This is the second in what could become a series of occasional technical posts about using ChessBase software. The first such post was a guide to sending games via email. This time I'm considering different ways to sort ChessBase databases and their pros and cons.
Hereafter I'll abbreviate ChessBase to CB. Note that I use CB version 14 and you need to be aware that earlier or later versions of the software may work in a different way or have different menu designations.
DO YOU REALLY NEED TO SORT A DATABASE?
First, a philosophical question for the reader: do you really want or need to sort a database? The reason I raise the question is that there can be valid reasons for leaving a database unsorted. Sometimes it can be useful to retain the order in which games are added to a database (which would no longer be available after a sort). For example, the database which I use to store the entirety of games on the BritBase.info website which I maintain I often leave unsorted for long periods of time. It acts an an aide-memoire to see what I have added recently and what I have been working on. There are other ways of achieving this but the easiest way to do so is by leaving it unsorted.
VIEWING SORTED DATA IN AN UNSORTED DATABASE
It is also worth noting that CB has facilities which allow you to view games in various logical orders even when a CB database as a whole is unsorted. We can think of these as a temporary sort.
For example, you can still view a specific player's games in chronological order despite the database being unsorted. You can do this via the Player Index, which is one of the best features of the software.
Here are the steps to see a player's games in chronological order in an unsorted database:
- In the database window, CTRL+P takes you to the player index (or click on the Player tab if you are already in the list window for that database).
- Then find and highlight the player you are interested in and you should see a list of games on the right side of the screen.
- At the top of the right hand window, you can now click on the Date tab to show you the games of that player in chronological order (you can click multiple times to see the game in descending order, revert to ascending, etc)
Note that the above steps produce no permanent change to the database order. It's simply a temporary way to view data in a desired order.
Much the same can be done to view games played in a specific tournament where the individual games could be anywhere in an unsorted database. The Tournament Index is another excellent CB feature which many users neither use nor appreciate.Here are the steps to see the games of a tournament in round order in an unsorted database:
- In the database window, CTRL+T takes you to the tournament index (or click on the Tournaments tab if you are already in the list window for that database). The left-hand column shows the tournament names while the right-hand column shows the games contained in the highlighted tournament.
- Then find and highlight the tournament you are interested in. A good way to do this is to use the search window at the bottom of the left-hand column. (see the image below) Click in the box there and type in, e,g. "1973 hast" and it should show you entries for the 1973/74 Hastings tournament. But type quickly! This is a quirky feature of CB which triggers a matter of seconds after you start typing in the box. It doesn't wait for you to press send after typing. Remember the old proverb "he who hesitates is lost": when you're used to the speed-typing necessary to use it properly, you'll realise it's a powerful search facility which finds what you want very well. Alternatively, just page down alphabetically, or use the Tournament Start Date tab to navigate to what you want.
- Once you've highlighted the tournament you are interested in, you should see a list of games on the right side of the screen.
- They may not yet be in round order, so click on the Round tab in the right-hand window and they should now be displayed in round order.
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| A ChessBase Tournament Index window, with the search field encircled in red. Use this facility to find specific years, tournaments and places on your database - but type fast! |
ARE YOUR PLAYER AND TOURNAMENT INDEXES IN GOOD SHAPE?
A snag (there are always snags in CB): your Player Index and/or Tournament Index may not be in good enough shape to make the above work to perfection.
For example, you may have different versions of a player's name, e.g. a well-known Norwegian player may be listed as Carlsen, Magnus or Carlsen, M or Magnus Carlsen or heaven knows what else. You'll need to sort this out before a temporary sort can include all of said player's games. I might write another post about how to do that in due course.
Also note that the CB Player Index places surnames which start with a lower case letter below all of those which start with an upper case letter. Hence, for example, "de Veauce, Louis" (and a multitude of Dutch "van"s) will be below "Zukertort, Johannes".
Even more likely is that you will have different versions of a tournament's games. For BritBase I try to standardise tournament identifiers but it takes time and it is understandable that many CB users are less careful about this. This might be the subject of another post in due course.
HOW GOOD IS YOUR START DATE?
Warning: a major snag with the Tournament Index is that the start date is often either missing or wrong. Inexperienced inputters may be oblivious to the need for, or the existence of, a start date as it does not appear in a CB game window, nor does it show in the basic CB 'save game' window. Start dates are only readily visible on a Tournament Index page where you can see them given in the 'Tournament start' column.
The start date is the date on which a tournament or competition begins and will (or should) be the same for every game played in that specific competition.
When a game is input and added to a database, the basic 'save' screen invites the user to type in a game date. However, there is an additional start date which can (and should) be entered in an additional window which only appears when you click on the 'Details' button in the basic 'save' window.
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Inexperienced ChessBase game inputters often neglect to include the start date. Clicking on the DETAILS button (circled in red) leads to the following screen... |
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... where you can input the tournament start date in the field circled in red. Unless the date entered here is accurate, then a Method 2 sort will not produce accurate results. |
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| An example of a Tournament Index window, with the tournament start date encircled in red. |
OK, YOU REALLY WANT TO SORT THE DATABASE - HERE'S HOW
I'm assuming that you, the reader, have now read all the disclaimers and warnings and suggested alternatives but are still bent on sorting the database and want to know how. "A most courageous decision, minister!" as Sir Humphrey would say in the TV show Yes, Prime Minister.
