The program calls up the dialog window “Header Search Pattern”:

by choosing by Header… from the Search menu or by clicking the toolbar button

Alternatively: use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+F3

A dialog window called “Header Search Pattern” shows a large number of lines and buttons that can be used to specify the properties of the games you want to select and study.

If you do not specify anything in one or more lines, the program will ignore the properties of those lines when scanning the game’s list. So, if you do not care about certain attributes of a game, you do not have to specify anything for those attributes in the “Header Search Pattern” window.

Note: in the lines White, Black, and Source you do not have to specify the full names of the attributes obligatory. For example, if you click the White button and specify KASPAR in the Locate field, the following players to be displayed in the box: Kaspar, Kasparian, Kaspariants, Kasparov, etc. Two or more items also can be selected.

Buttons in the “Header Search Pattern” window

There are the following buttons and appropriate lines in the dialog window:

White – A reference list appears, in which there are listed the names of all those players, whose games are in the base. You may select one or more (up to 100) players for white for the search pattern.

Black – The same reference list appears. You may select one or more (up to 100) players for black for the search pattern.

Place – A reference list appears, in which there are listed the places, where tournaments were held. You may select up to 100 sources for the search pattern.

Opening – A reference list appears, in which there are listed the names of chess openings. Any selection made in the list automatically adds (or deletes) the corresponding indices to those already selected by means of the Opening index option. This is because the search will be actually performed on ECO indices, the names of openings being supplied for the user’s convenience.

Opening index – A reference list appears, in which there are listed 500 opening indices according to the ECO system.

Year – A reference list appears, in which there are listed the years in which those games in the Database were played.

Moves – A reference list appears, in which there are listed all variants of the number of moves in the games are in the base. It specifies the length of the game.

Game’s Marks – Enables to specify the type of game in accordance with the Chess Academy Game Classification.

Here you can choose one from the three following settings: Ignore marks (i.e., simply ignore this option while searching in the games list), Look for any mark (select all games that match at least one mark from those encountered), and Look for all marks (select only those games that match the whole list of marks).

Click any button mentioned above, move the mouse in the scroll box, and select any item (name or value) or several items by clicking it. There is a drop-down list to the right of each button. You can unwrap any and look through the selections you have made.

The button clears all selected attributes for the corresponding line.

Click the next buttons in the “Header Search Pattern” window to:

Copy pattern – copy the current search pattern and search options from the window to the clipboard.

Paste pattern – retrieve the previously copied search pattern and options from the clipboard.

Unmark – unmark all previously marked attributes in the active reference list;

Clear All – clear all selected attributes in all lines;

Invert colors – invert colors for white and black players;

Search – accept entered options and begin the search;

Cancel – abort action and go back to the previous screen;

Help – call up the relevant section of the Help file relating to the current window.

To set the result of the game(s), please select:

Any – any results are possible (default);

1-0 – White wins;

0-1 – Black wins;

1/2-1/2 – draw;

?-? – stands for line, which is a game with an assessment as result, or result is unknown.

Note: The choice of the result Any excludes all other choices and vice versa. Search according only to results is not provided by the program.

Other Search Options:

Ignore Colors – Find all the games of chess players indicated in the “Black” line or “White” line, regardless of the color of the pieces. If these two lines are empty, then the command is ignored.

Use Dataset – If selected, the search will be done in the active Dataset only.

Note: This option is automatically checked in case you start the search from the active dataset game’s list. Hence if you perform the repeated search, be sure that the Use Dataset button is checked to look for games in the latest list of games, and unchecked to look through the whole active Database.

From the Search through a drop-down list, select where the next search operation will take place.

The available options are:

Active list of games only. This is the default setting. The program looks for games in the active database or dataset list only.

All opened database lists. The search will include all loaded databases. However, dataset lists will be ignored (if any). If the Use Dataset flag is on it will be ignored as well.

All opened lists. The search will examine all loaded up-to-the-moment game lists no matter whether is it a list of datasets or a database. Use Dataset flag will be automatically set on.

Note: When searching in multiple lists, remember that the spelling of the names may be quite different in different databases. Obviously, the search results will reflect this fact.

The same effect could take place if using Copy pattern and Paste pattern commands for different databases.

Note: You may combine the Header Pattern Attributes with other search options (Search by Position Pattern, by Material Pattern, or by Route Pattern).

