To mark the moment of being in a flight, I take pictures like these for myself. It can help in situations like these, where you are not sure how to begin a blog post.

window seat
i continue
looking for God

I planned to play in three main tournaments: Budapest Round Robin, Aeroflot Open and the Reykjavik Open. The Aeroflot organizers were able to include the flights in their traditional package, with additional costs for the connecting flights to Budapest and Reykjavik.

I was given double entry to Moscow, but my itinerary involved three stops at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport. Fortunately, the airport has the transfer facility which made it easy to check-in until the final destination. So, I was checked-in from New Delhi until Budapest. You can find more information here:  https://www.aeroflot.ru/ru-en/information/airport/transit

After reaching Budapest, I was told at the Lost & Found counter that my luggage had not arrived and that they would send the bag on the next flight. I checked into the Berlin Hotel and went around to buy some clothes as I had no clothes in my hand baggage. What’s the bright side about this? I get to buy new clothes in Budapest 🙂

#Tip 1: Have at least one set of clothes in your hand baggage 

#Tip 2: Never keep all the money in one bag. Divide it.

#Tip 3: When things don’t go as per your plan, take a moment to look at the bright side

The official hotel – Berlin is located at Epitesz Utca.

View from my room: You can also see the tournament venue.

Mandige

What’s for lunch in Budapest? It is Mandige. A sweet that I love very much 🙂  During the middle of the tournament, the organizer – Nagy Laszlo took us to a lovely restaurant. I shared mandige with them and they all loved it!

https://allaboutbelgaum.com/specials/mande-mandige-sweet-tradition/ 

Restaurant – Highly recommended. It is close to the venue of the event. Clockwise: Martin from Germany is at the centre, Nagy next to him – Another Marin, but from Slovakia – Jon from Faroe Islands, Khan from Iran, Daniel Howard Fernandez from the UK and yours truly.

Restaurant

Laszlo munching on Mandige

And if you are in Budapest, don’t miss their famous dessert Somloi Galuska

Somloi Galuska

I also visited an Indian restaurant called Indian Curry Corner.

You can find an interesting story about this on my Instagram:

I found an Indian Restaurant at Budapest. Had paneer butter masala and naan. But, that’s not the main story. I saw a European woman helping her daughter with her homework in the restaurant. It is one thing I had never seen before. They were really enjoying filling the blanks with vowels and consonants. They high-fived every time the daughter found the answer.
After they were done with the homework, the daughter asked for a page to draw. They didn’t have any, so the daughter picked the tissue paper and started drawing.
Now, comes the best part. She drew an image and colored it. While I got up to wash my hands, I took a peek and was stunned.
She had drawn a board with light and dark squares.
There is something different about people with blue eyes!
While I was going back to my room, I realized what could have triggered that. The clue is in one of the pictures 🙂 #Budapest #IndiansInBudapest #stories#storiesofinstagram

My friend Shangmughanathan found the answer 🙂

Some more pictures that caught my attention:

I won’t bother you much with the must-visit places of Budapest. When you go to Budapest, you will find it exciting if you discover that part on your own.

Coming to chess, the tournament was very well organized. I had many interesting conversations with the organizer as we spent a lot of time together, especially after the games. We used to go out to the restaurant with other players. 

The advantage of a round-robin event is that you get to know the players in advance. Though there are last minute changes in the players list, but most of the players remain intact. This was my first experience in the round-robin format and I liked it very much. The results were not great as I struggled with my form. But, there were fighting games and as Laszlo put it ‘My tournament is not a norm factory. Fighting games are played here’

This is a position from the first round of my game against Dale Ari. White to play

My win in the tournament came out well against Havasi Gergo.

How did white wrap up the game instantly?

Annaberdiev Meilis of Turkmenistan and Daniel Fernandez tied for first with 6.5 points but Annaberdiev won the event on a better tiebreak.

Laszlo has been organizing the tournament for more than three decades now. He worked as a chemistry professor in the military prior to organizing events. He told me an interesting story about how important it is to be on time. He asked me to convey this to my friends as well.

“There is a war going on between two armies. One army decides to take a longer route, so a part of this team decides to keep firing until 7.30 to keep the enemy busy as part of deflection. Exactly at 7.30, their team is supposed to stop firing because – 7.30 is the estimated arrival of the team to the enemy territory and if they DON’T stop firing, they kill their own army.”

With this story, Laszlo remarks that keeping your word, and being on time is very important for humans.

