This tutorial program from Convekta is designed to improve your ability to play various types of common middlegame positions. The instructive examples and quiz positions included in the program are most suitable for those with ELO>1800. Indeed, many of the problems are quite difficult (although I think players 1600 and above could also find some instruction here).
The quiz positions included in Strategy II may not be quite what you expect, given the name of the program. The program teaches you how play specific kinds of positions (i.e. when you or your opponent has an isolated queen's pawn for example), by mostly tactical means. It is important to realize that most of these exercises require the application of both sound calculation skills and positional judgement, and are not just another set of tactical tests.
Program operation and features are similar to other Convekta tutorials. I would suggest that you read my review of the previous version of Strategy for more information.
As you can see from the table below, there are quite a few more exercises and instructional examples to play through than in the previous version. There are a few more different instructional categories that have been added in this release as well. They include topics such as development, space, pawn pair at c3/d4, and attacking play. There is also a small amount of material on planning, prevention, and the rule of two weaknesses. The sections on the isolated queen’s pawn and hanging pawns don't seem to have changed much from the previous version.
Feature |
Strategy |
Strategy II |
Annotated examples for study |
70 |
250 |
Practice and test examples (i.e. solve from diagram type) |
850 |
1075 |
Number of 'play against the computer' positions (without predetermined solutions) |
300 |
450 |
* All numbers are approximate and should be used as a general guide only * |
My initial intention in this review was to compare the number of exercises in each category, and give a very detailed comparison of the changes. As it turns out, some categories have been renamed, while others have been placed into subcategories; and so I decided not to do it. But, I can say that there is more material on attacking and pawn play than there was in the previous version.
The interface is now similar to Advanced Chess School, and offers some more attractive boards. You now have your choice of a wood, marble or the old black-white/olive-yellow ones. There are a few other minor tweaks concerning the presentation of visual hints and the like. Overall though, interface changes are relatively minor.
The scoring and statistics parts of the program have not changed too much. However, now all exercises are assigned a number of 'points'. In the previous version of the program, exercises were grouped according to ELO level. Now they are grouped according to a point scale. Once again, this is a minor change. I think I prefer the old way better (it was more straightforward), but to be honest, there is not a whole lot of practical difference. Either approach is only a very subjective estimate of problem difficulty. Owners of the previous version should note that the ELO statistics still remains (i.e. you get an ELO estimate based on the time you take to solve a problem, the difficulty and number of mistakes you make).
I found two bugs in the program. The first was serious, and has been corrected by a patch that can be obtained from Convekta. The other was minor and will affect people that use large fonts (windows defaults to small). When using large fonts, numbers are misaligned on the practice results bar graphs.
If you have the older version and are thinking of upgrading, you should probably do so if you are interested in the large attacking play section. If you are a prospective first time purchaser, the program's strongest point is probably its instructional material on pawn play.
Copy ProtectionMust be installed from original CD. Afterwards CD is not needed unless system configuration changes. Note: this information is correct to the best of my knowledge. I have had programs ask (after a couple of months) for the original CD.
| 
