According to Johnathan Rowson in his book Chess for Zebras we can develop chess skill through a combination of playing combined with chess training, where ‘training’ means working things out by ourselves. The main skill a chess player needs is skill in making decisions so making decisions is what...
Silman calls the Lucena Position “The Holy Grail of Rook Endings”. In this position Regardless of who’s turn it is to move, White wins.
1.Rf2+ Forcing Black’s King to leave the scene of the battle.
1…Kg7 [1...Kg6 2.Rf4 Kg5 3.Rd4 Kf6 4.Ke8 Re1+ 5.Kf8 Rf1 6.d8Q+ Ke5+ 7.Ke7...
Black to move (Stefanova – Shirov 2005)
r3rq1k/8/p2p3p/P1pPnp1P/1p3Q2/5PNR/1PP2K2/R7 b – - 0 29
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Evaluation
The first thing I did was to evaluate this position, and I gave it the following evaluation: Material =, King Safety +/=, Activity =/+, Pawn Structure =. So the game in my...
Study Schedule
Day
Topic 1 (30m)
Topic 2 (1hr)
Monday
Solve Tactics
Study Endings
Tuesday
Play
Annotate game *
Wednesday
Solve Endings
Study Strategy **
Thursday
Solve Tactics
Solve Strategy ***
Friday
Solve Tactics
Study Openings
Saturday
Solve Tactics
Solve Strategy
Sunday
Play
Annotate...
About the Virtual Chess Coach Program
This program is geared for my improvement (a 35 year old 1278 USCF rated player), but I hope that others in a similar situation will be able to derive benefit from it as well.
I will be modeling this program on the teaching’s of Dan Heisman. Dan Heisman is one of...
