there will be a MASSIVE 30% discount on all the RCA products! This discount is valid from today until Saturday, 31 October (inclusive). You can use the coupon “igor28” when making your purchase. Check here if you don’t know how to use a discount code. Second, we have released the second part of the premium video “Killer Endgames” by GM Nick Pert (a premium video from our partner, GM Simon Williams).
We released “Killer Endgames Part-1” for you, in the month of August. We received a lot of feedback from the students – many students (someone like YOU) liked the premium video. So, we have made the best foot forward and continue to provide you with what you like.
Don’t forget that you can get this premium video with the above-mentioned 30% discount! Just use the coupon “igor28”.
Moreover, there is another special offer, you can get. If you purchase the premium video, “Killer Endgames Part-2” by GM Nick Pert, you will get the RCA premium video, “Typical Mistakes in Practical Middlegame and Endings” (worth $15) completely FREE.
Additionally, we are doing our best to make the paper version of my book, A Promoted Pawn: My Chess Journey, available, and most likely it will be so. Since there are special offers in honor of my birthday, you will be able to purchase the book with a good discount.
Note: if you have already purchased the book in e-book format, you will just have to pay for the paper version (i.e. You need NOT pay for the actual book’s cost)
Also, we’re planning to sell the book during my next seminar in Trissur. You can get the book from me along with my autograph. If you would like to attend my seminar, just reserve your seat now here.
All chess players know that grandmasters can calculate many moves ahead, evaluate the position, and deliver the final blow. How do they do that? Is there a way an ordinary chess player can learn to calculate many moves ahead like masters do? In this article, we will answer those questions and show you a simple schematic that will tremendously help at calculating moves.
Step 1. Knowing when and what to calculate
The most important step in move calculation is actually to know when you need to calculate the variation and when you don’t.Chess players, even very strong Grandmasters, are not machines. They cannot simply calculate all lines and come up with the best continuation.
That’s why it is very important to realize when you need to calculate the line. The primary difference between a strong and a weak player is not how much each player calculates. The main difference between the two is in the ability of each player to find the right moves to calculate in the first place.
There are no general guidelines as of when and what you need to calculate. But I will try to give you some basic suggestions that will help you at deciding when you should calculate the variation:
1. When your own king or your opponent’s king is under attack, you should calculate the possibilities to end or continue the attack.
2. When there are many pieces/pawns under attack you should calculate the possibilities to win/save the pieces/pawns.
3. When the position is unstable (possible exchanges, pawns structure changes, simplifications etc.) you should calculate how you can benefit the most from it.
Step 2. Finding the candidate moves
After figuring out what and when to calculate you should find the so-called candidate moves. These are the moves that will most likely lead to the most favorable outcome. They generally make sense based on the current positional evaluation. After identifying3-4 candidate moves you should start calculating the lines, starting with what you think is the strongest candidate move.
The ability to calculate these lines solely depends on your calculation and visualization skills that can be enhanced by special exercises.
Ready to start systematic training that actually works?
After you have finished calculating the line based on selected candidate moves, you have arrived to a certain final position. In order to judge if the move was a good one or not, it is necessary to evaluate this position and to understand if you’ve achieved some improvement on the board.
This evaluation possesses additional challenges because you cannot see the position on the board, and need to evaluate it only based on your visualization ability.
Step 4. Using method of elimination
In order to make your life simpler, it is crucial to decrease the number of moves and variations that you need to calculate and analyze. If you start calculation of the line and notice that there are already many problems after move 3, there is no need to continue the calculation. Save some time and use it where it needed the most.
Chess is not a game for a perfectionist, by rather for a player who knows how to spend his resources wisely. You goal is to eliminate all bad possibilities and to calculate/play only the good moves.
Step 5. Making the final decision
The final step is probably the easiest of all five. You need to critically look at your analysis and select a single best move to play in the game. If you encounter two or more moves which are about the same quality, you can go ahead and play any of the two. It doesn’t need to be perfect, but it should be a good move.
After you have selected the move you will play, it makes sense to double check the line and to make sure that you are not making a mistake. When that is done, you can go ahead and play the move. If you did everything correctly, your position should slightly improve.
Tactics training is a very important element for any chess training program. Unless you are at least 2400 rated, your tactics vision is not that great and it is something that can dramatically improve your overall level if worked on consistently. Let me give you a simple analogy. Just think that your chess ability is a horse. A weak tactical vision means that your horse has only one leg instead of all 4. Is it easy to ride a one-legged horse?
