Scid's Mate in N window
is a handy way to improve your chess skills.
The feature is fairly straight forward, though not especially polished,
and is implemented using special databases containing the puzzles
, installed in Scid's default Bases Directory.
Starting Mate-in-N, Scid opens all databases in this directory, so it is probably not a great place
to keep your personal databases, as this will cause the feature to hang or run slowly at start-up.
Configuration
The Engine analysis time slider limits Toga's
time to solve the puzzle (which are generated on-the-fly).
Five seconds should generally
be enough as most puzzles contain forced continuations.
It does not describe how long one has to solve any puzzle.
Scid stores data about solved puzzles within the database.
Clicking the Reset scores button will reset this
information marking all puzzles as unsolved. And unless care is taken,
reinstalling Scid will overwrite puzzles solved!
Playing
If you get stuck, select Show Solution to add the solution as
PGN
(where it can be easily examined). Unclicking the button will reset the puzzle for another try.
Clicking the Next button allows the user to skip any
puzzle, and individual exercises can be opened via the
Game List widget.
Some exercises do not end in a mate, with the
solution only giving a clear advantage. If one wants to play out these
scenarios and only count the exercise solved in case of a win, just
check the Playout exercises option. This option has no
meaning in case of a clear mate solution.
The clock is only for the user to check how long he thought about the
position at hand. No evaluation is done on the time required to solve a problem.
Notes
Unlike other bases, puzzle bases do not contain full games; only starting positions.
Any puzzle book can be converted to a trainings base by setting up the
positions and storing the new database into the Bases directory.
In the Maintenance window, set the new base type to Tactics,
and edit the Description to give the database a name.