Chess products from the Chess Assistant familyChess City recommends fine software products from Convetka, publishers of Chess Assistant. Below are capsule reviews of some of their offerings. We believe they offer the best value, with quality products for reasonable prices. |
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Chess Assistant 7.1 |
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 Worldwide: $109 |
New universal chess program for amateur and professional
chess players Everything a chess player needs - Database management system Chess Assistant – on two CDs. Five top-notch products for the price of one! Chess City Evaluation: **** The best available software for dealing with large amounts of chess data. Version 8 coming in November, we'll have a full review here! At this point, you might as well wait for it. A detailed review of CA 7.1 is available here.
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Database and Chess Data |
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Comprehensive Chess Endings |
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 Worldwide: $39,95 |
This is a fundamental program for studying endgame theory.
Material is supplied by the prominent endgame theoretician GM Yuri Averbakh.
English version available. Chess City Evaluation: ** The best overall endgame package is the one presented below, including the Nalimov tablebases. Definitely worth an extra $20 to have the perfect solutions to all endgames with just a few pieces. |
Comprehensive Chess Endings + Nalimov DVD, packet |
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 Worldwide: $59 |
Our special offer includes a packet of two brand-new
software products (English versions):
Chess City Evaluation: **** The best overall endgame package. You don't need any other package, this contains a lifetime's worth of study material! |
Training courses |
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Mate Studies |
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 Worldwide: $21,95 |
A new interactive training course includes over 5000
best mate studies classified by a number of moves to achieve mate, a number of pieces on
the board and authors.
A package includes a CD and a printed manual. Chess City Evaluation: *** If only you could move data between machines, and if the results were reported to teachers, this would be a star higher. |
Theory and Practice of Chess Endings |
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 Worldwide: $29 |
Endgame course composed by GM Alexander Panchenko.
It's aim is to teach a student the intricacies of the endgame through a theoretical
section, which includes over 700 games/lectures, each of them illustrating
theoretical and practical endgame methods. Many of the included themes discussed for the
very first time.
Not reviewed by Chess City. |
Chess Endgame Training |
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 Worldwide: $29 |
The program designed to teach you different endgame
methods. The material written by IM ICCF Alexander Alpert. Includes:
Chess City Evaluation: ****. This is a great program! You can practive over 2000 endgames, or take tests which give a rating performance. If you make a mistake while answering, you are shown why your move is incorrect. You can decide how many test questions to do in a session. At the end, your results are presented like this:
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Total Chess Training |
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 Worldwide: $95 |
Total Chess Training consists of 5 magnificent
educational programs: Encyclopedia of Opening Blunders, CT-Art 3.0, Strategy 2.0,
Encyclopedia of Middlegame, Studies 2.0, covering every phase or aspect of chess: Openings – Encyclopedia of Opening Blunders. Middlegame – Encyclopedia of Middlegame. Endgame – Studies 2.0. Altogether Total Chess Training includes more than 9000 commented games and positions to be solved for chess players with an ELO rating from 1800 to 2400! Not reviewed by Chess City. |
CT-ART 3.0 |
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 Worldwide: $26 |
This program is the 3rd revised and expanded edition of the
ever popular Chess Tactics Art by the Russian GM of Correspondence chess, Maxim
Blokh. The material was chosen for a wide variety of player strengths from 1600
ELO to 2300 ELO. No less than 1217 main examples with over 1000 supplementary exercises that allows the student to test themselves by:
Chess City Evaluation: *** Very good, but can use more extensive reporting features. |
Strategy 2.0 |
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 Worldwide: $29 |
Designed by GM Alexander Kalinin, STRATEGY 2.0 is a
significantly expanded version of the original Strategy. The most important strategic
themes presented: Advantage in development, Advantage in space, Attack on the king, Attack
on the queenside, Weak squares, Pawn structure, Open files and diagonals, Central squares,
Position of pieces, Exchange, Positional sacrifice, Prophylaxis, Isolated queen's pawn,
Hanging pawns, Pawn pair of c3+d4 on semi-open files, the rule of two weaknesses,
Planning, Defense and Counterattack.
