After reading Kuljasevic's book on 'How to Study Chess on Your Own' (he calls these simulations, as opposed to Solitaire Chess), this is something I've been more aware of, and have done on and off - but especially in the last month or so have been trying to make a habit off doing at least as much simulation work as I do exercises.
Apart from playing itself, this is really the closest thing you can get to playing a real game.
Lucas Chess has IMHO the best version of this. Train / Games / Play Like a Grandmaster. Choose the player whose game you wish to go through. You can even import your own! Why use your own? Lucas Chess doesn't just give you right/wrong on your guess, but whether it's better or worse than the original move. Improve on your own moves!
I have a book titled "Solitaire Chess" by I. A. Horowitz. It has a bunch of selected games from different masters. I agree that this is excellent training.
Chesstempo has this feature too. I like their implementation because instead of just wrong/right, it awards "partial credit" for moves that are okay, even if not optimal. Also, it tells you if your move is better than the actual move played. In the free account, users have acces to a rather limited number of games for "guess the move." Paid Chesstempo memberships give you access to larger collections of games. "Guess the move" with thousand of games is also one of the perks of the premium membership at chessgames.com.
Great stuff, thanks for the post Nate! While I feel like it’s a commonly touted training method among titled players, I don’t often see much work done on the specific “do’s and don’ts” of solitaire.
Purdy described the method in some detail. ("The best practice," and "More about practice." Both included in his Fine Art of Chess Annotation and Other Thoughts.)
After reading Kuljasevic's book on 'How to Study Chess on Your Own' (he calls these simulations, as opposed to Solitaire Chess), this is something I've been more aware of, and have done on and off - but especially in the last month or so have been trying to make a habit off doing at least as much simulation work as I do exercises.
Apart from playing itself, this is really the closest thing you can get to playing a real game.
Lucas Chess has IMHO the best version of this. Train / Games / Play Like a Grandmaster. Choose the player whose game you wish to go through. You can even import your own! Why use your own? Lucas Chess doesn't just give you right/wrong on your guess, but whether it's better or worse than the original move. Improve on your own moves!
Nice post, I'll definitely try this out. What's the dedicated chessbase feature you mentioned?
If the purpose of solitaire chess is to develop analysis skill, isn't it better to analyse your own games?
I have a book titled "Solitaire Chess" by I. A. Horowitz. It has a bunch of selected games from different masters. I agree that this is excellent training.
I am glad to read this post concerning the benefits of solitaire chess. I really enjoy using the Chessbase dedicated feature
HIARCS has also a "guess the move" feature (macOS users can get HIARCS, but not Chessbase).
Chesstempo has this feature too. I like their implementation because instead of just wrong/right, it awards "partial credit" for moves that are okay, even if not optimal. Also, it tells you if your move is better than the actual move played. In the free account, users have acces to a rather limited number of games for "guess the move." Paid Chesstempo memberships give you access to larger collections of games. "Guess the move" with thousand of games is also one of the perks of the premium membership at chessgames.com.
Great stuff, thanks for the post Nate! While I feel like it’s a commonly touted training method among titled players, I don’t often see much work done on the specific “do’s and don’ts” of solitaire.
Purdy described the method in some detail. ("The best practice," and "More about practice." Both included in his Fine Art of Chess Annotation and Other Thoughts.)