Test, Evaluate And Improve Your Chess

Chessville - Test, Evaluate and Improve Your Chess, a Knowledge-Based Approach - by by IM Danny Kopec and Hal Terrie Chessville Today is May 08 Site Map If you have disabled Java for your browser, use the Site Map (linked in the header and footer). Chessville logo by ChessPrints Test, Evaluate and Improve Your Chess: A Knowledge-Based Approach search search tips by IM Danny Kopec and Hal Terrie (USCF Press) Interested in Chess? Visit www.kopecchess.com Interested in Art? Visit www.kopecart.com Paid Advertisement Vote for Ever wanted to visit beautiful NEW ZEALAND? Play in the Queenstown Chess Classic, 15-24th January 2006! "A practical guide to making positional decisions." Chess Supplies at the Chessville General Store! Sets, Boards, Clocks, Bags, Books, Software, and Much Much More! The first thing any chess teacher must do, when meeting a new student, is to discover how much he already knows. Maybe you will ask him to demonstrate the basic mates with queen and with rook. After that, you may set up the pieces and play a few moves with him, to see if he knows to develop his pieces and castle. That will tell you a little, if the student is only a bit better than beginner. But what if he is a more advanced player? How can one determine, in an hour or so, exactly how much chess knowledge he has and where his deficiencies lie? One way to answer this question came as early as 1980, when Danny Kopec and Dr. Ivan Bratko developed a 24 position test for use in evaluating computer chess programs. The test, called the Bratko-Kopec (or BK) test, remained a standard tool for chess program developers for a number of years. The positions test for a number of common tactical and positional ideas. Shortly after it was devised, Danny Kopec discovered that the BK test, and a subsequent test called the New Positions test, could be used to test humans as well as computers. In the years since then, the tests have been given to hundreds of human players, revealing a remarkable correlation between test score and rating. It was natural, therefore, that we would find a use for these tests when we began the Kopec Chess Camp in 1994. We used the tests both to help assign campers to instruction groups of the appropriate level and to teach important tactical and positional ideas. IM Danny Kopec One of the first things we learned at the camp was that the tests were too hard for some of the weaker young players. Even a player of 1500 rating could be expected to score only about 5 correct on the BK test. So for the second year of the camp, Hal Terrie devised a new test, specifically designed for those of beginner level up to about 1500 rating. In the years since then, four additional tests of varying levels have been constructed, with the goal of testing a wide range of middlegame and endgame concepts. In 1997, the first six tests and some research results were collected into a book, Test, Evaluate and Improve Your Chess, a Knowledge-Based Approach. In 2003, the USCF published a new edition, containing revised and improved test solutions, a new seventh test and updated research from the years 1997-2002. Here now are some samples from these tests. In this article, we will show you some positions from the earliest tests and from the two designed specifically for novice and intermediate players. In a subsequent article, we may look at the other tests, two of which focus on endgame concepts. The BK and New Positions tests feature tactical ideas of varying d