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Mate in ..N.. Puzzles

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.