Category Archives: chess ratings

What, “I’ll get you ready for free!?!” means to me.

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The pandemic and the block buster film, “Queens Gambit” have increased the number of piece movers around the globe by millions. For most of them, the internet is their only source of information and experience. These screen junkies are slowly working their way into the real world. It’s up to everyone to ensure that the unexpected losses they experience because of their disorientation with blitz, bullet, and real chess doesn’t cause them to lose interest!!

I told you last year that I wasn’t holding back anymore. In 2022 I gave you many original analytic concepts and blogs about how to play merciless chess! The most popular was, “The true value of the pieces!?!” You watched our 6 year Master Coach Jason Morefield repeat as VA Closed Champion. That’s right, Jason has been coaching for us since he was 12. It would have been longer if chess hadn’t got shut down. Mike Callaham covered the VA Closed with pictures, post round analysis for the amateur section, and championship games analysis for VA Newsletter 2022 4/5!!

In 2023 the focus will be vocationalism! I’m interested in people of any age, (5 or 55) that want to be great, “Chess Personalities”. Play, coach, referee, organize and run a business or businesses that profitably supports and grows chess! That’s my definition of a Chess Personality. If you want me to teach you how to be one, you can’t afford it! If you want me to teach you how to become one you can’t afford that either!

Most of the chess instruction I see is only about how to play, and is just glorified babysitting. It’s ridiculous for parents and children to tell me they’ve had lessons in person or online and can’t tell me how many checks are possible, when you can or can’t castle, or demonstrate a capturing en passant!? The level of instruction is condescending, slow paced, and is in direct contradiction to Grandmaster advice for rapid and consistent improvement. If you finish a chess lesson and feel no need to review the material for understanding, you just got babysat!! If after 6, 8, or 10 sessions of chess training no one has ensured that you know the requirements to become a, Rated Tournament Chess Player, US Chess Certified Coach, US Chess Certified Tournament Director, or US Chess Affiliate Organizer, when chess is a scholarship venue, you just got babysat. If the lessons, classes, camps, or tournaments are based on age or grade, (Unless it’s a state or national event), you just got babysat again!?! If you’ve had 6, 8, or 10 sessions and have never been encouraged to look at the top 100 list for children or adults, you and/or your child just got babysat again. Babysitters get paid $20.00-$25.00 an hour.

SCBC is a leader in the chess industry, not a follower!?! We’ve been balancing altruism, philanthropy, and entrepreneurship in central VA for over a decade!! While others are taking your money saying, “We have to start somewhere?!”, We take your money and can take you quickly to anywhere you want to go while giving you the opportunity to earn the trip!!!! Since we can’t charge you the $100.00, $150.00, and $200.00 an hour that it’s worth, and the general chess public is deliberately being kept in the dark about all the places chess can take them, we have to be selective about who we give a ride.

“If you are not ready for coaching, we’ll get you ready for free!?!” was forged with the idea that if we can show you a better, faster, predictable way to become a complete Chess Personality, chess will be better served than if we only teach you how to play! All it take’s is 1 to 3 tasks to let you show yourself how easy chess is! These tasks will also reveal to you whether or not you have the desire, time, money, interest, and sense of urgency needed to work with a Professional Chess Personality. How many days would it take you to complete a 45 minute chess task? Each and every task we give a student or a potential student is layered with multiple learning objectives. At SCBC, you’ll never know the full benefits of completing a task until we show you! If you come to us about anything chess and you won’t or can’t follow instructions, you’re not just wasting your time and money, you’re wasting ours!! We are free with our time, but our time is not free. We’d rather give anyone and everyone a few free lessons than to have someone waste our time in a weak commitment!!

We work with any budget! Our plans start high and then get lower and lower every 4 weeks based on length of commitment and the student’s ability to follow instructions. We also offer starter programs where the amount starts ridiculously low and gets higher and higher every 4 weeks. Our basic instruction package includes but is never limited to:

2 hours of weekly zoom or in person custom chess coaching

Home work tasks

Monitoring and analysis of student’s online games and training tasks

Tournament suggestions

Biweekly Parent’s Report

24/7/365 question and answer consultations

This regime along with regular tournament play is the best way to duplicate and surpass SCBC’s accomplishments. We offer 4, 6, 8, and 12 week initial commitments. Our levels of instruction are: Tutor, Instructor, Teacher, Prodigy, and Campaign. We provide free consultations to play, discuss everyone’s goals, make recommendations, and offer a quote.

