Welcome to the Chess Forks Trainer

This program was inspired by the Concentric Square Chess Vision Drill in Michael de la Maza's book Rapid Chess Improvement.

This project's goal is to create a tool to improve chess vision in terms of forks and skewers.

CFT starts off by displaying the available options. A brief description of the options are below.

Once the desired options are selected, press the 'Start Training' button.

An optional duration for the amount of train can be set. The duration can based on time or the number of positions.

A series of boards with a King and a single piece are set up. The goal for each board is to click on each square where the selected attacking piece can fork (and optionally skewer) the King and target piece where the attacking piece would not be captured on the next move. There is also an option where if the target piece can be protected by the King and the King is still not in check, then the fork is not valid.

When done, press the Done button and CFT will show your results and time. If you want do another position with the same options, press the Next Button. If you want to end the training, press the Stop Button.

CFT is written using Google's GWT. CFT is free for everyone to use and modify. I'll put the source into SourceForge if there's any interest. For now I'm using CFT as an excuse to become proficient at GWT. Keep in kind this is a alpha 0.1 version (including this page), so expect bugs and feel free to provide suggestions to cft + at + muttsoft.com.

Options:
Training mode: The style of training:
  • Random - Chooses a new position for the King and/or the target piece for each board.
  • Circles - The Concentric Square Chess Vision Drill from Michael de la Maza's book "Rapid Chess Improvement."
Duration type: The duration limit of the training, the available options are:
  • All - Run the training for all available positions.
  • Time - Limit the time of the training to a given number of minutes.
  • Positions - Limit the number of positions of the training.
Time: The training time in minutes.
Positions: The number of positions to show during training.
King position: If checked, the King's position is fixed, otherwise the King's position for each board will chosen randomly.
King square: If the King's position is fixed, this is the square the King will be placed on.
Target type: The target piece type - Queen, Rook, Bishop, Knight or random. If random the target piece type will be chosen at random excluding the attacking type type.
Target position: If checked, the target's position is fixed, otherwise the target's position for each board will chosen randomly.
Target square: If the target's position is fixed, this is the square the target will be placed on.
Attacker type: The target piece type - Queen, Rook, Bishop or Knight.
Skip positions without forks or skewers: If checked, positions will always have at least one fork and/or skewer, otherwise the position may or may not have a fork and/or skewer.
Note that Whether skewers are present depends on the 'Include skewers' option.
Include skewers: if checked skewers will be included for each position, otherwise only forks will be included.
King can protect: If checked and if the King can protect the target piece on the next move while not being in check then the fork or skewer is not valid. Otherwise all forks and skewers are allowed.
The Chess Forks Trainer