CT-ART 3.0


	Title: CT – ART 3.0 Author: Maxim Blokh Publisher: Convekta Genre: Middlegame/Tactics Level: Intermediate and above Every competitive hobby has its basic techniques, the techniques that have to be practiced forever. In basketball it is shooting hoops, in soccer – dribbling around cones and in American football – tackling cruel metal scarecrows. We, chess enthusiasts, are much luckier than other sportsmen, for two reasons. First, we do not have to get out of our chair in order to practice technique, and second, what we have to practice forever is tactics which is the most fun part of chess anyway. In other words, tactics are like melons, bananas, dark chocolate and red wine – they are good for your health despite the fact that you enjoy having them.






* chessbug@chessbug.com
	CT ART 3.0 from Blokh and Convekta falls easily into the slot of a chess product that is both enjoying and useful. I have very few ideas for improvement that I will share with you below, but for the most of it, CT ART is an impressive and well thought chess software product. The idea of CT ART is simple and direct – you get loads of chess puzzles, divided to sections according to the different motifs, and you just practice and practice, and practice, and practice, and practice, and… Despite the fact that now and then you will encounter a well known position (how many times in your life have you solved Botvinnik-Vidmar, Nottingham 1936?) you will find many new faces among the 1217 (!) different positions that CT ART offers. Despite the simple idea (lots of puzzles to solve), CT ART has some extra features that make the CD more useful than your usual “puzzle book”. Before I talk about these feature, let me show you the contents of the CD. The CD is divided into three sections but each one of the three has basically the same 1200+ puzzles, they are only arranged according to different categorizations. In case you worry, like I did, that you might have to solve some puzzles that you already solved earlier, please rest assured that you can prevent unwanted repetition. In CT ART, every user has a user profile which enables you to ask the program not to give you the same position more than once. You can also ask the program to let you solve only the puzzles that you failed to solve in the first time, but here I am again, telling you about the features instead of listing the contents. So back to the contents: The first division of the puzzles is according to “Tactical methods”

	The second division, which, as you can see, is called “Combinational Motifs”, includes the following contents:

	The difference, between the two divisions shown above, is that while the first looks at the method of exploiting the opponent’s weaknesses (decoy, interception, distraction etc.) the second looks at the specific weakness that enabled the combination (an overloaded piece, a weak square, an undefended piece, and so on). In my view, the second division is much more practical, because in real over-the-board chess your process of thought does not start with, “What motif do I have in this position?” but rather with “What are the weaknesses in my opponent’s position?” Still, there is no harm in having the two options of division (motifs and methods) to choose from. You can also use the feature that I mentioned earlier (i.e. ask to see only puzzles you failed to solve) and check if there is a specific motif or method in which you have many erroneous solutions, thus putting more work into your weakest area.
	There are three more excellent features that I would like to mention. The first feature is the inclusion of the chess engine Crafty into CT ART 3.0. The inclusion of Crafty saves you one of the most frustrating moments in puzzle books: when you think you have a better solution than the one the book suggests. All of you who read a chess puzzle know these moments when you ask yourself “Did I find a mistake in the book or did I miss something?” With the new Convekta product, these moments do not occur because you can always challenge Crafty to defend the solution that Maxim Blokh, the author, suggests. I tried my “improvements” against Crafty and I lost in one hundred percents of the cases. So far I did not find one single mistake in Blokh’s annotations, but more importantly I have an interactive tool to help me understand where I went wrong. The second feature worth mentioning is the interactive clues that CT ART 3.0 gives you after you fail to make the right move for the second time in the same position. In these cases (more than one mistake) CT opens a window with 5x5 chess board where you can solve a puzzle on the same motif in a simpler position. I enjoyed this form of hinting because it helps you solve the puzzle but you still feel like you solved it yourself, and you get an extra puzzle on the way. The 5x5 interactive hints are a great use of the interactive possibilities that software has over books. The third feature is called “Counterplay” puzzle – at times you solve a puzzle, say it was a “White to move” puzzle, and you solved it. Now CT ART 3.0 flips the board, and you have to solve the same position, this time with Black to move. The Counterplay feature improves your “sense of time” and helps you identify those positions where immediate action is required. All the above features are backed up by simple and intuitive user interface and a good “Help” function. The learning curve of the software was really fast for me except for one setback: I could not see any visual button to move backward and forward among the puzzles. At first, I used the "Browse" button to open the browse window and choose the next puzzle. Obviously, it is a nuisance to open a new window every time you want to move to the next puzzle, so I opened the help index and looked for a different way. The easy-to-navigate Help section said that I could either use the arrows or the F3 and F4 keys on my keyboard. I started using the F3/F4 keys, which was a great improvement but I still wondered where the arrows went to. At last I solved this mystery and I will now share the solution with you. At first what I saw was this:
	As you can see there are no arrows in the above screen image, but those of you who are well sighted can spot something hiding on the bottom left, just between where it says “Exercise 426” and where it says “Score: 0”. All you have to do now is hide the Windows Taskbar and voila:

	So once you have CT ART 3.0 you want to hide the taskbar in order to see those arrows (by the way, the solution to the above diagram can be found at the bottom of this page, and it can be solved either with “Black to Play” or with “White to play”). The disappearing arrows are the only real setback I could find for this product, but it is important to give a warning for chess beginners – CT ART 3.0 is NOT for the absolute beginner, Chess beginners will do better to start with other tactics products. CT ART 3.0 is meant for players from 1600 ELO and up; although I think an ambitious 1400 player could also find it useful. CT ART 3.0 does not explain the very basic terms (like fork, skewer, and so on) but rather trains you in order for you to master the themes you already know, or at least heard of. As I said in the beginning, in order to master the game of chess, one must forever practice one’s tactical sight. As for me, I have to admit that lately I worked too much on openings and forgot about tactics. Since I started working with CT ART 3.0 I see more and more combinations in my own internet blitz games and it is fun. It is like regaining your chess youth, if you know what I mean. Only yesterday, I temporarily sacrificed my queen in order to gain a pawn, as I saw in the chapter on forcing preferable piece exchanges. In a later game, I sacrificed an exchange not because of a specific theme but because my general tactical ability has improved and I can see that opportunities for wild sacrifices occur in my own games (OK, I know, sacrificing the exchange is not so wild, but you get the general point of what I am saying). The last thing I would like to stress is how entertaining this CD is. As a matter of fact it is so enjoyable that I found it hard to finish this review. Whenever I sat at the computer with the intent of finishing this review I opened CT ART “just to make sure I remember correctly what I said”, and then I would decide “I will solve only one puzzle and then start writing”. After I solved one puzzle I would choose to solve “only one more puzzle” and then “only one last puzzle” and then “only one very last puzzle” and then “one completely, surely, definitely, positively, very very last puzzle.” When the reviewer cannot write the review because he keeps on playing with the CD it is a good sign for the product, a very very good sign.
	The Good Things: A large, rich and diverse collection (1217 main positions) Highly useful interactive hints on 5x5 board Option to play against Crafty if you “do not believe” the solution (against me Crafty always won) The option of “Counterplay” lets you play the same position once with “Black to Move” and once with “White to move” thus improving your ability to cope with immediate threats OTB. The Bad Things: One has to hide the Windows taskbar in order to see the "Backward" and "Forward" arrows. The Bottom Line: Use it, enjoy it, improve your chess. Rating: 9.5/10 Review written by Dragonfly. Solution to the Diagram: Black to move: 1… Bd4+! 2 cxd4 Rf1+ 3 Nxf1 Qxf1# White to move: 1 Re8! Qxe8 2 Nxf6+ Rxf6 3 Qxe8++-