Coaching sessions Summer 2018

Coaching programme 2018

24 July

Looking

for weaknesses

31 July
Creating and exchanging Strong pieces

7 Aug
Openings round-up (Bird's, Budapest, second
openings)

14 Aug
Creating, spotting and dealing with threats

21 Aug
[Something will happen this week I hope,
possibly Time Control]

28 Aug
The London System

4 Sep

Changing habits

11 Sep

Endgames

July 24 Looking for weaknesses

A short task, but not an easy one:

1. Write down all the things you need to do to be a good
chessplayer
2. From the list, tick all the things you are good at
3. From the list, put a cross against the things you need to
improve

The responses:

Feature

Tick

Cross

Look at your poorly protected pieces
T

Look at your pawn structure
S

Look at your King protection
T

PLay with all your pieces
S

Look at your opponent's pieces
ST

Play according to attack or defence
G

Look for tactics for both sides
T

Exchange off your opponent's strong pieces
S

Opening repertoire

Checking threats/tactics

Develop pieces

Have a plan - strategy

Control the centre (directly or indirectly)

Create threats -- give your opponent a chance
to go wrong

Endgame basics

Handle time pressure

Research opponent's openings (if possible)

Battle even if position is lost

Study opening theory

Tactical awareness

Positional understanding

Clock sense

Play the opponent, not just the position

Be patient

Be a risk taker

Calculate ahead

Poker face

Endgame theory

Don't accept draws in better position

Don't blunder pieces

Activate your pieces

Look at opponent's possibilities as well as
your own

Time management

Don't leave King exposed before endgame

Push passed pawns

Don't allow opponent good outposts

GOSTE = Openings / Tactics / Strategy / Endgame / General

The weaknesses I will try and turn into future sessions.

We had a few opening queries:

How do you play the London System?
How do you play the Caro-Kann?
What's a solid line against the Budapest Gambit?
What's a good non-main-line system against the Bird's Opening?
Do you need a second-string opening?

31 July Strong pieces
7 Aug Opening workshop

Opening recommendations for beginners

Your choice
of opening will rest (or should rest) on several
considerations: your style and temperament as
a chessplayer, your time and aptitude for study,
and your
ambitions as a player. The standard recommendation
for a junior with little experience is to play open,
attacking
lines with 1.e4 with both colours -- this will let them
some fun, will get their eye on for important basic tactics,
and instil a sense of the importance of activity and
development that should last them the rest of their lives, and
they will likely enjoy learning a few lines and traps.
But for an older player, perhaps more interested in getting a
playable game while doing as little study as possible, then
the

Colle System or London
System might suit better as White, and the French
or Caro-Kann
and Slav
as Black. For someone with more affection for
attacking chess, the Vienna
and Closed Sicilian could suit.

Do you need a second-string opening?

All else being equal, yes!
This does not mean, mugging up on a new system the night
before (many risks to this)
It means, keeping a second opening system simmering in the
background (friendlies, occasional serious games) all the time
It helps if your second-string system is:

Low on theory - nothing sharp
Easy to learn - using a similar set-up in each game
Related to systems you already play

Because of this last point, it isn't easy to recommend one
for everyone, but:

Low on theory/easy to learn: Colle, London, King's Indian
Attack, Closed Sicilian; Fort Knox, Stonewall, Scandinavian,
Old Indian
Related to systems you already play: e.g. Worrall Attack
for a Ruy Lopez player, Keres Defence for a Nimzo/Bogo
player, King's Indian for a Modern Defence player,
Accelerated Dragon for a Dragon player,

Playing White against the Budapest Gambit

Bf4 or not Bf4

Nc3 or not Nc3

The slow system with Nf3: e3 or a3?
Lines without Nf3

A non-standard line for Black against Bird's
Opening

From's Gambit (1.f4 e5) may not be satisfactory -- and you
have to be prepared for a transposition to the King's Gambit
with 2.e4 -- while White can be relied upon to know the main
lines with 1...d5. What else is there?
Richard Palliser recommends in Beating Unorthodox
Openings to play either 1...d5 2.Nf3 Bg4 or 1...d6
with the idea of an early ...Bg4 and ...e5. This
system is missing from Taylor's popular book.