CT-ART 6.0. Complete Chess Tactics - Training Software

Wide range and level of exercises. I am sure that I will never exhaust what I could learn from this. Fairly intuitive interface.

This item would not install. When I contacted customer service listed for the House of Staunton, I was told I would have to communicate with and return the CD to the manufacturer chessok.com. I had to register with there site in order to get their address in Biscayne, FL. I sent it back to them by first class mail, and since I live only 30 miles North of them the Post Office told me they would receive the package in 2 days. I notified Chessok of this but never again heard back from them. A few days after this I managed to reach someone at Amazon and they told me it would be returned to my credit card. Usually I have any returns credited to an onsite debit card but they said this option was not available. I just checked and the cost for this item was returned to my credit card - so OK on that count. I am sorry to leave a bad review for House of Staunton, I have been aware of the for about 40 years and they are known for selling high end (wooden) chess sets, and they always has an excellent reputation - but this experience was woeful and tedious.

Solid material, it has helped my game. The software is not the most intuitive to use, and there's less explanation of things than I had expected, but my over-the-board play has improved since I started using this and that's the main thing. I'm glad I bought it and I would recommend it to a friend (as the saying goes), but the presentation could be better. In other words, "It's worth the trouble it takes to get used to it."

Great tactics training sections, but I can only give this three stars because the "Print" function works so poorly. I want to print out the tactics problems that I have problems with for further study as a group, but it will only print tiny tiny diagrams about an inch or so across and grainy as well. I have tried to find a fix but failed. Anyone else had this issue? Otherwise a nice tactics trainer.

I don't want to be unfair to the makers of this software, and perhaps I just can't figure it out, but from what I could see of this, the software does not give me anything I can't get for free from sites like Lichess and Chess.com and others. It is (or appears to be) merely a collection of exercises. Now it does state this as a selling point, but I also feel like I was misled by the advertisement that this software contains 5 full courses to develop strategy. When I see a word like "courses," which was the main selling point for me, I envisioned something akin to a classroom experience, albeit a virtual one: a lesson overview, a philosophy for play - nothing long or complicated, but a guiding idea - and then a series of exercises designed to help me to understand a certain strategy. What I found was exercises only; it would be akin to taking a class in school, having the teacher hand out a sheet of exercises and then mutely sitting at the desk while the students completed the work. There is very little feedback here; I did not know in some instances what it was I was supposed to gain from the exercises. The makers of this software claim there are over 10,000 exercises, but while I was following through, I had the same one repeated seven or eight consecutive times with only the most minor changes: move your pawn one square forward and put the opponent's King in check. The King can't take your pawn, as it is covered by another pawn, so he must move back. On the other diagonal is the opponent's Rook, so you capture him. Next exercise the same, except is is a Knight instead of a Rook. The next exercise is the same except you are playing black instead of white. The next exercise is the same but it is at a different location on the board. I was "solving" these "puzzles" in under three seconds, and my score as a player was going up, up, up - but they weren't making me any better as a player. In another series of exercises I was told to play white or black and "Checkmate in one move." Well, if I know that I can get checkmate in one move, I will look for that move; I am being taught to be better in exercises. It would have been more instructional for me to not know that I could get checkmate in one move and see if I saw that possibility or missed it and tried to develop a different offensive strategy or worried about defending my pieces. Then if I make the wrong move, I would be shown my mistake. I have a problem seeing the board and seeing potentials; that is what I need to work on, but if I know that one move finishes the game, then I can find it. Nothing I saw made me think that I could improve my understanding of the game or my play working with this software. Lichess has tons of these kinds of exercises for free, and that site gives me better feedback. I really wanted to like this software; I was excited to get it early this morning, so I could spend time with it and take the "courses" but after a little more than an hour, I see no potential, and I only want to send it back. You can't construct diagrams; I was unable to figure out how to play actual games for review - if that is even possible. This is not something I would have purchased had I known what it really was.

This is a great chess training program. It is one of the best I have ever used.

This is FALSE advertisement.It is NOT a windows program, nor can the compatibility wizard FIX this program.I would give it ZERO stars if I could.I could understand IF...the operating system I was trying to use was RARE but it is NOT. Windows 10 is COMMON.I could further understand if the company NEVER said this could run on Windows 10.The advertisement states that this WILL run on windows 10.I am FED UP with software writers writing some program and yet leaving it to you the customer to individually work out compatibility issues if you can.Folks please be HONEST in your reviews.Either a program IMMEDIATELY...and without time on a microsoft web site, customer support etc IMMEDIATELY works on windows 10 or it does NOT. For the MONEY we pay these software companies for the latest edition of some program, we all deserve better than this crap.

My rating was going through the roof after studying some of these. Including a nice queen sacrifice that was nearly identical to a puzzle. I just need to slow down the animation.