Anyways, the point I'm trying to make is simple, if you practice enough tactics, you will get a 2nd leg for your horse, then the 3rd one, etc. Today's tactics problems are based on 5 very important combinations that occur often in actual games. Pay attention and give it a shot!
Position 1.
White to move and win
Position 2.
Black to move and win
Position 3.
Black to move and win
You already understand that a horse with no legs is no good. That's why you are working on tactics. However, the horse not only needs legs, but also it needs strong muscles, stamina, and ideally, an obstacle avoidance capability. What I mean is that you also need to work on endgames, positional play and attacking skills. All of that you can learn in our training course. Give it a try you have nothing to lose
Many chess players wish to know if they will ever become Grandmasters. There are many exams available that can estimate your current strength, but none can tell you whether you can become a GM or not. Today we have compiled a short list of very important signs that may suggest you have a real potential for obtaining the highest chess title. Curious to find out if that’s about you? Read on!
1. Well-developed chess intuition
All grandmasters have a well-developed chess intuition. That means even without analyzing the position, GMs already know what's happening on the board, what side is winning and what move each player should play.
That won't be a 100% accurate analysis, like you will get if you calculate all of the variations or plug in the position into an engine. Nevertheless, it is a fairly accurate evaluation that can be used to make decisions during the game.
Another sign that you have a well-developed chess intuition is ability of guessing GM's moves during the game. It is very easy to check. Start watching any high level chess game and try guessing what moves one or another player will make. If the percentage of the moves you’ve guessed correctly is high, congratulations, you already may have a well-developed chess intuition.
2. Great memory for chess positions and patterns
Another very important thing for a strong player is a good memory for chess positions and patterns. Many grandmasters keep 100s if not 1000s of classical games in their heads.
Ability to memorize positions and games is extremely useful when it comes to preparation of openings, endgames or playing a typical middlegames. Grandmasters remember many classical games dealing with all sorts of pawn structures, endgames, tactical motifs, weaknesses, attacking schemes and so on.
If you have a good chess memory, you can put yourself a big plus on the potential grandmasters' checklist.
3. Superior visualization skills
Visualization is probably the single most important skill that a grandmaster needs because it is directly related to tactics. Without the ability to visualize positions, after certain moves are made and some pieces are captures, it is next to impossible to become a strong tactical player.
Visualization skills help tremendously at finding the correct tactics, calculating lines, planning the game and even finishing off the simple endgames. If you have strong visualization skills, your chances of becoming a grandmaster are much higher than for those who don't.
4. Ability to work on chess for hours
Even if you have all necessary prerequisites for becoming a grandmaster, you won't become one unless you spend a lot of time working on chess and perfecting your game. You see, even the most gifted chess players such as Magnus Carlsen, need to spend years to develop their talent.
That's why the ability to work on the game consistently, without getting bored and tired is crucial for becoming an elite chess player.
5. High level of competitiveness
Without a high level of competitiveness and a strong drive for becoming a better chess player it is not possible to progress. Some of the most competitive chess players such as Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov are also the most successful ones in history of the game.
If you want to become a grandmaster you must be competitive, you must try to win every single position against every single opponent you face. You should take each defeat as an opportunity to patch your preparation holes, to return and win.
6. Ability to stay focused for extended periods of time
Chess matches can be long, extremely long. Any grandmaster has played games which lasted for 6-7 hours non-stop. These kinds of games are exhausting and drain you both mentally and physically. In order to win such games you need to preserve energy and stay focused for the whole time. Any mistake can end the game not in your favor.
If you want to become a grandmaster you should be able to stay focused for very long periods of time. You need to learn making the best moves, even when you're tired or totally exhausted. Only then you can win games against stronger competition and be on your way to breaking that magical 2500.
7. Ability to perform well under pressure
It is a fact that defending in chess is much harder than attacking. There is a lot more at stake when your king is under pressure. You can get checkmated and the game will be over instantly. Any chess player ends up in terrible position sooner or later. It takes a true talent and courage not to give up and to pull yourself out of the losing position.
It is not possible to become a grandmaster without the ability to save lost games. You need to learn playing your best chess under pressure, even when you are down in material or under a serious attack. That will save you many games, and will gain you plenty of rating points.
