12345 Shareware ================ Copy/paste your validation in above replacing the two top lines. Make sure all punctuation and spelling is identical to the validation you received. Once you have done so, you can optionally delete all other text in this document. ================ For registration information, search this document for ":Registration". ================ IMPORTANT! Make no edit changes to this file until you receive a validation. ================ Advertisements... ::NORMAL.ZIP The mainstay of any set of programs for dealing with ASCII chess game collections. You'll want NORMAL (especially) if you have one of the large database programs as it performs the first step in getting new games into a reliable, proofed format. Normal checks notation and converts game headers to PGN. It's able to scan most any text document and retrieve games, making it indispensable for building up your collections from the latest games posted on the on-line services and the Internet. NORMAL forgives the untidy game score and converts it to perfect standard algebraic. If you've used NORMAL before, get ready for Version 2.2! It's 50% faster and now supports new fields that have been appearing in PGN headers: the [White/Black] Title & Country and the LongECO tag. It has other new features as well. NORMAL is "U4" shareware and is included along with the basic U4 package for a registration price of $10 (a validation will be sent EMail). For a disk copy of all the U4 utilities plus others, send $20. For complete registration information, see the ReadMe file that came with your download. ::ChessU4.ZIP Quite likely the fastest, nimblest ASCII chess reader available. Have you ever asked yourself why someone posting a game score didn't bother to proof the notation first? Answer: the reader/proofer they own is not ChessU4. With "U4" it's a 12 second operation, and I know, I just tried it! To do so, just type an asterisk instead of the file name at the input prompt... First second: click the ChessU4 icon, it opens; 3rd second: type "*", NotePad opens; 5th second: Paste (Ctrl/V); 8th second: choose "Save"; 10th second: choose "Close" (NotePad); 12th second: press Enter twice. Viola! Actually my best time just now (and on a 386) was 10 seconds but what's the hurry? ::HighRank.ZIP HighRank is for serious collectors who take special pains in making sure their collections are accurate and complete with regard to player information. HighRank "researches" player names, assigns ratings, and also categorizes games on player ability. A "fuzzy-name" matcher locates the correct player even when spelling and punctuation differ. Using ratings files, the program can split ASCII game collections into two parts--those played by professionals and those by amateurs. It also normalizes player names--assigning each a single, selected usage. No longer will your collections have 15 different spelling for Viktor Korchnoi! ::The Interface The author (that's me) of the U4 programs apologizes (just a little) for the interface. Full-Windows, GUI interfaces are easy to use and look good besides. Why then the plain White screen? Simple, most programmers spend 80% or more of their time building the interface. That's fine for a single application but when someone has many ideas for chess utility programs and not enough time to do each one, it's better to provide a useful number of products than spend all one's time perfecting a single idea. With the simple interface, many more programs have been made available. ...And if you don't believe I can write a Windows front-end, you didn't see ClassC.EXE! ::NIC2PGN.ZIP This program is for users of NiC (New in Chess) databases--and for those that receive their games. It converts NIC formatted game headers to PGN. ::CMSTAT.ZIP Do you own CM4000? CMSTAT takes an analyzed score (Mentor) from Chess Master 4000 and shows the ups and downs of the game visually by producing an Excel barchart. It also creates an annotated game score where the numeric evaluations from CM4000 have been converted to ?, !, ?!, and ?! move comments. When a blunder or losing move is noted, the correct line is also inserted into the game score. The PGN scores produced allow the sub-variations to be played by your Chess Assistant or ChessBase database. ::CChunk.EXE One of the most difficult tasks when working with ASCII chess collections is combining games from individual files and breaking larger files into several pieces. Most editors are simply not up to the task. Use CChunk instead to split and combine files--it's designed to work with chess games. ::PGNSrt.EXE Dups, dups, dups! A chess collector's nightmare. Why do we have so many of them? Because, despite the claims, they are extremely difficult to remove from collections....and here we are talking about the chess databases. Why not remove them before putting them in? That's the main function of PGNSrt and it's much faster than other methods--PGNSrt can sort 4000 games in seconds. In addition, PGNSrt may be the only program which can successfully locate and remove partial dups. The latest version now handles annotated games as well. For ASCII users, PGNSrt also helps organize collections. Games can be arranged by notation or ECO. A file can be sequenced by sorting on any PGN field--or any combination. ::ChessU3.EXE If there's a secret weapon in the U4 arsenal then its name is ChessU3. Rumors of its existence have proved true as it was actually the first program ever developed in the family of utilities. Trouble was, up till now, it was only available on disk. This has changed--there is now a