ChessBase Light 2009 – Prepare against opponent

ChessBase Light 2009, which came out recently, is not really fundamentally different from ChessBase Light 2007, but has a couple of nice features. One of such features is a helper menu to create a temporary tree and list of reference games – just for your opponent, and just for the colour that you care about. So if I was to play Kevin Spraggett in the next game as White, I would come to the players tab, pick Kevin’s name, and choose “Prepare against Black”.

That would give me a list of games (a short one, because I use a really small database), and show the likely options I have to face against 1.c4

I can see that he has not played 1…e5 for 25 years, so I should really focus on 1…Nf6. Similar functionality had existed in ChessBase Light 2007, but it was not really as convenient. This is a truly time saving feature if you are preparing against a specific opponent, their opening repertoire varies over time, and you’re trying to figure out what move they are most likely to play against you in the forthcoming game. The download is free, try it yourself!