Happy Teachers Day to all Chess Coaches & Instructors!

 

Happy Krishna Janmashtami from Nagesh Chess Academy

Happy Krishna Janmashtami to all from Nagesh Chess Academy

Nagesh Chess Academy wishes all Indians a Happy 75th Independence Day

 

Mikhail Nekhemyevich Tal

Article by Pranav Nagesh 

Mikhail Tal was a great chess player. 

He was born on November 9, 1936 in Riga, Latvia and was taught chess by his father. By the age of 6, he was a prodigy in Chess, defeating players much stronger than his age. 

He was a genius and was referred to by his peers as a magician in chess. He became the 8th World Champion defeating Mikhail Botvinnik in 1960. At the age of 23, he was the youngest person to hold the World Championship title.

Mikhail Tal was a fierce attacking player. There are many famous games of Mikhail Tal defeating many top grandmasters. Brilliant sacrifices, unforeseen combinations and unexpected attacking resources was the unique style of Mikhail Tal. 
He played openings like Sicilian Defense (with both colors), the King's Indian Defense, the Modern Benoni Defense and the Ruy Lopez. 
Unfortunately Tal died at a young age on 28 June 1992. He died in a Moscow hospital, after a prolonged illness, officially of a hemorrhage in the esophagus as he used to smoke a lot. 
The great Tal is still alive in his brilliant games. Below i present one of his miniature games.

White: Mikhail Tal
Black: Jan Timman
Skopje Olympiad Final, 1972
1.Nf3 g6 2.e4 d6 3.d4 Nf6 4.Nbd2 Bg7 5.Bc4 O-O 6.Qe2 c6 7.Bb3 Bg4 8.e5 dxe5 9.dxe5 Nd5 10.O-O Nd7 11.h3 Bf5 12.Re1 Qc7 13.Nf1 Rad8 14.Ng3 Be6 15.Qe4 Rfe8 16.Qh4 f6 17.Bh6 Nxe5 18.Rxe5 fxe5 19.Ng5 Bf6 20.Nxe6 1-0

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Chess & Yoga

 

Types of Center control in Chess

There are 2 types of Center control in Chess: Direct and Indirect

Direct control --> Pawns --> Occupy and Control the Center

Indirect control --> Pieces --> Control the Center remotely

Direct control (pawns) is better than Indirect control (pieces).

3 phases or stages of a Chess game: Opening, Middle Game, Endgame

The 3 phases or stages of a Chess game are the Opening, Middle Game and the Endgame

How to defend a Check in Chess

There are 3 ways to defend a Check in Chess

1. Move the King away from Check
2. Block the Check with another Piece/Pawn
3. Capture the Piece/Pawn giving Check

More details on my Lichess study

Chess Coordinates Training

Here is the link to practice Chess coordinates.

Square Name = File Name + Rank Name

https://lichess.org/training/coordinate

4 Pawn Weaknesses in Chess - Doubled, Isolated, Backward, Hanging

 

Two Strongest Moves in Chess - Check and Capture

 

Chess Square Names (Notation)

Square Name = File Name + Rank Name

Opening Repertoire for Beginner Chess Players

In my experience as a Chess coach, the below Openings (with variations) are the best choice to prepare a Repertoire for Beginner Chess players.
The variations are selected due to their similarity in Pawn structure.

The ECO Codes are in Blue color.

Playing as White

1. Giuoco Piano Bd2 Main Line C53

2. Giuoco Piano Nc3 Gambit Line with 9....Ne5 C54

3. Giuoco Piano Nc3 Gambit Line with 9....Bf6 C54

4. Four Knights opening C49

5. Scotch opening C44

6. Smith-Morra Gambit B20

7. Kings Gambit Accepted C33

8. Ruy Lopez Modern variation C71

9. Sicilian Alapin variation B22

10. French defense Exchange variation C01

11. Caro-Kann defense Exchange variation B13

12. Pirc Defense Modern variation B07

13. Alekhine Defense Main line B04

14. Center-Counter defense B01

15. Philidor defense C41

16. Modern defense B06

Playing as Black

1. Two Knights Defense C55

2. Kings Gambit Declined C30

3. Ruy Lopez Exchange variation C68

4. Queens Gambit Declined Tartakower variation D59

5. English opening A10

6. Reti opening A04

Me, my Chess and FIDE Instructor Title

Article authored by Nagesh Jayaram (FIDE ID 5058414) for the AICCF Bulletin Feb 2021.

Chess has been probably the only sport which has become more popular during the Covid pandemic. More people have started playing Chess, more events were organized Online, and thanks to Technology, the Chess players found new ways to play with each other, share their experiences and continue their Chess journey.
One of the commercially rewarding activities has been Chess coaching. As more and more children are learning Chess, there is a rush for Parents to find Online mediums for playing, practicing and learning Chess. This increase in demand has fueled the rise of many more coaches who are ready and available to teach Chess.

However, it is very difficult for parents to differentiate between the available coaching options because many of them are not very knowledgeable in the technical aspects of Chess. Also coaching is an Art and not every good player can become a good coach. Great Coaches and Trainers inspire their students to achieve their highest potential. The relationship between the coach and student is an interesting and sensitive one, it is not about what the coach wants to do, but it should be about what the student is capable of doing.

Even though i have been coaching students for the last 20 years, i realized the importance of gaining a formal Qualification in Chess Coaching. It would be like a validation for the parents and give them more confidence in myself as a Coach.
FIDE (The International Chess Federation) offers several Titles for aspiring Coaches. The process for getting these titles is explained in the details in the below link:
http://trainers.fide.com/

Various FIDE endorsed Academies organize Seminars in which reputed Grandmasters who have good experience in Coaching train the attendees in various aspects of Chess coaching and explain the required Chess knowledge. It is required to formally apply to these Seminars and confirm the attendance to them. Below is the link listing the upcoming seminars:
http://trainers.fide.com/category/seminar-news/upcoming-seminars/

Few important points to remember is that weightage is given to the actual strength of the Coach as a chess player (measured by FIDE Rating). The experience of the Coach in Training, the level of students trained, the results achieved by the students and the years since the coach is training, all these matter in evaluation for awarding the Title.

Personally for me, my experience with AICCF helped me in practicing the forgotten art of Analysis in Chess. Especially in Online Chess, Blitz and Bullet formats are very popular. So detailed analysis of a position to find out the best moves is crucial to improving your strength as a Player or a Coach.

Online Link to this Article

Anatoly Karpov

Article written by my student Jeremy Tomy

Grandmaster Anatoly Karpov is considered to be one of the greatest chess players of all time, and is the 12th World Champion in chess (1975-1985). He was born on May 23rd, 1951, in the city of Zlatoust, Russia. Karpov had started playing chess from the age of four. Due to his talent he had shown, his career started to grow immensely, and over time, he earned the Grandmaster title at the age of 19. Some of Karpov’s most notable games are, Karpov vs Kasparov, 1984, Karpov vs Anand, 1998, Karpov vs Spassky, 1979, and so forth. In 1969, Karpov was the first Soviet player to win the World Junior Chess Championship title. Therefore, we can see that Anatoly Karpov was one of the greatest, most brilliant, and most dominant chess players of all time.

Karpov profile on Chess.com

Best games of Karpov on Chessgames.com