Want to become a Knight?
A Knight Errant, that is. A follower of Michael de la Maza, if you please. Let's suppose you've read through the Knight Errant's blogs, have read the two de la Maza articles (part 1 and part 2) and decided that, unlike me, you're able and willing to devote time, effort and brain sweat to this program, and become a ravenous chess-wolf, with frightening tactics-knowledge under your belt. However, one single detail scares you: this program, and all its variants are based on CT-ART 3.0, which is commercial software, and you can't afford it. No problem. You can do it without investing a single penny. Or cent. Just time and effort.

Here is what you should do: get Scid, or any other pgn reader that you like. Now, you need some good tactics exercises, for free. The Ossimitz game collection has some very good pgn files ready to be downloaded. I recommend the 300 most important positions. Ok, there are only 300 and not thousands, as CT-ART has, but that's enough for a start. And you may find some other tactic-focused game collections there. Have a look around.

And, if you're willing to invest some more time, there's even more you can get. Go to the DBGames collection page. It has an incredibly large collection of games from books, and there is a section devoted to tactics. Lots of positions to use and peruse. However, the files are all password protected and they'll only send you the password if you contribute: that is, find (or get) a book that is not in their collection, enter the games and positions in pgn, send them the collection, and you'll get access to hundreds of games and positions. For about 2 weeks of not-so-hard work, it's worth it, in my opinion. And besides, you'll need the determination if you're going to follow the training program. It's good for warming-up.
- posted by Időbeosztás-guru @ 10:48 AM