Originally posted by hamltnblue6 Months, wow. Have you noticed any improvements in your game?
You get your money's worth. The program will review old units the second half of each advanced unit. The idea is to learn by repetition. I've had it for about 6 months and haven't finished it. I usually play an hour a day 5 days a week.
6 Months of Tactics 1 hour/day must have helped?
I like to drill endgames in pct. it's annoying though that it usually understands only one move, disregarding the far more beneficial principally winning moves. like in some pawn endgames. -it would be idiotic to calculate 15-20 moves, risking an error, to get The Best move, when the position is won by reaching a key square in 3 moves.
on the other hand, drilling those elementary cases until you can't get them wrong no matter how drunk or how low on time, that's gotta be an enormous advantage. as the continuation after reaching that key square still requires some thought.
but I also hear the next version including an engine is just about to be published, so that you'll be able to actually play the other winning (or lost) lines out, and see for yourself if it works or not.
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Originally posted by wormwoodwhat is ptc?
I like to drill endgames in pct. it's annoying though that it usually understands only one move, disregarding the far more beneficial principally winning moves. like in some pawn endgames. -it would be idiotic to calculate 15-20 moves, risking an error, to get The Best move, when the position is won by reaching a key square in 3 moves.
on the other hand, ...[text shortened]... ctually play the other winning (or lost) lines out, and see for yourself if it works or not.
I'm still a newbie at chess so every little thing helps. What I do notice using PCT and Chess Mentor is that my pattern recognition and overall board vision has improved alot. I often see my blunders immediately after making a move rather than 15 seconds after 🙂
Both programs are also great to have around when you have a couple minutes to waste since the problems usually only take less than a minute each.
I've used PCT for a year or so, on and off, mostly tactics. Noticed many many queen sacs, something you don't normally see in a game. As in most other tactics programs, it doesn't emphasize simple one, two move combos that win a pawn or a minor piece, something that comes up a lot. In one of the units i saw so many queen sacs, i got into the habit of just sacking the queen, then looking for a follow up. Not a good habit to get into for real games. The most realistic tactics exerciser i've seen is Chess Tactics Server, which is for free and can increase difficulty level dramatically. I do have some issues with CTS too, like their small board, the lag time before another tactic pops up, etc. Also, recently they have dropped the history graph used to check improvement because of server space.