BEGINNER / INTERMEDIATE CLASSES
Practical Opening Tips for White
Speaker: GM Larry Christiansen (90 minutes)
Audience (Player Rating): up to 1400
Opening theory in chess is a science unto itself. For professional
players, often the opening analyses ends at move ? or even move 30 at
times. That's a very difficult task for anyone! Even constant study of
openings is no guarantee that you will get an advantage out of an
opening.
If Black plays accurately, Black and White will equalize. On the other
hand, there are numerous solid openings which lead to interesting games
without the need to memorize a multitude of variations. In this course,
we will cover:
- Opening principles
- The most popular club-level openings
- Tricky, tactical-based openings
Practical Opening Tips for Black
Speaker: GM Larry Christiansen (90 minutes)
Audience (Player Rating): up to 1400
A Black opening is one move behind, giving you less leeway in your
approach. While White can almost get away with purely following the
basic opening principles, when you play Black you've got to know exactly
what you are doing. You'll learn how to choose your opening based on
your personality and style:
Opening Disasters
Speaker: GM Joel Benjamin (90 minutes)
Audience (Player Rating): up to 1400
You don't have to put in long hours studying opening theory, but you
must develop a sense of sound, principled opening play. Examples of
openings gone horribly wrong will illustrate the deadly sins that cause
such calamities. The culprits will include:
- Running around with the queen
- Failure to castle promptly
- Inattention to threats
- Improper or slow development
Exploiting Structural Advantages
Speaker: GM Joel Benjamin (90 minutes)
Audience (Player Rating): up to 1400
Philidor spoke the truth centuries ago when he said, "pawns are the soul of chess." The placement of the pawns often confers an advantage to one side. Understanding how to make these advantages stand up can bring players lots of extra points. Structural advantages are long-term in nature and require patient handling. This class will feature exploitation of various advantages, including space, weak squares, and weak pawns.
Understanding Pawn Endings
Speaker: GM Joel Benjamin (90 minutes)
Audience (Player Rating): up to 1400
Failure in the endgame can spoil an otherwise well-played game, and pawn endgames provide the foundation for all other endings. We will build from basic positions to more complex ones, focusing on essential concepts like opposition, zugswang, the pawn "race," and triangulation. Other pieces occasionally join the picture as we explore liquidation into pawn endings and transformation into queen endings.
Rook Endgame Essentials
Speaker: GM Larry Christiansen (90 minutes)
Audience (Player Rating): up to 1400
In practical play, about 50% of all endgames are Rook endgames so we'll
devote time to learning important and common Rook endgames. In this
class you will learn:
- To win a "won" Rook endgame
- To save a difficult-looking Rook endgame to a draw
- Why it is usually best to keep behind the passed Pawn vs. in front or
on the side
- To work with the Philidor position
- To work with the Lucena position, and how to build bridges
- How to approach positions with one extra passed Pawn on one side and a
couple of Pawns each on the other side
- How to handle the exceptions — for instance, even when two extra Pawns
will not win
ADVANCED CLASSES
Bishop v. Knight
Speaker: GM Joel Benjamin (90 minutes)
Audience (Player Rating): 1400 – 1900
When is one better than the other? This course will examine positions
that favor each minor piece and good moments to swap one for the other.
Grandmaster Benjamin will share insight on piece values gained from his
experiences working on the Deep Blue project.
The Art of the Exchange Sacrifice
Speaker: GM Joel Benjamin (90 minutes)
Audience (Player Rating): 1400 – 1900
Effective use of the Exchange Sacrifice is a skill that often divides
masters from lower-rated players. Combinations that lead to checkmate or
material gain may be easily understood, but purely positional sacrifices
do not have to be mysterious. This course will use classic examples to
explain these and other key elements of such sacrifices:
The Art of Attack
Speaker: GM Larry Christiansen (90 minutes)
Audience (Player Rating): 1400 – 1900
This course is geared toward intermediate players who wish to hone their
chess attacking skills and increase their understanding of tactics.
In this class, we will go over two different approaches to attacking
chess:
- More-structured attacks (examples from Botvinnik and Kasparov)
- Personal intuition (examples from Shirov, Topalov, and Tal)
Making a Chess Plan
Speaker: GM Larry Christiansen (90 minutes)
Audience (Player Rating): 1400 – 1900
One of the most difficult tasks in chess is to make a plan. To pick the
right plan is even harder. In chess, there are short and long term
plans. This class will give you the knowledge of what hints to look for
in different types of positions based on the Pawn structure and other
variables.
Winning Won Games
Speaker: GM Larry Christiansen (90 minutes)
Audience (Player Rating): 1400 – 1900
Gaining a winning position is just half the battle. Actually overcoming
your opponent's stubborn resistance and forcing resignation is an
essential skill for the complete chess player. This class is designed to
improve this vital skill or "technique" by:
- Understanding how to evaluate positions so that you know when, and
when not, to take risks to close out the "won" games
- Comparing your options: finishing the "won" games in style versus
taking the sure bet
Use Your Imagination!
Speaker: GM Joel Benjamin (90 minutes)
Audience (Player Rating): 1400 – 1900
Surprising continuations abound in chess, waiting to be found by minds open to subtle and unconventional possibilities. Using examples from my own career, I will take you through the process of discovery of tactical combinations, positional maneuvers, and strategic plans. The imaginative solutions may seem the province of the grandmasters, but average Joes can train to look for hidden treasures, too