I was very curious about the jacket that Laszlo was wearing. I asked him about it and he promised to take me to the shop so that I could buy it as well. It is very useful to have many pockets of different sizes. It is very famous in Budapest and it is called Meilin. We went around and asked at different places, including Decathlon. But, we found it at a hunter’s shop – all credit to Laszlo’s intuition.

You can see me with the Meilin Jacket on.

Laszlo with his wife

We also went for a walk on the hills. They have a group with a guide and Laszlo’s wife is one of the guides who is part of such trips.  At every stop, the members put some food for the birds.

The walk was in memory of a guide who passed away recently. It was a memorable one!

I would like to mention two other restaurants:

Uj-Hazi-Vendeglo (Eat all that you want)

A traditional buffet restaurant with yummy desserts too!
#Tip 4: When in Budapest, have the local food.

I had a gap of four days before my flight to Moscow. On one of those days, I met a Kannadiga on the streets. Interesting, isn’t it? We also went to an Indian restaurant.

If you meet someone from Hungary, make it a habit to say yo napot kivanok. It is a nice greeting which translates to “I wish you a good day/good time”

#Tip 5: Learn the basics of their language, it helps!

And a few more : #Tip 6: When you are about to book or check the ticket prices, always browse in incognito mode. The prices will remain same most of the time. for the second check. (Credit : Jan Gustaffson) 

#Tip 7: After your international travel, you will eventually book a domestic flight to go back home. In that case, Air India offers the maximum baggage when compared to other airlines. (Credit : GM Sundarajan Kidambi)

Of all the stories in the Budapest, Queen Sissy’s story fascinated me very much. https://dailynewshungary.com/sisi-queen-of-hungary-and-empress-of-austria/

Finally, I wish to share about a Hungarian film that I loved: It is called Teströl és lélekröl or On Body and Soul in English.

Watch the trailer here:

Budapest is Fabulous. I had this strange feeling that I may have been there before. I’m certainly going to visit Budapest again in the future. After this, I took a flight to Moscow for the Aeroflot Open.

More on that, some other time!

window seat
                       to another window seat
                                                              now preferring aisle seat.
                                                               

Don’t bother, this is not even a haiku!

See you again!

Beautiful Rook Endgame Studies

It is a great idea to solve studies while you are travelling. A friend of mine who is a Grandmaster uses studies to reach a meditative state in the early morning.  Personally, I love solving positions that are cute and reveal aesthetic side of chess.

Benefits of solving studies:

• Improves your calculation skills
• Improves your imagination
• You get to experience the aesthetic side of chess
• Deepens your knowledge of endgame theory
• Refreshes you

You could work on a specific type of endgame or browse through random examples. Compositions by Troitzky, Wotawa, Kubbel and Platov are beautiful. They usually involve fewer pieces and could be used for training purposes.

Books to refer:
*Endgame Magic by Beasley and Whitworth
*Test your endgame ability by August Livishitzz and Jon Speelman (if you want topic oriented studies)
*Zee Boom Bah by Muralimohan (available with 8cross8)
*Endless Endings  by Muralimohan (available with 8cross8)
*Studies for practical players by Dvoretsky (if you want to play out positions with a friend)

In this article, I am sharing a few positions that I enjoyed solving:

White to play in all the positions. You can also check hints at the end if you want to!

Composer : Ivanov
Position 1:

Composer: Selezniev
Position 2:

Composer:  Didrikhson
Position 3:

Composer: Selezniev
Position 4:

Composer: Prokes
Position 5:

Hints:

1. King is an active piece in the endgame, Use it well
2. X-ray attack in the end!
3. Get your knight
4. Wait, and you will win!
5. Offer him an Enpasse that he won’t refuse

Here is a bonus position:

Composer: Pogosyants
Position 6:

Solutions to the Positions:

We all have lost games, isn’t it? Have you paid attention to your approach after the loss? Does it bring you down? Do you tend to carry the baggage on to the next game? Do you have a specific plan on how to deal with losses?

These are important questions you need to ask yourself if a result of a game is affecting your overall mood and performance. In this article, I share ten approaches based on my observations. You could combine them or pick the one that works best for you!

1. Distract
This is a commonly used approach by most players. It involves doing something completely different – like reading a book, watching a tv soap or a film or listening to favorite tracks. It takes your mind to a different place and can also help in forgetting the loss.

