CORRESPONDENCE CHESS BOOK REVIEWS Including Books, Periodicals, and Software (All Reviews by John Knudsen Unless Otherwise Indicated)
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Reviewed in 2001 Review of Mega Corr2 CD
By John C. Knudsen
Copyright 2001 by John C. Knudsen, all rights reserved.
Mega Corr2 CD
2001
ISBN 0-9538536-1-6
Edited by Tim Harding
Chess Mail Limited
Basic Price: $39.00
Upgrade Price: $26.00
Order at:
http://www.chessmail.com/mega2cd.html
DESERT ISLAND CORRESPONDENCE CHESS "Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it."
- Samuel Johnson, 1775
If you were stranded on a desert island, with only rags for clothes, and a laptop with many batteries - Mega Corr2 would probably be your correspondence chess reference of choice. Until your food ran out, it would feed your head, leave you completely satisfied, and cause you to want for nothing else.
I have been awaiting this sequel to MegaCorr (released in 1999) with great anticipation, as well as hesitation. The hesitation part was mainly to see if the original could be improved upon.
Mega Corr2 is not a program - rather, it is a data CD. To get the most out of its features, you will want to ensure that you have the freeware Adobe Acrobat Reader, Version 4.0 or higher. Most people have Acrobat already on their PCs, but if you need the Reader, or an upgrade, it is no problem - it is on the CD as well.
Macintosh fans will appreciate the fact that this CD will work without problems on the Mac. Windows users can expect to encounter no problems, either. I could find no bugs under either operating system.
I spent several hours with the included tournament books - the draft of the NPSF-50 Tournament book, and also the books that were on the original MegaCorr - The Bohatirchuk Memorial and CNEC-15. Although a draft, the NPSF-50 book is highly polished and a fine addition to the literature. This was one of the strongest correspondence chess tournaments of its kind at the time, and has quite a few annotated games, as well as pictures, crosstables, indexes, in short, everything that you would expect to find in a quality publication. I like to hold physical books in my hands as much as the next guy, but all of these "extra" publications can be printed out and stapled and, there you go! Harding did a good job putting these books together, in PDF format - which is the electronic document standard on the web. They print out well, too.
The database of correspondence chess games contains over 353,000 complete games, approximately 25,000 of which are annotated. If you are a serious correspondence chess player, or just want to learn from the strong masters; there is no better source of quality material to draw upon. Formats include PGN, Chessbase, and Chess Assistant. I noticed improvement in the quality of the games - this database is the highest quality currently available. It is the bread and butter of MegaCorr.
Some interesting additions to Mega Corr2:
The Weegenaar/Elburg book reviews from the Chess Mail site, current as of April of 2001.
Tons of information about correspondence chess in general, rules, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), titled players, etc.
All of Harding's "The Kibitzer" columns from the Chess Cafe site, through the end of 2000.
All of the issues of Chess Mail, from the introductory issue up to the end of 2000, in PDF format.
An (off-line) "web" section, which includes information about classic tournaments, many invitational tournaments, players, etc. This section, while primarily of interest to chess historians, is a fascinating read for anyone. Photographs of famous players and personalities are always welcome and add so much to the big picture! Harding's attention to detail regarding correspondence chess history and his hunt for that elusive game score has always made a big impression to this reviewer, and it should impress you, too.
"I do not say that John or Jonathan will realize all this; but such is the character of that morrow which mere lapse of time can never make to dawn. The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning-star."
- Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854For the serious competitor, Mega Corr2 remains the one-stop reference resource. For the casual enthusiast, this CD will keep you busy for many weeks, and make you want to be a serious competitor!
This limited edition CD should be ordered without delay. And don't blame me, if you have to wait for Mega Corr3 - as far as I know, this is the first review!
John C. Knudsen
Borken-Kleinenglis, Germany
May 30, 2001