Rough Morning

Midway through my first cup of coffee this morning, I started solving some tactics problems on Tactics Trainer on my iPad. Or, rather, I started by failing three. Beginning from a tactics rating that is no source of pride, I managed to drop twenty Elo in three fails. Then, feeling empathy, the app handed me an easy one that lifted my rating 1.3 points.

White to move

I tried 1.Rxd4, expecting 1...Nxd4 2.Qxa1, but Black has 1...Qxd4. I failed to calculate.

White to move

I considered the correct move first, rejecting it in favor of 1.Rc8+ completely oblivious to 1...Qxc8. Maybe I needed that second cup of coffee.

White to move

I tried 1.g6, thinking that 1...Qxg6 2.Rh6+ was somehow winning the queen, but it does not.

White to move

Finally, I got one correct. I continued solving problems this morning getting eighteen correct and eight wrong. I managed to lift my rating five points. Time to take my wife out for a nice Sunday breakfast.

Recalculate

I teach young children that when they calculate a sequence of moves, they should then recheck after the first move is played. My failure in this tactics problem on Tactic Trainer this morning illustrates this point. Although I found a checkmate, I failed the problem because there was a shorter checkmate.

Black to move

Black is at Bottom

I found 1...Nf4 and White's obligatory 2.g5. I then played without further calculation 2...Ng2+ with the idea 3.Kh3 fxg5 4.b7 Nf4#.

I missed 2...h6! with mate forced on the next move.

Perhaps it is not fair that my training rating went down nearly six points for a checkmate in four when there was a checkmate in three, but those are the rules of the training app. I accept these rules.

Training Log: July 2013

July was a tough month. I played in the Spokane City Championship for the third time, losing 2 1/2 - 1/2 for the third time. In 2008, I lost to a FIDE Master. In 2012, I lost to a USCF Expert. It was harder to lose this time because until last fall, I was 7-0 against my opponent, who is a strong A Class player. He ended that streak with a 3-0 run in standard play, plus two wins in quick play. Two of the standard rated wins were games one and two of the City Championship. In game three, I seized the initiative with the Black pieces and maintained it throughout, but it was only good enough for a draw.

Several days after the City Championship, my hard drive crashed. Some of the lost data includes the spreadsheet that I use to track my tactics training.

Despite these traumas, I maintained good focus on training and met most of my goals.

1. In 2013, I will solve correctly 300 tactics problems each month.

I correctly solved more than 250 problems before the City Championship in the middle of the month. Although the exact number is not available, I solved quite a bit more than 50 during the last two weeks of the month.

Before the City Championship, I actively used Tactic Trainer on the iPad, Chess Quest (iPad), and Alburt's Chess Training Pocket Book. I had a couple of sessions each on Chess.com, Chess Tempo, and Anthology of Chess Combinations. After the match, I continued with Chess Quest (iPad, and now also iPhone), Chessimo, and Shredder, and Tactic Trainer (iPad). The Chess Quest problems are getting harder on the iPad (level 4). On the iPhone, I am starting fresh at level 1, so I will be repeating previously solved problems.

I cannot say enough in praise of tactics training resources that are available for mobile devices. Whether the platform is iOS, Android, or some other, the available resources are extensive. For the past three years, I have rarely been anywhere without my iPad. One of my training sessions in early July lasted three hours. I rose well before my wife and in-laws one morning during the week that we spent at our cabin. I started solving problems with Tactic Trainer while still laying in bed. I continued after rising to make coffee and feed the dogs. Over the course of three hours, I correctly solved about 100 problems. Yesterday, standing in line to license my cat for another year, I solved four Chess Quest problems on the iPhone.

2. In 2013, I will study whole games and whole books.

I did not advance further through Max Euwe, The Development of Chess Style (1968) in July. However, I am nearly finished with Logical Chess: Move by Move. Much of the work that I did on Gioachino Greco, Andre Philidor, and other early masters in May was lost when my hard drive crashed (about 15% of this work was backed up). I have started anew on Greco. This time I am beginning with Francis Beale's 1656 edition of Greco's games (see "The Fooles Mate"). I am through the first 28 of the 94 games in that book (plus the illustrations of Fool's Mate and Scholar's Mate).

