2025 Club Championship begins this Saturday!

[Raluca]

Originally published at: https://killerchesstraining.com/2025/01/27/2025-club-championship-begins-this-saturday/

Dear Friends,

We have finalised the dates for this year’s Rapid Club Championship. It begins this Saturday, 1^st of February. As usual, we will have 6 heats, with a time control of 15+3. To participate, you need to be in this team.

The schedule will be the following (click on the links to go directly to Lichess, timings in LONDON time):

• Heat 1 – 1^st of February at 3 PM
• Heat 2 – 9^th of February at 5 PM
• Heat 3 – 15^th of February at 3 PM
• Heat 4 – 1^st of March at 5 PM
• Heat 5 – 8^th of March at 3 PM
• Heat 6 – 15^th of March at 5 PM

The top two players overall and u2100 will qualify for the final. Three best results will be counted to calculate the top scorers. We will use the following points system:

On Sunday 2nd we will have another friendly blitz tournament. You can join it here.

Starting February, we will also have two new courses. Sam will begin Technique with Sam. The usual time of his class will be Mondays at 1 AM UK time, except for the last 2 weeks of February, when he will be in Europe. Full timings are available in our February schedule.

We have already announced that our team has grown bigger. IM Andras Toth will begin his new course next week. He will talk about Attack and Counterattack in the Open Sicilian and will also do a US-friendly timing – Wednesdays, from 1 AM UK.

We remind you that GM Ivan Sokolov will have a 4-day online camp in February. The theme will be “The psychology of the tempo”. He will go through the psychology and the practicality of playing positions with reversed colours, such as the Sicilian Dragon (the English), Reversed Benoni, King’s Indian Attack and other variations.

If you are a new yearly member, meaning that you have purchased a yearly membership or renewed after the Christmas camp in December, you will receive this camp for free.

For everyone else, you can buy your participation ticket here.

Or become a yearly member and receive this camp for free, as a gift, here.

Registrations are still open for our in-person camp and tournament in Roquetas de Mar, Spain. The camp will start on the 3^rd and end on the 9^th. Your trainers will be GM Jacob Aagaard, GM Julen Arizmendi and GM Renier Castellanos. A detailed training schedule is available on the website, but we promise more than 30 hours of chess!

The 2^nd Killer Chess Training Open will begin on the 10^th. It will have 9 rounds and it will be possible to get norms. Full regulations are available on our website.

You can register for the camp, tournament or both by filling in this form.

We have negotiated special prices with the hotel, so if you are thinking about joining or have already decided to join, make sure you book the hotel via our website! Use the “Book Hotel” button on the website to see the discounted prices.

Kirthika gained 14 rating points in the Open U15 section of the National School Chess Championship.

Yahli is leading the Israeli Championship with only one more round to go!

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

Ready to elevate your chess game? Become a yearly member now!

[Aradhya]

Hello Ma’am,
Good morning!
Thank you for updating us with this!
A suggestion:

It would be great if players could be asked what would the mutually convenient time would be when the Heats could be held if possible.

For example, there are hardly any strong tournaments held in January (apart from Wijk) so having the Club Championships in January make a lot of sense (as far as what I see.)

The time control is also 15+3 and the number of rounds are 6, so it will take quite quite a long time. It hence makes it basically impossible to play it in the middle of OTB Tournaments as an example.

Was asking if something can come out of this discussion if possible.

Thank you!

[Raluca]

Hi Aradhya, asking hundreds of members what they would prefer is just not feasible. There are always strong tournaments. I can give you more than one example only in Spain, and only in January. I’m sure they are everywhere.
I’m not sure what your point about Wijk is; how many members are playing top tournaments of Tata’s caliber?
All of our club championship tournaments are friendly tournaments. We are not asking anyone to play during OTB tournaments or play at all. They are training sessions, for those who are not playing and want some strong sparring partners.

[Aradhya]

Hello Ma’am,
Good afternoon!
I understand that having hundreds of members and asking hundreds of members about it is difficult. I have heard many chess players say and put a point forth that January is usually quite empty in the Chess Calendar and it really really picks up in the 2nd half of the year.

I don’t know about all members of the Academy but Hans who was a member has played in Wijk; Sam Sir has played if I am not wrong in 1 or more editions, and there is a chance a lot of 2600+ players or some 2400+ female players get a chance as well given their selection criterions.

Yes, that is fine. I understand these are Friendly Tournaments. However, I actually do take these quite seriously. I remember having played a KCT Tournament for example after having my best TRP Performance ever back in 2023. However, I think maybe what you want to say is that do not be as serious about these tournaments.

Thank you,
Aradhya Garg

[Raluca]

No. Not to be as serious is certainly not what I am saying. The point that I am making is that it is impossible to accommodate everyone’s calendars, as much as we would like to. And that they are friendly, unlike any OTB tournament, of any caliber. That includes both prize-wise and rating-wise. Also, the elite that you mention is a very small group that historically hasn’t taken part in the our Club Championship.