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Opening Instructor (CD) Reviewed by Rick Kennedy
Maybe you’re thinking about finding something new for your opening repertoire. You might have some upcoming Club games, and you’d like to learn a bit more about the attacks and defenses your opponents are likely to play. Perhaps you are doing some chess teaching, and you want your students to have access to a reliable resource on a range of openings. In the “olden” (i.e. pre-computer) days, you might reach for the latest copy of Modern Chess Openings. Nowadays, you might boot up Opening Instructor, from Convekta, the folks who bring you Chess Assistant. That’s no slam on MCO, of course – the venerable “chess player’s bible” is still around and in its 14th edition (although James Eade is grabbing its sobriquet with his not-too-long-ago The Chess Player’s Bible.) And I’m sure there are places you can still take a book, where it wouldn’t be practical to take your computer. That being said, it is definitely worth taking a look at what the Convekta marketing people have labeled “a perfect opening manual.” It does quite a few things that a mere book cannot. Installing Opening Instructor was easy, taking only a few minutes following standard directions that appear on the screen. The stated “system requirements” for the program, found on the package and the website (www.convekta.com which will actually bring you to http://chessok.com/index.html), are: IBM-compatible PC; 64 Mb RAM; hard disk with 200 Mb of free disk space; Windows 2000, NT, ME or XP; and a CD-ROM drive. Interestingly enough, the 32-page Opening Instructor manual recommends 512 Mb or more of RAM, 1 Gb of free disk space, Super VGA graphics, and a DVD drive. Maybe this is simply a case of “the-minimum-needed-to-get-the-program-going” vs “with-this-the-program-will-really-zing.” My computer is a year old, more in line with the recommendations than the basics, and the program works quickly and without problem. Start the Opening Instructor and you are greeted with an interface that will be familiar to anyone who has seen or used the Chess Assistant database program (or any of the other Convekta products). I have included several screen shots in this review, but readers are encouraged to visit the Convekta website as well. (Those who are really interested in playing around with the interface can download and play around with Chess Assistant Light, which is a whole lot of database all by itself.) Information on the openings is presented in a collection of 336 annotated games and theoretical articles, separated into the standard classification of Open, Semi-open (or “Semi-opened”) and Closed games. I wanted to check out the Krakow Variation, an odd line that Frank Marshall used to play in the Giuoco Piano, so I clicked on the “Complete Chess Course” and then on “Open games.” I was presented with some introductory text on “Open games,” as well as a list of theory and game examples (one Steinitz, two Estrins) to choose from. It was helpful to see the moves of the variations spelled out, to guide me along the tree:
On this screen I clicked on “ITALIAN G. I” to see what it would get. The new diagram showed that I had entered the Giuoco Piano (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5). I found some explanatory and historical text. There was also a helpful window listing the next possible moves for White from the main position. Each move that followed the position on the board was given its frequency and scoring in play (based on a 1,000,000 game database) as well as a computer evaluation (from the Computer Assistance Project, I believe):
Interesting stuff! (Alas, nothing on my beloved Jerome Gambit…) I then backed up a screen and hopped over to “ITALIAN G. II” where I got a good idea of the kind of information GM Kalinichenko had pulled together: master and grandmaster games, ECO-style evaluations, and some guidance. (See below.) It is clear that Opening Instructor is not an “encyclopedia” (or a junk base) – but, then again, it is not designed to be one. Here is where the Grandmaster’s skill is apparent, separating the useful “wheat” of theory and games from the kind of “chaff” that a student could be overwhelmed by. Oh – and a look at the screen showed that I had arrived at the Krakow Variation. Being a sideline, it had less in-depth coverage than the main lines:
Where to go from here? Well, Opening Instructor has three built-in computer engines (Crafty, Dragon and Delfi) available to analyze any position that shows up in the diagram (let’s see a book do that!) so I put one of them to work analyzing where Kalinchenko left off with a recommendation in the 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d4 ed 6.ed Bb4+ 7.Kf1 line. In the following screen, you can see Crafty’s opinion of the GM’s suggestion that 7…Nxe4 8.d5 gives White an edge and an attack – at a depth of 12 ply of evaluation the computer liked Black!
Now, using computer analysis to check human evaluations can be a tricky business, as I quickly found out on another occasion, while looking at one very unbalanced line in a Queen’s Gambit Chigorin Defense line: Kalinchenko rated his suggestion as equalizing the game for Black, while Crafty saw the second player as dead lost. No doubt this kind of “disagreement” will happen plenty of times, so it is important to keep the suggestions each “helper” (human, silicon analyst) in perspective – the goal with Opening Instructor is to learn to play a particular opening well, not merely to be able to yell gotcha! at software programmers or chess professionals. In the end, you will have to decide who to believe – and then see what the results of your games teach you about your choice. (As for the Krakow Variation, it’s early enough in the opening that I would go with the GM’s line.) But, what if you wanted to test the position out for yourself? It’s simple enough: Opening Instructor gives you the option of playing any position against a computer engine, or watching a computer vs computer clash to hash it out. The training value of the former is quite high – how better to become comfortable in a new opening, than by trying it out against a strong opponent at different points along the line.
I’ve only touched upon a portion of the fun (and usefulness) of this program. There is much more that you can do with the data in Opening Instructor, including adding or deleting lines, searching along many criteria (e.g. looking for positions with an isolated queen-pawn, finding games with a bishop sacrifice at f7) – and printing out your information. Of course, the more into the mainstream your opening interest is (say the more commonly played lines of the Ruy Lopez or the French Defense), the much greater information Kalinchenko has prepared for you. I’ve used the short bit on the Karakow Variation from personal experience and as an educational example. One way of comparing the amount of chess content of Opening Instructor with MCO and other available opening survey books was given by Jovan Petronic, who did a print preview which showed over 530 double-columned pages (with very small diagrams). That’s a whole lot of chess to sink your mouse into!
I can easily recommend Opening Instructor, with the mildest of
caveats (some already mentioned): If you want to have everything
about every opening, or review every available game at
every level of play, you will need an opening encyclopedia – to start
with. (Something tells me in that case that even
Lars Balzer’s 13-Gb of chess games wouldn’t satisfy you. By the
way, I hope to review his collection for Chessville soon.) If you are
looking for an in-depth treatment of a particular opening, especially an
unorthodox one, you would do better with a relevant book or CD.
Otherwise, if you can see yourself in paragraph one of this review –
Opening Instructor is a good choice.
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