Chimera Professional is my current opening book project. It is by far the most ambitious attempt I have made to develop a comprehensive opening book in the .ctg format. With over 4 million opening positions derived from the most current rated engine play. It has been developed using not only statistical analyses but incorporates proven strategic theory as well.
No one strategy will give an opening book good results in all types of computer chess play. The top engine chess players, use customized books for different situations. An example is; A book that will do very well in Sadat’s book tournaments may not fair as well in rated blitz play and a book that achieves a high Elo on the PlayChess server may not perform well in Freestyle competition. So my original Idea was a Chimera, a blending of several different opening book approaches. I had hoped with this method, an opening book could be developed that would be stronger than anything publicly available. After seven months of work I have been unable to achieve this objective. While ChimeraPro is probably stronger than any of the commercially available books, it is not testing any stronger than several of the free opening books from the top authors. (Although book strength, is in reality, extremely relative)
I have decided to make ChimeraPro free for all to evaluate how successful my work has been. One thing I am sure of, is that it can provide a good starting place for those who wish to customize an opening book for their own personal use.
Chimera Pro May 1st 2009