Tuirgin

ChessOK has a long-running sales special where they offer an additional training software package (≤$25) if you buy 2 other training titles. They let me substitute ChessOK Aquarium Basic for the free training title. Aquarium has some great features for diagrams and documentation, as well as their new analysis features. I recently received my copy of Chess Tactics for Beginners from ChessOK. It runs just fine on native windows installs (including Vista x64 if you disable UAC—and please don’t comment about the dangers of disabling UAC: I don’t use Windows for its <sarcasm>magnificent</sarcasm> security features) and virtualized windows, but I want to run it in Wine since my primary operating system is OS X. The problem is that most users find that when they install it in Wine they get a 501 error with the explanation Cannot change Visible in OnShow or OnHide. This is a result of the title’s copy protection. It requires that the CD from which the program was installed be in the same drive from which it was installed. If you are actually using a CD, you’re fine, but if you purchase the download version and just mount the ISO you’re directed to make rather than burning it, you can run into some problems. It seems by default Wine treats a mounted ISO image as just another folder on the file system. But remember that Chess Tactics for Beginners is looking for an optical drive with the installer disc, and not only that, it’s looking for the disc to be in the same optical drive from which it was originally installed. Luckily there is a simple solution. (continue reading…)