VIDEO VERSION is available on our YouTube Channel.

This episode is a pre-season bonus pod. Season 9 of the podcast begins on Sunday, January 5, 2025. Moving forward, all episodes will have a full video version on our YouTube Channel, so whether you prefer to watch or listen, we've got you covered. A big THANK YOU to Brian Karen who helped prepare this episode. Topics this week include:

• Playing against the Catalan
• The ...Nh5 idea in the London System
• The dangers of obsessing over winning
• The "show me" methodology after a bad tournament

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This episode is our Season 8 Finale! Neal will be taking an extended end-of-year break and will return with Season 9 in January 2025. This week, we continue our discussion on chess teaching with a focus on materials, resources, and essential concepts for developing players.

Referenced Resources and Materials:

• Chess.com
• Chessable
• Practical Chess Exercises
• The Amateur's Mind
• Winning Chess Tactics
• Winning Chess Strategies
• Jeff Coakley books (red and green)
• Pandolfini's Endgame Course
• Openings: Starting Out series by Everyman Chess

Referenced Chess Concepts for Developing Players:

• General board vision and not hanging pieces
• Address gross blunders
• Basic mates with the heavy pieces (but arguably, don’t worry about mate with the Bishop and Knight)
• Basic mating patterns: back rank mate, Anastasia’s mate, Epaulette’s mate, Smothered mate, etc.
• Lots of mate-in-1 and mate-in-2 exercises 
• Stalemate
• Basic tactical themes (pins, forks, skewers, overloaded piece, etc.)
• 3-move combinations
• Basic opening principles
• Basic middlegame & positional ideas (minor pieces, pawn structure, space, initiative, King safety, files and squares). Things like “rooks belong on open files,” “Knights prefer closed positions,” “Queen and Knight is a lethal attacking combination”
• Basic endgame ideas (King and pawn vs. King, the opposition, square of the pawn, triangulation, outflanking, rooks behind passed pawns, passed pawn tactics, rook and pawn endings, opposite colored bishop endings, Queen vs. pawn on the 7th, etc.

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What are the qualities of a good chess coach? How can one become a chess teacher? How should lessons be organized and scheduled? This episode is Part One of Two about chess teaching from both the teacher and student point of view. This week we focus more on the former. We also cover the following topics:

• Annotating your own games
• Is there a "rating ceiling" no matter how hard one works to improve?
• Can you take notes during an OTB tournament game?
• How to find time to play OTB games as a busy adult

Referenced:

• How to Reassess Your Chess, 4th Ed. (Amazon)
• Ep. #15: When It's Your Turn to Move
• Ep. #124: Are Amateur Players Qualified to Coach Chess?

📧 If you have a question or topic idea for a future episode, e-mail us at [email protected].

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The Amazon link above is an affiliate link. Qualifying purchases help support the podcast at no additional cost to you.

This week, we share our thoughts about online chess cheating. We believe it is rampant, while the online servers seem to downplay the amount of cheating taking place. We hypothesize that cheaters are using specific methods in an attempt to avoid detection, and we created nicknames for these players. We discuss the following cheating personalities and more:

• Larry "Long Pause"
• Sal "Smooth Moves"
• Oliver "Obvious Recapture"
• Donald "Decoy Move"
• Peter "Perfect Attack"
• Orlando "Only When Needed"
• David "Deliberate Early Blunder"

Referenced:

• Long Island Chess Club YouTube Channel (instructional videos for busy adult club players - still a work in progress...)

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This week, Neal discusses attacking play for the amateur player. Arguably, club players should approach attacks differently than titled players. This episode is divided into three segments:

• Listener Mailbag (elderly advice, withdrawing from tourneys, improvement realities)
• Does US Chess appreciate its local tournament directors? (opinion piece)
• 7 attacking tips for the club player

Referenced:

• The Seven Deadly Chess Sins (Amazon)
• Chess for Tigers (Amazon)

📧 If you have a question or topic idea for a future episode, e-mail us at [email protected].

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The Amazon links above are affiliate links. Qualifying purchases help support the podcast at no additional cost to you.

