Tuesday, 07 January 2014

CPT 5: Missing Recall Function and next steps

Some users asked me how to recall scheduled positions as they have to select each opening manually now. In CPT 4 the program would not allow you to select any specific opening. You could also not play complete lines in recall mode and other options were disabled. On the other hand you just selected "recall" and the program would ensure you recall all schedulede positions.

I wanted to harmonize all different selection options (only learned, systematic, scheduled etc.) so basically all options are available for each selection type except "Filter", which does not make sense for each mode (or can't be implemented in an efficient way). In the past quite often users wanted to recall only certain openings or number of plys. For new CPT users it was also more confusing to have so many exceptions depending on the selection type.

I anticipated that people would miss the way it was implemented in the past though. My idea was to introduce another feature, which quite a few people requested: selecting a folder for training. Then you could just select the black and then the white folder to recall all positions.

I believe this would be a good compromise of both approaches as it is just one more click, but much more flexibility. Unfortunately the feature to train a complete folder didn't make it into the final release, but it will follow with one of the next releases.

Some more remarks:

  • There is an issue with the statistic module, if one of your opening names contains a colon (":"). I will fix this soon.
  • Sometimes deactivating the current license code and entering a new one fails. I'm working on this one too.DGT support had to be removed for the moment as the latest DGT driver gave me some headache
  • If you have topics with more than 500 tabiyas you will experience a performance boost in a future update as I will optimize the code for this scenario.
  • Documentation / videos in particual on topics is a high priority
  • Some minor issues

Once these issues are resolved my main focus will be to continue my work on the iPad/iPhone/Android App before I will continue to add more features to the Windows version. Besides general improvements I have one major improvement for training in mind, in mind which I can hardly wait to implement.

 

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Comments (19)

  • Brian Smith
    08 January 2014 at 05:16 |
    Brian Smith

    "Besides general improvements I have one major improvement for training in mind, in mind which I can hardly wait to implement."

    Pray tell...what might that be?

  • Darren Rickard
    08 January 2014 at 10:46 |
    Darren Rickard

    It's shame that the 'choose an opening' wasn't added as an additional feature as the ease in which you could train all scheduled positions regardless of opening was key to the 'scheduled' traing module. I will probably now just use the excellent new 'systemmatic' training feature to train my openings.

  • Alvaro Frota
    08 January 2014 at 13:25 |
    Alvaro Frota

    Rio de Janeiro, 8 de fevereiro de 2014.

    Olá Stefan!

    If I have 10 tabiyas, say 10 endgames King + pawns vs King + pawns into a certain topic, how can I have access to one of them (or every one of then) in order to edit some comments?

    It seems there is no such access. Am I right?

    If so, I think that to add such capability will be very important as, without it, the only way to edit comments in stored endgames is using the export / import feature to a third part PGN text editor.

    As CPT has a very good rich text editor, the absence of the edition capability for tabiyas is a real pity.

    Aquele abraço!

    Alvaro
    PS: I am having some troubles but the Portuguese-Br translation is being done.

  • Kostas Oreopoulos
    09 January 2014 at 10:20 |
    Kostas Oreopoulos

    When you right click a rep variation you get some options (New subvariation, New variation... etc)

    New topic is always grayed
    Add Repertoire item
    Add Moves and
    Add Tabiya are always grayed too

    Are these placeholders for the future? or i am missing something obvious?

  • Henk Massink
    12 January 2014 at 12:40 |
    Henk Massink

    Maybe an easy solution would be when you are in training's mode and you change the opening. The openings (in the selection window) which have recall positions have a different color.

    As it is now I have to remember from the planner which openings have re-callers an which not.

    Henk

  • Carol Koeller
    17 January 2014 at 18:49 |
    Carol Koeller

    Hello Stefan!
    Just purchased CPT5 today. Wow! I am blown away with the complexity/beauty of the program! I hope that once I learn and utilize the software my opening preparation will improve. However, not being a technically savvy person I will have a problem using the program and all its features without also having a manual to learn from. Any chance of a manual being completed any time soon?
    Otherwise, thank you and congratulations for this fantastic opening training software; having read the blogs since CPT's initial inception I know that you have put in a tremendous amount of love and labor into the project. So here's wishing you and CPT all the success!

    • Stefan Renzewitz
      18 January 2014 at 00:22 |
      Stefan Renzewitz

      Thanks!
      I believe most new features are self-explaining in combination with the comprehensive tooltips (just move your mouse over the command in the ribbon) except topics. This concept is more complex, but I just published an in-depth article about it:
      http://www.chesspositiontrainer.com/index.php/en/blog/item/chess-training-of-tactic-end-game-and-key-positions?category_id=1
      So, with the CPT 4 manual + this article you should be ready to go.
      I'm probably releasing tomorrow a new version (bringing back the old recall mode and fixing some issues) and then I will focus on finishing the documentation.

  • Stig K Martinsen
    18 January 2014 at 00:29 |
    Stig K Martinsen

    It's really nice to see the scheduled + complete line mode and all the other new features! Great work.

