The Complete Beginner's Guide to Chess
What you'll learn
- Be able to appreciate the fundamentals of chess - opening, middlegame, endgame and within those the most common and important ideas
- Be able to get a complete overview of the key fundamentals of chess in terms of the Opening, Middlegame and Endgame phases of the game
- Be able to know basic opening traps such as the Fool's mate, Scholar's mate and many others
- Be able to know basic endgame mating patterns such as two rooks vs King, Rook vs King, Queen vs King
- Be able to know basic middlegame mating patterns such as back row mate and Smothered mate
- Be able to see Chess is a way of maximising your value chain - opening, middlegame, endgame and other skills like psychology, maximising win probability
- Be able to know the basic pawn structures which often result from many different openings such as the Isolated Queen's Pawn, Doubled pawns, Hanging Pawns
- Be able to know about the major world chess champions and their value-chain strengths such as Steinitz, Lasker, Capablanca, Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov
- Be able to understand many of the chess terms, and games and puzzles in Netflix Queen's Gambit popular series in a detailed episode by episode manner
- Be able to know how to handle the basic opening traps of Chess and how to set them up for unsuspecting opponents such as an early Queen to h5 attack
- Be able to appreciate the most important fundamentals of Kingscrusher's more advanced courses and be able to advance onto them later like a jigsaw puzzle
- Be able to appreciate the rules of chess for both casual play and later tournament play so you don't risk losing games uncessarily
- Be able to see plenty of examples of the most important chess tactics which will win you many games and enable you to see the true beauty of chess
- Be able to use Opening Systems which can be largely independent of what the opponent does such as the London System, Torre Attack, Colle System
- Be able to know the basic ideas and plans of major Chess openings susch as the French Defence, Sicilian Defence, Nimzo Indian, King's Indian, Slav Defence
- Be able to make use of fun exciting chess gambits which can help stretch and train your tactical abilities such as the King's Gambit
- Be able to make use of key middlegame tactics such as forking, skewering, double attacks, discovered attacks, removing the defender, deflections and more
- Be able to leverage essential endgame concepts and positions such as "Rule of the Square", Triangulation, the Vancura Defence, the Lucena position and others
- Be able to appreciate strong middlegame processes which prioritise forcing moves and enable you to calculate potentially many moves ahead
- Be able to leverage many important crystalised improving tips and winning tips gained from years of experience of Kingscrusher
- Be able to appreciate the instructive value and importance and humour of many famous chess quotations from masters of the past in their thoughts
Requirements
- Absolutely none - aimed at total chess beginners who don't even know the rules of chess!
Description
Welcome to The Complete Beginner's Guide to Chess! Are you a newcomer to this enthralling game, curious about the rules, and how the pieces move? This comprehensive course, crafted by FIDE CM Kingscrusher, is designed just for you.
What You Will Learn:
Starting from the very basics of chess, this course aims to build a solid foundation for your chess understanding. The course is divided into three main sections – Chess Openings, Middlegame, and Endgame. Each section is further divided into Introduction, Beginner, and Intermediate levels. This structure helps to ensure that each stage of your chess understanding is built on robust principles.
Course Features:
Fundamental understanding of chess rules and piece movements.
Study of various Openings and tactics, including major Opening Gambits.
In-depth exploration of Middlegame tactics and key Endgame positions.
Multiple examples and explanations to reinforce learning.
Utilization of a "concentric circles" model to solidify understanding.
Chess Openings Covered:
We will explore Opening "Systems" that you can use independent of your opponent's moves, major Openings that every player should be aware of, and dynamic Opening Gambits to improve your tactical understanding.
Middlegame Tactics:
Learn about Forking, Pinning, Skewering, and other crucial tactics.
Endgame Concepts:
Delve into essential Endgame concepts like the Opposition, King and pawn vs. King, Triangulation, and more.
