Encyclopedia of Middlegame, Vol. I

This program is designed by GM Alexander Kalinin to help the student understand the ideas and strategies behind typical middlegame positions according to the openings they originate from. Intended for stronger players (1800 and above). Having no analogues among chess programs MIDDLEGAME contains detailed material on two courses: typical structures of middlegame and playing technique in most popular openings:

1. Typical Pawn Structures (Karlsbad, Hedgehog, etc.)

2. Typical Plans and Methods in the Most Popular Openings (Scotch, Sicilian, Ruy Lopez, Caro-Kann, French, English opening, Dutch, Slav, Catalan, Nimzo-Indian, King’s Indian, Gruenfeld, Benko Gambit).

Training material contains more than 600 examples and is subdivided into themes according to typical methods and ideas of playing.

The program contains about 1000 exercises formed by real games (the most important moves should be found by a user on his own).

In case of wrong moves you get help in the form of alternative moves and prompting markers. At any moment you can call an external chess playing program (Hiarcs, Genius, Rebel, MChess Pro).

Features of the program include:

• More than 1,000 exercises for solving.
• Numerous text and visual hints to help the student find the solution.
• About 400 typical positions for playing against internal playing engines Dragon and Crafty, or other supported external programs such as Rebel, Mchess, etc…

• ELO and statistics in easy-to-read bar graphs, based on the students' success rate with the exercises, that help them to keep track of their progress. ELO and statistics can be estimated for each other. Statistics is presented in a convenient graphic form.

• Multiple user profiles are possible, with independent ratings and all other individual information.
• Good for teachers: keeps track of the time and score of each position for each student.

Several languages supported: English, French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish.

No additional software is required.

CONTENTS

System requirements:

Essential: IBM-compatible PC, 32 Mb RAM, Hard Disk 80 Mb of free disk space, Windows 95/98/2000/NT/ME/XP, CD-ROM drive.