The opening question of your article is
"What is the single best thing you can do to improve your chess in this new year?"
and your answer is in bold
"Answer: Make use of chess technology in your improvement plan."First of all, I think that no-one should ever put something like that in bold. How and why someone improves in chess, and others don't, and how the latter can become the former, is a very hard problem that many brilliant people has been agonizing over their entire adulthood. I'm wary of people who speak with certainity about this. Especially if they aren't improving dramatically themselves (but actually also if they are - the De La Massa guy comes to mind).
Secondly, I'm not convinced it is the correct answer. I could think of many arguably equally good answers, IE
Answer: Get a training partner at around your level. Play training games from whatever position you find interesting
Answer: Play more and longer games. (Preferably as many as the junior players are playing)
Answer: Work your way through one of the Jussupow-books (that is the answer one could get on the qualitychess website
)
Answer: Start playing correspondence chess.
Answer: Gather all the games you have lost, and try to figure out what your weaknesses are.
Answer: Start using a coach and go over all your losses with him
etc.
In the next lines you say that you are "amazed" that there are people who doesn't use chess engines (and other software) in their attempts to improve. Perhaps it is a language thing, but to me it has the connotation that you think those people are absolutely bonkers. And I don't think that they are. Perhaps they just don't enjoy working with computers? The training process should be enjoyable.
There have been many generations of chessplayers where the talented kids have skyrocketed without having access to computers. Even though I myself train with computers, I don't thinkt It is unreasonable for others to think that they could become strong players without.
Next you go on with specific recommendations, and lets consider a class-player who does train a little bit with his computer, but he has a Mac. He uses Scid to work on his own games, and on the games from the fine chesspublishing site
. He does not have a large database of games. If he need that, he uses one of the many online databases. (I believe there is one on chess24. Otherwise he could be using the one on chess.com). His chess-engine is an old one, that was strong 5 years ago.
What is the advice he will walk away with, after reading the article?
1. Get a windows pc with 8gb ram and ssd drive. (500$)
2. Get Chessbase 14 and Mega Database 2017 (300$ as a bundle if one follows the direct link to a store in your article)
3. Get a newer engine. (Free? I'm a bit unsure if you recommend using Komodo as well as Stockfish. There are logos and store-links to all the commercial ones in your article. If you do, then add 90$)
So somewhere between 800 and 890$, but for what rating-gains? I think very little, if any at all.
Now ReneDescartes says that this surely isn't what you are saying, but it seems to me that it is. I think this article looks like a shopping list.