Sicilian-only demo available in a library near you. By the way, ChessU3 is an ASCII tree-searcher. If you own ChessBase or Chess Assistant then you know what a tree-searcher is. But how many times has this happened: you are following a great line in your chosen defense; Black scores 7 to 0 in the current position. You click the forward arrow to advance to the next move....Poof! Everything evaporates. There are now 50 games and Black maintains only the slightest advantage. What happened?? It was an illusion; one or more transpositions flowed into the subsequent position and spoiled everything. Your time following bum leads comes to an end with ChessU3 since it sees through ALL forward transpositions ahead of time--even from move one. At any position transpositions have already been taken into account and show in the win/loss/draw statistics. How does ChessU3 do it? That's its secret! ::ChessU3.EXE Early versions were slow but the new Version 2.3 will typically solve the tree in less time than it took to load the games. Version 2.3 runs three times faster and can run up to 15 times faster during a deep-line analysis. Games with repeating moves are not only solved but diagnosed. If you find a nest of them and you need a draw in your postal game then just head towards the identified game/line. What is ChessU3? Be waiting for the main ChessU3 banner. ::ChessU3.EXE If your version of ChessU3 is prior to Version 2.0 then you don't have mini-max backsolving. With mini-max, you tell it how many games will constitute a good selection number. Say you've chosen 5 games....ChessU3 will look ahead at all positions in the collection which represent at least 5 games and retrieve back the most extreme imbalance for either White or Black and list these alongside each candidate from move one onwards. What is ChessU3?? Be waiting for the main ChessU3 banner. ::ChessU3.EXE If you're a strong postal or correspondence player and don't own ChessU3 then likely you've lost at least one game unnecessarily. When your opponent dodges the line you've selected, you can often jump ahead and get him back on track with a "U3" analysis. This feature works especially well for the most complex openings such as the D44 Semi-Slav, the Queen's Indian, and many English openings. What is ChessU3?? Be waiting for the main ChessU3 banner. ::Perto.EXE (Part I) "Perto" means "close" in Portuguese; in English it stands for "repertoire." Its use provides a way of closing in on a chosen position. Before, players were limited in a choice between openings. Now, for the first time, PERTO allows one to choose a desirable, advance position--then plugs all holes leading up to it. This feature makes it perfect for the OTB player who wishes to cover all bases--or the correspondence player who hopes to lead the game into one's own territory and avoid that chosen by the opponent. ::Perto.EXE (Part II) For a chosen line or position of any depth, Perto will scan up to 8000 PGN games and locate _every_ game which contains the position or _any_ line leading up to it. All possible lines thus selected are summarized to each unique series of moves which achieve the selected position. During the summarization, all "stoppers" which could break away from the main line are likewise summarized and counted. summarization can be for both sides or from a White or Black perspective only. If you're White and hope to continue your game in the lines of the Najdorf--you'll see every advance move required and the probabilities and alternative moves to expect should your opponent wish to steer the game elsewhere. ...Want to reach the winning position in Alterman - Kamsky? Perto will show you how! ::Postal Hints Select your game early one. Once your opponent has played 1.d4, choose a position--not just an opening--the deeper the better. Find all possible lines leading to the desired position with PERTO.EXE. Take the main "stoppers" and analyze these with ChessU3.EXE--feeding those most favorable to your side back into the file of all possible lines. You'll be surprised how few steps this takes to achieve a good possibility of reaching a given position--or at least a limited set of alternatives. The small file of lines thus produced can be played with ChessU4--or traced with ChessU3 (the latter by tagging your three or four deepest, selected lines with winning terminators). Don't assume, because your opponent played move "X," that you are "off-line." Rather, run it through ChessU3 since it's virtually impossible for a human (short of a GM) to trace every alternative of the most complex lines. ChessU3 will likely do so in less than 30 seconds. If you have covered all bases and your opponent still breaks the line, he has likely chosen an inferior move. Now it's time to apply your chess skills and show him why. ::NORMAL.ZIP -- Don't forget Drag & Drop! You've downloaded a half-dozen PGN game files and have them in a remote directory....how are you going to remember all those file names when NORMAL asks for them?? Don't. Just start the Windows File Manager and drop the files one-by-one onto the NORMAL icon. You can append all output while doing so. Drag & drop works also for ChessU4 and a number of other "U4" family programs. ::ChessU4 features you didn't know existed: ...Want to send that brilliancy you just played to a chess magazine and have is published? You could spend a couple of days annotating the game score, print it out and mail it in--hoping the feature writer was having a slow week and had time to play through the score or type it in. On the other hand, you could use the "d*" command