Example: Searching for players

The search can be for one or several players at the same time:

1. Enter the name or part of the name (e.g., “Kaspar”) in the Locate field. The list of players is displayed and shows all players, who have identical names or part of names (for example, Kaspar, Kasparian, Kaspariants, Kasparov). After changing in the Locate field any letter or few letters (for example, you have entered Karp) program displays all the players whose names start with that letter (Karpeshov, Karpman, Karpov, etc.).

2. When searching for more than one player, select from the list all the names, which you want to search.

3. When looking for player’s games by certain color select names to “White” or “Black” line respectively.

4. You can also invert the content of the “White” and “Black” lines by clicking the Invert colors button.

5. The Ignore colors checkbox also permits settings of players’ names with colors reversed. If you have input “Kasparov” for White and “Karpov” for Black, for example, the Ignore colors option switched on means that the program will find all the games for both colors that were played by Kasparov and Karpov.

6. If you are looking only for games won, lost, or drawn you can restrict the search by selecting 1-0, 0-1, or 1/2-1/2 respectively, or selecting Any button for searching by any results.

7. Chess Academy will look also for games in which the white player (players) plays against the black players.

8. By clicking, all the players whose name has been entered will be removed from the players list.

9. The search for specific sources, game’s length, year, opening index, and opening works in a similar way.

Hint for using the “Search” patterns: before you make any new selections, check that there are no selections already made if you do not want them. The number in the “Selected” field should be 0 in such case. Click Clear All to erase the previously made selections.

Starting the search

If you are playing a game or viewing a key position and want to search by current position, click the toolbar button , or choose by Position… from the Search menu.

Alternatively: use the keyboard shortcut F3

The program transfers the current position from the active window to the pattern board. Exactly in the same way you can transfer to the Position Search window from the game’s list except that the initial chess position will be displayed on the pattern board.

Set the desired search options and click the Search button to start the search procedure.

The program searches the active database or active dataset for the position on the pattern board in the Position Search window taking into consideration other search options if any. All games containing this position are collected in a new dataset, and the game’s list of the dataset will be shown. When loading a game from the list the program immediately jumps to the position satisfying the search criteria.

Entering pieces on the chessboard

To put a piece on a square, click the appropriate button in the piece palette placed under the chessboard. The mouse cursor takes the shape of the selected piece. Clicking on the destination square of the board with the left mouse button you will put the piece there. If there is already a piece on the square, it will be automatically replaced by the new piece. Clicking with the right mouse button you can clear the pointed square.

If you wish to erase all pieces, click the button Sweep.

Obligatory pieces

The pattern board is used to fix a piece on a square. A piece placed on a particular square for the search function means, that on this square only this particular piece of this particular color may be placed.

Other pieces settings

Any piece on the board may be crossed out, except the empty square. A crossed-out piece means that anything else or nothing at all may be placed there.

Note: Here you can also establish which white (black) pieces and pawns should not be on specific squares in the positions you are looking for.

For example,  means that on that square should not be the white king.

The symbol means that any piece of the indicated color may be placed on this square.

The symbol means that any piece of any color may be placed on this square, but the square should not be empty.

The crossed-out symbol means that on this square any piece of the opposite color may be placed or the square may be left empty.

The crossed-out symbol means that this square should be left empty.

You are prompted on what is placed on the square pointed with the mouse cursor by the short message string in the program’s Status Bar.

Example: Entering the middlegame position in which an isolated white pawn appears on d4. First, you have to define the following attributes, for example:

1) there is a white pawn on d4

2) there are no white pawns on the c-file or e-file

3) there are no block black pawns on the d-file

4) there is a black pawn on the square e6

Click the white pawn button in the pieces palette. The mouse cursor will take on the form of a white pawn. Click the left mouse button on the destination square “d4”. A white pawn appears on the destination square.

Click then on the squares c2, c3, c4, c5, c6, c7, e2, e3, e4, e5, e7.

Click the button in the pieces palette. The mouse cursor will take on the form of a cross sign. Click the left mouse button on the squares mentioned above.

Click the black pawn button in the pieces palette. The mouse cursor will take on form of a black pawn. Click the left mouse button on the destination square e6. A black pawn appears on e6.

Start the search procedure by clicking the Search button. Alternatively: press the Enter key.

“Set Pattern” settings

Current – The program shows the current position (i.e., the position passed to the Search window from the Game viewing window). Here you can Sweep position (clears the entire board and sets the piece number to zero) to set up a position you want to find, Invert position, or jump to the Initial position. If you wish to set up an endgame or middlegame fragment, it is easiest to start from an empty board.

