Sunday, September 25, 2005

Progress report 2 (trying to survive everyday life in Grove Street)

Ok, so i got a little distracted since i finally got my hands on a copy of the PC version of GTA: San Andreas. What can i say :)
Anyway, 15 training days went by and i managed to complete unit 1 to 6 of PCT's tactics module 1. Which comes down to having gone over a total of 3420 positions (including repetitions). Per day that would be about 228. I did commit some errors that aren't really worth mentioning. A total of 8. All "first time going over" errors (as i like to call them), since they never occurred again during repetitions. And most are not even to be called "first time going over" errors even. Sometimes i was simply too tired, and i was like staring into oblivion :)
What can i tell you about the program itself? Well, up untill this point i really like it a lot. The most noticable is the fact that it does not tell you whether the tactic consists of a single move or a multiple move. I was used to that from other programs. Personal Chess Trainer just progresses from single move tactics to multiple move tactics while you're going up in number of units. I guess that is how it adjusts it's difficulty. But i can appreciate it... I mean, there's nobody pointing out the kinds of tactics you should look for during a game, right? Noticable changes in my play? Well, i did not get much of a chance to play a lot, but the few games i did play i was feeling more confident. That is allready a positive change, right? Thus far it's 6 units down and 300 x 6 to go. And i'm only talking about the tactics section. I am telling you... I am being way too ambitious with my new plan...

1 Comments:

At 29 September, 2005 05:19 , Blogger Edwin 'dutchdefence' Meyer said...

Well, i started out trying to finish (meaning going over 1 unit 6 times) 1 unit of each. So 1 tactics unit, 1 endgame unit and one startegy unit. For some reason i thought i could manage, because i finished the first T.E.S. units in about 2 hours. Next day i went on to the second T.E.S. units. 6 times tactics was like badaboom 30 minutes work. Then i got to the second endgame unit... Now the first endgame unit took me about 45 minutes to finish (thus having it done 6 times). But the second endgame unit took me about an hour only to go over it once... It does do wonders in displaying your true weaknesses it think. Maybe we should have Capa as an inspirational source instead. Remember what he said about the endgame? "In order to improve your game, you must study the endgame before everything else, for whereas the endings can be studied and mastered by themselves, the middle game and the opening must be studied in relation to the endgame." Anyway, to give you my view of the strategy units, i am convinced they have value. Though the first two units were easy. Note that i am only discussing the units of the first modules here! So i can't even begin to imagine how difficult the stuff will be in a second or third module. Anyway, my results with the second endgame unit made me change my initial plan. I want to finish all 6 modules and their corresponding units of tactics first. After that i'll move on to work on the endgame and finally strategy.

 

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