ChessCafe.

com would like to thank Dadi Jonsson for his service in Purchases from our
writing the ChessOK Cafe column. In more than five years he has chess shop help keep
written a comprehensive description (available in the ChessCafe.com ChessCafe.com freely
Archives) of all the major parts of the Aquarium program. We would accessible:
also like to welcome back Steven A. Lopez to our pages. He will be
demonstrating some of the features of Chess King and its associated
programs.

Train to Be a Better Chess Player the Fun Way

For many chess players, the phrase "chess training" connotes hard work and
ChessOK drudgery; after all, isn't playing more fun than studying and training? It's an
unfortunate association, because to become better chess players we all have to
Cafe spend time learning and practicing new concepts, otherwise our skills will
ossify and we'll get stuck in a rut. Happily, there's a new way for chess
players of all skill levels to train the fun way using Chess King software. In
Steve Lopez a pair of articles, I'll demonstrate some of the features of Chess King, as well
Chess King Training:
Chess Tactics Level 3
as its associated training programs.

Many other chess programs tend to be aimed at one of two broad groups of
chess players. The programmers of "novice" chess software often seem
Translate this page resigned to the idea that the user will one day "outgrow" the program and step
up to something more involved, while software aimed at the experienced
chess player might throw in an occasional sop to the novice player, but are
generally geared toward the regular club player or to the chess professional.
The programmers of Chess King set themselves a very ambitious task: create
a single chess program that any chess player, regardless of skill level (from
beginner to grandmaster), can utilize to help them improve their chess play.

Chess King contains an enormous number of training tests and skill Chess King Training:
challenges for the beginner and intermediate club player, plus offers the chess Strategy
playing and analysis features that all players have come to expect in a chess
software package. What is more, the core appeal of Chess King is the user's
ability to measure his or her progress. Along with the traditional gauge of the
chess Elo rating, Chess King also borrows an idea from other computer and
tabletop games the idea of "leveling up." A Chess King user has both an Elo
rating and a Level; the higher the level, the greater the challenges the user is
able to face in training modes.

Let's take a look at how this works in practice. The first thing a user must do
is create a user profile (since Chess King allows multiple users on the same
machine):

Chess King Training:

Openings

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A new user begins at Level 1 with an 800 Elo rating (such as "Alan" in the
above illustration). Both of these numbers will change when the player uses
Chess King's training features (which will increase the user's level) and plays
rated games (which will cause the Elo rating to rise or fall depending on the
user's success or lack thereof in rated games against the built-in engine,
Houdini 2).

An experienced club player, rated 1800 for example, could conceivably opt to
skip Chess King's tutorial and challenge features and go straight to playing
rated games against Houdini 2, which we'll examine later in this article.
Beginners or "club/class" level players (in USCF terms), though, will derive a
huge amount of benefit from using Chess King's "Quest Mode" and chess
puzzles in combination with traditional chess games (as Kara, Istvan, Jay, and
I have done, as you can see in the above illustration).

We're first going to look at two training features, Quest Mode and Chess
Puzzles, to learn how Chess King's "levels" work and to see how they interact
directly with traditional chess games.

Chess Puzzles are exactly what the name implies: small suites of chess
challenges designed to instruct the user. To access them, click the "Training"
button and then select "Chess Puzzles" from the panel on the left-hand side of
the screen, as we see here:

This will display the suite of chess puzzles in the left-hand pane. For a new
user, most of these puzzles will be "locked" and unavailable. Successfully
solving puzzles will unlock more advanced puzzle sets. For a new user, the
puzzle sets will look like this:
...with only the "Basic rules" puzzle sets able to be used. Later, as the user
advances through the puzzles, many more sets are unlocked that then let the
user pick and choose the desired type of chess training; for example, we see in
the next illustration that a different user has unlocked many additional
choices, including more advanced training categories such as "Defence" and
"Combinations":
When you are using these suites of chess puzzles, the software will give extra
information before you begin to solve the puzzles in a set. A panel in the
lower left-hand corner of the screen will show the number of puzzles in the
set, the amount of time you will have in which to solve all of them, and your
best score so far (if you have previously completed that particular set):

This illustrates one of the "hooks" that Chess King uses to get you to keep
coming back for more training: the ability to repeat a puzzle set to try to beat
your previous "personal best" score.