Who This Course Is For:
This course is perfect for anyone completely new to chess or anyone wanting to solidify their understanding of the game's basic principles. If you've been inspired by The Queen's Gambit and want to take your first steps in the world of chess, this course is for you.
Who this course is for:
- Absolute beginners
- Intermediate and Advanced players if they have any tiny cracks either technically or philosophically which the course does not shy away from
Instructor
- 4.6 Instructor Rating
- 2,763 Reviews
- 13,787 Students
- 33 Courses
Tryfon Gavriel, also known as "Kingscrusher" on the Internet. I am a FIDE Candidate Master (CM), and British Regional Chess Master, and run a popular Youtube channel for many years with over 114k+ Subs as of 2021 and a Silver Button Award.
I have done many shows on commercial chess servers. I am also the Webmaster of the correspondence-style chess server Chessworld which emphasizes game quality and research.
Playing experience
Over 35 years of playing activity both online and offline. Peak ICC blitz rating of 2625 (18-Jun-1999). Peak ICC 5 min auto-pairing of 2383 (29-Jun 2012). ECF Grading peak classical: 212 (A) ECF. Peak Rapid rating: 217 (C).
Lichess marathon top 10 finishers in 4 marathons so far. Top 50 finisher in 8 marathons so far. Top 100 finisher in 4 marathons so far. And top 500 in 2 marathons so far. Won quite a few tournaments at lichess - in fact giving me 3rd rank overall behind Lance5500 and papasi in a recent detailed statistical blog analysis titled "Lichess Marathon Statistics".
One of my earliest Over-the-board achievements in Chess was winning the Lloyds Under 18 national UK tournament in 1989. My trophy was awarded to me by Grandmaster and Ph.D. Mathematician Dr John Nunn.
Teaching experience
I have done teaching in Schools and also have done teaching online with several Lichess students on a regular basis, and have a very good coaching rating at lichess.
Other experiences
Played twice in the main British Chess championship. Many of my Youtube viewers claim big rating increases after watching my videos.
Best skills
I particularly love attacking chess, chess tactics, and combinations, and it is probably no accident that my "Complete Guide to Chess Tactics" has been a best-seller shortly after its release here at Udemy.
In general, I will try and give you greater enthusiasm for the game and in particular the dynamic attacking, aggressive tactical aspects of playing chess. My favorite heroes are mainly Attacking style tactical players: Paul Morphy, Alexander Alekhine, Mikhail Tal, Bobby Fischer, and Garry Kasparov. if you want to be a dynamic aggressive attacking style player, I may be able to encourage you and find you relevant resources on that path. The dynamic aggressive attacking players were particularly strong tactically and would often trade off pawn structure neatness and material to try and checkmate the opponent's kings. Checkmate does win the game :) They were masters of finishing combinations naturally as they sought to reduce the king's safety of the opponent in various ways including bringing the King out for often beautiful mating combinations.
Chess Openings
In terms of concrete openings to make use of potentially teaching here at Udemy through courses. I like King-Attacking aggressive openings even with the black pieces like the King's Indian Defence to 1.d4 which my heroes Fischer, Kasparov, and Tal made use of extensively.
As White, I sometimes like Solid openings on such as the London System. I also like provocative openings like the Knight's Tango systems to encourage weaknesses from opponents.
I am also at faster time controls especially, particularly fond of aggressive openings and gambits. For example, the Smith-Morra Gambit vs the Sicilian Defence, and other gambits can be used aggressively even with the black pieces such as the Albin Counter Gambit. Gambits vary of course in soundness and it is important to teach what "ticks many boxes" for use in various time controls. Also, I like surprising opponents with openings such as the Nimzo-Larsen attack, the King's Indian Attack, The London System, and Queen's Knight attack system 1. Nc3, all of which I have courses for here at Udemy.
In the search for the ideal courses to provide you, I like to search within myself for my core strengths and passions within the passion of Chess.
I truly hope you enjoy my courses and they improve your chess and your enjoyment of chess generally - and life generally :)