Tag Archives: chess coaching

Prodigy and Campaign Training Shine At Championship Warm Ups!

Posted on by
Chess is coming back stronger than ever!

SCBC has been paying very close attention to the new crowds of chess players that are coming from behind the masks! Unrated players of all ages, some masked some not, are showing up to test their skills at their new past time. Last year we reported that the, “under” sections of the state scholastic championships and the closed championships had nearly 30% unrated. In this year’s scholastic championship warm up we had 85 players. 46 of them were playing in their 1st tournament!! 19 of 25 in the k-3, 8 of 16 in the k-5, 11 of 29 in the k-8, and 8 of 15 in the k-12. 54% of the people attending a championship warm up tournament were playing in their 1st tournament!? At this very moment 61 of the 201 players registered in the under sections of the k-3, k-5, and k-8 of this year’s Virginia Scholastic Championships will be playing in their 1st tournament?! That’s 30%!? What other sport does this?

The reason this is happening is the on line service providers are acting like and allowing people to believe that what they offer is real chess. They are acting like it is comparable to the real world and they didn’t even get the lightning, bullet, and blitz right cause if you don’t see you are in check, they force you to make a legal move!!! For any other kind of chess, it’s a toy that must be turned into a tool!?! Online is for people that like to play!? I play 3/2 blitz games every day. Books, coaches, and courses are for people that like to compete! When preparing for a tournament, I pull out a board, books, databases, engines, pencils, and paper for 2-3 hours every day for the 1st week and then every other day up to 2 days before the event. There isn’t a grandmaster alive or dead that would ever tell you that all you need is lightning, bullet, blitz games, videos, and computer analyzed games of 5 minutes or less to win tournaments and get all the benefits of chess. The online service providers aren’t saying you can either, they’re just letting players believe they can!! There isn’t 1 online service provider that has said or acknowledged that you must work and play off line to achieve the benefits of chess… not one. They never will!?!

The on line player with a 1300 lightning, bullet, or blitz rating and a 2000 puzzle rating believes that a toy has prepared them to go win real world chess tournaments. LOL

Prodigy and Campaign training is the way to be the player in the mirror!!

To be specific, all of our training programs include as minimum:

1.) An introduction to the real value, speed, and capabilities of the pieces. (see blog dated 10/06/2021)!

2.) An introduction to the Check, Captures, Threats, and Sacrifices for Kings, and Queens, and Rooks that you can read about in the blog (10/15/2021)!

3.) An introduction to The Magic 10!  The Magic 10 is the primary tool every player needs to be able to decide on a move when the board seems quiet (10/15/2021)!

4.) Last but not least, a method of turning on line toys into real world tools.

a.) Understanding the importance of accuracy over speed.

b.) How to measure real world progress from on line results  

c.) How to use the data bases and the engines to learn openings that can be used in the real world. 

d.) Identify and exploit the weaknesses online players develop when they don’t read books! 

This process requires 8 – 12 hours of custom training. It will drastically improve the students learning curve and ultimately save the chess family hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars! Our study and improvement methods are proven to be at least 5 times faster than just playing all the time!! Where people got the idea to be playing 125, 150, and even 175 games per year, must be from soccer, tennis, baseball, or basketball, but they didn’t get that idea from a Grandmaster! Tal, Botvinnik, and Kortchnoi all said 100 games a year or less!?

Maggie Walker:

Shripaad’s new round of prodigy/campaign training began in January. In 9 games, his rating has gone from 373-693. His score in the k-3 was 4-0-0! Maneesh began his prodigy training in February. In just 12 games his rating has gone from 408-696. He tied for 2nd in the k-5 with a score of 3-0-1! His campaign training will begin in about 2 weeks!! Abbos began his prodigy/campaign training in December. The warm up was his second tournament. His 1st choice in his Campaign Training was the Vienna Game, then he changed his mind to the London and then changed it to what he’s playing now. (Can’t tell you, there’s a championship going on. lol) For black he was playing the Caro and the Queens Gambit Declined but has since fell in love with 2 other systems. He is a 6th grader that tied for 1st in the k-12 with an undefeated score of 3-1-0. With a rating of just 695, his average accuracy for the 1st 15 moves of his games in this tournament was 83.1%! In 1 game it was 86.6%! That performance earned him 54 points. With that type of accuracy we just know it will keep going up, and up, and up!!

Having the wrong tool for the job doesn’t matter when you’re on line just having fun, don’t care about the results, have all the time in the world, and losses don’t cost 1 thin dime! But, a real world tournament is an arena, not a playground!! Not taking these gladiators more seriously than on line play is a recipe for disaster! These opponents have invested hours, days, weeks, and even months preparing for this event. They have books, coaches, experience using all 38 pieces of a tournament set, and will analyze every tournament game they play! They have the expense of time off from work, travel, meals, lodging, and entry fees. They must usually come in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place to recover those expenses!! And if there is a tie, they get even less money! To them it’s not just having fun, they care about the results, and failure means that they will have to spend even more money regaining any points they lose!!