Initial – The program shows the initial chess position. Here you can step one move Back, Invert position, or jump to the Initial position. If you wish to set up an opening position, it is the easiest way to start from an initial position on the board. Here you can play a game move by move using the mouse.

Search options

Consider blank squares – Switching it on/off enables you to ignore or consider blank squares on the pattern board. When switched off, the obtained position will be undefined in the sense that any square on the board that is left empty will not be considered during the search, i.e., in the found position anything or nothing may stand there. When switched on, the position obtained in this case will always be defined, i.e., empty squares on the board are considered just as empty.

Balance – Here you can enter values from 0 to 250. This option sets the number of half-moves, during the course of which the sought position in the found game remains unchanged. This allows you to avoid games with a quick exchange of pieces.

If the sought position is definite or the tree is building then the balance value is ignored and resets to 0.

Last move – Here you can enter values from 0 to 250. This option gives the number of that move, on which the search in any game must finish. By default the search lasts till the very end of a game, the value of the parameter in this case equals to 0.

Start move – Here you can enter values from 0 to 250. This option gives the number of that move, from which the search in any game begins. By default the search starts from the beginning of the game, the value of the parameter in this case is equal to 0 or 1. Obviously, it can’t exceed the value of the Last move.

Header search – Switch it on/off to enable call up the window “Header Search pattern”.

Ignore colors – When switched on, it permits a search, in which the position indicated on the board will be observed as it is as well as being laterally inverted.

Note: You have to place at least one definite piece on the board to ensure Ignore colors option. You also shouldn’t switch on the Ignore colors option while constructing tree of chess variants.

Use Dataset – When switched on, a search will be carried out only among the games of the active set.

Note: This option is automatically checked in case you start the search from the active Dataset game’s list. Hence if you perform the repeated search, be sure that the Use Dataset button is checked if you want to look for games in the latest list of games, and unchecked if you want to look through the whole active Database.

“To Move” settings

Here you can choose from:

Any – any move is possible from the sought position;

White – White has to move from the sought position;

Black – Black has to move from the sought position.

“White Castle” settings

The checkboxes in the “White Castle” group set the definite presence of long or short castling for White before that moment when the position sought appeared on the board. Here you can choose from:

Ignore – any White Castle may be or may not be done;

0-0 – Only Short Castle was done;

0-0-0 – Only Long Castle was done;

No castle – No White Castle was done.

“Black Castle” settings

The checkboxes in the “Black Castle” group set the definite presence of long or short castling for Black before that moment when the position sought appeared on the board. Here you can choose from:

Ignore – any Black Castle may be or may not be done;

0-0 – Only Short Castle was done;

0-0-0 – Only Long Castle was done;

No castle – No Black Castle was done.

“Color of Bishops” settings

The checkboxes in the “Color of Bishops” group indicate the presence of bishops of the same or opposite color on both sides in the required position. The chosen correlation of bishops will be taken into account during the search. Here you can choose from:

Any color – all the games no matter about the presence of bishops in the sought position are considered.

Same color – only games with the same colored bishops are considered.

Opposite color – only games with opposite-colored bishops are considered.

Other search settings

From the Search through a drop-down list, select where the next search operation will take place. The available options are:

Active list of games only. This is the default setting. The program looks for games in the active database or dataset list only.

All opened database lists. The search will include all loaded databases. However, dataset lists will be ignored (if any). If the Use Dataset flag is on it will be ignored as well.

All opened lists. The search will examine all loaded up-to-the-moment game lists no matter whether is it a list of datasets or a database. Use Dataset flag will be automatically set on.

Buttons in the “Position Search Pattern” window

There are the following buttons displayed in the window and their short description:

Copy pattern – Copies the current search position and search options from the window to the clipboard. The header search flag is ignored as well as the header search pattern.

Paste pattern – Retrieves the previously copied search position and search options from the clipboard.

Search – Accepts find option and starts the search. The program is looking for all games in which the desired position occurred and considers other search options mentioned above.

Header – Opens the “Header Search Pattern” dialog window and enables the combination of both searches.

Tree – The program performs a search in the active games list and creates a tree of chess variants from the current definite position entered on the board.

Cancel – Aborts all actions in the window and goes back to the previous screen.

Help – Calls up the relevant section of the Help file relating to the current window.

