Software for Tactics

I know I have posted a lot lately, but I am trying to get my chess life in order.

I have Chessmaster 9000, and I am going to get Chess Mentor, either by subscription or by ordering the CD.

But I need a Tactics program. I read through all the posts on this forum, and one that struck me was C.T. Art 3 or Chess Tactics Art 3.(Not sure they are exactly the same)

I read that some love it. Others have said that the interface is hideously annoying.

I  have a great computer but eye problems, and the last thing on earth I need is a program that has a dreadful interface.

Can you suggest to me what you think would be a good computer tactics software.

Is CT-Art really all that ugly and hard to manage?

I love books, but right now I think my salvation lies with computer software. (And perhaps with communicating with people on this forum and website.)

stwils

tactics trainer on chess.com

Is it free?

stwils

Ugly? Yes Ct art 3.0 is ugly in the 'homemade program' sort of way... no one spent a lot of money getting a good graphic artist to design the GUI, nothing worse than that, but  -- hard to manage??? No. the basic interface is completely intuitive, the problems are hard... and when you make a mistake the program goes thru several levels of hints ... it definitely takes getting used to the hints, what information they contain, what information they don't -- the hints are doubtless where people have decided the program is confusing... A) they start out confused by the puzzle, then B) the hints didn't get them to the solution -- ergo: bad confusing program...*erm* no... the problem was tough and even with the hints you missed it. That's how it's supposed to work.

That said, the hint format (different colored arrows showing important files, ranks, and squares... a four by four board showing a similar, smaller easier puzzle with the same theme as the one you are working on...) takes getting used to, and the hints are deliberately vague enough to allow you to continue to fail if you don't get the 'aha'.

But hell, rather than blab on about it, I'm pretty sure Ct. Art 3.0 still comes with a big demo that is hardly crippled at all, it's almost the full CT ART 3.0 just without the full problem set.  Work thru that whole thing before you buy the full thing, that's what i did. Plenty of tactics there.

The tactics trainer here is good and complements the Ct.Art 3.0. I think solving the daily puzzles here is also good, as well as solving the daily puzzles at chessgames.com 

I downloaded the demo to CT Art .

Now I am not dumb by any means, but there were no guides, no comments, - God, I just felt lost.

I played a little. got nowhere. Never knew whether I was black or white. Moved something that would move, and all these red arrows appeared. No comments or helps.

What am I missing here? I need an instruction book or something.

stwils

http://chess.emrald.net/

Like chess.com Tactics Trainer but free. It is not as nice graphically as the chess.com version but it works in the same way and the price is most definitely right if you cannot (or will not) subscribe.

stwills: there are many options, some of them cheap, like buying a tactics book. Emrald is good, but somewhat time-limited.  Another free resource (for two weeks): get a trial membership at ICC and use their trainingbot. It contains the most beautiful tactics problem I've ever seen. Some other free resource with tactics puzzles here: http://www.chessgate.de/.

But, since you want both tactics and chessmentor, why don't you buy a membership? The chess mentor on the CD is clearly inferior to the selection of courses you have here. As for advices and comments on the possible moves, Chessmentor is pretty much the only choice I know of.

I can tell CT ART is a good program. Strong. It is just that I can't figure it out. I can't find a manual on the download.

Chess is hard enough without a hard computer program making things even harder.

Sigh...

stwils

If you can't figure it out. It's probably not for you. :(

FYI you are playing the side on the bottom of the board; the side with pieces that are clickable; the side with the icon showing whose move it is...  It is your move... You are supposed to "play and win" ... meaning you have a move that will force your opponent to eventually concede a solid material advantage, or allow mate.

Those lines are the first hint, they tell you -- A) you didn't find the best move, and B) they say, "hey looka here -- see these lines... pieces move along these lines this-a-way... and that's important to this here puzzle" so, you think some more, make another move, and it's a mistake --- and the 4x4 board opens up demanding that you solve a mini-puzzle with the same theme before proceeding... ok, you solve the mini-puzzle (it only gives one hint, if you make a mistake it will flash the piece that needs to move) and miss on the big puzzle... now the piece that makes the move you need "flashes" -- so you try again and miss, now the program makes the move you need and asks you for the continuation -- it will flash pieces if you miss. 

