Best chess training course you must know about

FREE TRAINING COURSE QUICK SUCCESS IN CHESS - http://goo.gl/zGgvbQ

Are you looking for quality Chess openings at first? - http://goo.gl/86VpnJ

Intermediate-Package - http://goo.gl/ni0BLg

RCA-Advanced-Package - http://goo.gl/vZzdxZ

Chess Books - http://goo.gl/vZzdxZ

Solve chess Puzzles online - http://goo.gl/lbazL0

Choosing Openings Repertoire: Going Narrow or Wide

One of the questions we receive from players who are starting in the game and others with more experience as well is ''what should I play?'' It feels like one must decide and “marry” a set of openings for white and black in order to be a serious chess player, something close to being “an expert” on something.

No doubt this approach was very popular years ago, with super strong players making tons of points out of the same openings over and over again. However, times have changed and unfortunately (?) having a narrow repertoire is no longer the way most Grandmasters operate these days.

This is of course done for a clear reason. In times where everyone has access to all of your games, it becomes extremely difficult to beat a well prepared opponent, even if he is 200 rating points lower. After all, you won't be really facing him, but his excellent homework. That is why nowadays if you want to hit first you have to constantly keep playing new openings and going where your opponent expects less.

Still, there a few positive things about having a narrow repertoire and we have created a list in order to compare.

Narrow repertoire (1 or 2 systems with white/black)

Positive points:

• Becoming an expert of your favorite opening system boosts your confidence and gives you a feeling of safety during the game; you'll be walking in well known land.

• Less chances that you get surprised in the opening. With only one or two systems to study, one can actually learn all its secrets, or at least most of them.

• More time to focus on other aspects of training like technique or tactical skills.

Sounds great, but now let's see the negative things about always playing the same.

Negative points:

• You'll get caught, eventually. This will happen, sooner or later. With all the information available (all your games), engines and coaches. Chances are very high that your opening gets busted once or twice forcing you to repair it. Then it will get busted again.

• You miss extra competitive weapons such as surprising your opponent with something new. Even if your Najdorf (for example) is in great shape, your opponent will be in a comfortable zone, he has been expecting it and preparing for it.

• Narrows your chess too! By playing the same positions all the time you miss many forms chess can be played. You don’t expand your understanding.

Now that we are through with the comparison between the two styles of approaching openings, we leave the choice to you on which road you prefer to go, but our advice is that you become a much more uncomfortable player to face if you play 3 openings or more with each side.

Ready to start systematic training that works? 

Click here to start your training using the day-by-day program.

What do top players do?

The answer is clear, a recent look at strong Opens like Gibraltar, Qatar, or Reykjavik shows how using different systems is the trend nowadays. Kramnik for example, starts by 1.Nf3 as white, followed by 2.g3 and 3.0-0, but then you can't really tell if he will get into the Catalan or Reti or will simply do something else. In another game he tried the London system, and so on. Another clear example is the case of Peter Svidler, a well known attacking player, who has switched from his main 1.e4 to 1.d4, 1.Nf3, 1.c4 or even 1.g3. This makes him a more unpredictable player and therefore more difficult to prepare against.

To finish our article we will show you now three games by well known players employing rather unusual opening systems and winning convincingly.

The first game we will examine was played between the former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Svidler. Kramnik's creative opening choice was meant to avoid Svidler's knowledge in the Grunfeld defense. Despite starting by 1.Nf3 and 2.g3, white took over the initiative at a very early stage of the game.

ur conclusion is that openings are very important, but not the most important. As we can see from the examples shown above, you can obtain a playable and interesting position with almost anything. Even if something is dubious, if your opponent is not prepared he won't remember the refutations. He can be spending time trying to remember something and in the end, when the time for important decisions comes, he will be short on the clock.

If you want to improve your chess level, you need to have a clear study plan. If you aim for a dramatic improvement at chess you need to work on all of the elements of the game in a systematic way:

• tactics
• positional play
• attacking skills
• endgame technique
• classical games analysis
• psychological preparation
• and much more

That seems to be like a lot of things, and that is. But no worries, we have made it easy for you. Our comprehensive training course covers it all and much more. Sign up for 21 Day Training right now!

Power Moves: The Pawns play

Pawn play is one difficult element in chess. Mastering the art of knowing what pawn you should move, and most important, when to do it, is definitely something that takes years to learn.

In this article we are going to have a look at a specific type of pawn play, the central ruptures.

Motivated by Carlsen's game against Li Chao in the Qatar Masters taking place in Doha, we have decided to do a deeper research on the type of central break that Carlsen executed in that game. This game has to be one of the best games of the year 2015 for sure, but let's have a look at the last critical position:

Magnus Carlsen – Li Chao, Qatar 2015

The position is a total chaos, a complete mess. Both kings are exposed and if black manages to play his pawn to a3 he will be mating the white king in no time. On the other hand, white can give a check with his knight and grab a pawn on g6 at the same time, but after black moves his king there are no more checks and it is black who will take over the initiative with a4-a3.

Ready to start systematic training that actually works? 

Click here to start your training using the day-by-day program.

In this total chaos, Carlsen played a powerful move that gave white a winning advantage; the move is 24.d5!!

Magnus Carlsen – Li Chao, Qatar 2015 

A wonderful move that opens the D file and, what's more important, it breaks the coordination among the black pieces. But let's take a brief moment to look at the position in the first diagram. There are 6 pieces (!) controlling the square d5 square. During a game, it is kind of difficult to think about such a move unless you're a skillful player, and even so, still difficult.

After 24.d5 white's attack becomes unstoppable and there are still some tricks for black, but Carlsen finished the game in great style. 

Continuing with stunning central ruptures, how many times you got the chance to push a pawn into a central square that your opponent has under full control (or so he might think)?. From my own practical experience, I can only recall one position, see the diagram below:

Castellanos,R – Garcia Roman,D, Mislata 2011

Black had just captured the pawn on e5 with his knight. If white takes the knight on e5 with his pawn then black takes the c5 knight and his king's situation in the center is of little importance with the position closed. However, white has a powerful move at his disposal. The move is 21.e4!! My opponent must have overlooked this move.

Having a pawn on f5 and another one on d5, it is difficult to foresee that white will be playing anything onto the square e4. However, as things turned out, black is defenseless after 21.e4. The queen is connected with the knight on c5 and white is threatening now to either take the knight on e5 or take on d5, both with a devastating effect. 

The following position occurred in the game between Grandmasters Sergey Rublevsky (white) versus Imre Hera (black). Black has just captured on a2. He has a solid structure and apparently he's doing fine. He’s got the two bishops and is one move away from castling, so what could go wrong? You guessed right! Rublevsky played 17.d5! with a demolishing attack! Again, a pawn moves to a square that the opponent has complete control over.

In conclusion, central pawn breaks must always be taken into serious consideration. They are usually a useful tool to open the lines and, as we have seen from the examples above, they tend to disrupt your opponent's piece coordination. It doesn’t matter how many pieces are controlling the critical square, many times not every piece can actually take your pawn on that square. An idea that you should definitely to keep in mind for your future games!

If you want to improve your chess level, you need to have a clear study plan. If you aim for a dramatic improvement at chessyou need to work on all of the elements of the game in a systematic way:

• tactics
• positional play
• attacking skills
• endgame technique
• classical games analysis
• psychological preparation
• and much more

That seems to be like a lot of things, and that is. But no worries, we have made it easy for you. Our comprehensive training course covers it all and much more.