Chess Courses by GM Igor Smirnov

[jps7]

Hi Chess friends,

It seems GM Igor Smirnov has come up with an excellent compact endgame strategy course at the link

http://chess-teacher.com/home#oid=1014_5

Can someone please review it if it is worth buying.

[jps7]

it seems GM is not good at web design or even marketing but today I purchased his "An Endgame Expert" course also and found it the best course for "middle to end game transitions". I think, Any beginner shall watch it 50 times and intermediate player 25 times and he can plan entire game in a tournament and win it because many advanced players are not well versed with the clear ideas provided by GM in the endgame course. And if you fear openings, "GM opening laboratory" provides you selected openings where your opponent can not get any advantage against you whatever variation he plays. GM igor's research is fantastic.

[paulyne]

What is a good way to analyze my chess games? I recently started notating my chess games, but I am not sure what to do with the notations. What is the best way to analyze a chess game?

[tomgdrums]

What is a good way to analyze my chess games? I recently started notating my chess games, but I am not sure what to do with the notations. What is the best way to analyze a chess game?

Hi!

I am no great chess player but here is the way my coach instructed me to analyze games (be it my own game or the game of another)

1) No engine use until later in the process!

2) Go over the game looking for tactical mistakes or blunders. Also look at how this affected material advantages for either side. Try to find the better move(s) than the mistake in the game.

3) Go over the game again looking at strategic and positional considerations. Try to find the places where the game turned. And again without an engine look for better alternatives.

4) Using a good book and database (such as the Hiarcs opening book) go over the opening and see where each side deviated. Make some notes and figure out why the book move might or might not be better.

5) Do a quick blunder check with an engine.

6) And now let an engine or two or three check out the critical tactical, strategic and opening moves from your previous analysis. Let the engines spend some time on these important moves.

7) After the engines have made their choices enter them into the notation (if they have different thoughts...enter them all)

And here is an important part...now go and try to figure out which engine's moves you like best and why! Spend some time moving the pieces around and checking the engine's variations. Try to understand why the engine picked what it picked.

9) Finally if it is the game of a master and you have an annotated version of it in a book, compare that to all of your analysis as well.

It takes awhile but I have never failed to learn from it!

I hope this helps.

[shiv]

Hi Chess friends,

It seems GM Igor Smirnov has come up with an excellent compact endgame strategy course at the link

http://chess-teacher.com/home#oid=1014_5

Can someone please review it if it is worth buying.

I looked over a Smirnov excerpt after the above comment. Its not bad material at all, but there are a few radical claims:

1. GM Smirnov says that endgame books do not help because they mainly cover theoritical positions. That does a lot of discredit to authors like Dvoretsky, Sherevsky, Nunn, Muller etc.

2. He says that endgame skills can be automated, but its actually something that takes years of experience as the author himself knows.

Personally, I prefer a book like "Endgame Strategy" by Shereshevsky or "How to play chess endgames" by Muller.

If one prefers video format, it might not be a bad purchase. However for the price of $98, getting the chessbase DVD volumes by Muller on the endgames gives a lot more instruction for a lower price. Each of Muller's videos has over 6 hours of instruction and plenty of exercises and is about $30.

In summary, its not bad material but is quite expensive.