2. Q & A
Some players establish a feedback loop where they answer self-prepared questions and this helps them to proceed to the next game. For example: What was the critical moment in the game? Did I use my time well? Which area needed more attention?

3. Trash
In this method, the player writes his thoughts on a paper and trashes it out – a symbolic way of getting the loss out of the system. A chess player once confessed to me that she borrowed this idea from a Bollywood film “Jab we met”.

4. Routine mechanism
Here, the player just follows the routine. On day one, the player setups a routine and follows it till the end of the tournament irrespective of the day to day result. A sample routine could be – wake up – tea – bath – breakfast – preparation – walk to the game – postportem analysis – walk back to the room – enter the game and thoughts – break – dinner – prepare for the next game – sleep

5. Conversation with coach/friend
A friend or a coach could offer you the platform to share your thoughts and also look at the situation objectively. It has worked for players to get back on track.

6. Seeking inspiration
Connect to the source of your inspiration. It could be reading a book about an athlete or even studying games of your favorite players. It could inspire you whenever you are feeling low. Playing out the moves on the chess board instead of just seeing on the screen could give you long term benefits.

7. Browsing your own games
“Why are you studying your own games?” I asked him which he said “This tells me that I am capable of playing good chess”. I learnt this from an Indian GM; He had a database full of his best games and he would browse through the games just before his game.

8. Long walks
This is a simple way of taking a break. Solving a study in the mind while walking is also a good idea, but make sure that you don’t walk on a busy road. Choose garden space or a park!

9. Exploring new places
This could easily fall into the first category (Distract) but, we are talking specifically about exploring new places which involves activity. In the first category, all the activities could be done in the room. Exploring new places in and around the city involves more efforts. You could consider going to a park, temple or any place worth visiting in that city.

10. Blitzing
It seems unusual, but there are a lot of GMs who play blitz games online. When asked how this approach helps, a GM said “It is my chance for revenge here”

What is your approach? 🙂 Do let us know if this helped!

Chess-Ing on the Internet

If you are feeling guilty that the internet is taking a lot of your time, fret not. In this article, I will direct you to a few links that will make sure that your internet hours will be of good use to you. I have come up with a list based on my experiences with the portals.

Chess.com

www.chess.com – Chess.com is a friendly chess portal where you get to read articles, make friends, watch lectures and also play games. They have a special outlet where elite GM’s play matches against each other with web cameras. Don’t forget to subscribe to their channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/wwwChesscom and their articles: www.chess.com/articles

Chess24

www.chess24.com – The extra option on this server is that you get to play against a computer too. Apart from that, their features have more variety when it comes to boards and pieces. You can also play a blindfold game with dynamic features.

Internet Chess Club

www.chessclub.com – They have a lot of variety in the interface section, available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, Iphone and Ipad. They have special packages for kids. Lectures and bots are the special features of ICC that stood out for me. The most famous series is Yermolinsky’s Every Russian School Boy Knows and their bot Mr.Spock.

Playchess Client

www.playchess.com is a good stop for playing chess games with players online as well as friends. If you don’t have a premium account, you can enter as a guest and share your guest id with your friend. The server offers all types of time controls making it easy to even organize stand alone tournaments. The board settings are more pleasing to those who use ChessBase software. For news, you can go to www.chessbase.com and www.chessbase.in

Tactics Fight

www.tactics.chessbase.com is a portal that a lot of kids use these days. It is a fight consisting of 12 positions where two players are given the same position. The first one to make the right move gets the point. Wrong answer results in a point to the opponent. You should create a normal playchess ID and get going. It is worth trying!

Chess Tempo

www.chesstempo.com – This is a chess gym for players who want to solve tough positions every day. You can create a free account and start solving positions. If you solve the first 20 positions correctly, you will easily meet positions of 2400/2500 standards. Most of the IM’s I know have been using this site on regular basis.

The Week in Chess by Mark Crowther

www.theweekinchess.com – If you want to keep yourself updated with the games of important tournaments of the week, this is the place. There are bases available in pgn, cbv and cbf format. The portal has been active for more than twenty years now.

ChessGames

www.chessgames.com – Chess Games is quite old, but nevertheless still trending! Their position of the day, birthday section and news section (Image of chessgames) and their lovely collections created by members of the community. If you want to study games on a particular theme, you will find games sorted according to the topics by the members of the community.

