Computer software to improve and study games for beginner

HIARCS is a program I've used quite a lot, although on a PC.  I know one of the databases they include has a thousand human annotated master games.  I'd like to say I've used it extensively, but I'm old and lazy so I haven't.  It's on my "to do" list though.  The analysis function has some cute tricks: you load up a position and all the games in whatever database you have loaded that have that position pop up.  Pretty easy program to use and there are lots of explanatory videos on youtube.

As you can imagine this question has been asked before so it might be worthwhile to do a forum search for previous threads

Thanks! 

Glad to help.  Fritz and Chess King are other popular programs, but I'm not sure if they do iOS or not.  Good luck with your search!

Download yourself a free copy of Lucas Chess. It comes with various things for training, and it comes with many engines of different strength to play against.

Start there.

After using it for a while, you will then develop a more refined idea of what will really help you in the longer run.

For the longer run, I use Chessbase and Fritz, both commercial programs, but Lucas Chess is an excellent start.

Lucas Chess.

Chess.com is a pretty comprehensive source of interactive lessons, puzzles, tactics, videos, game analysis etc...  I'm pretty sure if I actually had the discipline to systematically use all the resources I have access to here I could easily be an 1800 player.  I pay for diamond membership but I keep patzing around making the same mistakes instead of actually taking advantage of the resources I am paying for .

What is your rating? If below 1200, then you can benefit from the PC game Majestic Chess (yes, you know you have Macs, but a PC that can run Majestic Chess isn't expensive, like < $200).

The good thing about Majestic Chess is that it is training disguised as a video game, and all you have to do is finish it and you'll reach 1200 on chess.com.  It teaches you tactics and then puts you into a pre-setup game with the computer to practice those tactics (helps with recognizing tactical patterns in a real game).  There's not much work on your part besides just playing a video game.

Unfortunately for me, I've not found anything like Majestic Chess for going beyond 1200.  And since I just can't seem to develop a liking for chess books and videos, I'm pretty much stuck at where Majestic Chess left off.  But if you are below 1200, then this is for you.

help chess. fritz cheese and other programs, thanks!

I certainly can't disagree with that, if it is available. To illustrate, I just had Chessbase 15 analyze a game I lost badly. While it found all the tactics and such later in the game, it completely missed what was really my losing move.

Your example with Chess Base is wrong because it actually has showed you when you've made a mistake by showing the change of + or - in the engine window. Anyway it's far more important to know how to take an advantage of your ± 1.25 than to know that on the 10th move you could had an ± 1.25 advantage by capturing a poisoned pawn but somehow you've blundered everything away 5 moves after that action.

At a low age you could definitely use a coach. If you can read there are many books available also in Public Libraries. Even for young kids there are many books,  never neglect the value of books. Study chess like a general education subject and familiarize yourself with Chess Theory as much as you can.  This way you know what you are dealing with.  

Unfortunately I do not know anything about software's,  related to chess. Good Luck. 

My point is actually quite right in that it produces an analysis you can look at later. That analysis did not flag the losing move. Of course if you run the engine in Chessbase on it as you go through the moves, it will show a delta. But the analysis itself is flawed.

I like Chessbase 15 a lot. I use it almost daily. But perfect it isn't.

Man, I can't believe in that) I think that the move wasn't a losing one as there could be a defense or perpetual check or whatever. By the way may be you're right and analysis in Chess Base isn't great as it should be.

Can I have a look on your game? I'm so exited by your discovery.

I would rather not enshrine that hideous game here. But I will post the position in question.

In this position, I mistakingly played a4 as a snap move against a5. In many positions that works fine. Here it is positionally losing. After Nb6 White is in a world of hurt. But since the evaluation didn't move enough, Chessbase didn't flag this as a bad move and give alternatives. Evaluation before move (using Komodo 12.2.2 was around -.19). Evaluation after move was is around -.75. I was analyzing on medium. If I had analyzed it on fine, it might have flagged it, but then you get so many lines it is next to worthless because of information overload.

I suggest you studying this variation: 1. a4 Nb6 2. Nc5 Bxc5 3. dxc5 Nxa4 4. Bd6 Rd8 5. Bd1 b5 6. Bxa4 bxa4 7. Kd2 - you are only down a pawn. It's not that easy for Black to prove that he can win it. That was a weak move but you're not forced to lose after it. So I'm sorry but Chess Base was right in this particular situation

If I'm going down a pawn, I want to know about it. We are simply going to disagree here. The loss may not be "forced", but it is very difficult for White, and has gone to a two result position. I think that needs to be flagged in the analysis.

So how can the engine decide that this move was a blunder if it actually wasn't? I basically want to mention that the engine has an algorithm that decides which moves the program will show your as mistakes and blunders and that differentiation depends on the "delta" of a coefficient. Your position didn't go that far downhill after the 1.a4 so the engine had a "reason" to not to show you your move as a blunder.