Chess Trainer
Help, or how to get the most out of the Chess Trainer.
What is it?
This is a program that I wrote for my own use to improve my chess visualization ability. I decided to share it with other players, since I believe they can benefit from it. It basically helps you remember what color the squares are, how the pieces move, and so on, all in your head. It does so by posing you various excercises that, if practiced every day, will let you visualize positions without the aid of a board.
I use this tool every day. You may want to use it the way I do, or you could develop your own method of training. I work my way through the panels, doing 20 of each excercise. I proceed Color->Same Color->Diagonal 2->Diagonal 3->Knight->Knight 2->Mate. Then, after all of that I play a game against Vince. Start slow, by either lagging the display by one ply, or by blanking out one quadrant. Work your way up to the 7 ply and four quadrants.
New: now available for Palm OS & Pocket PC.
The Different Panels
New: Opening Trainer
This is really more of an experiment. It takes a modest opening book of some 2500 positions and quizes you on them. It uses a basic learning theory algorithm, ala the learning box (see So lernt man lernen by Sebastian Leitner, ISBN 3-4510-5060-9) to make the study more effective. At some point I'll likely make this a free standing application with the ability to load different opening books.
Apologies again for algebraic entry, i.e. d2d4, O-O, e7xd8Q.
Vince
Probably the coolest feature of the application, Vince is a weak chess engine with some interesting features. Specifically, you can set the chess board to "lag" a certain number of plys - in other words, show the position from 1 to 12 half moves ago. Playing with this setting on trains you to imagine the postions a few moves down the road.
You can also hide from 1 to 4 quadrants of the board, forcing you to imagine where the pieces are in the hidden parts, and you can hide pawns or pieces (or both).
Move entry is textual, since dragging and dropping on an out-of-whack board doesn't make a lot of sense. Move entry is as follows:
- Regular moves, i.e. e2-e4, g8-f6, or e2e4, g8f6.
- Captures, i.e. e4xd5, g5xf6, or e4d5, g5f6.
- Castling, O-O and O-O-O (that's an 'O', not a zero).
- Promotion, i.e. d7-d8Q, e2-e1R, or d7d8Q, e2e1R.
Vince doesn't recognize book draws, the 50 move rule, or 3-fold repitition, but what do you want? Figure it out, you're smarter than he is!
Vince display's its move in a text field just below the board. Plus there is a list of moves on the right hand side. If you want to end the game and start over, just hit the "New Game" button.
Color
Here you are asked to identify what the color of a particular square, e.g. e1, g5, b7, is. It keeps track of your answers and calculates your correct answer percentage.
Same Color
Here you are asked whether two squares are the same color, e.g. are a1 and f6 the same color? It keeps track of your answers and calculates your correct answer percentage.
Diagonal 2
Here you are asked whether two squares are on the same diagonal.
Diagonal 3
Here you are asked whether three squares are on the same diagonal.
Knight
Here you are asked whether two squares are a knight move apart. For example, e2 and d4 are a knight move apart.
Knight 2
Here you are asked whether two squares are two knight moves apart. In other words, if you put a knight on one square, can you reach the other by executing two moves. For example, a knight on g1 can move to f3 and from there to g5. So g1 and g5 are two knight moves apart.
Mate
Asks you to determine whether the position described is checkmate.