Chess mentor on chess.com is awesome.

It tests you on positional themes as well as some tactics and keeps track of your progress.

GMTonyKosten wrote on 10/23/12 at 18:19:45:


I am currently working on Aagaard's Excelling at Chess Calculation. In the end of the book, he has put a test with 100 positions which is quite interesting (some explanations or sub-variations may be missing from the solutions, but the selection is fantastic). If you get a perfect score you are supposed to be around 2700 of elo strength, so sorry Ruslan, you'll have to lose some elo points.. 

P.S.: I also use ChessTempo mostly for endgame training, e.g. how to win technical Rook endgames (with reduced material), Q vs. R or R+B vs. R positions and the like. It has a disadvantage though: you are always put in the position of the winning side, so you cannot train in how to defend these positions..

Larsen_fan wrote on 10/23/12 at 17:55:54:

Actually, Ruslan mentioned that he liked Aagaard's puzzle books, which is pretty high praise!

Wwqlcw wrote on 10/22/12 at 20:13:27:


Has anyone tried their endgame stuff?

Wwqlcw wrote on 10/22/12 at 20:13:27:


Just simple tactics isn't it?

http://chesstempo.com/

http://chess.emrald.net/

These meet at least some of Grandmaster Ponomariov's requirements, though I can't begin to attest to the accuracy of the high ends of their scales...

thanks for the chess.com tip, I will look into that. Well tbh. I can push myself harder, when there others around against whom I compete, and you don't get distracted so much, since you are often in a place where you can't go get yourself some coffee, or look something up on the internet or lose yourself in icc blitz ... you are there just to do chess, nothing else, and if you get distracted there are often other people, who get you back on track .
But it's hard in chess, in my chessclub people do only play blitz, noone wants to learn anything ... but I want to take with me some endgames and middlegame books to the club and try to animate them to join   let's see how this will turn out ...
well, I also signed up on improveyourchess now, I think all the principal things seem to be covered, I didn't find anything similar on the net, the price is fair, but of course i can't tell yet how good the site really is.

Kylemeister, the psychology is completely sound, and ages-old.

The saying the path to Hell is paved with good intentions reflects the fact that while the Spirit is willing, the flesh is weak.

Here in America, people often need to invest money to force themselves to work harder.  Others simply work with a good friend who will push them. 

So Battleangel's complaint is fairly insightful, and common!

Chess.com has a large database of tactical problems, has "chess mentor" program that leads you through positions, mostly with strategical aims and planning. They also have videos made by titled players on lots of different topics. They have Correspondence and Blitz options to play any time of day. It's a nice site to go to if you'd like some instruction.