In the past few days, after reinstalling my chess software on my notebook computer with its new hard drive, I have been going through C67 in the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings. Playing through each line and its variations is time consuming, and C67 has many lines. Nonetheless, in each line, I am choosing at least one reference game and going through the whole in more detail. Yesterday's post resulted from this study (see "Pillsbury -- Lasker, St. Petersburg 1895").

Caruana -- Adams played last week is another C67 game that I spent some time with. At the currently running Dortmund Tournament, Michael Adams has won with both White and Black in this opening. With White he beat Dmitri Andrejkin in round 2. Andrejkin finished the strong Tal Memorial last month without a loss. With Black, he won an interesting game against Fabiano Caruana in round 3. I looked through both games, but spent quite a bit more time with the latter.

My study of whole games and whole books has come to characterize the time that I spend on chess!

3. In 2013, I will finish my Pawn Endgame Flash Card project.

Progress studying Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual did not go forward in July.

4. In 2013, I will lose fifteen pounds.

In July, I lost the weight gained in June. I do some exercise every day--walking a dog, playing tug-of-war with both dogs, or boxing on the Wii.

Training Log: May 2013

Improving Focus

An excess of online blitz continued to reveal weaknesses in my training focus in May, although discipline was evident for most of the month (see "Improving through Blitz"). A good portion of the last week of the month was devoted to reading and playing through every game and variation in a chess book, William Lewis, Gioachino Greco on the Game of Chess (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1819). I posted my training goals as New Year's Resolutions on the last day of 2012.

1. In 2013, I will solve correctly 300 tactics problems each month.

I met this goal, completing 349 problems in the month. In May, I spent some time with each of my principal resources, except Lev Alburt's Chess Training Pocket Book. This text was packed for a weekend trip to our cabin, but we cancelled the trip because the forecast called for cool temperatures and rain. An update to Tactic Trainer for iPad added statistics, making it easier to track my training with this tool.

My web-based training (Chess Tempo and Chess.com) remains light with two Chess.com sessions and a two short Chess Tempo sessions. Several long sessions with the Anthology of Chess Combinations took me through 75 problems. The level three Chess Quest problems are proving challenging. I am 75% through these, and also am making a dent in the level four problems.

2. In 2013, I will study whole games and whole books.

I have been working my way through Max Euwe, The Development of Chess Style (1968). Euwe asserts, "The development of a chess player runs parallel with that of chess itself; a study of the history of playing methods therefore has great practical value." This idea informs my plans for my youth chess camp in June, which will focus on lessons from players during the romantic era of chess. Consequently, I also am reading very old chess books. In the past week, I went trough all 168 variations of 47 games in William Lewis, Gioachino Greco on the Game of Chess. As I read through these games in an early version of English Descriptive Notation, I entered the moves in a database. The selection of Greco's games in the ChessBase Big database and their online version is woefully incomplete. Moreover, it contains several games attributed to Greco that should be attributed to Pedro Damiano, Ruy Lopez, or Alessandro Salvio. Some of these errors are present in Lewis as well.

The eighth game in Lewis (31-32), for instance, appears in J.H. Sarratt, The Works of Damiano, Ruy-Lopez, and Salvio on the Game of Chess (London: T. Boosey, 1813), as Damiano's first game (1-3).

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Nxe4 4.Qe2 Qe7 5.Qxe4 d6 6.d4 f6 7.f4 Nd7 8.Nc3 dxe5 9.Nd5 Qd6 10.dxe5 fxe5 11.fxe5 Qc6 12.Bb5 Qc5 13.Be3 Qxb5 14.Nxc7+ Kd8 15.Nxb5 1–0

Reading through these old games in these old books meets the letter of my resolution. However, I could argue with myself that the intent is not so much to review elementary tactics for beginners, but to improve my positional understanding. I am not likely to find much opportunity to put to use lessons from the games of Damiano and Greco in my match with Nikolay Bulakh or Michael Cambareri this summer. Studying whole games by living grandmasters who employ the classical French will prepare me for Michael because our last few games have all begun 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e5 Nfd7 6.Bxe7 Qxe7 7.f4 a6. Against Nikolay, they begin 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5.

