Hi everyone,

I was wondering if I am the only one who would appreciate the possibility of practicing particular openings against a computer?

The last couple of days I have been reading up on variations in the Tarrasch version of the French Defence, and it would be sweet to be able to log on to chess.com and see if I am able to remember the lines against a computer. (At least the main lines.) The computer wouldn't even have to be able to calculate, it should simply play out different variations.

E.g. in the 3. .. a6 variation of the Tarrasch the main line goes: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 a6 4.Bd3 c5 5. dxc5 Bxc5 6.Ngf3 Nc6 7.0-0 .. (I hope my memory is correct)

and on the seventh move two main sun-variations occur

7a. .. Nf6 and 7b. .. Nge7 .. (Other subsub-variations are also seen). So I would like the computer to play the moves for Black (in this case), and tell me if I make the correct moves as White. And at move 7 it could vary between Nf6 and Nge7 from time to time, and also throw in some of the less played continuations once in a while.

Anybody else feel the same need??

Thnx for reading,

Summum_Malum

sounds good!

There is a special software, like Chess Opening Encyclopedia, where you can train specific openings...

Oh, didn't know about that one.. I might check it out! =) but still, it would be a nice feature to have on chess.com as well..

Yes, of course!

Bookup is one option, but it's not free.

Chess Position Trainer is free, but it seems to have some bugs, at least on my computer.

Chess Position Trainer 4 will train you in your personal repertoire (either create it manually or import it)  by playing the other side and using a flash-card concept to automatically focus on your weaknesses. It will also ensure you are not neglecting any part of your repertoire.

CPT 3.3 is still available for free, but I recommend the free version of CPT 4.

Anything for Mac?

Fritz 11 you can use the openings trainer.  Tools/Training/Opening Training/check "details"/then you have all of the different variations. 

You can go to uscf.wordpress.com or to youtube/uscfsales to view tutorials on how to use Chessbase and Fritz. 

You can run it with Virtual Box. Make sure the free Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5 with Service Pack 1 is installed. I know that other Mac users are using CPT this way.