Kudos on Training and feature requests.

[FreeRepublic]

Kudos on the training feature!

I'm not sure when it was added but it is definitely valuable. Setting up a training file is a great excercise in understanding the opening. It's not only about the moves. Adding hints, either in text or voice recordings, challenges your thinking. Finally, doing the training increases familiarty and forces you to find the moves in a game-like condition. Training is a huge addition. I set up training files on my PC but sometimes do the training on my tablet - a nice piece of integration.

Now for additional features:

Flip board icon. This would issue the command "White At Bottom" or "Black At Bottom."

Enter "source," or "annotator" (fields in most PGN files) or user specified text to be placed before imported comments. For example, "Chess Publishing: ".

Set default window (and pane) size of game window.

Set default window size and placement of main window.

Set all insertion points to end of text. (Do this before importing additional games that are commented.)

Add color code from current position to the Next Branch. (This is useful when colorizing analysis).

[FreeRepublic]

There are several sources of chess games in PGN format. Some are well annotated: ChessPublishing, ChessBase Opening Encyclopedia, Modern-Chess, books from Everyman Chess. Some are less annotated: Chess Informant, Chess Assistant, Chessgames, The Week in Chess.

A PGN reader is necessary. I'm familiar with ChessBase and Chess Opening Wizard. An advantage of COW is that it can import from multiple sources. Some of my requested features above would make COW more appealing as the tool for user-assembled books.

An additional feature would be to have the option to place the word END at the end of an imported line. That helps indicate where the line ends and analysis or other imported material begins.

Another enhancement would be to improve word-wrap inside a comment field.

By way of illustration, consider the book Opening Repertoire The French Defense, by Lakdawala, Everyman. I opened the PGN file and did a search and replace all, changing { to {Lakdawala. I created a new COW file and imported the edited pgn book. I'm practiced at this so it took less than 5 minutes. Now I have this book as a COW Ebook with all comments properly sourced by author, Lakdawala. This really works!

I may buy a book by Marin which goes into detail on a portion of the previously discussed book. I could make a second COW Ebook, having both on the screen at the same time. However, It's more likely that I will merge both books into one COW Ebook.

This is a very powerful tool, but enhancements are still possible as discussed above and in a prior post. I don't see how a games-based program can achieve this level of integration.

Some publishers produce books in multiple electronic formats. Perhaps the most common is PGN. They could publish COW Ebooks also.

[FreeRepublic]

SOS

I have added one Ebook to another. The "named positions" of the second book did not import. A new command "Import named positions" would be most appreciated.

[DrAwkward]

Importing named positions :

I haven´t tried the following it but should work i think.


EPD-Export Positions and mark ¨Export positions that have names¨

and after that : EPD - Import positions


greetings,
Dr.Awkward

[FreeRepublic]

Thanks for the suggestion. It seemed to export well enough. When I tried to import positions to some test COW Ebook, I get a pop-up message that says that "An EPD record has been found that does not exist in this book. ..." That is true enough as I am importing new positions. Anyway, the import does not work for me. It is likely that I am doing something wrong as I don't understand EPD and some of my settings may be wrong.

[FreeRepublic]

As you may know, I think that combining Ebooks in COW is a highly valuable feature. All moves and comments from various authors are in one place. Pre-editing the PGN provides attribution to the comment, for example: Marin: Xxx, Ponomariov: Xxx, Lakadawala: Xxx.

There are many ways to combine books. With three books, you can make three Ebooks and them combine them into one Ebook. I have sinply used the "Add Ebook" command in the past. Comments from the first author are placed first. Comments from the second author are placed second and so on.

Normally that works fine. However, it does not work fully if you have named positions. Many authors include named positions. These positions may be practice positions that you can study and come to understand. Named positions do not import. So that led me to another command "Import Ebook." With this command, named positions are also imported. Sounds great! However, there is one aspect of this command that I don't like. Position comments are in the reversed order. Comments from the last added author comes first. Comments from the first author comes last. Some people may like it that way, but that is not my preference.

I started from scratch and created a new Ebook. I imported the PGN of each book into the new book. The results are perfect for me. However, I had to acquire deeper familiarity with the add positions dialog box that opened in mid-import. I don't want to proceed with the default name of "puzzle." Instead I named each named position after the author and set the sequence number to "1" as appropriate. For some reason, this bombed out a few times with an "out of range" comment. That was surprising as I never had that problem before. I perservered and it's all turned out right.

