• by AliciaS

  Rating:

   I'm pretty new to the game of chess and have been working with Chess Mentor 3 Deluxe and wanted to give my opinion of it. First off, I think this is a great program for learning chess for a beginner and the site claims it's helpful for up to master level. I'd been reading chess books and looking through websites trying to learn what I could and while I found both of those methods helpful neither of them teaches the game nearly as well as Chess Mentor.
   The lessons are very well-structured (there's over 2000 of them) and different levels of hints are available to help if you're having problems at anytime. I like this approach because if you get stuck you can try the first hint then try solving it again and if you're still unable to you can try the next hint or the next. There's also a button which will reveal the move if all else fails.Also, if you make a wrong move the program will tell you so and tell you why it's wrong. If it's a good move but there's a better one it'll tell you that too and explain why. It also keeps track of your progress and if it notices you're having problems with anything it will make sure to go back later and drill you again in that area. What book can do that?
   As for the negatives, the GUI could be worked on a bit but this program isnt about fancy graphics, it's about teaching, and it does that very well. The only other negative is the price tag, a hefty $200 for the Deluxe version (I got it as a gift so the price wasn't a consideration for me luckily) although there are other versions available at $15, $40 and $75.
   All in all, it's an excellent teaching tool and I highly recommend it.

• by OverLordGoldDragon

  It's hard to read the coordinates off the list and then look at the board and imagine. It would be great if there would be Chess Mentor that would be able to read the lesson and demonstrate it by videos. Then it would be worth 200$. Too much time on reading and thus boring... Think about it.

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