ChessBase

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ChessBase GmbH is a German chess software company located in Hamburg. ChessBase is marketing chess software, maintaining a chess news site and is operating Playchess, a server to play chess online.

For the Chess database see main article ChessBase (Database).

=History and Products= ChessBase was founded in 1986 by Physicist Matthias Wüllenweber and Journalist Frederic Friedel, eponymous was the chess game database developed by Wüllenweber for Atari ST computers. End of the 80s the chess database program was ported by Mathias Feist to the IBM PC and MS-DOS operating system, released as ChessBase 3.0 for Atari and PC. ChessBase 4.0 was the last Atari release, and already included the chess playing program Fritz, based on the program Quest by Frans Morsch, which was also market as stand alone product.

Fritz Family
In the early 90s ChessBase focused on Microsoft operating systems, MS-DOS and since 1994 Windows, notably as ChessBase for Windows and Fritz 4, not only the engine but also a Graphical User Interface for other chess-playing programs of the "Fritz Family" by various top commercial authors, most notably Junior, HIARCS, Shredder, Chess Tiger, the Zappa version Zap!Chess, since 2008 Rybka, since November 2012 Houdini , since November 2013 Deep Fritz 14 with Gyula Horváth , in November 2015, 2016 Fritz 15/16 with Vasik Rajlich, and in November 2019 Fritz 17 with Frank Schneider as engine authors, since September 2014, Komodo. Bundled with Fritz 17 in 2019, ChessBase started to purchase open source chess engines with slight modification and customized neural networks - Fat Fritz was based on Leela Chess Zero requiring a GPU, followed in February 2021 by Fat Fritz 2 based on NNUE technology and Stockfish 12.

Young Talents
In May 2000, ChessBase released a CD with seven different amateur chess programs dubbed Young Talents, able to natively communicate with the proprietary Fritz or ChessBase GUI :
 * AnMon 5.07 by Christian Barreteau
 * Goliath Light aka Little Goliath by Michael Borgstädt
 * Gromit 3.1 by Frank Schneider and Kai Skibbe
 * Ikarus 0.18 by Munjong and Muntsin Kolss
 * Patzer 3.11 by Roland Pfister
 * Phalanx XXII by Dušan Dobeš
 * SOS by Rudolf Huber

Misc
ChessBase is also publishing company of chess games, various chess multimedia products, such as the chess teaching software Fritz & Chesster, chess opening monographs, and the Music composing software Ludwig  , developed by Matthias Wüllenweber.

=Publications=
 * Frederic Friedel (1990). Chessbase. ICCA Journal, Vol. 13, No. 3

=Best-Publication Award= In 1999 ChessBase has offered to continue the Mephisto / Novag Award, until 2010 the ChessBase Best-Publication Award which enables the ICGA to distinguish a researcher or a group of researchers for their excellence.

Quote 1999
ICCA Journal, Vol. 22, No. 3, Many Changes : Fifth, the ChessBase organisation has expressed the willingness to cooperate more closely with the ICCA. In addition to their articles (see the article by Frederic Friedel and also the Correspondence section), they have contributed a CD ROM for our readership containing opinions bridging the gap between human Grandmasters and top programs.

Sixth, the ChessBase organisation has offered to continue the Mephisto/Novag Award. For 1999 we will again have an Award, of course now called the ChessBase Best-Publication Award, which enables the ICCA to distinguish a researcher or a group of researchers for their excellence.

Quote 2010
ICGA Journal, Vol. 33, No. 2, The 2008 and 2009 ChessBase Best-Publication Awards: The aim of the ChessBase Best-Publication Award nominators is to identify the author(s) whose work has made the biggest contribution to computer games in the years 2008 and 2009. The selection committee consisted of Bruno Bouzy, Ivan Bratko, I-Chen Wu, Shun-Chin Hsu, Paolo Ciancarini, Reijer Grimbergen, Dap Hartmann, Jaap van den Herik, Ulf Lorenz, and Jonathan Schaeffer. The secretary of the committee was Prof.dr. A. Plaat. After the nominations were determined for the 2008 and 2009 award, the members Bruno Bouzy and Jaap van den Herik (for 2008) and Jaap van den Herik and Shun-Chin Hsu (for 2009) withdrew from the committee, since they were included in a nomination.

Quote 2011
ICGA Journal, Vol. 34, No. 3, The 2010 Best-Publication Award: In 2011 the ChessBase company informed us that after twelve years of sponsorship they believed that it was time to stop with the ChessBase Best-Publication award. Although we regret their decision we would like to express the ICGA's gratitude towards the generous sponsorship of twelve consecutive years. Thank you, Matthias Wüllenweber and Frederic Friedel, you did an excellent job for our community and for its dedicated members by offering the best researchers among them a platform where their performance was recognized.

Winners
=Forum Posts=
 * Open letter to ChessBase by Ed Schröder, rgcc, January 09, 1997
 * chessbase is selling free engines by Uri Blass, CCC, July 25, 2004
 * Are nalimov EGTB's a copyright from chessbase? by Vincent Diepeveen, CCC, June 07, 2004
 * ChessBase native engines (freeware) by Norbert Raimund Leisner, CCC, March 13, 2014
 * ChessBase's prophecy of 2004 fulfilled in 2019 by Kai Laskos, CCC, June 17, 2019
 * Chessbase and the engines that it sells by Madeleine Birchfield, CCC, February 20, 2021

=External Links=
 * ChessBase from Wikipedia
 * ChessBase news
 * ChessBase Support - Wiki
 * ChessBase online Database
 * Christmas dinner on a train – meet the ChessBase team, ChessBase News, December 23, 2003
 * Who is Who at ChessBase from ChessBase auf Helgoland, June 16, 2004
 * The ChessBase Christmas Party – part 1 by Nadja Wittmann, ChessBase News, December 28, 2010
 * The ChessBase Christmas Party – part 2 by Frederic Friedel and Nadja Wittmann, ChessBase News, January 04, 2011
 * ChessBase is 25 – everything 25% off in our shop from ChessBase News, May 19, 2011
 * Greetings from Pál Benkö for 25 years of ChessBase from ChessBase News, May 20, 2011
 * ChessBase is 25: Birthday greetings from Anand from ChessBase News, June 1, 2011
 * Kasparov on 25 Years of ChessBase from ChessBase News, June 8, 2011
 * 2013 ChessBase Christmas party by Nadja Wittmann, ChessBase News, December 24, 2013
 * Kasparov and the start of ChessBase by Sagar Shah, ChessBase News, November 23, 2020

=References= Up one Level