How does CPT compare to Fritz or Chessbase in terms of training your skills/repertuare?
Does CPT have some advantage over Fritz in your opinion?

Maciej wrote:
I've had every version of Chessbase since #7. Well worth the $$ IMHO.

Let me say that...any program that might take a 'position trainer' concept and keep adding on to it to the point where they try to make it like Chessbase, is taking the wrong track. They should stick with what they do well...anything else and the inevitable comparisons are going to weigh against it.

That said, let me tell you something about Chessbase that is rather like CPT. It is a game oriented database...but versatile. Take for instance this comparison: You can create a simple opening as a game...lets call it the Dunst Opening (1.Nc3) and view it in TRAINING MODE. In doing so, you can make your first move, get several options for Black and then mentally decide on your choice to each. Push the move arrow and see if it is what you are thinking. Its' similar to CPT in that sense, you just don't get the cues or the ability to randomly jump about.

Chessbase also has an awesome "live book" feature you can display inside any game which shows you each move for your opponent (and you) and the win percentage and number of games...and an evaluation. Pretty neat. EASY to create your own books that way.

The new version also has cool new ways to analyse. If you have the $$, get it...at least the basic version.

I still use CPT...just not that often. CPT is FAR MORE COMPLICATED to use by the way. IMHO.

I will say that Chessbase constantly upgrades and fixes problems...no extra charge unlike this stupid (IMHO) model Stephan employs. IE...it stands behind what it sells you, it doesn't charge you to be forever fixing/upgrading.

Being the author of CPT I’m biased of course.

All three programs have some overlapping features, but are in general quite distinctive as they have a different focus. I’m using Fritz and Chessbase myself in addition to CPT and I would not have started to develop CPT in 2004, if Fritz and Chessbase would have covered most of CPT’s feature.

Fritz
Gives you a sparring partner to play (blitz) games and analyze a single game. It also let you train specific openings, but Fritz will play any variations of the openings and you can basically also play whatever you want to. No training results are stored and thus Fritz will not focus on your weaknesses and repeat those variations more often where you had problems in the past.

Chessbase
Originally created to manage your games and search huge game databases offered by Chessbase in addition. Great tool to find interesting middle game ideas, to check which opening variations are popular today, how certain moves / variations are evaluated etc.

Today it also offers several features for creating your own repertoire, which are in particular useful if you have none or extend an existing one. Although the alternative to just buy some professional eBooks (PGN files) from Everyman Chess can be a much easier (and faster) way to build your own repertoire. I only Chessbase mainly to extend my repertoire.

Chessbase offers no simple way to train your repertoire efficiently. In particular it is also not storing training results. Games and players name’s are misused to manage your repertoire with “openings” (player’s name is the opening name and then you basically just add all variations to that game). You can notice that the program was not originally created with repertoire building in mind, but only later extended to cover it too.

Chess Position Trainer
Originally created to manage, create and train your own (!) opening repertoire. No games are stored, but just positions and moves. A completely different approach to a game database. This approach has several benefits. In some respect it is like an editable opening book of Fritz.

Let you create an opening repertoire in a very intuitive way by creating hierarchy through repertoires, folders, openings and variations as repertoire elements instead of misusing games and the player’s name to represent an opening. Transpositions are automatically detected within the same opening, but also across openings. Many powerful features to manage your repertoire.

Just a few feature examples, which are unique to CPT:

You define for each position, what your preferred candidate move is. You have to play exactly this one during the training. At the same time you cover all meaningful options for your opponent as you can’t influence him on his move of course.

If you import a PGN file you can let the program automatically re-order the candidate moves based on the evaluation, which makes it even easier to build your repertoire based on professional ebooks.

You can run a complete set of games against your repertoire and CPT will show you for each game where you or your opponent played a move not yet covered by your repertoire.
You can also use any UCI engine to analyze a position, but also a complete opening, which is great to find gaps and mistakes in your openings.

Today CPT let you not just manage openings, but also tabias like a collection of middle game ideas, end game themes etc.

The main reason why most people are using CPT is probably the training module. It is also the reason why I developed CPT in first place. After reading some chess opening books and having studied a foreign language supported by specialized software I was surprised that no chess software existed, which used a flash-card concept. Thus the program is using a flashcard concept to train you systematically in your whole repertoire (again, your personal repertoire, not a pre-defined one from someone else, which you can’t edit). All training results are stored and used to schedule positions for recall. Many options let you adjust the training to your preferred training style.
What CPT is not: At the moment you can’t play against an engine like Fritz. You also can’t manage and search games from a game database like Chessbase offers.

CPT is used by all type of players from normal club players up to GM’s. In particular chess coaches use it and recommend it to their pupils.

I hope this summary helps a little bit even though I’m biased.

Thanks,
Stefan