atreides7887 wrote:Well so far I've run through all the problems in Bruce Pandolfini "Beginning chess" and I really enjoy the format and the way in which it's very easy use. I've decided I need a stylus because of my fat fingers but apart from that I've been really enjoying the program. Excellent work.
atreides7887, my congratulation! It you have Kindle Touch - stylus is not a big problem

Kindle Paperwhite is another story ...
Ivashenko and Kalinichenko are next!
atreides7887 wrote:
I'm finding the whole 'base' system a bit confusing, more because of my lack of knowledge of chess programs in general I guess. I accidently added a game I was playing to the end of the tutorial file. I'm sure as I use it more I'll become more familiar with it.
We need to pay our price for the flexibility

The most inconvenient thing is that you need to find your last solved puzzle after that... But I'll try to invent something. For now just open "game.cdb" or another base for games if you want to play game and save it to base. If you don't want to save it, just uncheck "Save to base" flag when creating a new game.
atreides7887 wrote:
One thing I would say is that I've only really looked at the beginner materials but are there many books with more of a teaching and theory angle rather than exercises? I see that there's one in advanced and I suspect that's what I'm getting at but I'll work my way up to there. And on a bit of a tangent, do you know of any/many good chess theory books (like opening strategies and the like) that are available on the Kindle in general.
Sorry, I don't know books about chess in English... Because I have a lot of interesting book in Russian. Probably you need to address some big English-speaking forum like chess.com.
Another thing - I need to understand your level (ELO) to advice something. Are you registered at chess.com? Can you play several games (about 5-10), send me your rating and some games for review?
I suggest you to create a dedicated topic on this forum for analysing your games .
atreides7887 wrote:
My main problem with openings is that I can follow a specific opening and understand the general theories but get myself in a hole sometimes where I'm not sure what the best idea is. A common problem is that I get all my minor pieces developed but end up blocking in most of my pawns and getting squeezed very easily.
That's not only your problem

As I stated before, I need your rating and some games to see your problems and possible give some suggestions.
atreides7887 wrote:
Anyway in general I love the software, I think since I got the kindle pbchess vs. reading comes out at about 10 to 1 in terms of time spent. Great program!
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Thanks!