Repertoire database

The repertoire database is a collection of annotated games or variations in which you look after your repertoire. In it you collect all information on the openings systems you like to play. To make a database your repertoire database right-click the icon in the database window and select Properties. In the dialog that appears click the “Repertoire database” checkbox.

ChessBase has a number of functions that will help you look after and even automatically update your repertoire.

In ChessBase you can manage your opening repertoire in two databases, one for White and one for Black.

You can create the repertoire databases at any time by selecting Report -> Create Repertoire in the database window and accessing a database with your own games.

If you already have a single repertoire database that you created without separating colours in ChessBase 12, the function Report -> Create Repertoire offers the possibility to divide it into White and Black. ChessBase uses the moves that you have marked Blue. It is strongly recommended to divide your repertoire into White and Black.

In the board window, use the function Report -> Repertoire -> Mark Move Blue.

This marks the moves in your games which should be added to your repertoire. This builds a repertoire report for new game collections or searching in the repertoire database. There is no sense in marking all your games with 1.e4 in the repertoire report just because 1.e4 leads to a line in your repertoire database with Ruy Lopez.

How to add games to the repertoire database

First of all you can save or copy games into your repertoire database, just like any other database. With a game in the board window right-click the board and select Add to repertoire. There is also the same command in the Tools menu, and you can press Shift-Ctrl-Alt-A.

ChessBase will save your game with the variations which are already stored in the repertoire database. If the game is very similar to an existing repertoire game, ChessBase will suggest merging the two games in the repertoire database. You can let it do so or overrule it and save the game as a separate entry. If your game contains a completely new line the program will save it as a new game. It will even suggest a suitable name for it (e.g. "Sicilian Four Knights").

If no repertoire database exists, ChessBase will automatically create one and add an icon to your database window.

Defining the repertoire

You can load games from your repertoire database and add analysis or commentary. When you manually add a game to your repertoire there are two way of determining from which move on the game represents your repertoire.

In the repertoire database a game is only considered from the first branching point onwards. For instance if you have entered the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 (3... Nf6), then the first position of your repertoire is the one after 3.Bb5. Games beginning with 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 are ignored, as are, of course, games beginning with 1.e4 c5.

2.	If you have a single game or variation without branching lines in your repertoire database, you can specify the first relevant position by annotating it as Critical opening position: right-click on the move, chose Special annotation – critical opening position.

Compare game to repertoire

With a game loaded in the board window right-click a position and use Search in Repertoire. ChessBase will open a search result window and list all games from your repertoire database in which the position occurred. The same command is to be found in the Tools menu, and you can press Shift-Ctrl-Alt-F to execute it.

Searching for repertoire games

With a repertoire database it is easy to search for games that match this repertoire. Simply call up the search mask (Ctrl-F) and click In repertoire. This will retrieve all games in a database which are relevant to your repertoire. Remember that you can also click a directory with many databases or in fact an entire partition of your hard disk and use the search mask to find all repertoire games there.

The repertoire scan

This function is a quick and elegant way to find out what’s new in your openings systems. Let us assume you have just received a delivery of new games, e.g. an Internet download or the latest issue of ChessBase Magazine. Click File – New – Repertoire scan. ChessBase will generate a report of all games which are important for your repertoire. The report is a database text with separate sections for each of the repertoire lines. The games are given as links and can be clicked for instant load and replay. They are sorted by player Elo and degree of annotation.

Note that you can best view very dense repertoire games by switching to table notation, and you can print them out nicely using the print repertoire option.