peace2u
User
Newbie
| Posts: 8 |   |
Karma: 0
|
re:What do you think about ct-art 3.0? - 2007/01/05 08:10
I have used this software quite heavily and I credit it with helping me raise my strength by 300 pts to somewhere around 1700 USCF. The software is based on Maxim Blokh's Art of Chess Combination which was considered by many to be an exceptionally fine set of tactics exercises. CT-ART got a big boost from de laMaza's article and book on
Rapid Chess Improvement. Both of which are, IMO, seriously overrated though both have merit. For $26 CT ART is a good deal (the book is hard to find but sold for about half that). However, I would not recommend it for <1400 USCF , Instead I would suggest Bain's Tactics for Students.
That was the summary - there follows a long winded review:
Strengths:
This is a very fine tactics set. Many of the positions are either side to move and win which means that the positions have a lot of tension and one must be accurate in calculating the solution.
The exercises are graded difficulty levels 1-9. ( Level 4 is way harder than anything I encounter in my games). I have tackled some level 5 problems but for me this requires hours of work.
The software forces you to find the best solution - it wont let you be lazy and get away with just seeing the idea.
The software will provide hints in the form of diagram arrows and also a 5x5 board in which the key tactical motif is presented. Asking for hints incurs a point penalty
CT ART willl also keep track of which problems you have worked, score your results on tests and estimate your ELO
There is the option of a "Playing board" where you can move the pieces around to explore variations and also get help from the built in Dragon & Crafty Engines
The price is reasonable: $26
Weaknesses:
The user interface sucks! It has the look of something that was written in DOS and ported to WIN 3.0. In addition to a generally cumbersome and awkard feel, buttons appear in the wrong place. Menus are confusing. If you click things in the wrong order it will hang or fail to repaint itself properly on the screen. It makes Chess base look good. Pieces move with glacial speed - 40 secs to move a rook from the a to the h file. Changing the speed in the options tab seems to have a purely random effect - sometimes they creep at a snails pace sometimes they flick with lightening speed. This last problem seems to have gone away since I moved to XP
The Dragon engine is crap! It fails to solve a significant number of the level 3 problems. Crafty does a lot better (of course) but if you do choose Crafty then, unlike Dragon, there is no display of the lines it is calculating , it just moves at the end of its alloted time. On a few level 3 & 4 problems, Crafty disagreed with CT ART's solution (so did I). Now I am sure Blokh knows a thing or two about tactics mebbe more than crafty but a level 3 exercise should not be the subject of such a dispute.
There is no good way to just give up and see the solution or, more usefully, the next correct move. The diagram markers didnt help me much. The 5x5's were more useful but they are not context sensitive - you get the same hint no matter where you are in the problem. On some problems I was just stumped and the only way to get the answer was to randomly move pcs until CTART decides you are out of tries and moves for you - then you have to do this again for the next move if need be
The problems are kind of uneven - some of this isdue to the fact that my tactics knowledge is uneven - but some definitely not
There is more but that is enough bitching for now
A final note - if you buy this software , dont order from Convekta.
They take forever. Get if from a US (or local to you) supplier. I have had very good service from ChessCafe
Adam W.
---------
The best things and best people rise out of their separateness; I'm against a homogenized society because I want the cream to rise.
Popular posts by peace2u
Chess queen's power reflection o...
Who Is The Biggest Kook In Chess...
|
post new topic