Introduction and Overview
Convekta recently bundled five of their existing training programs together, and released it as a CD called "Total Training". The programs included on the CD cover all phases of the game, and all total there are over 9000 exercises and instructional examples. Previous users will find some minor enhancements over the old versions, and for those that fit this category, I would recommend that you skip ahead to the section titled "What’s New?"
For those that are not familiar with the company, Convekta is based in Russia, and they are the developers of Chess Assistant. However, they also produce a number of chess training programs as well. Every tutorial program that Convekta produces is focused around solving annotated training exercises, and this collection is no exception.
As I just mentioned, the programs employ a "solve from the diagram" approach to teaching chess concepts. The user is given three chances to find the correct move. On the first incorrect choice, colored squares and arrows are used to illustrate important ideas in the position (like a weak square, or a geometrical relationship among the pieces). If the user fails again, the correct piece to move is flashed. Fail a third time, and the computer will make the correct move for you (and you get zero credit for solving the position).
In addition to the diagram training mentioned above, many of the programs on this CD also have a number of annotated game fragments and positions to help explain important concepts (see the table below for more details). There are also a number of additional positions that you can play against the built in computer opponent, and for this purpose, the Crafty chess engine is included. You can export any game that you play to a PGN file for analysis by another chess program.
Program |
# Quiz positions |
# Additional Example and playing positions |
Significant text instruction? |
Suitable for? |
Areas of game addressed |
Encyclopedia of opening blunders |
1200 |
0 |
No |
Anyone |
Tactics, especially in opening and early middlegame. |
Encyclopedia of Middlegames |
1000 |
1000 |
Yes |
Intermediate to advanced |
Tactics, strategic themes of various openings. Pawn structures. |
Strategy |
1100 |
700 |
Yes |
Intermediate |
Tactics, strategy, excellent material on pawn play and structures. |
CT-ART |
1200 |
0 |
No |
Anyone with basic knowledge of tactics |
Tactics |
Studies |
1000 |
0 |
No |
Intermediate to advanced |
Endgame, tactics, studies. |
Note: This table does not tabulate mini-board schematic positions, which are also provided in some of the programs (that's why the total number of positions does not add up to 9000+).
All the programs support multiple users, and very detailed records are kept for each. There is a nice bar graph that shows your success as a function of a tactical or positional theme. This makes it easy to quantify and target weaknesses in your own play. You can also select the types of exercises that you want to solve by theme, or based on whether you missed them previously. So by combining these elements, you can isolate your weak areas and work on them.
A moving average of your estimated ELO is also tracked for each program. While I don’t have a lot of faith in the accuracy of this type of estimate, it is useful for showing relative improvement over time.
Of the programs included in this collection, my personal favorites are probably CT-ART, Strategy, and Studies. Both Opening Blunders and the Encyclopedia of Middlegames can be handy when trying to learn a new opening, but you should check my review of Middlegames to see if your opening is covered. Also, if you feel you want more information on the specific instructional themes present in any of these programs, you should check my previous reviews of Convekta training software (make sure you look at the latest versions though).
What’s New?
Convekta has pretty much addressed any problems that I have mentioned in my earlier reviews of their products. For instance, the large font problem that CT-ART used to experience is now gone. There is also improved animation that is smoother, and works well on any speed machine. All the program interfaces are now consistent, and have been updated to reflect the improvements made in the Encyclopedia of Opening Blunders. That means you get marble boards (probably the best choice for extended use) and other interface tweaks. I did not experience any crashes or abnormal program operation when using these programs.
Improvements have also been made to the playing program interface. For instance, opening books are now included with crafty (in Chess Assistant format), and you can control what kinds of openings the program will prefer to play. There are also more time controls. The bottom line is that you get a bare-bones chess playing program in addition to the training exercises. There is no built-in handicapping feature though, so you will be playing Crafty, Zarkov, or Shredder at it’s full strength (these last two engines are supported, but not included on the CD).
You can now also print exercises from the program. You can select an entire theme for printing, or just individual exercises. The solutions are not printed though, so you will still have to operate the program to get these. Although it would have been nice to print the solutions, I can see why Convekta did not implement this feature – they’re trying to avoid wholesale print duplication of their material.
Summary
I have always recommended Convekta’s tutorials in the past, and I continue to do so with this product. It’s a good deal, and should provide many hours of study. The tutorial examples are carefully selected, and really represent a large part of the core knowledge that you need as a player. Coaches should also like the ability of these programs to track results for multiple users, and to print exercise sheets.
Copy Protection
CD refueling. Occasionally, the user will be prompted to insert the CD.
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