Dear friends,
We can finally provide you with an update on the recent happenings at the Killer Chess Training website. Over the past month, we have made significant progress in resolving the access issues to our classes. While we initially hesitated to attribute the problem to hacking, we have since confirmed that our website was indeed targeted by systematic hacking attacks. It is disheartening to learn that almost all serious websites face constant threats, but we have taken proactive measures to safeguard our platform. We have sought advice from experts who recommended umbrella services to bolster our security. We want to reassure you that your financial and login details were never at risk, as we do not store them, online or offline. However, the attacks did disrupt the login process and caused intermittent downtime. And that is why, as a thank you for your patience, we offered all existing yearly members the Positional Play camp for free. Thank you for your understanding, your love, and your support.
To ensure a smooth flow of our classes, our forum played a crucial role, since it is hosted on an independent Discord server. If you haven’t already, please log in and leave a comment here to grant you access. We value your participation and want to ensure you have the necessary privileges.
If any of you continue to experience problems logging in, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. We are committed to ensuring that everything functions smoothly and efficiently. Our team has been working tirelessly, investing long hours to deliver the best experience possible.
We are also planning on rebuilding the website and improving the user interface. That is going to be Kallia’s task for the next months.
We are delighted to announce that Jacob successfully concluded his 15-hour camp on Positional Play. For all our yearly members, the camp will be available to watch for free until the end of August. We have uploaded all the examples covered in the camp, as well as those we couldn’t fit in, to chesstempo.com. To help you navigate the camp content, we have provided a topic list on the Forum, and a cheat sheet PDF will be uploaded next week on the course page.
As we return to our regular schedule, we have eight teaching sessions lined up for this week, with two sessions on Monday and one session per day on the remaining days.
Next Saturday, Renier will be organizing a Playing Position Simul. To assist those participating for the first time, we will release a video guide on our site in the Welcome Pack within the next few days. The simul will begin at 17:00 Central European Time (Berlin). Please ensure that you have entered our team in Lichess in advance to secure your spot (leave your email in the notes).
At 19:00 CET don’t miss GM Sabino Brunello’s class on Killer Openings: Beat the Animals. Beat the Animals gives you a chance to meet the most stupidly named openings and in some cases also the most stupid openings, and walk away with confidence that you can beat them in the future.
Looking ahead, we are excited to announce Sam Shankland’s upcoming camp on Strategy, scheduled for the end of August. Please refer to the provided link to read the conditions for participation.
Now, let’s shift our focus to some noteworthy results and ongoing tournaments. Renier came close to achieving his final GM-norm in the last round of the Benasque Open against Martirosyan. Though he had a winning position at one point, a missed opportunity led to losing control of the game. Nevertheless, Renier finished with a decent result.
The US Senior Championship is underway, with Vladimir being the top seed. You can follow the tournament’s progress.
Simultaneously, the US Junior Championship is taking place, where our friend Abhi Mishra holds the rating favorite title. Additionally, members Kirk, Josiah, and Arthur have the chance to prove once again their strength exceeds their ratings. Keep track of the tournament here.
We also want to congratulate our friend Praggnanandhaa for surpassing the 2700 rating milestone for the first time. His winning streak continues, and we couldn’t be happier for him. You can catch his games here.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t find any specific information about Aradhya’s performance in Batumi. If we come across any updates, we will share them with you soon.
Shahil participated in the Vojvodina Open, where he achieved an impressive score of 6/7 at one point. Although he scored only half a point in the last two rounds, he gained significant rating points and even defeated one of his rivals from India after a long fight. Well done, Shahil! You can find the tournament coverage here.
Finally, we’d like to mention that the highly anticipated World Cup in Baku is just around the corner. As of our last count, eight of our members have qualified for the tournament. While it is possible that one or two may not be able to attend, we are excited to follow the progress of the players representing us: Sam, Karthikeyan, Zhuo Ren, Prim, Josiah, and another member whom we cannot mention by name yet. We wish them the best of luck!
We hope you are enjoying the warm weather and finding ample opportunities to play chess. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Your friends at Killer Chess Training,
Jacob, Sam, and Kallia
