Sunday 25 March 2012

Chess Workout Software

Having recently updated my mobile phone to something more modern, I find myself presented with a huge choice of apps to enhance my lifestyle. Having started with my usual search for chess apps, I've now moved on to other types. In fact my phone upgrade coincided with a the gift of an iPad for Christmas, so I'm looking for apps all over the place. One app I do like is CardioTrainer, which is an exercise management package. While the only real exercise I do is walking, it is still nice to keep a log of the places you walk (via the GPS). It also supports a large number of exercise activities, including one marked 'Custom'. It was this setting that got me thinking. Rather than just use it for physical exercise, I'm going to try and adopt it for mental exercise. Using the scheduling feature, I plan to try at least 2 x 30 minutes sessions of tactics training each week. I'll probably use ChessTempo as the training tool, although I may also dig up some old software I have. The only drawback is my phone can't actually measure how many ELO points I gain (or lose), but I should be able to log that manually (even if it thinks it is calories!).

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