of ChessU4. All you need in addition is a chess font such as Linares or Tilburg. The "d*" (diagram) option produces a text file of the entire game in a series of tiny, perfect chessboards. Just open and print with MS Word. A layout feature allows you to compose a page and show all, or just some of the diagrammed positions during the game. The regular "d" (diagram) command produces a single, larger chess diagram using your chosen chess font. You can then place these individually into the ASCII chess score. Finally, you can convert your chess score into full, international symbolic. ::ChessU4 features you didn't know existed: You can't move the pieces with ChessU4 (boo!) since the DLL that produces the board is "read-only." However, if you've downloaded the Waxman chess program (sometimes found under "WaxChess") you're just a second or two away from the possibility. With the new ChessU4 Version 2.3, the handy little WaxChess board (by Check-Tech Software, Inc.) pops up in an instant. Next, just open the default ".pos" file and the selected ChessU4 game is on your screen for analysis and "what if." ::ChessU4 features you didn't know existed: Version 2.3 now allows you to export directly to CM4000. There's no need now to rely on your editor and insert all those little semi-colons! ::ChessU4 features you didn't know existed. Suffering from ICCF international postal notation paranoia? Do you go back and forth checking your moves against the little numbered board that come with your Section start-up kit? Stop worrying--just keep your postal records in ChessU4 then use the "u" ("Using ICCF") option to export the game just before filling out your postal card. View this file in NotePad and transfer the numeric moves. The standard notation is listed right alongside so you know you're sending the move you want. ::ChessU4 features you didn't know existed. Eric Churchill's RECORD is a great way to keep track of on-line games but when you're playing official postal (USCF, ICCF, etc.), move recording is a bit more stringent. Here's an example of what you can do in ChessU4: Onstad,Paul - Kuthe,Hans-Peter cr ICCF WT/H/913 1995 1.Kuthe,Hans-Peter, Schleswiger Weg 13, D-33102 Paderborn, Germany Note: date format is: {sent postmarked received } {W/B} 1.e4 {5254} {16-Nov-95 16-Nov-95 21-Nov-95} {1/-} c5 {3735} {22-Nov-95 22-Nov-95 25-Nov-95} {-/1} 2.Nf3 {7163} {27-Nov-95} {2/-} {Ttl TIME - PWO: 3 / HPL: 1} {========} 1/2 You can keep all your games in a single text document--the "List" command of Version 2.3 works perfectly with the above format. Just restrain yourself and avoid sending the little "1/2" terminator at the end! ::Coming soon on CompuServe....SWREG! The U4 author is a starving, unemployed, nearly homeless individual who should be working (and can only afford a 386) but all he does is write chess software! He can't afford a Visa/MC account. However, this has left many out in the cold who haven't access to U.S. funds. There will soon be a solution in CompuServe's software registration service....check the DES when you do your download. SWREG has a single price and that is 35US$ for ALL "U4" family software. You will receive an immediate validation by EMail with a disk following (Airmail) in about a week. There are no additional shipping charges. (FEDEX or other special delivery is available only if you compute the additional charges and include the extra amount with your order.) ::Registration You've had NORMAL six months now and committed these banners to memory? Well congratulations! Your next step is to send in your registration. Doing so will have one disadvantage--these banners will go away. It's been fun talking though! Prices: Pkg 1: $10 - U4 family EMail validation for NORMAL, ChessU4, PGNSrt, HighRank, etc. Pkg 2: $15 - Pkg.1 + ChessU3, Perto, CollEdit Pkg 3: $20 - Pkg.1 + Pkg.2 shipped by disk. Additionally, includes CMStat, ClassC, NIC2PGN, CChunk Pkg 4: $35 - Pkg.3 using CIS SWREG - shipped airmail Make out check or money order to: Paul W. Onstad 70641.3236@compuserve.com 10168 Parrish Ave NE Elk River, MN 55330 USA ::Postal Hints Correspondence and Postal games generally favor the sharper lines but, unless you are in a hurry to get the game over with, there is no real reason why this should be so. Rather, a good strategy is the patient one of waiting in ambush until your opponent breaks cover. There's a reason why GMs tend to avoid openings like the King's Gambit and that is--not because they are inherently bad--but because they constitute more of a "crap-shoot." If you have confidence in your chess-playing ability, consider the deeper, subtle lines. Doing so, there's less of chance that you'll get caught in a theoretical trap since your opponent already owns every book ever printed on Latvian Gambit. ::Special Offer -- Free Validation! No offense, but if the only program you use from the U4 family is NORMAL.EXE, you might still appreciate a validation. Putting a $5.00 check in the mail is too much trouble so here's the offer: (I'm usually in the market for some games of a particular opening....so...) If you have a fairly substantial collection, send me a note EMail. I'll reply with an opening, ECO, line, or position I'm interested in. If it sounds like a deal, we'll agree to the nearest 500 games (Normalized PGN, of course). You send me the games in a ZIP file and I'll send you a validation for NORMAL. I've got most of the opening collections from CompuServe so I'd be more interested if your collection was built from a variety of sources. Incidentally, right now I'm interested in the Semi-Slav. :: End