Training software

There is a lot of good training software, and I have much of it.

But my favorites are CT-ART 2.0 and Personal Chess Trainer.(I bought
both programs and have no relation to the producers).

These 2 programs have in common that they they are tactics training
programs that show you a problem and you have to find the best
move(s).But they are also different.

CT Art 2.0 has problems grouped according to themes and difficulty.
So you can work on the themes that give you the most trouble (try the
demo).

Personal Chess Trainer is based on the idea that chess players learn
patterns by repetition. So the program starts with one-move mates and
moves up to more complicated combinations. The ideology is that you
have to see a position at least six times before you can recognize it
on sight. At first I was put off a bit because it took many hours
before I began to reach positions that challenged me. On the other
hand, I was surprised to see how many two-movers I was missing because
of unfamiliarity with the pattern.

CT Art 2.0 will throw you into the fray immediately, whereas PCT will
ease you in through repetition.Both programs are good because it is
not that difficult to schedule half an hour a day for chess training
where the decisions are premade for you.

If you opt for PCT, you should probably train for half an hour or more
a day, and expect to train for a few weeks before you reach
significantly difficult problems that challenge you (unless you are a
rank patzer). But after a couple of months, I am impressed by how
quickly I can recognize patterns and quickly find mating patterns, for
instance in book reviews showing 'brilliant' combinations. I have to
say that I have learned patterns that I didn't remember ever seeing
(they probably appeared but I did not recognize them), and that I now
recognize instantly.

Did this improve my rating ? I dunno, because I have not played a
serious game of chess in months! But I suspect that it did. I have not
reached nearly the halfway point in PCT, my guess is that it will take
more than a year to go through the whole training - and who knows, I
may be a grandmaster by then!

In sum, I recommend that you get both programs if you want tactical
training (which is what you need unless your rating is above 1800).
How can you tell if this is true? Run your games through Fritz
analysis, and if you are like me, you will find that in most games, a
winning advantage shifted between the players more than once during
the game. This means that improving your positional play will not
yield a significant improvfement unless it is accompanied by a
corresponding improvement in tactics (no positional mistake can yield
an instant deficit of -2 pawns...).

Henri