This CD from Chessbase and George Renko contains over 4000 tactical exercises. On this CD, Mr. Renko presents a short introductory text that explains his particular method for categorizing and understanding combinational motifs. I will not explain these concepts, but suffice to say that they are easily understood from the explanation on the CD. Everyone seems to approach the teaching of tactics a little differently, and Mr Renko is no exception.
But really, most of the material on the CD is one tactical exercise after another. There are a large number of databases on the CD, and each is either theme based (i.e. containing just exercises on one motif), or are a random combination of themes (to better simulate a real situation). There are around 3000 themed exercises, and over 1000 exercises where you have only a slight idea what the theme is; i.e. support or direct hit. Since there is not much instructional text, prospective purchasers should know their basic tactical devices (like pins, forks, etc). Overall though, I would not put a recommended ELO range on this program since I think just about anyone will get something out of it.
All the exercises are timed, which is a very good feature. I believe (as do many others) that this is the way to do tactical exercises. It keeps you from getting bogged down, and accelerates your thought process. I've written often enough about the training features of Chessbase lite in the past. For instance, you can check out my review of Danny King: Attack.
There are plenty of examples of double-edged play, and also plenty of endgame study fragments included on the CD, which I think is a good idea. Of course, there are also some exercises that could have used a little more analysis. However, this is mitigated by the fact that you can use any of the built-in chess engines to check variations. Crafty is included with the program, and if you have other Chessbase engines, you can use those as well.
I found a few examples in which you had to find a defensive move for a tactical threat. This was sneaky but effective. Just about every other training program I've looked at concentrate exclusively on offensive tactics.
One shortcoming of the CD is that it is difficult to keep track of your place in the different databases. And there are a large number of databases on the CD. Probably the best way to do this is to enable the random training function for each database. To do this though, you would have to move the information to your hard drive, and activate this setting for each database. You could also use the critical position function to bookmark your place in each database. Though whichever approach you use, make sure you copy the database files on to your hard drive, and set the read only attributes on the database files to 'off'.
To make this job less time consuming, I would suggest a program called properties plus (http://www.ne.jp/asahi/cool/kish/)
You also should make sure you use the latest version of CB Lite (or CB7/8) to access the information on the CD, or else some hyperlinks may not work properly. I found this out totally by accident, and I do not consider this a bug, since the proper reader is supplied on the CD.
Overall, I think that this is a tactics CD that is quite different from many of the other offerings out there. I think the author has a somewhat devious mind (and in chess, this is a compliment). The only things I could have wished for were a better way to navigate among the different databases, and a way to keep track of which exercises I had done. If you want, you can also check out Steve Lopez's review of this CD at the Chessbase USA website. Steve has a bit more detail on what is on the CD, and has his own impressions of the program.
Copy Protection
None
Languages Supported
English, German
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