Hi all,
I will continue my tradition of answering questions put in private on the blog, without giving the source of the question to cause no embarrassment. I do this because I know that a lot of people will find the question and answer interesting. Read more…
A potential student of mine has made an application and named me as the best chess trainer in the World. While I am perfectly suited for what he needs, probably the best suited trainer alive, I could not help feeling slightly repulsed by the idea. Obviously, the best trainer is Mark Dvoretsky, I was thinking, which led to very unhappy thoughts. I will go to Moscow to participate in a rapid tournament for his 70th birthday in December, but sadly Mark will not be there…
How do you define who is the best trainer? Read more…
So we landed on November 1st for publication of Grandmaster Repertoire – The Pirc Defence by Mihail Marin, Sharp Endgames by Esben Lund and The Thinkers our photography book by super photographer David Llada. All three are available in our webshop for purchase.
Besides this concrete date, nothing is really changed from the previous publishing schedule. We are working hard to complete books. Lots of them, hopefully, over the winter months.
While I am preparing a publishing schedule and a magazine article, for a few lectures I will give in the weekend and training two Indian players who have found their way into my house, I am surfing the internet and I found this:
As we are publishing David’s book on the 1st of November, I thought it only fitting that we promote this nice initiative!
Hi guys, I am really busy working away on books, so I wanted to tell you what the next few publications are likely to be. This does not mean that other books have been forgotten. Negi and Shaw are still on the way, the QID is coming down the line, as are more Gelfand book and a lot of other interesting stuff, we would like to keep secret for a little bit.
This is just what we are looking to complete over the very near future.
| Tibor Karolyi | Mikhail Tal’s best games 3 – The Invincible | 27 September 2017 |
| Nikos Ntirlis | Playing 1.d4 d5 – A Classical Repertoire | 27 September 2017 |
| Mihail Marin | Grandmaster Repertoire – Pirc | Autumn |
| Esben Lund | Sharp Endgames | Autumn |
| Jaan Ehlvest | Opening Preparation | Autumn |
| Axel Smith | Woodpecker | Autumn |
| David Llada | The Thinkers | Autumn |
| Boris Avrukh | GM Repertoire 2A | Autumn |
Marin’s book on the Pirc is at the printer and Sharp Endgames by Lund will follow briefly. The Thinkers are going to print any moment and Andrew is moving swiftly through the editing of Avrukh’s latest 1.d4 book.
But I also wanted to take the time to tell you about two books that will come slightly later in the autumn; a book on opening preparation by former participant in the Candidates matches, Jaan Ehlvest, which is promising to be an interesting read, and a book for the more practically inclined, by Axel Smith on the Woodpecker Method. The final titles and covers have not been decided, but I would be surprised if we did not go with The Woodpecker Method…
Training Seminar in Edinburgh with Grandmaster and FIDE Senior Trainer Jacob Aagaard 6-8 October
On the first weekend of October there will be a three-day training seminar with Grandmaster Jacob Aagaard in Edinburgh Chess Club. The training weekend is organised in collaboration with Chess Scotland, offering free participation to the members of the national team participating in the European Team Championship in Crete in November.
The themes will be changing from day to day, with a focus on positional play, calculation and endgame technique. The sessions will be evenly balanced between lecturing and practical application.
The place of the training seminar is Edinburgh Chess Club, 1 Alva Street, in the centre of Edinburgh.
The timings are:
Friday 6th October 7pm – 10pm
Saturday 7th October 1pm – 5.30pm
Sunday 8th October 11am – 3.30pm
The cost of participation is £75. Please register by emailing ECCseminar2017@qualitychess.co.uk.
One thing that many people struggle with is solving puzzles on their own. It requires some discipline to get started and distractions can get you diverted. It is popular to meet up with friends and solve together. It makes it social and a bit competitive. But for most people, this is not an option. Their friends are far away and local players might have no ambition or be unsuitable for other reasons.
The idea I came up with years ago that worked really well, was to have group training on PlayChess (or it could be many other servers or even Whatsapp on your phone).
The way to do it is that one person has gathered positions in advance, preferably from a Quality Chess book of course, but other good exercise books have been published (I have been told).
He presents the first problem to the group.
When you have a solution, you say so.
When only one person is left, he gets an extra minute to find the solution, while the others prepare their solutions (but don’t press return).
When time’s up everyone gives their solutions.
Correct solutions get one point, mistakes get no points. The group decides if the solution is correct in disputes.
Next problem.
After a fixed amount of time, you have a winner.
This worked for a long time with a group I set up. I supplied them with the exercises, but since then these have been published in many books, so there are no excuses…
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