Rybka Aquarium: Using IDeA in correspondence chess
I recently completed an informal experiment that lasted eleven months. During that time I participated in three correspondence chess tournaments. My goal was to evaluate IDeA as an analysis tool for correspondence play and see how it performed in a variety of positions that arise in real games, especially middlegame and endgame positions. I made limited use of various resources normally used by correspondence players, since I wanted the results to depend as much as possible on IDeA itself. Those self-imposed restrictions affected the results, but I think they made the experiment more interesting for users who are considering IDeA for correspondence chess analysis. Read the rest of this entry »

New Aquarium 4.0.6 – major update
Major Aquarium update, version 4.0.6 is released. This is setup for update from any 4.0.* version (i.e. Aquarium 2010 and Aquarium 4) to 4.0.6: Update Here is the list of improvements in 4.0.6 comparing to Aquarium 4.0.5: What’s new Read the rest of this entry »

Rybka Aquarium: A Guide to Basic IDeA Usage
This column is geared towards the average user who wants to start using IDeA (Interactive Deep Analysis) in Aquarium 4.0.6 (the official release will be at 30th of December – ChessOK Development Team). I will explain the basic steps to begin the analysis of a selected position and how to guide the analysis into variations of interest.
If you are new to Aquarium, I strongly recommend that you familiarize yourself with other Aquarium analysis features, such as infinite analysis, before diving into IDeA. In the following I assume that you already know how to use a game database in Aquarium, so that you can create or search for games and positions that you want to analyze. I also assume that you know how to install and configure chess engines in Aquarium.
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IDeA Master Trees and IDeA Game Links
Last month I described over forty new features and improvements in version 4.0.6 of Rybka Aquarium. This month I discuss two further features that will be appreciated by opening analysts, correspondence players, and other serious chess players. Read the rest of this entry »

New Features in Aquarium 4.0.6
A new version of Aquarium 4 (4.0.6) will soon be released. It is free for current Aquarium 4 users. Going from 4.0.5 to 4.0.6 would seem to indicate a minor update, but this is one of the biggest updates since the original release. Before going into the details, here is a quick overview of the new features: Read the rest of this entry »

Starting a New IDeA Project
IDeA is meant to be used interactively and your interaction with IDeA should start before you let it analyze the first position of a project! When you create a new IDeA project, you start the analysis from a position that is of particular interest to you. It could be a critical position in your favorite opening, the first move out of the opening in a correspondence game, or just an interesting position that you would like to understand better with the help of IDeA. Read the rest of this entry »

Using the Rybka 4 Aquarium Opening Book
Deep Rybka 4 Aquarium , Rybka 4 Aquarium , and the Rybka 4 Aquarium Opening Book are now available. Last month I interviewed Jiri Dufek, the author of the opening book. We also saw several novelties and improvements on current theory that are published in the book. This month we will look at the practical use of Jiri’s opening book, the additional data that comes with it and how this data can be used. Read the rest of this entry »

New Features in Aquarium
A new version of Aquarium 2010 (version 4.0.3) will soon be released and it’s free for current users. The new version has several new features, some of which are described below. First a quick overview, followed by more detailed description of each feature: Read the rest of this entry »