Not reviewed by Chess City. |
Encyclopedia of Middlegame |
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 Worldwide: $29 |
These programs are designed by GM Alexander Kalinin
to help a student understand the ideas and strategies behind typical middlegame positions
according to the openings they originate from. Intended for stronger players (1800
and above), the Encyclopedia of Middlegames CD contains two courses:
Chess City Evaluation: **(*) The material is useful, but the hodgepodge collections of openings don't make sense. Better to present this material in individual openings, smaller packets, or as a complete set covering all openings. There really isn't enough prose. |
Encyclopedia of Middlegame II |
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 Worldwide: $29 |
Encyclopedia of Middlegame II was written by GM Alexander
Kalinin. A CD contains a course Typical Plans and Methods in the Most Popular Openings. The following openings are viewed: Sicilian defense (Dragon, Najdorf, Paulsen variations), Ruy Lopez (Open variation, Exchanged Variation), King's gambit, Italian game, Evans gambit, Pirc-Ufimtsev, Alekhine's defense, Nimzo-Indian defense, Queen's-Indian defense, Queen's gambit, Modern Benoni). The program is not another Middlegame I version but a completely new program supplied with the wholly different material.
Chess City Evaluation: **(*) see Encyclopedia of Middlegame I |
Encyclopedia of Middlegame III |
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 Worldwide: $29 |
This course composed by GM Alexander Kalinin is
aimed at teaching a student much of the middlegame methods and intricacies through a
theoretical section which includes over 520 games/lectures each of them
illustrating typical plans and methods in the following openings: Petroff defense, Ruy
Lopez (Marshall var.), Sicilian defense (Closed System and 3. Bb5 var.), Scandinavian
defense, Gruenfeld defense, Queen's Gambit Accepted, Reti opening, variant 1. d4 Nf6 2.
Nf3 e6 (or 2…g6) 3. Bg5, and etc.
Chess City Evaluation: **(*) see Encyclopedia of Middlegame I |
Studies 2.0 |
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 Worldwide: $26 |
Instead of boring lectures on the endgame, learn endgame
technique with the use of breathtaking artistic endgame compositions, especially chosen
for their instructive value. In it, you will find over 950 of the greatest endgame
studies organized by:
Chess City Evaluation: ***+ Good, but not as comprehensive as the ChessBase studies disk. A good price for the material. Not for players under 2000, in my view, but very helpful above that! |
Encyclopedia of Opening Blunders |
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 Worldwide: $29 |
Instead of only learning what you must play in the opening, learn what not to play by learning the opening mistakes and traps that have been discovered over time. The chess material was prepared by IM Yaroslav Ulko and IM Aleksey Mitenkov, both of whom are experienced coaches and players in Russia. This program is designed for studying the blunders in different openings (more than 40 openings), so be ready to trap and avoid being trapped with the Encyclopedia of Opening Blunders. Over 1,250 instructive exercises of varying difficulty from practical games. Chess City Evaluation: **. I don't see the value in a collection of traps from so many openings. Most users will be interested in only the openings they play. I would have liked to see more general discussion and groupings by various themes. All in all, this is just a different kind of tactics test, one where all the examples take place in the opening. It is useful, but would have benefited from organization into the extensive classifier system used by Chess Assistant. It also installs differently, and on my machine failed to offer program group choices and didn't add itself to the start menu. |
Chess School for Beginners |
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 Worldwide: $26 |
Written by Yury Razuvaev, well-known GM
and one of Anatoly Karpov’s coaches in 1970th, this friendly interactive course is
intended for both children and adult beginners. Divided into 3 main sections: 1) Chess
rules - theory and test exercises. 700 carefully chosen, and in many cases designed, examples to help the student. Chess City Evaluation: *** (older version reviewed). A fairly good offering at a bargain price, though the prose leaves much to be desired. This course, unlike most others, does assist with non-chess specific skills. We'll review the latest version when supplied. |
Chess Tactics for Beginners |
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 Worldwide: $26 |
This program is based on a bestseller by the experienced
coach Sergey Ivashchenko. Intended for beginners, both children and adults. Exercises
arranged in five courses according to their increasing difficulty. Each course contains
exercises for Practice and Test. The program includes positions from practical games,
endgame studies as well as training examples.
