I was always told that I would improve quickly if I played through master games. I started to do so later in life when I purchased ChessBase. I now play through 5-10 games a day. It's a joy, not a burden. Pick your favorite players... your favorite openings. Or just play through great games, all without having to set up the board. You can explore variations without having to re-set the board, and you can easily find instructional middlegame and endgame positions.
Bookup 2000 Professional. One of the best ways to study chess openings and very useful in opening preparation. "Bookup is one of the most user-friendly programs I have seen, written by the most user-friendly programmers I have ever met. It is great stuff!" GM Svidler
Chess Assistant 7.1. Chess Assistant 7 is a tool for analyzing games (your own, or others), managing chess games and databases, playing chess on the ICC Internet Chess server, viewing Encyclopedia of CHESS OPENINGS 2002, or playing chess against the computer.
Mega 2004. The exclusive annotated database of more than 2 millions games from 1530 to 2003 in the highest ChessBase quality standard. 45,000 games contain commentary from top players.
Bigbase 2004. Contains more than 2.3 millions games from 1530 to 2003 in the highest ChessBase quality standard, with ChessBase opening classification...
Ultimate Game Collection. the LARGEST commercially available database of chess games with over 2.5 Million games in Chessbase format.