The most important idea to remember about the transition from the virtual chess to real world chess is that, NOW IT MATTERS!! If you or your child go into a real world tournament with an on line attitude, you will make 3 major mistakes;

1.) You will neglect calculation. During a real world game, there is time to truly investigate combinations that are 3 to as many as 10 moves deep. When it is your turn, always calculate what you can do to them 1st. Then and only then do you look at what they can do to you. How much you like a move means nothing if you don’t do the calculation to justify it. You have the time to double check and even triple check your moves! If you promise yourself to never get burned right after you move, that will eliminate the frequent blunders you get away with when the game is only 1, 3, or 5 minutes!

2.) Chances are that you have little to no experience playing, recording the game, and using a clock at the same time. As much as possible, sit down and never play or calculate while you are standing or moving!! After you record a move, put the pencil down! Putting the pencil down tells your brain its time to think, but holding your pencil tells your brain its time to write. The last thing you need while trying to concentrate on something new is confusion! lol If you are unrated, your opponent may use staring, faces, gestures, piece slamming, clock slamming, laughter, grunting, huffing and puffing, sighing, tapping the table, moving fast, and even talking to you to get you to move faster. They are trying to break your concentration and get you to make a mistake!! Those things are unsportsmanlike. Look them in the eye smiling victoriously and raise your hand immediately for a tournament director. Do it each and every time they do any of those things in a way that disturbs or annoys you!! Those behaviors are forbidden!! You can report these things even if it is at the board next to you if you feel it is disturbing your play! Real world chess is a juggling act and you need your concentration! Don’t allow anyone to bully you because you are new!

3.) If you spend most of your time on line with lightning, bullet, and blitz, time is king! If you move fast enough, you may win with bad play. I win games in losing positions and lose games in winning positions all the time!! At a real world tournament you can’t win that way because they have too much time and the only thing that matters is accuracy! To win and draw, you will need to take your time, develop your pieces, and castle before beginning any tactical operations. Playing as accurately as you can for 15-20 moves, in a real world tournament game is the absolute surest way to rattle your opponent, make them feel the pressure, and cause them to make a mistake!? You literally don’t have to start moving faster until you have less than 5 minutes on your clock. Use as much time as needed to be accurate. Do what I’m telling you and you’ll have such a big advantage that choosing the right move won’t be difficult at all!

Chess is back! If you want to save time and money we can help. Schedule a free consultation and get a quote. If you are not ready for coaching, we will get you ready for free!

Call 804-426-6058, email waterman2010kir@aol.com today!

Thanks

Coach Mike C

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

Posted on by

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.

The 36th Piece!?!

Posted on by

Tournaments require 38 pieces!?! You’ve got 34 chess people, a board, a clock, paper, and a pencil. If most players are honest, they will admit that the clock and keeping score gave them some initial difficulty! But getting used to the clock and knowing how to use it are 2 totally different things. I haven’t seen any books specifically on how to use a clock!?! If the game can be won or lost by how you use this piece, at least some type of study is in order! I’ve only seen 2 places where the times of the games were kept and published. Yeah you get to see it while it’s live, but I’m talking in a format where study and comparison can be done. That Bobby Fischer’s chess games, the Havana Match, and Kasparov Karpov III by Keene and Goodman. Some mention of the clock was also in Krogius’ book, Psychology In Chess.

How you use this piece can change the outcome of the game!

Here are some guidelines:

  1. Always get to the board early enough to set and check the clock. Check that the delay and/or the increment are working.
  2. Always start the clock promptly at the beginning of the round. If you have no clock, the time will be split instead of your opponent taking the whole loss of time.
  3. Record the clock time for you and your opponent on each move.
  4. Always remember to press your clock!
  5. If you must get up, get back to your board as soon as possible.
  6. Grandmasters advise that you use your time for calculating variations and your opponents time for positional considerations and strategy!
  7. When in time trouble, continue to record the game as long as you can. If neither of you are recording the game, there can be no scoresheet based draw claims.
  8. When in time trouble, never move instantly! Use the delay or the increment time to double check your move.
  9. Never remind your opponent to hit their clock. It’s not good sportsmanship, it’s a rules violation!
  10. If you always have time left and you are losing more than half of your games, you are moving too fast!

Make a list of the things you will constantly check when it is your opponents turn!

