Well yes to some degree it does assume you know some things, however grin and bear it and continue, it will increase your understanding, not only that, on ones you do poorly on go back later like a month ( in otherwords don't be afraid nor discouraged because you get a bad score), or whatever you feel comfortable with, and see how well you can improve your score, this helps greatly in your understanding the various principles it is trying to teach you. I hope you find this post helpful, and good luck to you.
Mentor? You need to know what you're doing first!
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Sep 17, 2013
0
#3
Nice thought, but G&B only goes so far. You reach a point, like in learning KG, where you can make hundreds (okay, dozens) of bad moves before you make the right one. Then there is no feedback as to why that was right, and you begin to forget just how you got there, oh so many moves ago, in the first place.
PaHiker, have you discovered the Game Explorer and Book Openings yet? There's always a workaround...
Also if you don't like the order of the lessons, just pick a course and study it. You don't have to do the sequential/adaptive dance.
Sep 17, 2013
0
#5
For a beginner, sequential should be the best method, and where I am in the lessons isn't much above beginner.
No, I haven't...what are they?
Yes, it's a bit ridiculous that the mentor first tries to teach you obscure grandmaster games, gambits or novelty openings, but if you do not know them *beforehand*, you are punished by losing points or being forced to guess/click on hints.
I don't mind those lessons being there, but they shouldn't be graded. They should always yield 0 points. Only lessons that can be solved with logic instead of prior knowledge/memorization should yield or lose points for the user.
How is a new user going to know how Alekhine played the 11th move in some random game in San Remo before WW2?
The Game Explorer is the "in house" database. The Book Openings is a place you can look up the main line for any opening, and then continue the lines in the Game Explorer. You can just start from the first move in the Game Explorer and see what are the most popular responses. They're very useful if you find yourself "studying" an opening in the CM that you have no clue about. You can have more than 1 window open at a time and just go back and forth. Why beat yourself up unnecessarily? The points, BTW, mean nothing so it's not like you're cheating. The goal is to learn stuff. Oh have you gone over any of the courses that you've finished? It can be a somewhat rude awakening to realize that like any other educational material you need to periodically review it. Have fun.
@Knightberry: you make some good points, but then spoil it with a bad example. How do you figure out what Alekhine played? Simple, play the best move on the board...Nothing to do with memorization.
For a beginner, it is harder, and can be overwhelming, especially if you don't really know anything about the openings. I don't know everything about every opening either, nor do I know everything about any opening BTW, and have been playing well over 4 decades. Lol. Study basic opening prinicples first, basic checkmates etc. Check the major openings. Kings pawn openings, queen pawn openings, then other openings, keep in mind people often change their first move, that will eventually fall into one of these openings. For example, a kings pawn opening isn't always pawn to e4 as the 1st move.
Learn the basics of the phases of each segment of a game, such as opening, middle, and end game. Not necessarily in that order. I learned more about end games 1st. I wasn't even aware of chess books nor clubs in my time, and where I lived and grew up at (medium sized city in the south). My dad showed me the moves when I was 7, I could beat him by 11. I basically taught myself, and my friends.
Mainly I just got a board out and just played with pawns and kings, then I started one piece at a time, then just started combining them with some pawns. I spent many hours and rainy days doing this. I was totally ignorant of books or teachers about the game, that was back in the mid 60's. I did get some info from the encyclopedia though.
I didn't really know anything about openings until the 80's. Yes I had a rude awakening. You are going to need patience if you want to really learn about chess.
It doesn't really take long to be able to know enough to enjoy the game on a deeper level though, but mastery is another whole topic and subject. Chess will give what you put into it. If you love the game, winning and losing doesn't matter as much, its really more than that. Some will disagree with this however. It depends on you really, Good luck.
If you look at the courses they have a rating difficulty. Probably better to look at what rating the course is aimed at.
Okay, I started at the beginning, and there are many bugs in the lessons. I'm at the point where I'm tired of reporting them all. But, this comment is not about the bugs, it is about the poorly written latter courses (intermediate?) such as where I am now - Endings, Openings, a Taste of the Middle
When you reach this part you, like I, will get excited about learning each phase of this game. CM does so by introducing some of the classic plays. The problem is, it requires that you already have knowledge of these plays before you learn about them. Here's an example...Kings Gambit Accepted, the lesson opens with this:
We will take a look at the once very popular King's Gambit Accepted. This opening was all the rage in the 1800's, but now it is seen very rarely. However, people with fire in their blood and adventure in their hearts may enjoy giving this exciting old attacking opening a try.
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The King's Gambit features instant aggression on White's part. Though it makes for exciting chess, there are obvious risks involved that may or may not overshadow the rewards.
Then it sits there and waits for you to make a move. Okay, but you're just learning about the KG, how do you know what move to make? d4, e4? Make the wrong one and it will ding you with a point loss.
I made the assumption that it was e4, since this is a King's Gambit, apparently I was correct. Black responded with ...e5, probably as expected. But, now the instructions merely state
1...e5 is the classic response. Black takes control of part of the center and tries to create a stable position. There are many other defenses for Black, though.
There may be many defenses for black, but it's my turn to move. I have dozens of possible moves, with no idea which one it is expecting. And, as I said before, make the wrong one an you get dinged. Trust me, you can get dinged pretty hard too. On a prior lesson, I was to drag my queen to a capture move, my finger slipped on the trackpad, 10 point ding for the only wrong move made in the lesson! I would rather there not be any points, than to get an 'ouch' for a mistake, or, as in the KG, making a guess at what move it's expecting, when I am just learning the KG.