Dear Friends,
Sabino will start his new course today. It will be called Beat the Punks and will also be a part of the Killer Openings theme. He will show how to react against modern openings such as the London, Reti, Jabava London, Bird and many more.
He will also give a playing position simul this Saturday, from 4:30 PM UK time. Participants will start from a given position (usually a better one) and Sabino will have to defend. To take part in the simul, you need to be in this team. When you apply for it, please give your name and membership email, otherwise your request will not be accepted. The link for the simul will be made available in the schedule 10 minutes before the start of the simul. It will also be sent on lichess, through a private message, to all members of the team.
Boris Gelfand will have another Tortoise Method class this Sunday. He will start at 5:30 PM UK time.
If you are a yearly member, your membership includes special access to the files we have on Chesstempo. To receive it, please remember to send us an email and give us your username! We only accept people who are yearly members of the academy, so this step is highly important.
A reminder that the homework club is taking a short break over the holidays. This week we will have the last review classes of the year. New homework sheets will be uploaded on the 27th of December and the first review class will happen on the 6th of January.
The Christmas Camp will start soon. It will take place between the 27th and 30th of December. GM Ivan Sokolov will be the host and will talk about 12 Paths from the Opening into the Middlegame.
The training will take time between 17.00 and 20.30 London time each day (9:00-12:30 California, 12:00-15:30 New York, 18:00-21:30 CET). There will be two 15-minute breaks. The camp will offer you a full 12 hours of training.
New yearly members and yearly renewals between the 7th of November and 27th of December will receive this camp for free, as a welcome gift. Everyone else who would like to participate needs to purchase the camp in our shop. If you are a member, remember to log in first to have the members’ discount applied to the camp!
Click here to purchase the camp or here to become a yearly member and receive this camp for free!
We have two big announcements regarding the upcoming 2026 in-person camp. First and most importantly, we know who our special guest will be! Former Women’s World Champion is our guest in 2026. She will give a masterclass, a simul and will share her experience with participants. She will also be available for a friendly blitz or two.
Secondly, we are honoured to have David Llada with us next year! You will not only train some chess, but will also go home with some nice pictures…
Registrations for the camp are open. If you’d like to join us, here are a few technical details. The camp will take place in the 4* resort Zoraida Garden in Roquetas de Mar, Spain, between the 17th and the 24th of May. Your trainers will be GM Jacob Aagaard, GM Renier Castellanos, GM Julen Arizmendi and GM Alexandra Kosteniuk.
Check the archive section of our website to get an idea about how the camp was structured last year. In the gallery section you can find some photos from the event.
Participants who will register and pay the camp fee before the 15th of February 2026 will receive a gift consisting of 6 books. Four of them will be available to choose from a list. The other two will be with free choice.
To sign up, please fill in the registration form, here. More information is available on our website.
The year is ending strong for some of you!
Arshiya finished 3rd in the Women’s Indian Championship! She started with a loss in the first round, but bounced back and finished with 2/2. This comes after winning her age group (U15) a while back, with no less that 10.5 points out of 11!
Sabino played in the Austrian League last week and scored 4.5/5 against strong opponents, gaining 14 rating points.
Aradhya is playing in the Sunway Sitges Festival.
Tarun and Trisha are in Poland, playing the Wroclaw Chess Festival.
Have you been playing any tournaments? We want to know! Let us know on the forum or on social media.
Your friends from Killer Chess Training
Coming up in December: 12 hours camp with GM Ivan Sokolov – free for new yearly members and renewals (sign-ups between the 7th of November 2025 and 27th of December 2025)
