Ctrl C and Ctrl V – Cut and Paste

by ChessBase
9/16/2008 – Have you ever seen the gamescore of a chess game on a web page somewhere and wish you could somehow just copy it right into ChessBase, replay and save it? The fact is that you can – and it is easier than you think. We show you how this extremely useful function works in the new ChessBase Workshop.

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Over the years, a pretty commonly-asked question involves transferring games from an electronic source (web page, e-mail) into a ChessBase/Fritz database. Obviously the laborious way to make this happen is to mouse the moves in by hand, just as you'd do with a game with a print (book or magazine) source. But there's an easier way to enter the games.

First, let's provide you with a sample game which you'll be able to actually use when trying this procedure out:

Ivkov,Borislav (2515) - Byrne,Robert E (2550) [E92]
Bugojno IT (12), 1978

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 e5 7.Be3 Qe8 8.dxe5 Ng4 9.Bg5 h6 10.Bd2 Nxe5 11.Nd5 Nxf3+ 12.Bxf3 Qd8 13.Bc3 Bxc3+ 14.Nxc3 Be6 15.Be2 Nc6 16.Qd2 Kh7 17.f4 f5 18.exf5 Bxf5 19.0-0-0 Qf6 20.g4 Be6 21.Rhf1 Rae8 22.h4 Qf7 23.h5 gxh5 24.Bd3+ Kg8 25.f5 Bxc4 26.Bxc4 Qxc4 27.Qxh6 Qf7 28.Rh1 Qg7 29.Qxh5 Re5 30.Rh2 Ne7 31.Rdh1 Nd5 32.Nxd5 Rxd5 33.Qh8+ Kf7 34.Qxg7+ Kxg7 35.Rh7+ Kf6 36.Rxc7 Rg8 37.Rc4 Rc5 38.Rh6+ Kg5 39.Rh5+ Kf6 40.Rh6+ Kg5 41.Rh5+ Kf6 42.Rxc5 dxc5 43.Rh6+ Kg5 44.Rh7 Kxg4 45.Rxb7 Kxf5 46.Rc7 Ke5 47.Rxc5+ Kd6 48.Rc4 Rg2 49.Kb1 a5 50.a3 Rh2 51.Ka2 Rg2 52.Kb3 Rh2 53.Kc3 Rh3+ 54.Kc2 Rg3 55.Rc8 Rh3 56.Rc3 Rh2+ 57.Kb1 Kd5 58.Rc8 a4 59.Ra8 Rh4 60.Ra5+ Kc6 61.Kc2 Kb6 62.Rd5 Rh3 63.Rd3 Rh2+ 64.Kc3 Kc5 65.Rg3 Rh5 ½-½

Sixty-five moves. That'd be a lot of moves if you had to enter them manually. Lucky for you, that's not necessary.

First you need to highlight everything from 1.d4 to 65...Rh5 (inclusive) in the above game. Move your mouse cursor to the left of 1.d4, hold down the left mouse button, and roll the mouse down so that all of the moves through 65...Rh5 are highlighted (or highlit; go ask an English teacher or something). Don't worry if you accidentally catch the "one-half" notations at the end of the game; that's all right. Once you have the moves highlighted, hit CTRL-C on your keyboard. (You've just copied the moves as text to the Windows Clipboard).

Now fire up either ChessBase or Fritz. Open up a new game window in ChessBase; in Fritz11, start a new game, but be sure to turn off the engine (by using the "Switch off engine" command in the Engine menu). Now just hit CTRL-V to paste the moves into the Notation pane. Note that this process uses two common "universal" Windows keyboard commands: CTRL-C copies highlighted material to the Windows Clipboard, wnile CTRL-V copies whatever's on the Clipboard into the current document (if possible).

When it comes time to save the game into a database, you can switch back and forth between this page and your ChessBase/Fritz to use a similar "cut and paste" technique to input the game header. Note, though, that this requires several separate "cut and paste" operations: White player's first name, White player's last name, Black player's first name, etc., so it's generally easier just to type the header info by hand.

So far so good. But there's a slight "hitch": if there's any text in the game, it won't be pasted into ChessBase/Fritz. Don't believe me? Try cutting and pasting the game below (the same game, but with some text inserted) by highlighting everything from the first move to the last, and then following the steps given above:

