1. Analysis Board during training mode with engine: I hope in the future CPT there is an analysis board during the training mode. The reason for this includes that you see a good move that is not in your repertoire but is possible to play. Simply click an analysis board button and the position pops up on a separate board that you can play out and later decide with a button to enter these moves into your repertoire or not.

2. Input move during training mode to opening repertoire: The reason for this is that you spot a good move (or think is a good move) that you want to add to your opening repertoire during the training mode so you don't have to exit out of training mode over and over.

3. Engine use during training mode: Turns on the engine during the training mode to see the evaluation.

4. Mark as mistake and pull up analysis board with chess engine and comment window: This is a bit difficult to explain, but there is a software that is a freeware called chess hero that emphasizes this concept. Stefan if you ever used chess hero software (freeware) I think you know what I'm talking about.
When creating your opening repertoire we need to understand not only the good moves but the bad moves played by your opponent or yourself. Therefore, if you are creating your opening repertoire and enter all the moves that are mistakes by your opponent (having mark as mistake button) you can during training have these moves pop up with an analysis board and you can go through the variations deeply to see why it's a mistake.
Basically what I want is for Stefan to somehow include what chess hero does into CPT.

Hope these features can be implemented into CPT in the near future,

Arthur

These are all great ideas and are the top 3 features on my wishlist too. Cheers, Bob

New features are nice...but lets keep in mind what TRAINING mode is actually for! I personally would hate to see an engine 'giving me' best moves in TRAINING mode. And most if not all of the posters suggestions can be done OUTSIDE of TRAINING mode within the program.

Now, one good compromise might be to look at a valuable tool (often overlooked) in Chessbase: using the 'x' function during analysis to show the THREAT in a position. That would be useful if one 'got stuck' during TRAINING mode. I would call it the THREAT BUTTON.

Imagine: you are stuck for what to play next during TRAINING mode. You click on an engine icon and it DOES NOT give you the best move for you in that position, but rather shows you the THREAT. That seems more appropriate during TRAINING mode.

In Chessbase, you just hit the 'x' key while an engine is running and it is a bit like having someone show you the threat of your opponents last move.

Clicking what would be the 'treat' button (that is, engine output as if you passed on your move and let the other side play) would seem totally ideal for TRAINING MODE...and is in keeping with the name of the program.

I think that the key idea in common here is that it would be nice to be able to get some sense of reasonable moves in a given position without having to leave training mode (after of course you have already made your move). It's true that the feature is available within CPT outside of training mode but it would be very convenient and good for learning to get feedback instantly (as you would with a coach). What I often do now is tag it and jump out of training mode to examine the position and then go back to training mode once I'm done.

I too use Chessbase’s threat feature and would love to see it within CPT. Another Chessbase feature I like (and what I would find ideal for training mode) is the online check where you can instantly see what strong players have played in that position. Perhaps there are some public databases that could be accessed within CPT that would serve the purpose. Barring that feature, I still find it useful to see an engine’s evaluations not because I want to use the engine to tell me what move I should play but rather so that I can see if the non-repertoire move I chose in training is a clear bad choice, in which case I’m especially inclined to tag the position to look at later because I clearly did not understand or remember it well at all.

The 'training' part of the program is of course mostly about 'remembering' what you have already at some point decided to be the proper course...so that you will have indeed committed it to memory for future game situations. So you have already...or should have already toyed with 'reasonable moves' prior to this point.

So, in that sense, I would disagree that there is truly a common idea here between what you and I suggest. You - if I understand you right - essentially want to test out new moves while in training...while, in training mode, I just want to train but think something to prompt you - like the 'threat button' I discussed, is reasonable within this mode. I mean, if you do not get the move right, you don't know it. Simple, you have not committed the position to memory and need to do something to make sure you do have it in your memory in the future...like during a game.

Of course a 'threat button' would just be what the engine calculates as your opponents move if you 'passed', but a lot of times it would of course point you to what you should be doing here...as if a coach was looking over your shoulder when you get stuck.

But maybe Stephan can decided which is most appropriate here.

The other suggestion...I've mixed emotions about as it relies on the quality and how up-to-date that database is. And who really wants to find the only move in a given position was played by a 12 yr old school girl rated 1247 in Brazil? The quality of the database would be everything here.

Hi all,

I'm glad to see you've started this discussion as it does touch an area I actually consider to focus on in the future. Everybody has made some great points.

I agree with Leavenfish that the training part was all about memorizing your already defined repertoire so far. Any future version will allow players to do exactly that easily.

However, I also came to the conclusion that the training mode could be so much more in particular for not already so well defined repertoires, but also to make the learning process more efficient. E.g. it is much easier to remember the right move, if you are aware of the threats in a position and are shown why your played move was wrong. This will stick much better in your brain than just knowing that the move was not the one, which has been pre-defined in your repertoire.

I'm right now implementing a major feature, which will support this idea too (the focus is a different one with the first release though). At the same time I will keep thinking about how to improve the training module with these ideas in mind without making it more complicated to use.

Thanks,
Stefan