Is it enough for becoming a grandmaster? It is no way to know. But if you can do it, the chances are you can become a GM someday.
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...
This book is not about how I became a Grandmaster..
This book is not about how I became a Grandmaster..
..rather, about how a GM overcame various obstacles in his chess journey.
This book summarizes the most valuable lessons from 20+ years of GM Smirnov's extensive chess practice, both as a player and a coach.
You'll learn what does work best for your chess progress. Also, you'll be warned of typical pitfalls or will see the way out if you already stuck.
Finally, you'll definitely enjoy reading a book full of interesting stories and witty advice. It may give a whole new meaning to your own chess study...
There will be a lot of advice, but also a lot of truth
There are many twists and turns down the road to chess strength and improvement. Chess students are told many things, and not all of them are correct. Some things are actually flat out wrong.
This same information gets passed down generation after generation and players don’t get any better. I hope to help the reader navigate through some of these pitfalls and steer them along the better parts of the road for smoother travel.
Today we will talk about the most common opening mistakes that many chess players around the globe are making subconsciously, without realizing that they are doing something wrong. These mistakes are easy to spot and fix, but you need to know what to look for. Here they are:
1.Neglecting development
Every chess player knows that the goal of the opening is to develop pieces. A player which does it more efficiently and correctly possesses an advantage in the early middle game. Due to development advantage he can start an attack sooner, without compromising his own king’s safety. These players often win the game in early middle-game with an impressive attack on the king stuck in the center (this is particularly important theme and we pay a lot of attention practicing attack on the king at the center in our chess training course) or struggling from undeveloped pieces.
Sounds great isn’t it? Why many players neglect development and lose games? There are 3 reasons for that:
I. These players get greedy in the opening, grabbing an extra pawn and sacrificing 2-3 important development tempos.
II. These players move one piece multiple times for no good reason. A ‘good reason’ is defined in this case as ability to win a significant amount of material due to some sort of tactics, or to deliver a checkmate.
You should be careful though, since you may waste many important tempos on winning material, which you may never get and end up being far behind in development (aka lost).
III. These players may not know where exactly to develop their pieces (we will talk about this case in one of the sections below).
Take a look at the game below that clearly demonstrates what happens to ones who neglect the development:
2. Launching an unprepared attack
Most chess players know that in the opening they supposed to develop pieces, castle, connect the rooks, occupy the center and only then launch an attack. However, if they see a possibility to check an opponent or attack some of his pieces they will go for it even if that does not promise any material gain and requires early queen development.
You should always keep in mind that unprepared attack will delay your development, since you most likely, will have to retreat sooner or later making unnecessary moves and losing tempos.
The best strategy is to complete the development and only then launch an attack. Otherwise, you can end up playing the opening when your opponent has already entered the middle game (trust me, you don’t want that).
3. Delaying castling
Castling is a very important part of development. Not only castling puts your king to safety but also connects the rooks. There are reasons when it is dangerous and even deadly to castle, but these are more exceptions than general cases, mostly caused by lag in development in the first place.
In most openings it is best to castle quickly and continue on with the game without too much worrying about possibility of the king getting exposed and vulnerable.
4. Not having a middle game plan
The simplest way to play the opening is to develop chess pieces to the positions where they appear stronger. Bishops should be developed on open diagonals, rooks on open files and knights at the center. However, the best approach for playing the opening is to know exactly where to position your pieces according to your middle-game plan.
For example, if you are planning an attack on short side castled opponent’s king you need to place the bishop on a long diagonal, bring up the knight and a queen. You may also want to position the rook in such a way that you can lift it quickly when needed.
When developing pieces always think about your future middle game plan. That way you can save yourself many importanttempos and obtain an advantage. In the final run that could be the difference between checkmating or being checkmated.
5. Playing intuitively
Playing intuitively means making decisions based upon feelings rather than calculations. Unless you are 2500 rated, you probably should not rely on your intuition too much. This is how games end with under 10 moves checkmates.
The rule of thumb is to evaluate the position at least 2-3 moves ahead, also taking into account the basic chess opening principles.
Check here if you don’t know how to use a discount code.
Second, we have released the second part of the premium video “Killer Endgames” by GM Nick Pert (a premium video from our partner, GM Simon Williams).
Note: if you have already purchased the book in e-book format, you will just have to pay for the paper version (i.e. You need NOT pay for the actual book’s cost)