Despite beginning Logical Chess: Move by Move in December, I still have several games remaining to go through in this text. I did not look at it once in May, the first month of 2013 that was absent this text. I also have a couple of good books on the French Defense that I should be working through. One of them has had the virtue of sitting on the table beside my chair in the living room for most of May because I have dipped into it on a few occasions. In one of my current turn-based games, I am testing a new line against the Tarrasch Variation of the French that is recommended in that text. I have gone through several games in that variation.

3. In 2013, I will finish my Pawn Endgame Flash Card project.

I continued to use these flash cards in elementary classrooms while teaching beginners chess in May. Nonetheless, progress studying Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual and mastering the blue diagram positions must be rated lackluster.

4. In 2013, I will lose fifteen pounds.

I remain at my winter weight due to inconsistent exercise and too many fast food meals. My arms are getting stronger from playing tug-of-war with my puppies who now weigh 69 and 55 pounds at nearly eleven months of age. This past month, Max and I began our endeavor to walk every mile of the Spokane River Centennial Trail. Our longest walk so far was just under six miles.

Chess Tactics Training on the iPad

Comparing Applications

Chess apps for the iPad and other iOS devices (iPhone, iPod, iPad Mini) proliferate. When I wrote my initial review of iPad chess apps, there were slightly more than a dozen. Now, it would take some effort to count all of the available programs in the Apple App Store. There might be dozens of applications specifically designed for chess tactics training. Other multipurpose apps offer training resources. Currently, I am using five apps in my tactics training: Chessimo, Chess Quest, Chess-wise Pro, Shredder, and Tactic Trainer. What are the principal features of each? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each? Read on.

Chessimo

Chessimo offers training in tactics, endgames, strategy, and openings. It also has a rating estimator offering play against Crafty, and can transform the iPad into a chess set with clocks. There are over 800 classic games included for playing through, and these are referenced in the opening training.

The rating estimator should not be taken seriously. I found that Crafty played typically absurd "weak" computer moves until my rating was near 1400, then became far tougher than players at that level. Nevertheless, I discovered a weakness, and by playing the same game repeatedly was able to push my rating over 2300.

For players just beginning tactics training, Chessimo is worth considering. It may also be useful for improving board vision for stronger players (I hope so). The app is free, and lets the user play through the first four units of the first training module. Each unit introduces thirty problems, and then repeats them, or repeats exercises from previous units. An in-app purchase ($2.99) opens the rest of the tactics modules (five total, consisting of 51 units each). For $7.99, the user may purchase all modules in tactics, endgames, commented endgames, strategies, and openings.

Chessimo's method is repetition. Each exercise is repeated six times. The tactics begin with one-move checkmates, then two-move. Eventually, checkmate threats are present, but such tactical motifs as interference must be employed for the solution. The exercises are timed. If the answer is not found before time runs out, the app executes the solution. The time per exercise can be modified by the user, and the solution can be turned off.

Chessimo has vastly more exercises than most other training apps, but the difficulty level of these may be of little benefit to advanced players. Even so, the large quantity of problems that gradually increase in difficulty drills essential patterns into the memory. At least some of the checkmate in two problems come from the same games as the checkmate in one.

The app tracks haw many problems I have solved, the average time for each set, and the total time.*

As with all automated chess training programs, alternate solutions are not always supported. Sometimes, the preferred solution is not the best (see "Endgame Training with Chessimo"). Chessimo works in landscape mode on the iPad and does not rotate.

GM Gilberto Milos selected the exercises.

Chess Quest

Chess Quest offers 1200 exercises in six levels (200 each). After the so-called "Basic Level" for beginners, the exercises in the Level 1 are comparable to the educational exercises in the Anthology of Chess Combinations. In fact, some of them are the same exercises. Exercises in level five are challenging for advanced players, perhaps even for masters.