You will often find during a puzzle the program will open up variations and ask you to solve variations. Most of the time after you solve a puzzle the computer gives, "counterplay" which will be a puzzle asking for what moves the opponent had if it had been his move.

It's an excellent program -- sorry you find it hard to parse. I had no idea it could be so hard to understand.

books are dead! software is dead! webware is better! :)

seriously though, why not just use our Tactics Trainer and Chess Mentor? they are sooooooo much better than CD software.

for us new people, tactics trainier is not all that great. It explains nothing as to why a move is made

Now Erik, Isn't that a bit self serving?  :)    (but true) I use CM quite a bit....

.... which is why we created Chess Mentor :)

I agree and should have added that bit of knowledge to my comment!

erik, the Tactics trainer is great! I'm not saying it isn't... but if you want to actully overthrow cd software -- we need more features, more configurability for the individual.

As for the Chess Mentor ... I'm itching to use it -- I've got a few courses picked out I'd love to study... I'm just waiting for you guys to figure out that your pricing is whack: I don't want to have a clock running when I do a course. The nice thing about a book (or cd software for that matter) is that you buy it, and that means you own it -- it's yours to do with as you please ... it doesn't magically increase in price the more you use it!  Imagine a book where you didn't know how much it cost at the outset... the cost would go up the longer you took to read the book... the more you enjoyed it, the more you wanted to read and (heaven forbid!) reread it, the more the book would cost! Would you ever buy such a book? I wouldn't!

Here's my fix: Take each Mentor course/lesson and assign it a max time value... now when I buy X hours of the chess mentor, I'll know what I'm buying. Say I've bought 5 hours, I'd know I've got the full Jeremy Silman "blahblah" course which is listed at 2 hours -- and Master Z's course "How to kill the King" (1 hour) and I'll have 2 hours left to shop around with...  if I use the Master Z course for half an hour and decide it sucks however, I'd be deducted just the half hour time I used.  The "maxtime" concept would let me return to the course as often and as long as I liked. Something that would also be very attractive to me.  This would be a pricing plan I'd find much more attractive than having a clock ticking all the time I'm doing the chess mentor.

My current experience with the chess mentor is that I accidentally left it running overnight during my "trial time" and now I have no more free minutes left. If I'd paid for them I'd be bummed.

If you're looking for a real program of tactical exercises (with history and progress tracking), you might want to check out Chessimo.  It's pretty excellent.  I wish there were a web-based equivalent.

stwils, CT-ART has a great problem set. As you say, the disadvantages are that its interface is clunky and it doesn't create a training regimen for you. There's another option called Chessimo aka Personal Chess Trainer that's also quite popular-- it has a better interface and encourages regular review and repetition.

Like Erik says, Chess Mentor + Chess Tactics Trainer is also an option. Me, I mostly prefer my good 'ol books which I can review from in my hammock. :)

I am a fan of another tactics site.  This is a very attractively designed site, but what really makes it stand out in my opinion is that you can either do timed problems ("blitz") or unlimited time problems ("standard").  I don't like a timer counting down while I am trying to work out complicated variations (its hard enough work for my poor brain!), so I have concentrated exclusively on the unlimited time problems.  I credit chesstempo with really helping me focus and improve my ability to work out variations (well, up to my fairly low maximum ceiling that is).

The site keeps track of all your problems, so you can go back and look at them, it can make pretty graphs and tables of your progress, and it allows user comments for each problem.  The developer is very responsive and he is always tweaking and naking improvements.  Highly recommended.

I have to agree with mistermax. Since I've started playing again after years of not playing I've needed to practice alot. Chess Tempo has been great. I also recommend the tactics trainer on chess.com. I do them everyday.

Those of you who own CT-Art (the CD) tell me, does it come with a manual? I mean -  a little booklet that you can sit down with and read.

I downloaded the demo, and it does have a "help" button with index etc, and I suppose I could print it out, but it is not very thorough and sometimes there are only a few sentences per page.

And yes, as someone here suggested, I went to Chess Tempo and joined and clicked on a problem. I think it must have been for a grandmaster, not me. I don't like being overwhelmed. I like learning, but at a step by step rate.

stwils