What do you do when it’s your opponent’s turn to move? You are supposed to be looking everything else except variations. I have my list of everything else and so should you. I call mine the magic 10! They are: Range, Speed, Power, Force, Time, Space, Mobility, Initiative, King Safety, and Material. This is for a piece or group of pieces. This is what you do leading up to, during, and after your skirmishes! Unlike Checks, Captures, Threats, and Sacrifices, something about the magic 10 goes in and out of balance on every move.

40 moves in 2hrs. What does that mean!?! No it doesn’t mean 3 minutes per move!? There is no time limit for a move and you must accept that some moves will require a lot of time!

White to move took 22 minutes to play 14. Ne4
White took 38 minutes to find 19. b3
It took Bobby Fischer 17 minutes to find 20…Qc5
Why did it take 10 minutes for Karpov to play 7. Rc1

The other clue I got was from Test Your Chess IQ Book II by Livshitz!! In the master section they actually tell you how long it should take you to solve each puzzle. Take a look at #936

White to move. The time to solve this was 15 minutes. It’s a forced mate!
7/17/1997 Black spent 30 minutes and played 16…Nf4!
3/29/2003 White spent 49 minutes and played 16. Nf7!
6/7/2014. After 36 minutes, White played 16. Bh6!!

The thing to understand is that when you use this type of time, it’s for several moves, not just 1 move!! If you have calculated properly the next 4 or 5 moves will only take a few minutes.

Lastly, always take a minute or 2 to regroup and reorient yourself once a time control is reached. My goal is to have an equal or winning position by the end of the 1st time control, and then finish them off if I can in the 2nd one.

Want to win more games…. Learn how to use the 36th piece!?! Group and private lessons and coaching are available. Ask for Coach Mike 804-426-6058. If you are not ready for lessons, we will get you ready for free!!

Campaign, Schmampaign, What If My Opponent Plays Something Different?

Posted on by

You funny!?! The whole point of having a campaign is that every move they make is either expected, slightly off the beaten trail, or bad! You actually have 3 choices every time your opponent moves… You can continue the campaign because you still have tons of stuff to do, abandon your original campaign for the alternate campaign, or punish them for making a mistake! Remember this is all about variations, transpositions, branchpoints, and errors. The only reason to abandon your campaigns is to collect your reward for your opponents errors. If your opponents are constantly causing you to abandon your campaigns and lose the game, your campaigns are too small, rigid, ill conceived, or not properly researched! Let’s get started.

Here white can play Qe2, h3, Re1, a4, Be3, Qd3, Bg5, d5,

No matter which one they pick, black’s move will be 7… c7-c6. The game continued, 7.Re1 c6 8. a4
Qc7 9. dxe5?! dxe5 10. Bg5?!

It’s highly unlikely that white knows they’ve already made 2 mistakes and black has the initiative!?

This is a vote chess game. A whole team of players had 3 days for each move. It’s obvious to me that they spent no time on books written by grandmasters, databases, or moving the pieces around. Having a campaign let’s me know that I already have a substantial advantage! More importantly, it let’s me know that my opponents don’t have a campaign or a plan. They are on their own, I’m still reading directly from my homework!! 10…Nc5!? 11. b4? (11. h3 Rd8 12. Qc1 Ne6 13. Be3=) 11…Rd8! 12. Qe2?! Because shadowing the queen is part of my campaign, I have to prepare for the most creative types of redevelopment for her. I actually got this idea after studying the London’s recapture of the knight on b1. Analysis taught me that if I refuse the queen a home on the e and d files, I’d need to be ready for this development of the queen… (12. Qb1! Ne6 13. Qb3 h6 14. Bh4 a5 15. b5 Bb4 16. Red1 Rxd1+ 17. Rxd1 Nc5 18. Qb2 Bg4 19. bxc6 Bxf3! 20. gxf3
Qxc6=/+) Diagram

Analyzing your campaign games prepares you for everything!

12… Ne6! This is the end of the campaign! From here black should be able to win! 13. Be6?! Bxe6 14. Rab1 h6 15. Bh4 a5! 16. b5 Bb4 17. Bxf6 gxf6 18. Qe3 cxb5 19. Nxb5 Qxc2 20. Rec1 Qxa4 21. Nc7 Rac8

22. Qxh6? Rxc7! 23. Qxf6 Rxc1+ 24. Rxc1 Rd1 and white resigned.

The next game is another vote chess game. I used to play a lot of vote chess until it got to be too much work! There was always early voting or garbage 1/2 moves instead of whole continuations to compare. It did teach me a lot about how lazy most chess players are. Fun, fun, fun, all the time. They lack the discipline to follow grandmaster advice to end or consistency!?! It was very encouraging to realize that learning to win more games was going to be infinitely easier than I had originally thought!?!

This early variation will transpose and/or be punished.