Task time! Tasks are free! You ready? I guarantee an instant, measurable, and duplicatable change in your playing ability!! Call Coach Mike C today! 804-426-6058.

Name Your Price Book Sale!! 5/23-5/30!!

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Everyone know Coach Mike has the best book collection in Central Va. Thing is I can’t read them all and they are taking up needed space at the club. I’ve got over 600 algebraic and nearly the same amount with descriptive. Yes I have all the old classics, tactics, strategy, endings, tournaments, game collections, Encyclopedia of Chess Openings, My Great Predecessors and over 150 informants.

You know you want some!

Yes, I have some entertaining chess books but every book on the tables has my personal stamp of approval!?! Zoom in and see for yourself!!

Whatever opening you play, there are books here on it!
That Black hardcover is Fischer’s games!!

Did you notice the copy of, Think Like a Grandmaster? The sale hours are:

Monday 9-8

Tuesday 9-10 pm Club Night Bonus Rewards (See below)

Wednesday 9-8

Thursday 9-430

Friday 9-8

Saturday 8 am til 1 pm

Sunday 9-7

Monday 9-1 pm

I’ll be here or close by! Just call when you get to the door. 607 Wickham Street. I have a big project I’m working on, and one of the deadlines is June 1st! That’s why I’m going to be here all day and evening. I always bring lunch for 2 and there’s always something here to snack on. Don’t make excuses, you will never be able to inspect before you buy like this unless you go to a big tournament! No reasonable offer will be refused. Everything must go! Free informant or 2 free descriptive notation books for every $50.00 you spend. Bring a friend and you both can choose a free descriptive title! You can’t judge a book by it’s notation!?! lol That was funny!!

We have wood and plastic pieces and wood and vinyl boards for sale as well. Need a clock or a score book? they’re here too.

It’s a yard sale without the yard and everything is in good, better, or new condition!! Tuesday night is club night. 6pm-10pm. The Tuesday night special is another informant or 2 more descriptive titles at $75.00 and $100.00. Collectors sets are 25% off. We have the Simpsons and Super Mario chess sets for sale in their original carrying boxes!! Looking for a specific title? I wrote down the entire inventory! Just call me and I’ll let you know if it’s here.

Read your Chess Life… Books are still better than online because of the annotations, explanations, and culture that you can’t get from a database!?!

Come by and see me! I promise I will make it worth your while!! Cash, checks, and credit cards accepted! If you can’t make it, we’ll ship, hold, or deliver your order!

Always wishing the best for chess,

Coach Mike C

“Unrateds” Numbered 28% In The, “Under” Categories At Scholastic Championships!

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The 2022 Scholastic Championships are in the books. I had the pleasure of providing the post round analysis again and of course I like doing my statistics. At 1st it amazed me that we could really have that many people playing in their 1st tournament!? Then I remembered…

The chess servers shows that your tactics and strategy are, “tournament ready”, your highness!!

Pandemic misdirection. They’ve been on line for 2 years with a toy that they thought was a tool!? It didn’t just fool the kids!? The parents think the kids are better than they actually are too! I asked them all; Have you been playing on line? What’s your puzzle rating? How many games did you play at this time control before the tournament? What books are you reading? Are you using the post games analyzer on your site? Did you look up your opponent at US Chess before the game? This went on for 2 whole days!!

Adding new meaning to the term, “Sink or swim”?!

