A program that allows chess programs to teach you

I installed this today and I have to say I am impressed.  It really does something I have been looking for!  The way I used it today was to load Everyman Chess Reader ibooks in PGN format on a number of openings that interest me, and of course these contain collections of representative master games.  Now, in addition to reading the books I can practice using chess hero from positions from these same games.  

Man I would love for a version of this to be made for the iPad!

It's probably best to read the thread so that you have some context.

Im gonna try it in a min! :D

There's plenty of good training tools out there, even on this website, playing ''Computer workout" does a similar thing. It will tell you if your starting to make mistakes, such as going from an equal position to a worse one.

You can learn from sending your games off for computer analysis too, which is quite valuable.

Another program called Chess Master: Grandmaster edition, gives full tuition from an International Master, fully interactive, from real world competitive games.  

I like the idea of having a plugin application that gives visual feedback of the engine you are playing, I might give it a try. Can it be used with something like Rybka?

It can be used with any UCI and Winboard program you want, so Rybka is a definite yes, I believe. So are Stockfish, Houdini, Critter, Komodo and most, if not all, of the top ten programs on the IPON rating list. :)

yes, it is quite easy to install any UCI engine.  I have been using the free version of Houdini.

It is particularly fun when you find a move that is better (according to the engine) than the move actually made in the game.

Another nice feature is that you can "take over" the game and play the engine from the main line or any of the continuations that you have tried.

Anyway, I hope the author continues to upgrade and support this software.

Amy

The reason why your move can be better than the engine's goes something like this:  Engines evaluate positions to a certain depth.  *Before* you make your move the engine finds its best move after (say 10 ply and/or 1 sec).  You make your move.  The engine now evaluates your move to another 10 ply, which is 11 ply away from the original position.  Thus it looks deeper into the search tree (rooted at the original position) on your move than it did (or could) in finding its move. Thus it makes a more accurate evaluation of your move than it could on its move.  I dealt with this problem in my program (mentioned on this thread); technical details are in the documentation.

Engines are not allowed on chess.com. Please read the instructions on the site. This should be relegated to the cheating forum.

Thanks!

Read the thread...

I read every last post and still stand by my statement

Then you should have another crack at reading the thread. The post is about a program that helps 'teach' the user by loading random positions from a pgn file for practise.

It would be ridiculous for a user to manually construct and continue to update a pgn file while playing a game. Basically, the program is ill equipt to assist in cheating.

In fact, after taking a peek at the program, I can't think off the top of my head how you could even do it in practical terms given the random positions it chooses from the pgn, not to mention that the user can't enter the opponents moves manually via the UI at all.

i already knew of the program and although great it doesn't do the ideal learn from the engine as it does cause of the same reasons scott already pointed out in his post. What I would like to know is it possible to make the teacher engine any engine I want cause if possible I want my teacher engine to be weaker say a 2000-2250 rated engine and see what that engine thinks is the best move in my games? Also you do get to see the engines own evaluation right?

You can use ANY UCI or xboard engine.  There are plenty in the 2000-2250 range.  You can also sometimes degrade the playing strength of an engine by altering its parameters, but I think this is very inaccurate in general.

You get to see the engine's selected move plus the numerical evalution assigned to it and a continuation.  You also see the actual move from the game plus the engine's numerical evalution of it and a continuation.  You don't see multiple lines like you would under, say, the Fritz or Arena GUI.

sounds great will be trying it thansks

Jason17, yet again I would advise you on using common sense. Read trlns' comment if that proves to be impossible.

Are you suggesting that I have failed in my hermaneutic enterprise to come to terms with the linguistic construct you have produced? If anything I have demonstrated and produced a 'presence' in your thread from what was 'absent' but still signified. You have placed us in opposition to one another but instead we can alternatively view this opposition and decenter it by examing the implicit unity that cannot be contained within the binary you posited.

jason17 you are right that using a chess engine specifically to find good moves in your chess.com games would be cheating. In the same manner pulling out a book on chess in the middle of a game would be considered cheating. But just because you are playing chess games doesn't mean you can't also use a book or chess engine to learn in general about chess, you just can't use it specifically to find better moves in a particular game. Do you see the difference?

I think you have broken my brain. Well played sir.

You think this application could be used to assist in cheating, I don't.

Yes I can see the different, no problem.  

Cheating with it might almost be possible, but extremely inconvenient since you have no control whatsoever of what the other side of the board will play -- that's the computer's decision. So you can't input your opponent's moves at all, which is the biggest problem. While you could save each position as a different PGN file, the program loads hundreds of the same time, and in no particular order -- yet another issue. If you try the program yourself, I suspect you'd realize that.