases were merged into the current one you may prefer the low-numbered game, for example. Check the correspondent button and set the weight value, or accept default settings. The weight value may be entered in the range from 100 to -100. A negative value indicates that you wish to delete the game with the indicated property, positive – is to preserve.

Click on the Search… button or press the Enter key to start searching for duplicates.

Click the List… button to display a previously composed list of Duplicated Games (if any) without performing a new search.

Click Cancel or press Esc to cancel the command.

The search is accompanied by the depiction, on the screen, of a special Progress Report window with a scroll bar.

It may be interrupted using the button Break in this window.

In case you do not want to physically remove games a list of duplicated games could be displayed. Switch on the “Display List of Duplicates” option. This enables one to check game by game what decisions the program has taken and to improve wrong choices manually. This list is saved in dataset archives as TWINGAME.DAS file. Both sorting options and search options are disabled for the list of doubles. The program itself erases this dataset automatically after packing the database.

Select the Pack Database… command from the Edit menu to physically remove all games previously marked as deleted. This is known as “packing” the database.

Alternatively: click the Toolbar button .

The program may prompt you to delete the whole database from the database registry, but only if all its games are deleted. It will also ask to confirm your decision to rebuild the base. You can not restore deleted games in any way after packing.

The process is accompanied by the depiction, on the screen, of a special Progress Report window with a scroll bar.

It may be interrupted using the button Break in this window.

Das Packen wird begleitet von einer Dokumentation, die in einem scrollbaren Fenster angezeigt wird. Sie können den Vorgang jederzeit unterbrechen, indem Sie die Schaltfläche “Abbruch” in diesem Fenster betätigen.

You may decide to kill all annotations in the active database. To do so:

Select the Delete Annotations… command from the Edit menu or click the toolbar button .

You may also want to delete additional game info to save disk space for example.

To delete the game’s info throughout the base choose the Delete Game’s Info command from the Edit menu or click the toolbar button .

The program will ask you to confirm your decision to rebuild the base and, if so, remove files with annotations or game info from your hard disk. You can not restore deleted annotations in any way. The process is accompanied by the depiction, on the screen, of a special Progress Report window with a scroll bar. Because this is an unrecoverable command, the Break button in this window is disabled.

Probably you have found a dubious year of some chess event in the database or some game obviously was not classified according to ECO and has an A00 opening index (this is common for converted databases). Now you can correct such errors by yourself.

Select the Change Header… command from the Edit menu, or click the toolbar button .

Alternatively: press the Ctrl+H keyboard shortcut.

When working with games list this command may be disabled if no one game is selected. In case several games are marked as selected, the header of the very first game among those selected will be changed. Obviously when starting the utility from the game viewing window or the game’s editor the header of this particular game will be changed.

The “Edit Game’s Header” window appears on the screen.

The index number of the edited game is displayed at the top of the window. You can change any field of the game’s header (naturally except a number of moves).

Use the Set index button to classify the game according to ECO or select the opening index manually from the drop-down list.

Click the Reset button to restore the original header.

Click the Cancel button or press the Esc key to cancel changes.

Click the OK button or press the Enter key to rebuild and re-index the database.

The database must be rebuilt in case even one header element is changed. However, the re-indexing time depends upon how many header elements were changed. This is accompanied by the on-screen depiction of a special Progress Report window with a scroll bar.

Database reconstruction may be interrupted using the button Break in this window.

Note: It is not recommended to use this command to change the names of players or tournaments in the whole database. Run Edit Names and Edit Sources utilities instead.