Chess King will also display some descriptive text for the challenge and an
illustration directly on the chessboard:
You just click the green "Go" button to start the clock and display the first
puzzle. After you have completed the puzzles in the set, you are awarded
experience points and coins (which we'll examine later) depending on how
quickly and accurately you have solved the puzzles:

Experience points count toward "leveling up." A display in the lower right-
hand corner of the board displays information about your training progress:

A progress bar (as well as numerical data) shows how close you are to
achieving the next level. We see here that Kara (who presently has an Elo of
830 based on her rated games) has made it to Level 12 and needs to gain
3,896 more experience points before reaching Level 13.

We also see that Kara has earned 338 coins. These coins can be "spent" on
various hints that are available when you play a regular game in Chess King:
The white "Hint panel" (in the left-hand pane) offers several kinds of tips
when you are playing in Classical Chess mode (that is, when playing a regular
game of chess against a chess engine). Each hint will cost you some of the
coins you previously earned when you successfully solved puzzles.

You can also earn gold and experience points by beating the challenges you
will encounter in Quest Mode.

The idea of "leveling up" in Chess King is an integral part of the software's
Quest Mode. In Quest Mode (accessed by clicking "Training" and then "Quest
Mode") you are given a series of challenges that increase in difficulty as you
gain experience levels. Your current level determines which quests you are
allowed to tackle. A new user, at Level One, may try only the pair of Level
One quests; Level Two quests are locked:

As you advance, more difficult quests become available. Kara, at Level 12,
may try quests up though the twelfth level:
There are twenty-five levels of challenges available in Quest Mode. But what
exactly are "quests," anyway?

Quests are games designed to teach you how to win a "won" game. As the
great world champion Dr. Emanuel Lasker once famously observed, the
hardest thing to do in chess is to win a theoretically "won" game, one in
which you are ahead in material. Oftentimes players who are materially ahead
tend to relax and take the win for granted, then get surprised when their
opponent turns the tables. Many positions require proper technique to turn the
material advantage into victory. Quest Mode teaches you how to win these
theoretically "won" positions.

Quest games are played against the Houdini chess engine; in early levels, you
will enjoy a huge advantage in material, such as in these Level Three quests:

Higher levels increase the difficulty by reducing your material advantage. At

Level 12 (just short of halfway through the total number of quests), the four
challenges look like this:
And while the challenges might appear to be easy at first glance, there's a very
important catch: your opponent Houdini 2, will be playing against you at
full strength! That turns these deceptively simple chess quests into pretty
formidable challenges! You'll always be playing against a very tough
opponent, so Chess King's Quest games challenge you to convert a material
advantage into a win by using proper chess technique, rather than by relying
on your opponent to blunder.

Before embarking on a quest challenge, moving the mouse cursor over its
button will display some information about its difficulty in the lower left-hand
corner of the screen:

The "Average Elo Level" gives you an idea of how difficult the challenge is,
using the standard chess rating scale as an approximate gauge (and we're
going to use this Elo value in the training plan I'll suggest to you later). If you
have previously completed the quest, the panel will also display your
"personal best" result:

...thus challenging you to play the quest again to try to win it more quickly
and/or in fewer moves.

As with the chess puzzles, winning a game in Quest Mode earns you coins
and experience points:

Chess King's chess puzzles and Quest Mode make chess training something
you will want to do. Of course, Chess King also lets you play regular chess
games against a chess engine, in both rated and unrated modes. Just click
"Training" and then "Classical Chess" to get this display:
The slider lets you select the approximate rating of your computer opponent,
while the lower button lets you toggle between "rated" and "fun" (unrated)
mode. The two upper buttons let you select between playing the game as
white or as black. Make your selections, select your preferred time control (in
the separate dialogue for this purpose), then click the green "Go" button
located under the board to start the game; if you have elected to play as black,
Chess King will make the first move automatically.

The vast range of approximate Elo ratings (from 800 to 3200) means that
Chess King is the ideal "sparring partner" for all chess players. Selecting the
lower rating ranges (1900 Elo and below) will provide a weaker chess engine
as your opponent, while the higher ranges (1950 and up) will use the Houdini
2 chess engine.

The biggest reason to use a chess program that contains a super-strong chess
engine is for analysis purposes; Chess King's Houdini 2 engine can analyze
your chess games with just a few mouse clicks. Load a saved game from your
personal database, click the "Analysis" button, and then select "Analyse":

The lower part of the panel (under "Game") offers four settings that determine
how long Houdini will take to analyze your game; the shortest setting
("Fastest") gives a rapid, but cursory, analysis while the longest setting
("Hard") takes longer but provides better results. The end result can contain
variations and references from other games, pulled from Chess King's huge
Gigaking database, as well as display Houdini's numerical analysis and
suggested improvements:

These full-featured playing and analysis features make Chess King a valuable
tool for the professional chess player, as well as for beginners and club
players.