An advantage of Chess Quest is that completed exercises can be returned to for further study. Another advantage is the option of playing through alternate responses by the defending player. A small tree symbol appears in the game annotation where alternate responses are possible. Some exercises have complex trees.

The app has a simple design. Pressing a plus advances through the exercises in each level, or through the several levels. The user may configure whether the objective (White to checkmate, White to draw) is announced at the start of the problem, or remains hidden. I find this feature useful, and have turned off the notification. Hence, I must assess whether I am playing to win or to draw. Sometimes. the objective is merely to gain an advantage, or to avoid losing equality.

The quality of the problems selected is a significant strength of Chess Quest. They are well chosen.

The app works in portrait mode and does not rotate. I paid $4.99 for the app, but this price is a sale price "for a limited time."

GM Leonid Yudasin selected the exercises.

Chess-wise Pro

Chess-wise Pro ($4.99) is a comprehensive chess program offering play against the computer, six-piece Nalimov tablebase access, online playing at FICS, database features, and tactics training. There are 300 training exercises. Through the first 100, a hint can be seen on request.

The exercises are moderate in difficulty (comparable to levels one and two in Chess Quest). Some classic exercises appear in both apps, and can be found in many tactics books. One drawback to the program is that it asks only for the first move. If a user sees the correct move, but miscalculates a sequence, he or she gets the problem correct. In Tactic Trainer below, one error in the sequence causes a fail on the problem as a whole.

The app tracks which exercises have been completed. All exercises are accessible from the entry screen, making it possible to solve them in any order, and to return to any problem at any time. After I completed all 300 exercises, I was able to reset the list so that all are marked as unsolved. I like the possibility of going through the whole set a second time.

I use Chess-wise Pro as an integral part of my training, but do not rely upon it. I recommend against using it to the exclusion of other resources.

Several sets of chess pieces are available to suit different preferences. The app rotates fully.

Shredder

Shredder ($7.99) is a terrific training tool as a playing program, and it offers 1000 tactics problems to solve with the clock ticking. Speed and accuracy are necessary for full score.

Tactics training with Shredder resembles training with Chess Tactics Server or Chess Tempo in blitz mode in that problems are scored and time counts. Wrong answers and too much time both reduce the possible score.

Most of the problems are slightly less challenging than the norm in Chess-wise Pro, but the timer balances the  effort needed. Shredder is an integral part of my chess training. Recently, I completed my second pass through all 1000 problems. In 2013, I aim to complete my third, but with a higher scoring percentage than achieved through the first two passes.

There are several board colors and piece sets from which the user may choose to render the appearance aesthetically pleasing. The app rotates fully.

See my more in-depth review at "Tactics Training: Shredder iPad App."

Tactic Trainer

Tactic Trainer ($2.99) offers exercises to be solved that increase in difficulty after success, and decrease in difficulty after failure. The developers claim that it contains more than 20,000 problems. Solving the problems produces a rating--Glicko rating system--that determines the level of problems presented.

Strengths of the app are that it is simple and offers problems of an appropriate degree of difficulty for chess enthusiasts of a wide range of skill levels.

Weaknesses are that access to problems previously solved does not permit trying again. An update in May 2013 added tracking for number of problems attempted, and how many were solved correctly. The app is like a Chess Tempo lite with minimal capabilities for review, and with limited performance data. However, Chess Tempo requires a web connection. Tactic Trainer can be used in the back country or on an airplane far from internet access.**

The app offers a range of chess sets and pieces from which to choose (slightly fewer than Shredder). It rotates fully.

See my in-depth review at "Tactic Trainer for iPad, iPod, iPhone, Android: Review."

I believe these five apps are among the best resources for tactics training using the iPad (or iPhone and iPod touch). But, it may be that there is a terrific app unknown to me. Please leave a comment if you know of one that should have been mentioned in this comparative review.

*In two and one-half weeks use, I have spend more than five and one-half hours on tactics (1707 exercises) and another two and one-half on endgames (307 exercises).

**This paragraph was altered 8 June 2013 to reflect changes included in an app update several weeks earlier.