    But like other users, I also miss the scheduler that used to just give you all the positions scheduled for the day. Now I can get those positions in a complete line context, but I have my repertoire split into a LOT of different openings, which seemed smart at the time but not so much now when I have to select every one of them to see if there's any positions scheduled.

    So I'm really looking forward to the update where I can at least select a couple of folders instead. The main point of a scheduler must be that it does all the work of presenting the right positions for recall for us.

  • Stig K Martinsen
    18 January 2014 at 00:33 |
    Stig K Martinsen

    To be clear, what I want most of all is exactly the same Scheduled + Complete line mode that I'm using now - without having to click through all my openings (or, ideally any openings) to get to those complete lines.

  • Silvio
    08 March 2014 at 11:47 |
    Silvio

    Dear Stefan Renzewitz,
    I thank you again for your wonderful work, and I hope that you find the time to improve the functionality of the electronic board DGT !
    It is important for me...
    congratulations again for the very useful software!
    Silvio

  • Brian Smith
    08 March 2014 at 17:50 |
    Brian Smith

    Please let me say something - I would hope Stefan would prioritize any 'request'. I say that only because I have been playing tournament chess for 25+ years and I know of no one that owns a DGT...it's really fairly rare. I am not saying it is not a fair request, but many chess teachers advise to use a real board to aid in recall...to that end, maybe a 3D board within CPT would be more beneficial to those who own CPT.

    I know within Chessbase, I use their 3D board option constantly as it more closely simulate a real board. Just my two cents.

  • Anton Bakels
    21 March 2014 at 20:06 |
    Anton Bakels

    Dear Stefan, First of all thank you for your great program! I am impressed about all the posibilities.

    I have one question for you: when i import a made game for a new opening - i want that all the sidelines are directly ticked of. Now i have to do that manually. For example when i make a opening-variant with 10 different moves - i want that all the moves are ticked off directly. Is that possible? Thanx for your feebback.

    • Stefan Renzewitz
      21 March 2014 at 20:31 |
      Stefan Renzewitz

      Hi Anton,

      thanks for letting me know you like my software!

      Right now there is no option to only import the main line. I put it on the feature request list, but I can't promise if and when it will be implemented.

      I've been thinking of any work-around, but there is not really a good one. If you have only sidelines for the first position and afterwards not you might want to import the PGN file into a dummy opening, copy this main line to a new opening and then delete the complete dummy opening into which you've imported the PGN file. Deleting variations is an expensive operation, but copying a variation is not. Deleting a complete opening is fast too. I've added a section about this approach in the upcoming manual for CPT 5, which is very close to be released finally.

      • Anton Bakels
        21 March 2014 at 21:00 |
        Anton Bakels

        Hi Stefan, thanx for your fast response!

        Maybe i didn't ask the right question. What i mend is that it's really handy for me to create a pgn file with all the sidelines etc. When i import that file, i would like to practice all the sidelines. Now all the sidelines are ticket of - and it would be great if that possibility would be there. That would save me hours of work i think. But do i understand correctly that this feature isn't there yet?

        I now also have a second question for you. I just downloaded at chessbase.com an openingbook. Is it possible to import the .cgt file into CPT? I think it's so much easier to delete some lines than to create everything myself. I didn't found out how i could make from a .cgt file a .pgn file. That would also help a lot. Thanx for all the feedback you could give me on this point.

        Good luck with all the good work!

        • Stefan Renzewitz
          21 March 2014 at 21:49 |
          Stefan Renzewitz

          In the training module check the group page "Correct move" and change the value to "all non negative moves".

          The .ctg format is Chessbase specific not public. Therefore I can't offer a way to import it. However, you could purchase an ebook from Everyman Chess as PGN file and you will get even a complete ready to train repertoire (or specific openings). That's even better or at least how I've built my repertoire mostly.

  • Alex McNeilly
    16 June 2014 at 18:51 |
    Alex McNeilly

    Stefan, I'm using CPT 5.04 and I'm having one heck of a hard time figuring out how to have CPT review scheduled and overdue lines when I want entire lines from move 1 and I want the program to always show me the line first.
    What do I select to get CPT working the way that I need for my slow and tired brain?

    PS to Silvio - I also have the DGT board. Support for DGT would be nice, but I wouldn't use it all that often. I'd prefer having a forum for CPT discussions (hint, hint).

    • Stefan Renzewitz
      19 June 2014 at 08:06 |
      Stefan Renzewitz

      Hi Alex,
      in this case choose "Only schedulde" as selection and then "Complete Line" and on the "Complete Line Mode" group page "Always Demo Line First". The disadvantage to the "All scheduled" selection is that you have to select the opening for training manually. You can use the new "Scheduler" to find out, which openings have scheduled positions.
      Stefan

  • don lee
    24 August 2014 at 07:12 |
    don lee

    i would just add. fritz speaks out moves and also allows you to enter moves by typing e2e4 or g1f3. this frtiz, which is just a great thing for using hte progmra nad not looking at the screen. i hope you acan add that functionality.

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