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Subject: Re: Best tutorial software?

Author: Robert Pawlak

Date: 06:10:35 11/13/99

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On November 13, 1999 at 01:57:57, Lawrence S. Tamarkin wrote:

>* Chess Mentor

A great piece of work, but some of the intermediate exercises require a huge
chunk of time, all at one sitting.

>* Chess Base (and/or training CD's)

Danny King Attack! is very good.

>* Chessica CD with tutor

Excellent course on the basics. The coach of our local grade school is using
these.

>* CM7000, or earlier

Uneven content. The Josh Waitzkin tutorials is probably the best usage of
multimedia I've seen in a piece of chess software. However, the other examples
are only ok.

>* Bookup

King+Pawn is very good...

>* Chess Academy

Best for the informant combinations. Over all, the tactical exercises are less
complex than those in CT-ART. A huge compendium of endgame information also.

The middlegame examples/tests are quite long (like chess mentor), so I've not
really had the chance to sit down with them. Most of my usage of the tutorials
is in small blocks of time.

>* CT-Art 3.0 or other Chess Assistant program

I use CT-ART, Strategy and Studies on a weekly basis. I think these are some of
the best programs for intermediate to advanced level players. You can do one or
more exercises at a sitting.

These are absolutely fantastic programs.

>* New In Chess CD's

I'm working on a review of these right now.

>* Just a strong human? chess trainer, with endless chess knowledge (Like the
>real life Bruce Pandofini) -:)
>

Wonderful if you can afford it. A human will point out things in your play that
a computer could never help you with. The problem is cost. Most teachers are
just trying to make a living, but those of us that play for enjoyment can rarely
justify the expense. You can buy one or more chess programs for what an hour of
coaching time costs.

My experience with my coach was very positive. I sent him a collection of my
games, which he analyzed for patterns. His analysis was very illuminating. He
told me that I tended to resolve pawn tension too soon (something a program will
never point out), and that I tended to overlook combos involving overworked
pieces (something I knew from going over the games myself).

Since then, I've been using the thematice exercises in CT-ART and Chess Academy
to work on seeing combos with overworked pieces.

Bob P.





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