In ChessBase 12, when viewing an Opening Tree, why do all the games always stop near move 26?

Hello.

I have ChessBase 12 64Bit. To create an Opening Tree I do the following steps:
I click on "Mega Database 2014".
I filter all the 5.8 millions games like I want (for example, taking only the games where a specific player was White).
Right click > Edit > Select all.
Right click > Edit > Clip or unclip.
File > New > Database > Save as type: Books (*.CTG)
And then I drag the "Clip Database" to my newly created Opening Tree.
The newly created Opening Tree works fine.

But there is just one problem: all the games always stop near move 26 (sometimes at move 24, sometimes at move 28).

Why is that? And how can I fix this?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

Originally posted by Marc Benford
Hello.

I have ChessBase 12 64Bit. To create an Opening Tree I do the following steps:
I click on "Mega Database 2014".
I filter all the 5.8 millions games like I want (for example, taking only the games where a specific player was White).
Right click > Edit > Select all.
Right click > Edit > Clip or unclip.
File > New > Database > Save as type: ...[text shortened]... imes at move 28).

Why is that? And how can I fix this?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

Don't they have a convention of pruning a specific number of moves after the ECO classification has been reached?

Originally posted by Marc Benford
Hello.

I have ChessBase 12 64Bit. To create an Opening Tree I do the following steps:
I click on "Mega Database 2014".
I filter all the 5.8 millions games like I want (for example, taking only the games where a specific player was White).
Right click > Edit > Select all.
Right click > Edit > Clip or unclip.
File > New > Database > Save as type: ...[text shortened]... imes at move 28).

Why is that? And how can I fix this?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

There is a point in the process where you are asked if you want the book to be absolute length or ECO-relative length, or something like that. You need to set it to absolute length.

Yes I know. I always choose "Absolute Length" and then I put a big number like 400 for the "Length". I believe this means that all the games will stop at move 400 (or maybe 200... I'm not sure if 400 is the number of moves or the number of plies), but this is clearly not the case: they stop near move 26.

And like I said earlier, they don't all stop precisely at move 26, but only near move 26: there are some who stop at move 24, and some who stop at move 28... If there was a convention to stop all games after a specific number of moves they would all stop precisely at move 26, which is not the case.

I'm pretty sure there must be a way to solve this problem, since most opening tree / game database don't stop after a specific amount of moves... (example: http://chessok.com/?page_id=352)

Originally posted by Marc Benford
Yes I know. I always choose "Absolute Length" and then I put a big number like 400 for the "Length". I believe this means that all the games will stop at move 400 (or maybe 200... I'm not sure if 400 is the number of moves or the number of plies), but this is clearly not the case: they stop near move 26.

And like I said earlier, they don't all stop p ...[text shortened]... tabase don't stop after a specific amount of moves... (example: http://chessok.com/?page_id=352)

All I can think is to choose absolute length, but don't put anything in for a number. I've never put in a number, and my books all work.

Of course, that does not mean it will solve it, but it might be worth a try. I spent about 30 minutes going through the help menus and did not find anything.

If all else fails, I would go to a site like chesscafe.com and check the archived chessbase columns to see if there is anything there. Good luck!

Edit: If you have not already done so, you can download the Chessbase 12 manual in pdf format from their website. I did not know it existed until a few minutes ago, but it is 300+ pages and looks to be more thorough than the help files.

I tried choosing "Absolute Length" and then leaving the field "Length" blank, but it didn't resolve the problem.

I found this manual: http://download.chessbase.com/download/pdf/ManualFritz13.pdf
Page n°103 is about the "Absolute Length" and "ECO-Relative Length", but I don't see anything there that I didn't already try.

And can you confirm me that, for you, Opening Trees in ChessBase work fine and don't all stop at move 26 or something?
I mean, maybe ChessBase is programmed to do that? Or am I the only one having that problem?

Originally posted by Marc Benford
And can you confirm me that, for you, Opening Trees in ChessBase work fine and don't all stop at move 26 or something?
I mean, maybe ChessBase is programmed to do that? Or am I the only one having that problem?

I have a really big opening tree ( BOB VII- for "Big Opening Base version 7), and I followed popular moves out to move 35 in two different lines.

I'll play with it more later- it did strike me as odd that both ended at 35.

When I converted from BOB VI to BOB VII, I had some issues merging some files, so I am not completely convinced I have it set up perfectly, but it does go beyond 26 moves.

Hopefully I'll have a better answer this weekend when I can play with it more.

After I pick "Absolute Length", I have tried to input various numbers for the "Length": 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 100, 200, 400. And surprisingly, no matter what number I put, the opening tree always stop near move 26!

I also tried to pick "ECO-Relative Length" instead of "Absolute Length", and weirdly there was absolutely no difference: the opening tree still stops near move 26.

This means that there really is a big problem, a bug. ChessBase is simply ignoring whether I choose "Absolute Length" or "ECO-Relative Length" and what number I put for the "Length"...

Hi Marc,

It occurred to me- are you using version 33? It's a long shot, but worth verifying to make sure everything is up to date.

Good idea, but how do I check which version I currently have?

Originally posted by Marc Benford
Good idea, but how do I check which version I currently have?

On the main screen, go to file, and then to activation, and update program is the bottom option.

Mine does it automatically, but I don't remember if I chose that option when I installed it or not.

The current version is 33- sometimes the updates change things that I can recognize, but sometimes I have no idea what they changed. They do seem to be making improvements on a continuous basis.

I had only version 32, I updated it to version 33, but unfortunately it did not solve the problem..

Sorry none of this helped- this has exhausted what I know. If I find something new I'll either post or PM you.