The search for material looks for specific material correlations between white and black pawns and other pieces on the chess board without their definite arrangement.

Starting the search

If you are playing a game or viewing a key position and want to search by material click the toolbar button  or choose by Material… from the Search menu.

Alternatively: use the keyboard shortcut Alt+F3.

The program transfers the current material correlation from the active window to the search pattern.

Exactly in the same way you can transfer to the Material Search window from the game’s list except that you’ll have to set up the material correlation by yourself.

Set the desired search options and click the Search button to start the search procedure.

How to enter Material Correlation

The numbers from both sides of the pieces in the window denote how many pieces of each type are allowed. For every white or black piece, and for the whole number of pieces of one color, you can input the minimum and maximum value or nothing. The last means that this value would not be taken into consideration when searching in the games list.

Examples: If the range for white pawns is set as “0 – 8” (or “? – ?”, or “? – 8”, or “0 – ?”), it does not matter how many white pawns will be on the board in the sought position. If it is set as “3 – 7”, e.g., the only valid positions are those with at least three and at most seven white pawns. Setting a minimum and maximum number for King makes no sense, of course.

The Ignore colors box enables you to find all games, for which the indicated correlation of material is justly independent of the color of the pieces. For example, if you have input “from 1 to 2” for White knight and “from 1 to 1” (i.e., exactly one) for Black bishop, and all the other piece values are set to zero, the Ignore colors option means that the program will not only find white knight(s) against black bishop endgames, it will also find white bishop against Black knight(s) endgames.

Note: If you input into the left field some value greater than into the right one (“1 – 0” or “2 – 3”, for example) for any type of piece, the program will reverse the correlation when searching. In other words, the location of minimum and maximum values is not fixed.

“To Move” settings

Here you can choose from:

Any – any move is possible from the sought position;

White – White have to move from the sought position;

Black – Black have to move from the sought position.

“Color of Bishops” settings

The checkboxes in the “Color of Bishops” group indicate the presence of bishops of the same or opposite color on both sides in the required position. The chosen correlation of bishops will be taken into account during the search.

Here you can choose from:

Any color – all the games no matter about the presence of bishops in the sought position are considered.

Same color – only games with the same colored bishops are considered.

Opposite color – only games with opposite-colored bishops are considered.

Any choice is automatically reflected in the fields with minimum and maximum values for Bishops.

Search options

Balance – Here you can enter values from 0 to 250. This option sets the amount of half-moves, during the course of which the material correlation in the found game remains unchanged. This allows to avoid quick exchange of pieces.

Last move – Here you can enter values from 0 to 250. This option gives the number of that move, on which the search in any game must finish. By default the search lasts till the very end of a game, the value of the parameter in this case equals to 0.

Start move – Here you can enter values from 0 to 250. This option gives the number of that move, from which the search in any game begins. By default the search starts from the beginning of the game, the value of the parameter in this case is equal to 0 or 1. Obviously, it can’t exceed the value of the Last move.

Header search – Enables to call up the “Header Search pattern” window.

Ignore colors – This enables you to find all games, for which the indicated correlation of material is justly independent of the color of the pieces.
Use Dataset – Enables to search only among the games of the active set.

Note: This option is automatically checked in case you start the search from the active dataset game’s list. Hence if you perform the repeated search, be sure that the Use Dataset button is checked if you want to look for games in the latest list of games, and unchecked if you want to look through the whole active database.

Other search settings

From the Search through a drop-down list, select where the next search operation will take place. The available options are:

Active list of games only. This is the default setting. The Program looks for games in the active database or dataset list only.

All opened database lists. The search will include all loaded databases. However, dataset lists will be ignored (if any). If the Use Dataset flag is on it will be ignored as well.

All opened lists. The search will examine all loaded up-to-the-moment game lists no matter if is it a list of datasets or databases. Use Dataset flag will be automatically set on.

Buttons in the “Material Search Pattern” window

There are the following buttons in the dialog window:

Copy – Copies the current material correlation and search options from the window to the clipboard. The Header search flag is ignored as well as the header search pattern.

Paste – Retrieves the previously copied material correlation and search options from the clipboard.

Clear All – Clears all attributes in all lines and resets them to default values.

Initial – Sets up all attributes of initial chess position.

Invert – This inverts attributes selected for white and black pieces.

Search – Accepts find option and starts searching for material.

Header – Opens the “Header Search Pattern” dialog window and enables a combination of both searches (see: Searching by Header).