Training using Chess King

Now that we've looked at some of Chess King's training features, I'd like to
suggest ways you can use the training to help you improve your chess. Note
that these are my own recommendations, and don't by any means constitute
the "only" way to use Chess King.

The technique for using Chess King's chess puzzles is self-evident because of
the way the feature is structured: correctly solving sets of puzzles unlocks
harder puzzle sets. Note that achieving a very high score in the easiest sets
unlocks multiple sets that are higher on the ladder, so it is possible for
experienced chess players to skip many of the "beginner" puzzle sets. Note,
though, that solving puzzles earns both experience and coins, so it might be
worthwhile to go ahead and solve some easy puzzles just to rack up
experience points and bank some extra coins.

The "Quest Mode" technique is similar to the chess puzzles; successfully

completing quests earns experience points toward "leveling up" and unlocking
more quests. Even though you have a material advantage at the game's start,
Houdini 2 will be playing at full strength, so some of these "easy" quests are
deceptively difficult to complete (especially if you have acquired and set up
the Nalimov endgame tablebases for Houdini's use). Many of the Quest games
provide excellent endgame technique practice, even for experienced players.
(One of the intermediate level Quests was challenging enough to make me
"hit the books" to brush up on my pawn and minor piece endgame technique.)

While the puzzle and Quest modes have a built-in "hook" to keep you coming
back, that's not necessarily the case with Classical Chess mode. So here's a
technique I use as part of my own practice regimen: I play actual matches
against computer opponents, six games to a match. If I win the match (by
scoring 3 points out of six), I increase the computer's difficulty level by fifty
Elo points (Chess King's rating setting are in multiples of 50), then I play
another match against this "stronger opponent." If I tie the computer (3-3), I
play a new match with the computer set at the same rating. If I lose the match,
I lower the computer's Elo by fifty points and start another match. Playing
these "mini-matches" motivates me to study and improve my chess by
providing me with a goal: to win the next match against my electronic
opponent.

How do you know where to set Chess King's Elo for your first match? If you
are already a rated player, set it close to your own, rounding your rating up.
For example, if you are rated 1524, you should set the rating slider to "1550":

If you are not an officially rated player, just use the rating displayed for the
quests in the highest group you have unlocked so far. It is displayed in the
lower left-hand corner of the screen, as seen above.

If the rating is less than 700, then just use "700" as your starting point. This is
part of the reason why I mentioned earlier that your experience level and the
ratings displayed in Quest Mode can directly intersect with playing "classical
chess" and your displayed Elo in Chess King (the other part being the coins
you earn that you can spend on hints).

Thus, you'll play a six-game match against either a "handicap" engine or

Houdini 2, depending on the setting you have selected. Be sure to alternate
colors between white and black from game to game! Obviously, you don't
have to play all six games at one sitting; in fact, it is probably better that you
don't (for reasons we'll discuss in a moment). If either you or your computer
"nemesis" wins a match, reset the slider up or down according to the result,
and begin again.

It's up to you whether or not to play rated games. Note, though, that the rating
displayed in the lower right-hand panel won't change unless you play rated
games. So I recommend that you play some rated games from time to time.
Use the time control with which you are most comfortable: younger players
tend to prefer blitz games, while older players (like myself) tend to go for
somewhat longer time controls. If you are a regular tournament player, it is a
good idea to set the time for the tournaments you are used to playing in, or
(better yet) a bit faster, which is especially helpful for players who
consistently find themselves in time trouble.

Now that we've given ourselves a "hook" to keep playing in "Classical Chess"
mode, there's still one more very important part to our Chess King training
regimen.

Always, always, always have Chess King analyze your games!

It doesn't take that long to analyze a game, even using the "Hard" setting, so
there's no excuse for not having Houdini 2 analyze your games to show where
you and your opponent missed some opportunities. Look at the games and try
to find patterns to your mistakes. Are most of your mistakes happening in the
endgame? Then study endgame techniques! Are you losing games because of
tactical errors that cost you material? Then spend some time solving tactics
problems! The character of your mistakes (the phase of the game and the
magnitude of the errors) should be used to guide your chess study.
That "outside study" is something with which a few other Chess King
computers programs can help you. We'll consider those in my next article.
Until then, have fun!

Steven A. Lopez and Chess King. All rights reserved.

Do you have a question for Steve Lopez? Send it along and perhaps it will be
answered in an upcoming column. Please include your name and country of
residence.

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