Happy birthday to Doug Eckert! Doug is 36. Again…
Submissions to homework club are slightly down over the last 1-2 months, which is natural, as people are busy playing tournaments! We still want to remind you that a lot of people in the academy have gotten serious improvement out of consistent solving and submission. It is a training method that has worked for more than 50 years and it still works. It is great to attend lessons and participate in guided learning, but combine it with “a chess workout” and you will benefit much further. Abstract knowledge (chess understanding) is an important part of becoming a better chess player. But the decision-making process is a practical dimension that cannot be improved abstractly.
Homework Club:
Solve it – you are provided a structure; use it!
Submit – helps you stay honest and motivated!
Don’t fall for the trap of downloading it and believing that you will solve them later…
Ideally, split it over two days, do the tactics on one day and the mixed sheet in one session, spending 60 minutes only, training yourself in time management, and making decisions.
To the stronger players, we strongly recommend that you do the Friendly Homework too if you have the time. It is not just about the difficulty of the solving, also about training pattern recognition and quick consistent decision making.
Training and camps going forward
Sam Shankland will in general be a lot around in the coming two and a half months. Maybe a rapid tournament or two beckons, but otherwise he will be giving plenty of lessons at KCT.
We have after a long discussion decided not to have a camp at the end of November, as we had originally considered. The decision is simple: most people will get all chess’ed up from the World Championship. It will be misspent energy.
Bloody Christmas will return! Once again, we shall survive the gloom of other people’s overly happy yappy Christmas cheer by a good dose of chess gory! As before, we will have a 1-hour daily lesson free for all members, and an intensive, in-depth camp with a daily 3-hour session. The principles of dynamic chess remain the same; even if the material will be all new. It will be for sale soon and there will be a discount for those that sign up before 21st November and of course a discount for members.
Our LiChess Club
Only a few people showed up for the rapid tournament Sunday. With everyone out playing real tournaments, this is actually a good thing. But it also means that we will have to be more selective going forward.
The first thing we will do is to have a playing position simul on the 13th November, 4 pm London time. As usual, joining details will be available a few days before. We have not yet experienced a situation where anyone who wanted to join was rejected.
Soon after we will start the heats for our club championship in blitz. We apologize for not having organized it sooner, but we have simply been overloaded. And it is an additional fun thing to do – not a part of the membership package.
Members and trainers in action
Alexander Motylev survived being the oldest player in the Russian Championship with a strong 50% score and a solid rating gain.
Ivan Cheparinov started yesterday in the Grand Swiss in Riga. As well as Hans Niemann.
Arshiya played over the board tournament last weekend. It was an open prize money tournament. She scored 5/6 and finished 3rd.
Shahil was playing in Bangladesh and had a decent tournament.
News from the Spice Cup: Christopher Yoo, tied for second place, Ryo finished with 5/9, Brian with 4½/9 and made Levy Rozman (GothamChess) ‘s life a bit unpleasant, as explained in this video. Ryan Amburgy also played, finished 4½/9, and gained about 50 rating points and Doug got the first prize for senior.
Ireland won the Silver at the European Youth Chess Championship 2021. See here the video of the virtual Prize giving ceremony, where Trisha received the Silver.
Jacob Sylvan won the B Group in the Danish Championship with 5½/7 and Sune finished shared second in the A group.
Michael and Jonas will be playing the Offene Bayerische Meisterschaften at Tegernsee starting October 30.
Apologies to the members who are not mentioned here, so please write about your upcoming tournaments on the forum and ask any questions you might have!
Your friends at Killer Chess Training,
Kallia, Jacob, and Sam