No, seriously, it's not that big of a deal but I really must insist that you do one thing before taking any of the steps below and that is...
BACK UP YOUR DATA!!
... and don't come whining to me if you fail to do this and it all goes horribly wrong.
Backing up a database - or creating an archive, as it sometimes referred to - is essential before major changes such as sorting. It's also good practice when you've entered an appreciable number of new games. It's easy and doesn't take any time at all (assuming the database you're saving isn't a whopper).
How to back-up
- go to the Database window
- highlight the database you want to back up
- CTRL+Z
- it offers you Encrypted or Unencrypted, Take the default option (unencrypted) and click OK.
- it will then prompt you to save to a file (suffix *.cbv). Its suggested name will usually be OK for most purposes so you can simply click OK.
That's it, you're done. You can sleep easy in your bed knowing that all those positional masterpieces you played for Little Piddlington 'C' team in division five of the Barsetshire League, contributions to the theory of Damiano's Defence, etc, are saved for posterity.
Sorting a CB Database
There are actually two ways of sorting a CB database which I shall dub Method 1 and Method 2. In a Method 1 sort, the basis for the sort is the game date. It takes no account of the start date or whether the database has games from different competitions. Hence it will probably only be useful for sorting a database of games from a specific tournament or (division of) a league. A Method 2 sort is based on the start date and can be used on a database which has many different competitions included in it, but depends on the start dates of games to be accurate in order to produce a reliable chronological order.
Something to be aware of is that a Method 1 sort only works with absolute precision when you have a full date for each game. Thus, if a game has only the year and not month or day, it will sort those games at the start of that year. Let's imagine you played in Hastings Challengers 1973/74. If any of your 1974 games doesn't have a full date and is just dated "1974" then the sort defaults to the beginning of the year - it will plonk the 1974 game right in the middle of those Hastings games after the December 1973 rounds but before the January 1974 ones. (Even if the game is dated "1.1974" i.e. sometime in January 1974, the same will happen.) That's not the end of the world as this can be manually adjusted later. Another anomaly: if you have entered the games of a rapidplay tournament (all played on the same day) in the order you played them but not specified the round numbers, then a sort of either method can randomise the order in which they appear. In this case you might want to add round numbers to those games before proceeding.
Here's how to apply Method 1.
1) in the game list, click on the date tab to put the games in chronological order (click the tab a second time and it will put them in reverse chronological order) - when it shows the order you want (presumably oldest game first), you are ready to proceed. What you have done so far is a temporary sort which we now want to make permanent...
2) click on the GAMES drop-down menu right at the top of the page (n.b. this is not the Games tab immediately above the list of games, but the top-level drop-down menu item that comes after STATISTICS)
3) click on the FIX SORT ORDER option. It will ask you to confirm, click OK.
That should do it. (It's just possible that it's different in your version of CB - mine is CB v14 - but I think it's a fairly standard feature.)
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| An example of a ChessBase game list: to effect a temporary sort of the games into chronological order, simply click on Date (encircled in red). (N.B. don't confuse the 'Games' tab (also encircled in red) with the 'Games' item in the top-level menu). Now, let's suppose you've clicked on Date and want to make the sort permanent... |
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| ... the games are now in strict chronological order (but notice how games from different sections are mixed up together - you may or may not want this - also, games without month or date go before the others... and one game looks to have an inaccurate date). If you're happy with this temporary sort, you want to click on 'Games' from the top-level drop-down menu, in order to access the 'Fix Sort Order' button. |
Method 2 is an arguably simpler way to sort a database which produces almost (but not quite) the same chronological order. Before doing so, the same recommendation as before - make a back-up. You should also take heed of the above warning about
Method 2 does basically the same thing as Method 1 but there is a subtle difference. For example, unlike Method 1 which works on strict chronological order based on the game date, a Method 2 sort uses as its basis the start date. If you have games played in the same event with identical tournament identifier and start dates, but which are played on different dates spread over the course of a chess season, then it will use the start date to group them together in a block regardless of the fact that games in other competitions may have been played between the event's start and end dates. (And, as pointed out above, if you know the start dates for games in the database to be wrong or missing, then a Method 2 sort will produce unsatisfactory or unreliable results.)
For example, if your 4NCL games for a season, played, let's say, between October 2001 and May 2002, all have the same tournament identifier, a Method 2 sort will use the start date as the basis of the sort to place the first game, and then the rest of the season's 4NCL games immediately after them. There will follow all the other non-4NCL games played in that season subsequent to the 4NCL first round. So you could find a game played in the 4NCL on 1 May 2002 followed by a game played in the London League on 10 October 2001. This doesn't have to be the end of the world but you should be aware.
1) in the initial database window, left-mouse-click to highlight the database you are intending to sort
2) right-mouse-click the database to show a sub-menu
3) hover over TOOLS which will show a further sub-menu
4) click on SORT DATABASE
5) it will offer you a choice of ascending and descending order. Click OK.
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