Introduction
Reviewing this group of programs was not an easy task for me. I play computer chess exclusively, and do not use any other games software, even those that deal with chess variants. However, I thought that some of the people that read this page might be interested in the "Chess Puzzle" series of programs.
For the purposes of this review, I looked at Chess Miner, Alterway, Chess Mazes, Last Move, and Blindfold. Since the first four programs share a common interface, I will first talk about that, and then provide a short description of the individual programs.
All the puzzles series use a normal board and pieces to construct mental puzzles for the user. You do not "play" against the computer, rather you try to solve tasks that are constructed by the computer. The user interface for these programs operates in one of two modes: Play or Training. The latter allows the user to control the number of pieces involved in a task, the color, objective, etc. Play mode could be considered "serious mode". There are no hints, and the user must complete one level before going on to the next.
Each program is different in the type of puzzles that are provided to the user. I will now provide a description of each:
Chess Mazes – In this program, the computer places a collection of enemy pieces on the board, in a random fashion. You must reach a target square indicated on the board with your piece. In doing so, you must avoid all squares controlled by enemy pieces, which may entail their capture. The tasks presented in this program may help you develop your maneuvering ability, and or visualization skills, especially in closed positions.
Chess Miner - I found this program somewhat difficult to understand... You need to place mines on the squares of route that a piece will travel. You do not know the route in advance, just it's length. Routes are repeated two times before they are regenerated. There is a bit more to it than that, but it is really difficult to describe in words, you have to learn by doing. I can see where this would improve visualization skills, because you are forced to remember the route that a piece takes. The route length itself can be varied. If I was a parent, I would first learn how to use this, and then try to teach my child.
Last move - This program is full of mate-in-one exercises. This program has four types of exercises: 1) move one of you pieces to mate the opponents King; 2) place the opponents King on a square where it is mated; 3) add pieces to the board to mate the opponent's King, and 4) construct a check mate with the available pieces (opponents King and your own). These four tasks are present only in the Training mode; in the Game mode you encounter only the first three types. This program is a good choice for beginner's and for those that want to improve their chess imagination/fantasy (tasks 3&4). There are three types of mate, which can be set in the training mode: 1) simple mate; 2) mate through discovered check; and 3) mate through double check. There are also a variety of commonly occurring mating patterns present in the.program. Experienced players will probably find the first two tasks kind of easy, especially because there is little visualization involved. What it does help is to build basic mating and pattern recognition skills for new players.
Alterway – The computer sets up a random distribution of enemy pieces. You must capture each one, but you must do so in the minimum number of moves. You can vary the number of pieces and the board, along with their types. This actually gets difficult as the number of pieces grows. This program helps you visualization skills, because you need to visualize the successive captures in your head, if you want to accomplish the task in the minimum number of moves.
Strengths
- The programs can definitely improve spatial thinking and visualization skills.
- Time is used in the scoring of exercises
- You can customize the board colors etc. as much as you want.
- A record of progress is kept, so you can track improvement
- All exercises are generated randomly by the program, so you will have an infinite number of them. It also makes cheating impossible.
- German, French, English, Spanish are supported
- Good for those days when you might not want to play a game, but still want to work on your skills nevertheless.
- Results are tracked individually for multiple users.
- They do not require much processing horsepower (486, compatible with Win95/98, 3.1), so that schools (which sometimes do not have up to date equipment) could run them.
Weaknesses
- It seems to me that these programs only work on improving one aspect of calculation skill, that of visualization. Of course, since I am not a psychologist, it is difficult for me to say exactly what will improve chess skill the most P.S. – if anyone knows the secret to improving while spending zero time, then please let me know.
Conclusions
My recommendation is that advanced players look at blindfold. After using the program for a while, I think that at the very least, it gives you a way to gauge your improvement as a chess player. It will also improve your visualization skills.
The other programs are more suited for players new to the game, or to those that are bored with it, and want to play something that still might help their chess skills. Of the remaining programs, I think that both Last Move and Chess Mazes would help with the improvement of chess skills and fantasy. If I were a parent with a very young child, these are two programs that I would look at most closely. They also most resemble tasks that one would face over the board.
If you are still wondering whether you would use these programs, then I would suggest downloading the demo versions from the Chess Puzzles web
site.
Copy Protection
You must e-mail the program authors with your name. They provide you with a code to unlock each program that you order. This code is good from machine to machine. Note: this is better than the previous versions that needed a new code for each machine.
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