Editing ChessBase (section)

==History==
Starting in 1983, [[Frederic Friedel]] and his colleagues put out a magazine ''Computer-schach und Spiele'' covering the emerging hobby of computer chess. In 1985, Friedel invited then world chess champion [[Garry Kasparov]] to his house. Kasparov mused about how a chess database would make it easier for him to prepare for specific opponents. Friedel began working with Bonn physicist Matthias Wüllenweber who created the first such database, ChessBase 1.0, as software for the [[Atari ST]]. The February 1987 issue of ''Computer-schach und Spiele'' introduced the database program as well as the ChessBase magazine, a floppy disk containing chess games edited by chess [[Grandmaster (chess)|grandmaster]] [[John Nunn]].

The August 1991 issue of ''Computer-schach und Spiele'' announced that Dutch programmer Frans Morsch's [[Fritz (chess)|Fritz]] program would soon be available for purchase as software for [[Personal computer|PC]]s. This method of software sale was unlike all the dedicated chess computers which at the time dominated the ratings lists. This program was marketed initially as Knightstalker in the U.S., while it was marketed as [[Fritz (chess)|Fritz]] in the rest of the world. [[Mathias Feist]] joined ChessBase, and ported Fritz to [[DOS]] and then [[Microsoft Windows]].

In 1994, German chess grandmaster [[Rainer Knaak]] joined ChessBase as a full-time employee, annotating games for the ChessBase magazine, and soon authoring game database [[CD-ROM]]s on topics such as the [[Trompowsky Attack]] or Mating Attacks against 0-0. British grandmaster [[Daniel King (chess player)|Daniel King]] was another early author of such CD-ROMs which eventually grew into the Fritztrainer series of multimedia [[DVD]]s.

In the mid-1990s, R&D Publishing in the U.S. released a series of print books in the ChessBase University Opening Series, including [[Karpov]] and [[Alexander Beliavsky]]'s ''The Caro-Kann in Black and White''.

In December 1996, ChessBase added Mark Uniacke's [[Hiarcs]] 6 [[chess engine]] to its product line up, selling it inside the existing Fritz [[graphical user interface]] (GUI).<ref>Computer-schach & Spiele. 1997#6</ref> In March 1998, ChessBase added [[Junior (chess program)|Junior]] 4.6 and Dr. Christian Donninger's Nimzo99.<ref>Computer-schach & Spiele. 1998#1</ref> Also that year, ChessBase released Fritz 5 including a 'friend mode' which would automatically scale its strength of play down to the level that it assessed the player was playing.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.chessbase.de/products/fritz5/teaching.htm |title=Fritz5 Teaching functions |access-date=2019-06-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19980213121018/http://www.chessbase.de/products/fritz5/teaching.htm |archive-date=1998-02-13 |url-status=dead }}</ref> This remains a feature of all of ChessBase's graphical user interfaces.

In 1998, ChessBase took their database of chess games online.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.chessbase-online.com/|date=May 11, 2000|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000511021151/http://www.chessbase-online.com/|archive-date=2000-05-11|title=Chessbase Online, Searching a high quality database of Chessgames. Free Chess Games.ChessBase-Online }}</ref> In November, ChessBase started offering trainer CD-ROMs by such grandmasters as [[Robert Hübner]], [[Rainer Knaak]] and [[Daniel King (chess player)|Daniel King]].<ref>Computer-schach & Spiele. 1998#5</ref>

In 1999, [[Stefan Meyer-Kahlen]]'s [[Shredder (software)|Shredder]] had won the world computer chess championship. In April, Meyer-Kahlen and Huber released the [[Universal Chess Interface]] (UCI) protocol for engines to communicate with GUIs, to compete with Winboard and ChessBase. Meyer-Kahlen's contract with Millennium 2000 expired in June, and ChessBase hired him shortly after, adding Shredder to their product line under a Fritz style GUI, and giving their new GUIs the ability to import UCI engines.<ref name="auto">Computer-schach & Spiele. April May 2000</ref>

In April 2000, ChessBase released a Young Talents CD featuring the engines Anmon, Goliath Light, Gromit, Ikarus, Patzer, Phalanx and Rudolf Huber's SOS. Christophe Theron's engines Chess Tiger and Gambit Tiger were also released as ChessBase engines that month.<ref name="auto"/>

In the early 2000s matches were held pitting world champions [[Garry Kasparov]] and [[Vladimir Kramnik]] against versions of the [[Fritz (chess)|Fritz]] or [[Junior (chess program)|Junior]] engines.

In 2003, ChessBase introduced the Chess Media System, allowing players to produce videos with them playing out moves that can be seen on the user's chessboard within a ChessBase program. Eventually, ChessBase commissioned world champions [[Garry Kasparov]], [[Viswanathan Anand]], [[Vladimir Kramnik]] and [[Rustam Kasimdzhanov]] to produce DVDs using the new format. ChessBase also produced Fritztrainer Opening DVDs by the likes of grandmasters [[Alexei Shirov]] and [[Viktor Bologan]] and a Power Play series by British grandmaster [[Daniel King (chess player)|Daniel King]] for lower level players.

In April 2006, following its victory at the [[World Computer Chess Championship]], Anthony Cozzie's [[Zappa (chess)|Zappa]] chess engine was published by ChessBase as ''Zap!Chess''.

In 2008, [[Vasik Rajlich]]'s [[Rybka]] engine was added to the ChessBase product line, followed by Robert Houdart's [[Houdini (chess)|Houdini]] and [[Don Dailey]] and [[Larry Kaufman]]'s [[Komodo (chess)|Komodo]] engines.

Recent versions of ChessBase and the engine GUIs such as Fritz supports cloud engines. ChessBase/[[Playchess]] added a web interface by 2013.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://play.chessbase.com/js/apps/playchess/|title=Play Chess Online For Free|date=December 17, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131217045511/http://play.chessbase.com/js/apps/playchess/|archive-date=2013-12-17}}</ref> ChessBase added a tactics trainer web app in 2015.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://training.chessbase.com/js/apps/Training/|title=ChessBase Training|date=May 4, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150504000924/http://training.chessbase.com/js/apps/Training/|archive-date=2015-05-04}}</ref> In 2015, ChessBase released a play Fritz web app,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://fritz.chessbase.com/|title=Fritz Chess Program Online|website=fritz.chessbase.com}}</ref> as well as My Games for storing one's games.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://mygames.chessbase.com/|title=ChessBase MyGames|website=mygames.chessbase.com}}</ref>