Cancel – Aborts all actions performed and returns to the previous screen.

Help – Calls up the relevant section of the help file relating to the current window.

A search by position only provides a static board, but you can also find games by listing the specific moves that a piece makes.

The idea of a route search provides the setting on the board of some position (or a part of it) and a route, i.e. the path of one or several pieces of any color. Significant is the fact that the first move of the route is connected to the given position. In other words, if you played the position after White’s 4-th move, then it is useless to set White’s 5-th move as the first move of the route, since up to this moment, the position will obviously not coincide with the one given. That is why in such situations the first move of the route should be Black’s 4-th. All the other moves do not necessarily have to be in sequence, particularly, the path of only one piece of one color may be set. It is also unimportant, for the path, whether the next move was a capture or not, if this was not clearly indicated in giving the task.

If you are playing a game or viewing a key position and want to start route search from the current position click the toolbar button , or choose by Route… from the Search menu.

Alternatively: use the keyboard shortcut Shift+F3.

The program transfers the current position from the active window to the pattern board.

Exactly in the same way you can transfer to the Route Search window from the game’s list except that the initial chess position will be displayed on the pattern board.

Set the desired search options and click the Search button to start the search procedure.

“Set Pattern” options

Current – The program shows the current position. Here you can Sweep position (clears the entire board and sets the piece number to zero) to set up a position you want to find, Invert position, or jump to the Initial position.

Initial – The program shows an initial chess position (perhaps one entered in Current mode or transferred from the current game). Here you can step one move Back, Invert position, or jump to the Initial chess position.

Route – Clicking this button enables you to enter a piece’s route on the pattern board. Here you can step one move Back, or jump to the Start position (here – the position, from which the first move of the entered route has been made).

Search options

Consider blank squares – Switching this on/off let the program ignore or consider blank squares on the pattern board. When switched off, the obtained position will be undefined in the sense that any square on the board that is left empty will not be considered during the search, i.e. in the found position anything or nothing may stand there. When switched on, the position obtained in this case will always be defined, i.e. empty squares on the board are considered just as empty.

Header search – Enables to call up the “Header Search pattern” window.

Use Dataset – Enables to search only among the games of the active set.

Note: This option is automatically checked in case you start the search from the active Dataset game’s list. Hence if you perform the repeated search, be sure that the Use Dataset button is checked if you want to look for games in the latest list of games, and unchecked if you want to look through the whole active Database.

Other search settings

From the Search through a drop-down list, select where the next search operation will take place. The available options are:

Active list of games only. This is the default setting. The program looks for games in the active database or dataset list only.

All opened database lists. The search will include all loaded databases. However, dataset lists will be ignored (if any). If the Use Dataset flag is on it will be ignored as well.

All opened lists. The search will examine all loaded up-to-the-moment game lists, no matter if is it a list of datasets or databases. Use Dataset flag will be automatically set on.

Buttons in the “Route Search Pattern” window

There are the following buttons in the dialog window:

Copy pattern – Copies the current search position, route, and search options from the window to the clipboard. The Header search flag is ignored as well as the header search pattern.

Paste pattern – Retrieves the previously copied search position, route, and options from the clipboard.

Sweep – The program erases all pieces and shows an empty chessboard.

Initial – The program shows the initial position where you can replay a game move by move using the mouse.

Invert – The program inverts the lateral position you have entered.

Search – Accept the position you have entered and start searching for Route.

Header – Opens the window “Header Search Pattern” dialog window and enables to combine of both searches (see: Searching by Header).

Cancel – Aborts all actions and returns to the previous screen.

Help – Calls up the relevant section of the help file relating to the current dialog window.

This is actually a special kind of searching by non-exact position. It appears if you want to look for the analogous piece’s maneuver in the analogous position on the board (test the Engine’s move or control your decision in the Tutorial example). That’s why it is accessible from any board window with a certain position (like searching by analogous position) and inaccessible from any list window or in case no one move is specified from the current position (unlike position search).

Select Shape… from the Search menu, or click the toolbar button  to look for all games with the analogous piece’s maneuver in the analogous position.

Alternatively: press the keyboard shortcut Alt+Shift+F3.

Immediately after this Position Search window will appear.

The program build itself a shape of the original position concerning the move to be made and demonstrates it in the Position Search window. Specify your own search pattern or accept that proposed by the program. Press Search button to perform the search.