What is your chess style?

[Nick Ivell]

I agree this is a bit of a digression, as I said initially, but what is this forum for if not digressions?

Let me reiterate my basic point. I want to go all the way back to the 1960s. Imagine you were a coach, and you had a young positional genius on your hands.

Should not that coach be recommending 1d4? Or the other quiet moves which give White a slight edge, 1c4 or 1Nf3?

Most juniors are not positional geniuses. Most of us start with a tactical talent - we want to emulate the Evergreen game! - and learn positional stuff through experience.

[Paul Cooksey]

I have the new chessbase18 which has a fun style feature:

Clive Wismayer

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Nick Ivell

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Not Paul Cooksey although gratifyingly a great player whose profile comes out vaguely similar:

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Anatoly Karpov

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A forumite to guess:

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[Ian Thompson]

I have the new chessbase18 which has a fun style feature:

Clive Wismayer

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So 130% of Clive's games are "Decided" and 104% of them feature "Positional Play". I think that tells us all we need to know about the usefulness of this feature.

A forumite to guess:

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Should this be posted in the "World Senior Teams Ch, Prague 2025" thread along with the results for players who have been selected for the teams?

[Paul Cooksey]

100% is a benchmark based on GM games. But concur there is a lot more fun than science here. Still, maybe we are finding out Clive is a bit more rounded than he realised.

The mystery man was indeed Keith Arkell.

[Graham Borrowdale]

Digressing even further, but would my ancient Chessbase 11 work on my new Windows laptop, or do I need to buy Chessbase 18?
Not sure I need Chessbase to tell me my style: dull, impetuous, outdated opening theory, with a tendency to fail to win favourable positions.

[GrahamStuart]

Digressing even further, but would my ancient Chessbase 11 work on my new Windows laptop, or do I need to buy Chessbase 18?
Not sure I need Chessbase to tell me my style: dull, impetuous, outdated opening theory, with a tendency to fail to win favourable positions.

I was thinking of upgrading when they had the 25% off for 24 hours, but thought I fall into this trap most years and there is not much difference. But this does seem a fun and interesting development. Guess I will need to wait for their next 25% off sale!

Is there anything else which looks to be a big leap forward from CB17? I still think the HTML output for websites which has not changed in years is something which would be good to see worked on.

[Paul Cooksey]

I upgraded from CB12, but I'm reasonably sure CB11 would still be fine. The newer one is noticeably faster and a bit easier to use, but I don't think there is much essential new functionality.

Style reports are available to forumites on on request, Graham's 52 games is at the lower limit they say is needed. He is too modest in some respects, but does indeed need to buy an opening book!

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[Paul Cooksey]

Is there anything else which looks to be a big leap forward from CB17? I still think the HTML output for websites which has not changed in years is something which would be good to see worked on.

The style report and importing games from online servers are the things they are highlighting. I think CB17 was a bigger step with the new file format, but from experience I decided to wait a version for bug fixes.

[Paul Cooksey]

I realise I might be entertaining myself more than others but another, harder quiz:

Who is this forumite? (206 games):

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[Ian Thompson]

Digressing even further, but would my ancient Chessbase 11 work on my new Windows laptop, or do I need to buy Chessbase 18?
Not sure I need Chessbase to tell me my style: dull, impetuous, outdated opening theory, with a tendency to fail to win favourable positions.

ChessBase 10 works fine on a Lenovo P15 running Windows 11 Enterprise, so I expect any more recent version will as well.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I have no idea if there are enough games from me in the database in question, and I may regret asking, but what is my style?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I realise I might be entertaining myself more than others but another, harder quiz:

Who is this forumite? (206 games):player3.jpg

Jack Rudd?

[Paul Cooksey]

I felt Jack might be a bit too easy to guess. I do worry about him crossing roads safely!:

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I think the theory section and observations give useful a clue to the mystery player

[Paul Cooksey]

I have no idea if there are enough games from me in the database in question, and I may regret asking, but what is my style?

200 games should be enough, but I am sorry to say you are the most "does not really have a style" player I have found so far!

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[Christopher Kreuzer]

Thank you Paul. 'Struggles to Equalize' is fair. Narrow Opening Repertoire is another fair cop. I suppose I do attack the king. Am surprised I have 68% positional play. Maybe that is a love of endgames, as my positional play in the opening and middlegame is shocking. The endgames probably account for the 98%(!) tenacity as well. I wonder how many of those were in a losing cause... Am surprised at the 18% "Endgame Affinity" - maybe the quick wins are skewing that?