As you mentioned there are a million ways to study with the engine, but the way I do it is: For the openings/ endgames, take an opening you want to learn and play it with the computer analyzing the position (meaning the computer cannot make a move but it will tell you what move it's thinking is best) you play through the opening ,a game with that opening works best, seeing what the engine thinks of the move, but beware the engine will not win a game for you! The real beauty of the thing is that you can introduce a sacrifice or a positional move that you like (even if the computer dosn't) and see WHY (can it be refuted) it is bad and what are the PRINCIPLES (does it break any basic positional rules) that make it a bad move in that opening/middlegame position, often times you will find your ideas are sound and can be played. For endgames nothing beats playing against the engine plain and simple.
Using Chess Engines
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Hi. After many, many years away from chess, I've recently re-kindled my interest in this wonderful, challenging, maddening game. My USCF rating is around 1600, and I'm just at that level where I'm beginning to enjoy "studying" almost as much as I love playing.
I recently took the plunge and bought a chess GUI/engine (Aquarium/Rybka 3), and I'd love to hear people's thoughts about how to get the most value from it.
How do _you_ use your GUI/engine? Do you analyze your own games, Master games, games found in chess books/articles, all of the above? What exactly do you do when you "analyze" a game? In particular, any help you can provide re mastering the "Tree" function would be much appreciated.
Frankly, I feel a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing; but I'm confident that my new chess engine friend will raise my chess to the next level once I feel comfortable with this powerful learning tool. Thanks in advance for your helpful comments and suggestions.