Beating or drawing higher-rated opponents stems from winning the psychological game, since attempting to outplay them based solely on chess skill usually fails. We also discuss the following:

• Stop doing THIS and your rating will increase
• Opening choices
• Queenside castling: many forget to follow up with THIS move
• Why the Queen's Indian Defense is so powerful at the club level
• The "correct" time to consider offering a draw
• Playing & directing in the same event

Game Referenced: 2013 vs. Neal (G/90;d10)

1. c4 b6 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. d4 Bb7 4. a3 e6 5. Bg5 Be7 6. e3 O-O 7. Nf3 Ne4 8. Bxe7 Qxe7 9. Qc2 Nxc3 10. Qxc3 Be4 11. Nd2 Bb7 12. O-O-O d5 13. Kb1 dxc4 14. Bxc4 Nd7 15. f3 c5 16. Nb3 Rac8 17. d5 exd5 18. Bxd5 Bxd5 19. Rxd5 Nf6 20. Rd2 Rfd8 21. Rhd1 Rxd2 22. Qxd2 h6 23. e4 Qe6 24. Nc1 c4 25. Ne2 Qe5 26. Qd6 Qb5 27. Nc3 Qg5 28. e5 Qf5+ 29. Ka1 Ne8 30. Qd7 Qxd7 31. Rxd7 Nc7 32. Ne4 Ne6 33. Kb1 Rc7 1/2-1/2

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James Nidds is a 58-year-old amateur player and LI Chess Club regular rated 1808 (US Chess) at the time of this recording. He offers a great deal of advice and perspective on chess improvement as an adult. Talking points include the following & more:

• Beginners should focus on these THREE things
• The FOUR characteristics all good players possess
• How to handle opponents who play aggressively
• Why the 2000 Kasparov-Kramnik match changed James' approach permanently
• A sample chess study regimen
• James' belief that electronic training tools are more effective than books
• Why the idea that amateurs "should not spend too much time on openings" may be inaccurate for some players

Referenced:

Viktor Korchnoi - Sofia Polgar Speed Chess Match

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After much planning and preparation, you're excited to play in a 6-round weekend event, but find yourself 0-3 heading into round 4 and feeling frustrated and dejected. Should you finish out the tournament or withdraw? We take a look at this and more. Topics covered:

• Weekend vs. club events
• Why tournament conditions favor stronger players
• Should you play "up?"
• The "sunk cost fallacy" and tournament psychology
• How to respond to "tilt"

Referenced:

The instructional videos below are from the LI Chess Club YouTube Channel which is in the early stages. All videos feature positions from amateur games and cover themes and ideas you will actually face on a regular basis. The goal will be to have videos that are approx. 7-12 min. in length so that busy adults will be able to consume them. 

• 3 Tactics That BOTH Players Miss
• Trapped Piece Tactics
• Players Rated 1000: Common Errors

✔ FIDE Rating Deflation Adjustment (chess.com article)

✔ Ep. 99: How to Approach Chess Study as a Beginner/Adv. Beginner

✔ Ep. 71: NM James Altucher

📧 If you have a question or topic idea for a future episode, e-mail us at [email protected].

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What are the qualifications to be a "good" chess player? This week's episode is a reaction to the Reddit post When Can You Tell Someone You Are Good at Chess? We cover the following and more:

• Should you tell your opponent he forgot to press his clock?
• How to play against kids
• The dangers of "coffee house" chess
• Is it the hours you put in or what you put in the hours?

Referenced:

• The World's Most Instructive Amateur Game Book (chess.com forum)
• The World's Most Instructive Amateur Game Book (lichess study)

📧 If you have a question or topic idea for a future episode, e-mail us at [email protected].

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This week's offering is a dedicated Listener Mailbag episode. We cover the following and more:

• Using "inflection points" to improve
• Does using a chess engine "turn off your brain?"
• Should you study with an amateur chess coach?
• Is rating deflation real?

Leave a voicemail message! 🎙

📧 If you have a question or topic idea for a future episode, e-mail us at [email protected].

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• Website
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• YouTube
• Buy Me a Coffee