I'm sorry that I didn't get back to you sooner. I have been preoccupied with road bikes. I am thinking about buying one and riding it for leisure. I like to stay active; working out in the gym is fine, but I am looking for something else in addition that is perhaps a little less strenuous but at the same time enjoyable.

<1) By getting the starter package, I would receive the <Big> database rather than the <Mega> database. It looks like the only difference is the annotations. Am I right?>

Yes, you are correct. I don't know how important the annotations are to you; they're not that important to me. I like to do my own annotations. I hope I don't sound too arrogant by saying that many of the annotations I have seen are not comprehensive enough or deep enough for use in correspondence chess. It takes a long time to analyze a game completely, and some games seem to defy analysis! At any rate, I think I have become a better chess player by doing my own work rather than passively accepting what others have done. On the other hand, having to do a lot of analysis can become tedious.

<2) Does the Big database include CC games and if so, can you tell which games are CC? In other words, can you filter on just CC games?>

I usually check the game notes to see how the game was played. Generally, I don't use blitz or rapid games because they contain too many mistakes, especially in the endgame, and therefore give spurious results. I also like to use games played by those with ratings of 2500 and above. If I have time I will look at games by lower rated players.

You would be better off buying <Tim Harding's Chess Mail CC database>. It has over 800,000 CC games, and it costs only $30. This is the database that <Thorsson> uses.

To stay up to date, I am thinking of getting a subscription to ChessBase Magazine on CD and downloading CC games off of the Internet.

I hope this helps.

On another topic, I am analyzing 8.b4 to see if it has any merit should Black play a line other than 8...e5. So far I see little advantage for White. I will report in a day or two.

I think right now everyone is preoccupied with move 8. Once that argument is settled, there's a better chance that your forum can have more relevance. I don't think people are talking about TNs per se, but rather advocating certain 8th moves and exploring lines arising from their chosen moves. Many of these lines include a downstream TN, but the TN itself is not the focus of discussion yet.

As for my variation index, I'll probably start either now or within the next few moves or so, depending on how much is posted in the forums.

Can I put in my $0.02 worth? There is a fair amount of skill involved in summarising a ream of analysis, and one person would be very hard pushed to do the lot. Have you considered having someone from every forum summing up their line - that by itself is a significant amount of work.

Just a thought.

More people are willing to step forward and host forums, but I know how evanescent this notional support can be on occasion, and just how complex it can get organising forums when people are away or inactive. Finding a group of summarisers is a lot harder than finding someone whose willing to lend their forum.

Anyway, if I firm up on a variation in 5 days that no-one else wants to summarise, I may be able to help, but with only one variation - I'll let you know beforehand.

It serves a good purpose--to let the voters get a glance of what the general concensus is.

I think it would be useful for members of our team to announce what move they believe is strongest for black. Let people "vote" for black's best move, that way it will generate analysis and the team can analyze white's weaknesses from a speculative point of view.

I believe that there is already plenty of analysis for black's candidate moves, but would it be useful to let our teammembers post what they believe is black's strongest move? This will give bored members something to do while we're waiting for black-to-move during the 3 day lulls.

I have noticed forum activity spikes for 3 days, then wanes for 3 days, etc...

I find myself only interested during the 3 days leading to white's move.

I have browsed the main page, and there is discourse already of "what black will likely play".

Its already here, there is a demand for it--can we officially publish a forum that has the votes of our leaders saying which move they think black will play?

Of course, the links to the temporary forums of each black move, would be under the vote-totals, giving people a page to "see who thinks move Qe8 is a good move" and from the same page, they look and then click the link to its respective analysis, and come back to the page, and provide feedback and thoughts.

I think the idea is 1) when BLACK is to move, team members can "vote" on what they think is black's best move (or the move the team member most fears), and 2) create a forum to keep track of who "votes" for which black move - and <sentriclecub> is willing to do it.