Lucas Chess R -- A Training Suite

Lucas Chess R is free and Open Source.

If ChessX is a workbench, then Lucas Chess R is the gym. Lucas Chess is all about training. It has many training aids for memory, openings, closings, midgames and a suite of tools for analysis and commentary for games. 

For play there are over twenty pre-programmed bots at a full range of ELO. StockFish is in the engines, but so are many others. 

Annotating games is straight forward.

1. Basics

• Check your memory on a chessboard - you have to memorize a set of chess pieces on a board and then place them yourself on a blank board.
• Find all moves - your King is in check. Find all legal moves available to you (or your opponent).
• Becoming a knight tamer - great ways to improve your understanding of how a knight moves
• Moves between two positions - compare two positions and figure out what moves are needed to get from one to the other
• The board at a glance - visualization exercise - memorize pieces on a board and answer questions about them (square color, position, attacking, attacked)
• Coordinate training - click on the correct square as fast as you can
• Writing down moves of a game - write down the move that was just made by the computer
  
  
  

2. Tactics

• Training positions - a collection of checkmates, endgames and other tactical patterns for practice
• Learn tactics by repetition - more checkmates and tactics
• Find best move - a great function where you can replay challenging positions from your own games
• Your daily test - play puzzles against the engine
• Determine your calculating power - advanced visualization training
• Turn on the lights - further tactics training by category
  

3. Games

• Play like a Grandmaster - emulate your favorite GMs by replaying their moves
• Captures and threats in a game - visualize moves from games and then say which pieces can be captured and what pieces are threatened by the opponent.
• Count moves - play through games and count all legal moves possible in a given position
• Resistance Test - play against an engine without losing more than 100 centipawns
• Learn a game - memorize important games by either repeating moves or finding the move played for a given side.
  
  

4. Openings

• Training with a book - Learn all the possible moves in a book of GM openings
  
  

5. Endings

• Training mates - learn mate in 1 up to mate in 7
• Mate in 1½ - find the mate in 3 half-moves (plies)
• Endings with Gaviota Tablebases - find mates with Gaviota Tablebases
  
  

6. Long-term trainings

• Training on a map - Play situations from games that have occurred in certain countries
• Trans Siberian Railway - Solve puzzles to travel along the Transsib
• Expeditions to the Everest - You play against certain openings (e.g. against the Caro-Kann) to climb the Everest
• The Washing Machine
  
  

7. Game related trainings (these are seen in the Database view clicking on "Train")

• Play against a game - Pick a side (White or Black) and replay each move of a game, trying to find the best move. You then get scored against the actual move and against the best engine move.
• Create a tactics training - If you have a database of chess puzzles, you can turn them into actual tactics trainings with this function.