Data, plans, practice – the new Opening Report In ChessBase there are always attempts to show the typical plans of an opening variation. In the age of engines, chess is much more concrete than previously thought. But amateurs in particular love openings with clear plans, see the London System. In ChessBase ’26, three functions deal with the display of plans. The new opening report examines which piece moves or pawn advances are significant for each important variation. In the reference search you can now see on the board where the pieces usually go. If you start the new Monte Carlo analysis, the board also shows the most common figure paths.
The new opening report
The opening report is a comprehensive treatise on all variations of the current board position. Based on historical development, the success statistics of a variation in different Elo ranges are shown. The usual statistics sum up the success and popularity of a variation across all skill levels and thus ignore exciting information. The new report opens your eyes to how different openings work for different skill levels. For example, the Scandinavian is simply bad for Black at top level, but up to Elo1800 it is a convenient, theory-saving way to equalize.
Furthermore, the opening report shows 3…Qa5 as the most frequently played main system, which is also at the top in all treatises. But the practical chances are higher at every level with 3…Qd6. GMs know this, amateurs apparently don't. The opening report shows that the frequency of 3…Qd6 clearly increases with the Elo rating.
The opening report naturally provides the frequent variations for each main variation. There is a lot of help when deciding what to play: Statistics – of course. But also how popular the system is currently. Then the style of the variation with numerous statements about the positional character, which are known from the style report.