They sunk?! No tears, no tantrums, no yelling, screaming, or remorse. I watched them come out after less than 5 minutes in their games and start playing video games on their phones, tablets, and laptops. In the 1st round 1 game was lost in less than 1 minute!! They forgot or somehow didn’t understand the difference between playing in their homes, and their parents giving up 2 days work, paying for hotels, gas, meals, and an entry fee?! Either they weren’t told or they disobeyed!?! Top 1st tournament performances were as follows: K-3 Under 600 was 11th with a new rating of 555, K-5 Under 1000 was 2nd with a new rating of 1140, K-8 Under 1200 was 16th with a new rating of 956, and finally the K-12 Under 1400 was 15th with a new rating of 854. To place 1st in any of these sections would have earned the player a rating that would have been 200 points or more above the “Under” they signed up for!! Imagine their shock when after 1-2 years of what they thought was meaningful progress, they find out that their online ratings don’t make them underrated compared to over the board players, they are overrated!!!

Reread the blogs or get them some real help!!

Disillusionment leads to disenchantment! We specialize in converting online toys into online tools! Our programs are designed to help new and experienced players that only have experience, switch to a training regimen that a grandmaster would approve of. If you just want to play for fun and you want to play and study for free then you don’t need any help!?! Praveen achieved the title of GM in Feb 2022 with 1,960 US games in 12 years. That doesn’t count the games he played abroad! I estimate becoming a GM cost his family between $150,000.00 and $250,000.00. Once there’s a cost, you have to come up with a better plan!

Back in the day, the Masters, International Masters, and Grandmasters were also famous trainers, analysts, correspondence players, authors, organizers, and arbiters.  Today everyone puts almost 90% of their focus on playing and then to add insult to injury, they want to learn for free, on line, from anybody??  That has replaced reading books written by Grandmasters and global authorities on the subject matter they want to learn.  The result is a younger and younger bunch of tournament junkies just play, play, play, play, play?! At the pace they play it is impossible to be practicing a regimen of, play, analyze, reflect, study, and repeat.  Why would you spend your time and hard earned money on a kind of chess that doesn’t instill this? Today’s chess crowd is uncultured, uniformed, and unambitious!  Organizers have tricked parents into playing in, “Under’s” all the time. If you fall for it, you will automatically spend more money because you are always getting less rating points!!!

Team up with someone! Doing this alone is way too expensive!!

If you are going to, “Invest” thousands of dollars and countless weekends at chess tournaments you and your budding star need some training. We will save you money! If you’re not ready for coaching, we’ll get you ready for free!! Ask for Coach Mike! 804-426-6058.

Over The Board Chess Is Back!

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Remember this?

Go back to 2020 and this was what the Tournament Life Announcements looked like. Chess is probably the only sport that has grown during the pandemic!? Now all the Queen’s Gambit and E-Chess enthusiast are coming out to test their online skills in real tournaments.

The pages are full again with opportunities to test your disciplines. We reopened 2 December. The questions coming from people transitioning from online, or back to Over The Board chess have the same underlying theme. The Screen is for your casual eye and the board is for your slow/tournament eye. They mentioned it as fast or slow in this month’s issue of Chess Life, but I’ve been teaching the difference between the casual and tournament eye for more than 3 decades. Experience makes you good at tactics, study and analysis make you good at strategy. Study and analysis sticks better when you use a board!

Play, teach, direct, and organize is back! It takes a tournament or going to a club to make players realize how much they’d forgotten study, play, analyze, reflect and repeat!! For the prepared student, the next couple of years will be the easiest points ever gotten at a chess board!! E player weaknesses will become the articles of insight!? E-chess service providers will be selling everything you need to correct following their, instead of grandmaster advice?!

If you are ready to get to work,(go to tournaments), SCBC is poised as always to give you the training that will get you in the top 100 of your age category, with 40%- 60% less games than players that are just getting better by experience! Virginia’s own Praveen Balakrishnan, broke 2600 in 2020 and was awarded the title of grandmaster in Feb of 2022, I’m sure that he’d agree it can and should be done in less than 1960 games and 14 years!! I hope someone gives his parents a trophy. They had a 3 year period where they took him to 764 games!

We can give you lessons on how to use one of these!

Getting some help, even on a short term basis, is better than spending thousands of dollars a year trying to get good at chess from experience. Why go out and make your own mistakes when you can learn what to do from everyone else’s. Consultations are free and informative! If the student is not ready for coaching, we get them ready for free!!