Chess City Evaluation: *** A very useful collection for absolute beginners. Excellent feedback during tests, and the rating system works reasonably well if you take at least 100 quizzes. |
Advanced Chess School |
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 Worldwide: $26 |
This interactive tutorial is meant for inexperienced
players, children and adults, who have already learned the rules of chess, and now wish to
become a player of intermediate strength. In it students will learn about essential
concepts such as development, the center, what to do in the opening, fundamentals in chess
tactics, basic endgame rules, how to win with a material advantage, exploiting an
advantage in time or space, and much more!
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Network versions |
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Chess School for Networks |
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 Worldwide: $149 |
Released in 2002 by Convekta Ltd., developer of
Chess Assistant, and GM Yury Razuvaev, famous coach, Chairman of the FIDE Trainers'
Committee. The program intended for teaching and studying chess at primary schools with their local networks. Not only does it help a coach to give lessons, it also makes learning easier, quicker and much more interesting.
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Great Players Game Collections |
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Great Players Kit |
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 Worldwide: $99,95 |
5 programs in a kit! 5 World Champions: Mikhail Tal, Alexander Alekhine, Mikhail Botvinnik, Emanuel Lasker and Jose Raul Capablanca Each program contains
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Mikhail Botvinnik - 6th World Champion |
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 Worldwide: $29 |
The most complete collection of Botvinnik’s games ever
compiled. Contains as many as 1.069 games played by Botvinnik from 1924 till 1970.
The games deeply annotated by GM Alexander Khalifman, FIDE World Champion in 1999 and IM
Sergey Soloviev. Biography, tournament and match records. 25 rare
photos. Special tutorial section, “Play as Botvinnik” with 350 quiz positions for you to try and find those strong and beautiful moves played by Botvinnik in his games. DVD-like box |
Mikhail Tal - 8th World Champion |
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 Worldwide: $29 |
The most complete collection of Tal’s games ever
compiled. It contains 2,592 games, covering the entire career of the most
brilliant attacking chessplayer in history. All the games are deeply annotated by GMs
Kochiev, Makarichev, Sveshnikov, Yudasin, and Petersburg IMs. It also includes a
biography, the tournament and match record, and 45 rare photos. A special tutorial section, “Play As Tal”, includes carefully chosen 260 quiz positions in which you can try to find strong and beautiful moves played by Tal in his games. |
Alexander Alekhine - 4th World Champion |
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 Worldwide: $29 |
1300 commented games played by the 4th
World Champion Alexander Alekhine. The annotations of Alekhine and his contemporaries have been revised and enlarged by IMs J. Ulko and A. Mitenkov. 600 games are annotated here for the first time! It also includes the complete tournament results plus a number of rare photos. There is a separate tutorial section, “Play as Alekhine”, which comes with 200 carefully chosen positions for you to solve, representing some of the most interesting and instructive positions from his games. It also comes with the built-in playing programs: Dragon and Crafty. |
Jose Raul Capablanca - 3rd World Champion |
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 Worldwide: $26 |
“Among the champions who I met a lot it was just
Capablanca that impressed me most.” (M. Botvinnik, The 6th World Champion). 640 commented games played by the 3rd World Champion Jose Raul Capablanca. All the games deeply annotated by GM Khailfman and Petersburg IMs.
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Emanuel Lasker - 2nd World Champion |
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 Worldwide: $26 |
The most complete collection of Emanuel Lasker’s games
ever compiled. Contains 630 games, covering the entire long career of the
2nd World Champion in chess (held the title from 1896 to 1921). All the games deeply
annotated by GM Khalifman and Petersburg IMs.
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Opening Encyclopedias |
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Modern Chess Openings. French Defence. |
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 Worldwide: $26 |
Chess material is supplied by the prominent coach GM
Alexander Kalinin. The program includes theoretical material focusing on the typical
playing methods in various lines of these popular openings.
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Modern Chess Openings. Sicilian Defence. |
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 Worldwide: $26 |
Chess material is supplied by the prominent coach GM
Alexander Kalinin. The program includes theoretical material focusing on the typical
playing methods in various lines of these popular openings.
Chess City Evaluation: *** Useful content, but not as accessible as it should be. There needs to be more guided navigation of the variations. Still, you can learn a lot about the ideas of the various Sicilian Defenses from this CD. |
Chess Openings 2003 |
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 Worldwide: $29 |
Chess Openings 2003 includes theoretical material updated
with all the openings as of Jan. 1st, 2003.
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