Killer Chess Training Newsletter
May the 4th (2021) be with you…
To our friends in India: stay safe. We worry about you a lot.
Once again about price increase coming
From July 1st we will have to register for UK VAT. It is inevitable. This means that 20% is added to all prices by the government. At the moment, when you pay us €599 for a membership, we have to pay fees in percentage of this. From July, when we are paid €749 for the membership, we will get paid €599 with higher fees. So, in the future, you will have to pay more and we will get less…
We are three owners, Sam, Kallia and Jacob. None of us take any salary or dividends for running the academy. Jacob and Sam do get salary as lecturers. With the other lecturers, we have given them salary increases twice in the last year, living up to our original promise of sharing progress with them.
We invest in the improvement of the academy and continue to make it better; we think. Below you will see some improvements.
Student successes
Volodar Murzin came 2nd in the Russian Junior Championship, and was at times leading the tournament. In the end this was a good result with a promise for the future. Volodar is currently in action in Russian Team Championship. Before today he has a score of 2 ½ of 3. You can follow him here: https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments/russian-team-championship-premier-league-2021/4/3/4
Camp evaluation survey
Those who participated in the exclusive section of the recent opening preparation camp have been sent a survey. We will include the results in next weeks newsletter.
A general survey about your satisfaction with the academy will be sent out next week.
GM Gawain Jones guest visit
The English international will visit the Academy for a session of Thinking Aloud on Thursday at 4pm London time, where he will test Jacob with a few positions from his forthcoming books on Coffee Repertoire 1.e4, which will be published at the end of June and somewhere in August.
New lessons coming
Sam Shankland will start a course called How to Learn a New Opening where he will be studying the d3-Spanish in real time. Sam is known for having a world class repertoire and this is a chance to see him in the lab. First lesson will be on the 8th of May.
Julen Arizmendi will start a course called Fundamental Piece Play aimed at our u1800 rated members. First lesson will be tomorrow, 5th of May.
Sabino Brunello will start a new course on the 20th. More later!
Jacob will start the course Jacob Teaches Renier the Endgame on Sunday the 9th. It is unclear how many episodes it will take to teach Renier the endgame, or for Jacob to give up in despair.
Playing Position on Saturday 15.30 London Time (Solutions 17.30)
Jacob will do another playing position on Saturday. To enter, join our simul team: https://lichess.org/team/killer-chess-training-simul
Notice that this is for this session only and not for future sessions. All members will be removed from the list after the event. Also: DO NOT JOIN if you are not going to take part. When the simul is announced 10 minutes before start on the team page, you need to join. It is not enough to join the team; you are not automatically in the simul.
Position of the week
Jacob is uploading small YouTube videos once a week with an exercise. You can find them in our YouTube channel. Please like and subscribe as it helps us keeping the business alive. Please share them on social media as well if you can.
U1700 Camp
We have had a number of members joining that must feel slightly overwhelmed at times in the classes. A number of our students will one day become grandmasters; some of them quite soon even.
For this reason, we will have some classes where only players under 1700 are allowed to ask questions and come with suggestions. Julen Arizmendi will do a series on Wednesdays on Fundamental Piece Play and we will have a new lecturer joining us from the middle of the month:
Peter Long is an experienced trainer from Malaysia, who used to be one of the strongest players of the country. Since then, he has taught a lot of up and coming players and had a student win the girls u12 championship in 2018. His current day job is as secretary of FIDEs Trainer’s Commission. Peter has been a member of the academy since the inception.
The first sessions with Peter will be at 3-5 am London time the 15th and 16th of May. These timings are designed specifically to work for our Asian and our US friends. It would be good if you are able to attend these first sessions live, so you can create a rapport with Peter.
Sunday tournament
Free of the camp, we will return to rapid chess over the next few weeks. The next tournament is Sunday 18.30 London time. If you want to play in our tournaments or want your friends to play our tournaments, we do accept everyone to join us at: https://lichess.org/team/killer-chess-training-blitzrapid-tournaments. We kicked one guy out because he started sending promotion stuff for another team, which is not the point… Otherwise it is good to have opponents.
Please only join the tournaments on the day, when you are sure you will be able to play.
Welcome to new members session
We have these sessions about once every 6-8 weeks. They are mainly about working your way around the academy and make sure you get the most value for your subscription. We will announce the next one in the near future.
Stay safe, stay happy
Your friends at Killer Chess Training