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 e5 7.Be3 Qe8 8.dxe5 Ng4 9.Bg5 h6 10.Bd2 Nxe5 11.Nd5 Nxf3+ 12.Bxf3 Qd8 13.Bc3 Bxc3+ 14.Nxc3 Be6 15.Be2 Nc6 16.Qd2 Kh7 17.f4 f5 18.exf5 Bxf5 Annoying non-chess realted text insert placed here just to prove a point. 19.0-0-0 Qf6 20.g4 Be6 21.Rhf1 Rae8 22.h4 Qf7 23.h5 gxh5 24.Bd3+ Kg8 25.f5 Bxc4 26.Bxc4 Qxc4 27.Qxh6 Qf7 28.Rh1 Qg7 29.Qxh5 Re5 30.Rh2 Ne7 31.Rdh1 Nd5 32.Nxd5 Rxd5 33.Qh8+ Kf7 34.Qxg7+ Kxg7 35.Rh7+ Kf6 36.Rxc7 Rg8 37.Rc4 Rc5 38.Rh6+ Kg5 39.Rh5+ Kf6 40.Rh6+ Kg5 41.Rh5+ Kf6 42.Rxc5 dxc5 43.Rh6+ Kg5 44.Rh7 Kxg4 45.Rxb7 Kxf5 46.Rc7 Ke5 47.Rxc5+ Kd6 48.Rc4 Rg2 49.Kb1 a5 50.a3 Rh2 51.Ka2 Rg2 52.Kb3 Rh2 53.Kc3 Rh3+ 54.Kc2 Rg3 55.Rc8 Rh3 56.Rc3 Rh2+ 57.Kb1 Kd5 58.Rc8 a4 59.Ra8 Rh4 60.Ra5+ Kc6 61.Kc2 Kb6 62.Rd5 Rh3 63.Rd3 Rh2+ 64.Kc3 Kc5 65.Rg3 Rh5 ½-½

See? You still get all the moves of the game, but you won't get the text "annotation" I inserted after 18...Bxf5. If you have a game containing text commentary, you'll have to insert each annotation into the game individually. The good news is that you don't have to type it. Highlight the text "annotation" ("Annoying non-chess realted text insert placed here just to prove a point.") from the game above and hit CTRL-C. Then go to your ChessBase/Fritz program, single-click on the move 18...Bxf5 in the Notation pane to highlight that move, then hit CTRL-A to open the annotation window. Once it's open, hit CTRL-V to paste the text into the window, then click the "OK" button. Voila! You've got text!

Before we proceed, here's another keyboard shortcut you should know. ALT-TAB brings up a dialogue containing icons for every program which Windows is presently running. You can use this as a shortcut to move quickly back and forth between programs. Just ALT-TAB to open the dialogue and keep hitting TAB (while still holding down ALT) until the icon for the program you want is highlighted. Let off both the ALT and TAB keys and the program you selected will appear back on top. This is a quick way to move back and forth between, say, a Web browser window and your ChessBase/Fritz program.

Now try highlighting the game below (with a variation included at Black's eighteenth move) and cutting and pasting it (as before) into ChessBase/Fritz:

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 e5 7.Be3 Qe8 8.dxe5 Ng4 9.Bg5 h6 10.Bd2 Nxe5 11.Nd5 Nxf3+ 12.Bxf3 Qd8 13.Bc3 Bxc3+ 14.Nxc3 Be6 15.Be2 Nc6 16.Qd2 Kh7 17.f4 f5 18.exf5 Bxf5 [18...gxf5] 19.0-0-0 Qf6 20.g4 Be6 21.Rhf1 Rae8 22.h4 Qf7 23.h5 gxh5 24.Bd3+ Kg8 25.f5 Bxc4 26.Bxc4 Qxc4 27.Qxh6 Qf7 28.Rh1 Qg7 29.Qxh5 Re5 30.Rh2 Ne7 31.Rdh1 Nd5 32.Nxd5 Rxd5 33.Qh8+ Kf7 34.Qxg7+ Kxg7 35.Rh7+ Kf6 36.Rxc7 Rg8 37.Rc4 Rc5 38.Rh6+ Kg5 39.Rh5+ Kf6 40.Rh6+ Kg5 41.Rh5+ Kf6 42.Rxc5 dxc5 43.Rh6+ Kg5 44.Rh7 Kxg4 45.Rxb7 Kxf5 46.Rc7 Ke5 47.Rxc5+ Kd6 48.Rc4 Rg2 49.Kb1 a5 50.a3 Rh2 51.Ka2 Rg2 52.Kb3 Rh2 53.Kc3 Rh3+ 54.Kc2 Rg3 55.Rc8 Rh3 56.Rc3 Rh2+ 57.Kb1 Kd5 58.Rc8 a4 59.Ra8 Rh4 60.Ra5+ Kc6 61.Kc2 Kb6 62.Rd5 Rh3 63.Rd3 Rh2+ 64.Kc3 Kc5 65.Rg3 Rh5 ½-½

Whoops! You get the same thing as before: the main line moves have been cut and pasted, while the variation has been omitted. Highlight the one-move variation from the game above and hit CTRL-C. Then ALT-TAB over to ChessBase/Fritz, single-click on 18...Bxf5, and hit the T key on your keyboard. Then hit CTRL-V. BOOM! The variation line is inserted.

You can very easily ALT-TAB back and forth between ChessBase/Fritz and the electronic source of your game (an e-mail, Web page, document, etc.; anything which CTRL-C will "pick up" can be used), adding variations and commentary a piece at a time. While this might seem a bit labor-intensive on some heavily-annotated games, it's still significantly faster than entering all of that information by hand.

And one last tip: don't forget to save your work when you're finished!

Until next week, have fun!

You can e-mail me with your comments on ChessBase Workshop. No tech support questions, please.


© 2008, Steven A. Lopez. All rights reserved.

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