I am trying to work on my tactics.  I play pretty well here with no real time limits. But when I go to USCF tournaments I get my clock cleaned.  Because my tactics are not good enough.  I spent most of last year working with Silman's Reasses Your Chess and Nimzowitsch's My System and they have done a great deal for me in terms of strategy and planning.  But, when the clock starts ticking I just start pushing wood and getting hammered.

Anyway, I was told to get CT-ART and I did.  I found that the documentation that came with it was pretty poor and then lost it.  I feel like I am not using the program to its potential or that it is just to hard for me.  The lowest ELO is 1600.  Yes, I tend to have a 1700s rating here. But again, take away my analysis board and start a clock and I am hot garbage!  My tactics trainer and and CT-ART ratings hover around 1200.

So please, help me.  Those of you that have used CT-ART what was your training program. Or considering how bad my tactics seem to be should I get something easier. 

 

CT is an excellent program. The best way to use it is to use Grades By Difficulty. Start with problem 1 from level 1 and work your way up. The problems will get more difficult as you progress and you will never know what tactical them you are working on(like in regular over the board play) if you use CT ART this way. Start with level one in practice mode then level 2 etc. You could change it to test mode after finishing each level for a quick review.  Also keep in mind time used to solve the problems in CT ART does not affect your rating so you can take your time and really work on calculating. You do not have to rush like here or Chess Tactics Server. I recommend you go through the same problems more than once each time faster to change from working on your calculation skills to your recognition skills. Hope this helps.

I bought the program and have a hard time getting it to work in Vista.  And when it does work its too advanced for me.  I will stick to Polgars big book untill I reach CT Arts level. 

In Vista for CT Art to work you have to desactivate user account control.

onehandgann wrote: CT is an excellent program. The best way to use it is to use Grades By Difficulty. Start with problem 1 from level 1 and work your way up. The problems will get more difficult as you progress and you will never know what tactical them you are working on(like in regular over the board play) if you use CT ART this way. Start with level one in practice mode then level 2 etc. You could change it to test mode after finishing each level for a quick review.  Also keep in mind time used to solve the problems in CT ART does not affect your rating so you can take your time and really work on calculating. You do not have to rush like here or Chess Tactics Server. I recommend you go through the same problems more than once each time faster to change from working on your calculation skills to your recognition skills. Hope this helps.

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completely agree. For training with CT-ART ive incorporated De la Maza's Suggestion of his seven drills (Rapid Chess Improvemt). In which he teaches tells students to take 1000 tactics problems with increassing difficulty and burn the paterns into ur memeory. 1st drill-16 problems a day until u get to a 1000, 2nd drill- 32 problems a day, 3rd drill-64 problems a day, etc. Until u do all the problems in 1 day. The first 5 circles i believe are suppesed to teach u the tactics and motifs while the last three are suppesed to teach u pattern recognition. but instead of 16 problems a day for the 1st circle i do 32 (just my preference), I also test myself after I finish each level of difficulty. Even though when u choose to do the problems by level of difficulty there is a pattern which they follow, ex.10 ques or so in a row are knight forks, then queen sacrificing, winning material, remove the defender, back rank mates, etc. But if u find that the problems are still too hard for u i would suggest susan polgar's book "Chess Tactics for Champions" in which she introdues the types of tactcic with examples and then gives 25-50 problems with each motif, Extremely good book on introducing various types of tactical motifs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All my Convekta products run fine on my Vista machine after using the advice on their website (www.chessok.com). CT-Art 3.0 is my favourite training tool. You could also try to register (for free) at: " target="_blank">http://chess.emrald.net/

Good tactics training but kind of stresssfull....

An even better alternative is to subscribe to chess.com and take full advantage of the Tactics Trainer.

Yes, I highly recommend the Chess.com Tactics Trainer (http://www.chess.com/tactics)

Chess Tactics Server is my main training tool.

http://chess.emrald.net

NM Dan Heisman, author of the award winning "Novice Nook"(For novices and beyond) has suggested less positional studies until you are at least good enough to avoid "Hope Chess" and stop losing to basic tactics. Players 1600+ OTB USCF rating should usually qualify under that. Silman's reassess your chess is a good book, but it contains a lot of information that will not help most players who still need tactical work and need to play "Real Chess". U will learn a lot from it, but it will not be useful until you are good enough with basic tactics/ thought process(1500+ usually). As Dan says, its like putting a middle school social studies student into college level microeconomics:The student gets a lot of information that was unknown to them, but it will not be useful until they learn basic social studies. So at your level, I suggest Heisman's Back to Basics- Tactics, FM Lilov's From basics to brilliance DVD(I have used both before). These will help you to immediately recognize good tactical patterns for u and ur opponent and learn to search for them effectively and extend your understanding into combinations. Heisman's novice nook columns will also help a lot, and his "The improving chess thinker" will be a permanent guide for your thought process till you are an expert or master.