11 Stepping Stones to Chess Mastery

This course enables student/chess player to absorb the basics of chess in the fastest and most efficient way - IDEAS and concepts that are applicable in every position. It starts with explanation of the space on the chessboard, enabling student to skillfully use diagonals, ranks and files. Every chess piece is unique, player will learn to use the full potential of the king, queen, rook, bishop, knight and pawn. Special attention is dedicated to combined action of our pieces, showing the power of the pieces that work together. Student will see the wealth of hidden ideas in the positions, and the ways to achieve them with the use of rich arsenal of tactics.

       In this course a practical method to analyze any position is presented, enabling student/chess player to objectively evaluate current position on the board and make a further game plan. He/She will understand the real problems in the position, and choose the appropriate candidate moves to analyze. Guided with the ideas, this calculation of the key variations will help student/chess player to orientate himself/herself confidently in the tactical battle, and find the right path in the game. In the lessons of this course, during analysis of various positions, is shown the importance of the ability to clearly visualize the position. Continuous tactical improvement has to be student's main goal, that's why he/she must practice this visualization ability.

     By knowing a multitude of positional and tactical ideas, an effort we make during the game will significantly reduce, increasing our pleasure and decreasing the tension and nervousness. So, in this course student/chess player will learn the most important tactical devices, namely: knight fork, skewer, double attack, pin, inbetween move, blockade, displacing defenders, discovered attack and zugzwang. All complex tactics in the games of the best chess players in the world is based on the above elementary tactical shots. Probably, the main benefit for the student/chess player from this course is the reccomendation to approach the study of chess from the point of view of the IDEAS that could be accomplished in the game.