Alekhine was the 1st player to condemn Bg5?! in the Philidor. It is a relief that black will not have to deal with any fireworks on f7 or in the center since the f3 knight can’t get to g5. I’m getting help with my campaign on the 5th move of the game! 5… c6 6. dxe5 dxe5 7. Bc4 Be7 8. O-O O-O 9. Qe2 Qc7

Look Familiar? 2 errors already again!

Some you may be wondering why I’m not rushing to play …b5. My campaign analysis has proved that if I play it too soon, the pawns will become targets. It’s better to let my opponent play a4 and then a5 so that I get the tempos and the stealth I need to mask my kingside intentions. To run a campaign you must have patience! 10. Rad1? Wrong move and wrong rook. Remember, how many times I’ve said you must watch games in the openings you intend to play to learn where to put the rooks? They had to play 10. a4. (10. Rfd1 b5 11. Bb3 a5 12. a4 b4 13. Nb1 h6!?= would have kept things level) 10… b5 11. Bb3 a5 12. a4 b4 13. Nb1 Ba6 14. Bc4 Bxc4 15. Qxc4 h6??

Campaigns are more error tolerant than planlessness!

Campaign protect you because you always have possibilities. Here I could have played 15…Nb6! and followed it up with c5 and c4. Again, mistakes come in pairs so my opponent didn’t take. Knowing when to abandon the campaign for other gains can be as difficult as conducting the campaign itself! I played 15…h6?? with an eye to doubling in the knights, control of f4, g and h files, King lifts and slides, etc... Every time you analyze a game, there is room to tweak and improve your campaigns. Don’t miss them!! The game continued with the new campaign being to put the queen in jail!! 16 Bh4?? Nb6! 17. Qb3 c5 18. Nbd2 c4 19. Qa2 Rad8 20. Bg3 Bd6 21. Rfe1 Rfe8 22. h3 Rd7 23. b3?? c3 (the nail in the coffin)

Even when she gets out on move 31 sitting on f7, she only has 2 squares.

24. Nc4 Nxc4 25. bxc4 Qc6 26. c5? Qxc5 27. Nxe5 Bxe5 28. Bxe5 Rxd1 29. Rxd1 Rxe5 30. Rd8+ Kh7 31. Qxf7 Rxe4 0-1 Their team abandoned the game!

“Look for opportunities to play d5” I didn’t used to get many opportunities for d5 until I reread my analysis of the main line and realized that 90% of the time I would not take back immediately if they played e4xd5. Some of the best ideas in your campaign have been overlooked because of improper piece development and placement. This game breaks from the normal campaign and shows how you can still make a killing of what you have left. This used to be the main line of the Hanham Variation until I busted it. 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 Nf6 4. Nc3 Nbd7 5. Bc4 Be7 6. O-O O-O 7. Qe2 c6 8. a4
Qc7 9. a5 h6 10. Bd2 Re8 11. Ba2?

Reexplore your main line!!

The bust goes… 11….exd4! 12. Nxd4 d5 13. exd5 Bd6! 14. Be3 Bxh2+ 15. Kh1 Ne5! and black has a complicated but real initiative. Now watch this game and see how they played something different but I still did the same thing!!

I don’t have to change anything about my campaign to deal with this novelty!
  1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Qe2 Be7 5. O-O O-O 6. c3!? Not a bad move in and of itself. The position is equal with white still having a little 1st move initiative left. The game continued with 6…c6 7. d4 Qc7 8. Rd1 Bg4! With the queen being the only protector of the e pawn, Be3 is unlikely for a while, and h3 may never get played. (induce h3 or f3) 9. Nbd2 Nbd7 10. h3 Bh5 11. Nf1 Rfe8 12. g4 Bg6 13. Ng3?
Different position, same combo because my campaign includes a rook spy on the queen!!

13. exd4! 14. cxd4 (14. Rxd4 d5 15. exd5 Bd6 16. Qf1 cxd5 17. Bb5 Bxg3 18. fxg3 Qxg3+ 19. Qg2 Qd6-+) 14…d5 15. exd5 Bd6 16. Qf1 cxd5 17. Bb3 Bxg3 18. fxg3 Qxg3+ 19. Qg2 Qd6 and black won. A 7 move winning combo that I didn’t have to give 1 thought to because the elements of my campaign were present. 19 moves of absolutely stress free chess! Schmampaign that!!!

Even if someone designs a campaign for you, there will be a good amount of material you will have to study. I’ve got more openings, games, and campaigns coming every week! Do you have a campaign? Do you want a campaign, or do you want to keep having fun, fun, fun, whether you win, draw, or lose? I want to work with some people that are determine to never lose!? Chess isn’t about winning all the time, it’s about never losing. You started with 1/2 not zero!! It’s time you learned how to keep yours and take theirs.

Your coaching dollars will never be better invested!?! Call Coach Mike and let’s get started today! 804-426-6058. If you are not ready for coaching, we’ll get you ready for free!!