Chess Puzzles by GM’s

www.wtharvey.com – I have benefitted a lot from solving the positions through this site. They have a collection sorted according to the players and the positions appear one after the other on a single page saving a lot of hassle. The answers are mentioned just below, but you need to select the blank space below the board for the answers to appear.

Chess-DB

www.chess-db.com – Most of you must be knowing about this website that is often used by players to find the games of their opponents after the pairings are out. With one click, you get all the available games of your opponent in a single pgn file. It is helpful and saves a lot of time too!

Follow Chess

www.live.followchess.com – Even the elite chess players follow the live games around the world in the tip of the finger, thanks to Follow Chess Mobile App. You can watch the games at your convenience on the go wherever you are. It is available on Android too.

ChessBase India

www.chessbase.in – India’s most viewed chess website for news and chess analysis is ChessBase India. You can keep an eye on daily updates and their upcoming chess calendar for tournaments.

8cross8

www.8cross8.com – Of course, I will certainly include 8cross8 – India’s One Stop Chess Store. You can buy chess products from them at a discounted price and read blog articles for all chess levels here: www.8cross8.com/blog

We hope this list is useful. If you follow any other websites, do let us know in the comments section.

I have spent no less than half an hour to come up with the first line for this post. Ultimately, I stuck with confessing the challenge and letting the story unfold itself:

This is a story of a world chess champion who stood in a queue with his brother Amayak (Amayak means innocent in Kannada, interesting right?)  at 4 in the morning in front of a closed meat shop to get a wooden chess set! Yes, you read it right.

The boys got up at 4 in the chilly morning, rushed to the next street and stood in front of the closed shop to sell their turn in the queue for 2 roubles. They had 29 roubles in their petite money box and 31 roubles finally got them a chess set!

“His brother was drafted into the army. When he sent his second letter he was already at the front, and his third letter never arrived. A year and a half later, at Avlabari market, someone told his mother he had witnessed her son’s end.

It turned out that his brother was alive, but his mother didn’t know it; her grief filled her” —Nikolai Tarasov

There was a moment in his life where his father expressed doubts and concerns about him playing chess, to which he said, retaining Nimzowitsch’s flavor:

“To me a ‘passed pawn’ is not simply a pawn but, so to speak, a living, rational being with its unexpressed desires, hopes and doubts…”

At 15, while he was playing a complicated position in a tournament, he was informed that his father had died. His king was in check, but he moved a different piece. He lost the game, but continued the struggle! Petrosian also had to work, apart from playing chess and studying academics. He swept the streets and performed other tasks of a caretaker in a building which experienced severe crowd during the war time.

As Nikolai Tarasov rightly states, Petrosian became an adult much earlier than most people of his age. This legend had a tough childhood and his toughness is invariably present in his moves and concepts that he brings into the game. Remember, he was called Iron Tigran by his contemporaries.

I was introduced to the games of Petrosian through Mihail Marin’s book Learning from the legends where he focused on exchange sacrifices by the legend.  By restricting opponent’s pieces and sensing the danger from afar, Petrosian combined his strengths and went on to become a world champion!

Tal and Petrosian, European Chess Team Championship 1961 at Oberhausen, Photographer Gerhard Hund.

His many positional exchange sacrifices, his virtuosity in defense, his foresight to positional danger, and his ability in exploiting subtle positional maneuvers which seem to have no important role, but suddenly become decisive. It is this harmony of seemingly Incompatible elements of chess strategy that help us to understand Petrosian’s enormous practical strength, and his deep penetration into the secrets of chess –Garry Kasparov

I will share a few positions with you where you will have to sense the danger and make a decision:

Position 1:

White to move

Position 2:

Black to move

Position 3:

White to move

Position 4:

White to move

Position 5:

Black to move

Position 6:

Black to move

Position 7:

White to move

Position 8:

White to move

Position 9:

White to move

Position 10:

White to move

Position 11:

Black to move

The video also contains some of the exchange sacrifices, interesting wins and much more!

Well, Petrosian’s story doesn’t end here, I will be back with more games and exercises in the future

In order to improve your game, you must study the endgame before everything else. For whereas the endings can be studied and mastered by themselves, the middle game and opening must be studied in relation to the end game” – Jose Raul Capablanca

Endgame is a stage that requires a different mode of thinking. The pace of play varies, but the practical aspects can be learnt through practice of general guidelines and principles aided with the knowledge of theoretical endings and precise calculation whenever needed.

In this article, I will share ideas on how to improve your endgames using different techniques.

