Originally published at: https://killerchesstraining.com/2023/12/19/restructuring-the-academy/
Newsletter 19 December 2023
Dear members,
First of all, Happy Holidays to all who celebrate the oncoming green-red holiday attack! If you do not, we still hope you will participate in our celebration! We hope 2023 has been generous to you and would like to hear from you what you feel grateful for and proud of this year in chess on the Forum.
Results
We had a lot of great results recently. Arshiya was 5th and unbeaten in the Indian u13 girls championship, Trisha Won Best Woman Chess Player at Skopje, and Michael Adams won the London Chess Classic, which was the first time an Englishman won the event. The World Senior Champion called it his best-ever result, which is intriguing in a career that includes two World Championship finals; but taking his age (52) into consideration, he genuinely felt that way.
Holiday Camp
Remember we have Bloody Christmas from 27th Dec to 2nd January – a 21-hour in-depth camp on attacking chess with Jacob. The course is free for those who have recently joined or renewed. You can check after the 23rd of December if the camp has been manually added to your account. If you are not up for renewal but would like to make use of this link, you can renew anyway. The extra year will be added to your account.
We will have morning classes with a lot of the other trainers over the holiday season, but on the days when there are no other scheduled classes, the first hour of the camp will be available for free for all members.
Gift cards
We now offer gift cards in the shop! At the moment, we offer the option of €50, €100, monthly membership, yearly membership.
Goodbye 2023
2023 has been a good year for Killer Chess Training. We had a lot of good courses and we, the trainers, have had a great time interacting with you, the students. We hope you had the same experience!
2024
In 2024 we will have a more structured approach to the classes. The training will be structured in two levels of teaching.
Level 1
These will be the repeatable lessons that will continue throughout the year and for years to come (albeit always with new material). These will include:
Monday – A repertoire class & New Ideas in the Opening
Tuesday – Friendly Homework
Wednesday – Killer Homework
Thursday – Theoretical Endgames & Analyse My Tournament
Friday – Strategy Foundations
Saturday – Practice lesson
Some classes will be well-known and hold no surprises. The homework classes, New Ideas and Analyse My Tournament.
We will aim to build various repertoires over the year and include them all on Chesstempo. We will never be able to meet all your opening needs, but we will try to give you ideas, options, and foundations as we progress.
The theoretical endgame course is likely to run for a long time before everything has been covered. We will give you the material in two different formats on Chesstempo – as a file representing the classes faithfully, and a file structured to help you with repetition training of the endgames. Swayams has agreed to be in charge of this ambitious project.
The practice lessons we have had some of in the past, especially the recent past. They will become more regular in the years to come. We can never escape the central piece of repetition in the development and maintenance of skill. At the academy, we will help you do your training, not just by encouraging you, but also by providing structure for you to lean on.
Later in the year, the strategy will be replaced with the basics of calculation, advanced calculation, and positional play – though not necessarily in that order.
There will be substitutes, flexibility, regrouping, and all the other things you would expect in an academy where most of the trainers are active players too. However, the core of the academy will be centered around these classes.
Level 2
At university, many will have the experience of having had classes that most likely have never been taught anywhere else, nor ever will. We had a lot of these and will continue to do so. Having classes working on the basics is foundational, but there also needs to be space for more specialized classes. Currently, we have TRICKY POSITIONS with GM Stany, CHAOS with Tiger Hillarp Persson, HOW I WON THE UKRAINIAN CHAMPIONSHIP, which GM Oleksiyenko is wrapping up at the moment, CONVERTING AN EXTRA PAWN with GM Shankland, which is also coming to an end – and GM Akopian with PLAYING THE ELITE.
Some of these will continue in the new year. Ivan Cheparinov will return with a few classes in PAWN SACRIFICES IN THE MIDDLEGAME and new classes will begin throughout the year.
Tournaments & Events
We have been a bit slow with organizing events in the autumn. This will change in the new year. The first event will be our blitz and bullet championships in January. We will let you know more soon. We will also have some simuls and playing simuls. And in April/May, we will have the rapid championship again.
Students of the year!
We will award two gift cards to the students of the year and the u2100 student of the year. Please email your application and reasoning for this to [email protected] and mark it STUDENT OF THE YEAR. Past winners can win this year too. Results, effort, achievements. The main reason is the reason you give us!
The topics for the Holiday Camp are:
27th Dec – The importance of Momentum
28th Dec – Include all the pieces in the attack
29th Dec – Colour & Size
30th Dec – Attack the weakest square/ attack the strongest square
31st Dec – Evolution/Revolution
1st Jan – The King Hunt, King in the Centre and Killzone
2nd Jan – Training your attacking skills and great attacking games As always, new yearly memberships and renewals get the camp for free! Secure your place here!
Your friends at Killer Chess Training,
Kallia, Jacob, and Sam