Internet Chess Club
I haven't been as diligent on studying my problems lately. I've been preoccupied with playing long games on ICC. I've gotten my rating up to around 1329 yesterday (down from a high of 1343).
I did have a chance to play Margriet a couple of days ago. She mated me in around 20 moves. So that brings my record up to 0 and 3 against my fellow knights so far. Hey, I never said I was good did I?
4 Comments:
Have you ever looked into a good all-around software like Chess Mentor? It helped get me to around the USCF 1500 mark, and I still use it (I have the comprehensive version of it). It's well-rounded and covers mates, tactics, openings, endings, and basically rounds out your game. It might be worth looking into.
Other than that, look at your games with the help of Fritz 8 or other chess engine and continue to drill on tactics. Don't worry about falling a little behind on your drills because you are playing actual chess games. Playing actual games is just as important, IMHO.
Hey CD,
Thanks for the input, TS also suggested something similar. I tried out Chess Mentor today and think it's a nifty little program. Do you think it's worth the $70 price tag though? It seemed like CT Art (or diagrams from my books) with more comments. They say it helps you by giving helpful feedback on the problems that you missed. Does the commercial version do that? All the demo did was replay the missed problems with the same hints. I'm still considering getting it since I don't want to input all of the diagrams by hand, but the price tag is holding me back.
You're right that it's not cheap. I think it's worth it, though. I really got a lot from the openings and the endgame problems. CT-Art 3.0 is much better as far as tactics, but there isn't a lot of overlap with CT-Art 3.0, so you can count the tactics as additional practice. Go through it a few times. The program will tell you when you've fully completed the problem set. I typically will go through and complete the whole set of problems beginning a month before a tournament for which I'm preparing. It's great review. The explanations are fantastic and will definitely fill some holes in your game (it did mine).
Awesome! I'm definitely going to order it today. Thanks CD.
PS
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