When importing PGN, the dialog box selection "Do not import duplicate comment lines" does not work. Duplicate text still comes in.

One more practice I've decided upon follows. Books from a single author, for example Mihail Marin, are coded with a yellow dot. Books from data bases, for example Chess Informant, are coded in green. Analysis that I add, including Stockfish suggested moves, are in red. I try to discipline myself to analyze in a separate COW Ebook. That way I can save PGN/import PGN into my archival Ebook and assign all new moves with a red dot.

I hope this post proves helpful to users and developers alike. I like to get going as soon as possible. However, I've found that if I take the time to optimize the building of a multi-book COW Ebook, it pays off later.

[FreeRepublic]

Sometimes I'll create an Ebook "in Black and White." Cyrus Lakdawala wrote a book (Everyman) on the French Defense as Black. Ruslan Ponomariov (Modern-chess) developed a repertoire based on 3Nc3 by White in the French. I merged the two books in COW to create the Ebook which I named "The French Defense in Black and White." All moves, comments and study positions are present in one COW Ebook. It's easy to follow a recommendation for Black and see the recommended counter by White. It's easy to see what both authors say about a position.

It's nice to have everything in one place. It's also nice to distinguish. A little pre-editing of the PGN file allows me to see who said what. I use "Open Office," which is free, to open a PGN file. I then use the "search and replace all" command to change { to {Ponomariov or {Lakdawala. So that clears up the comments once and for all. Study positions are also easy to handle. Prior to import, give a name such as Ponomariov starting with 1, then Lakdawala, again starting with 1. To distinguish between moves, one can use color codes: Green for Ponomariov and yellow for Lakdawala. (With COW, the first author to introduce a move, say 1e4, designates the color for a move that comes from both authors.). All the preceding is automated. That is very important as you don't want to have to do this manually for every move and comment; that would take forever.

Are we all done here? I'll say yes and no. Yes, if we have two authors.

Consider the following, which is my case:
three authors: Lakdawala, Ponomariov, Marin
two commented databases: ChessBase ECO, ChessPublishing
two databases that use symbols: Chess Informant, Chess Assistant.

There will never be enough colors to indicate who provided each move.

Author comments are preceded by the source. This is shown in the Comments pane of the Chess Opening Wizard window. I recommend greater automated use of the Comments pane. For every move imported from Chess Informant, I would like to see an entry at the top of the Comment pane that read "CI,". The same for Ponomariov, etc. As an example, the move 1e4 would have entries at the top of the comment field: "Lakdawala, Marin, Ponomariov, CB, CP, CI, CA". As one proceeds down the move list, there will be fewer sources identified, all the way down to one source. Again, all this would be automated. My COW Ebook presently has 880,000 positions and it's still growing. So it is essential to have an automated process.

If the preceding were implemented, color codes could be used for another purpose. Let's say you have your database color coded yellow. Add analysis and color code that in red. Next year you may have additional games and moves to add to your database. You can code them green. What happens the following year? I would like to change all the greens (once new games) to yellow, so that I can add newer games in green. COW sort of does this. You can clear the green codes and code everything in yellow. That is almost perfect. Your own analysis (color coded in red) shows in red (correct) and yellow (incorrect). Something to think about. Perhaps a "search and replace all" command for color codes?

[FreeRepublic]

Add color code from current position to the Next Branch. (This is useful when colorizing analysis).

Also,
Clear color code from current position to the Next Branch. (This is useful after one has messed up!)

[FreeRepublic]

I noticed a few things about Build 181:

Menues and submenues are highlighted in blue. Looks good.

Once one applies the "Start Engine" command, additional information shows up nearby. One can choose to add (or remove) arrows. The red arrow for playing the engine's suggested move is standard. What is the purpose of the new(?) double arrow?

In the past I would move candidates up (Alt U) or down (Alt V) the list from the keyboard. I am no longer able to do so. I hope this feature returns in the next update as it is faster and is used often.

One feature not previously requested is to add a command to be placed under "Commands White (Black) at Bottom." It would be "Side to move at Bottom." The idea is that when it is White to move, White is at Bottom. When it is Black to move, Black is at Bottom. I believe Bobby Fischer analyzed this way. After moving for White, he actually got up and went to the other side of the table. He sat down and analyzed for Black, and so on.

I'm not currently doing training, so have not yet tried the new blindfold approach. It sounds go though.

[FreeRepublic]

Figured it out.

"What is the purpose of the new(?) double arrow?"

To make multiple engine selected moves.