1. Know the fundamentals

These guidelines will keep your basics in check and help you in avoiding mistakes:

• King is an active piece in the endgame, Use it.
• Do not rush! Patience is the key in endgames. Remember Lasker’s SYOH ( Sit On Your Hands )
• The seventh rank is considered as the heaven for the rooks.
• Rook is best placed behind the passed pawn.
• If you are up in material, exchange pieces. If you are down in material, exchange pawns.
• Passed pawns should be blockaded by a knight or a king.
• Practice prophylaxis, trace your opponent’s ideas and resources.
• Improve the worst-placed piece.
• Opposite colored bishops favor the attacking side. Generally, you need two passed pawns for a win in OB endgames.
• Botvinnik said that the knight endings are like the pawn endings.
• The principle of second weakness is an important theme.
• Zugzwang, Triangulation and Pawn breaks are powerful and the most common themes in endgames.
• Avoid playing for the gallery.
• Calculate and incorporate thinking in schemes.
• It isn’t over until it is over.

2. Know the theory:

Some endgame positions must be learnt by heart! There is no other choice. Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual is an universal endgame bible for endgames. For those who find it too heavy, refer Jesus De La Villa’s 100 Endgames you must know. Silman’s Complete Endgame course is instructive too! All you need is the will to study the endgames. Go, make some time for the study of theoretical endgames!

If you don’t have a handy list of theoretical endgames, then refer Axel Pump’s list:
www.qualitychess.co.uk/ebooks/PumpUpYourRatingEndgames.pgn

3. Know the classics:

There are a lot of key games that illustrate the importance of specific topics. For example, Saidy vs Fischer – shows how a knight could dominate against the bishop. Shereshevsky’s books on Endgame, Larso Bo Hansen’s Secrets of Endgame strategy could be a good starting point to acquaint yourself with classical endgames. It is a great joy to play through the games of Smyslov,  Andersson, Karpov, Kramnik and Magnus Carlsen. Of course, the list goes on! But, these names top the list in my list of personal favorite endgame champions.

I share two endgames for your learning:

The first one shows the dynamics between a knight and a bishop. The second one involves thinking in schemes in a same colored bishop endgame:

4. Know the Technique:

I developed a liking for endgames after playing out practice positions against my friends. Playing out the positions seriously will improve your:

• Technique
• Understanding the potential of pieces
• Calculation

There was a phase in my life where I failed to convert many winning positions in a row. During that period, I used the endgames of Kramnik, played them out against my friend and got a little better.

Play out the following positions with your friend/computer. You could also use endgames from your own games to extract the maximum from your game:

5. Know yourself

After all the groundwork to build your understanding, it is important to analyze the endgames from your own games. They will help you in:

• Understanding specific weaknesses
• Building upon strength
• Expanding your knowledge and feeling for the positionsIt is also vital to study the structures of the openings you play. Incorporating the study of structures in your chess sessions will help you in making decisions during the game.

Game continuation of the practice positions:

I hope the tips have motivated you to start studying the endgames. Don’t fret over endgames, study them and get better at them!

Welcome to the Q&A show at 8cross8, India’s chess online store. I am Niranjan and this series is an attempt to have lively conversations about life on & off the chess board!

Today, we have Dronavalli Harika, Arjuna Awardee and three-time world women bronze medalist with us today. Apart from being a chess champion, she is an avid traveler, occasional reader and a lover of spicy Indian food! Let’s start our conversation with Harika!

Niranjan:  Let’s make a move with a question. Describe your chess self in three words!

Harika: Dreamer, Believer and Achiever.

N: How are your chess pieces doing?

H: Everything is in the right place 🙂

N:  Now, let’s talk about your recent events.  Can you sum up your last event?

H: My last event was World team championship. I think this is the best result as a team, not in the sense of ranking, but the direct encounter results with the top ranked teams.

N: When and how did you start chess?

H: My father taught me chess and I vaguely remember that we used to see games from a newspaper column. Later on due to family friends, i started playing tournaments just for fun and my results didn’t let me stop 🙂

N: Is there a chess player you wish to play? (Alive or dead)

H: Kramnik Vladimir

N: Is there a tournament you wish never ended?

H: Asian Indoor games 2007 as it has been brilliant in every way.

N: How have awards impacted your life?

H: Awards just motivate and encourage me to work harder.

N: A chess player you wish were alive:

A- Bobby Fischer

N: A short game you can never forget:

H: Rene Letelier Martner vs Fischer, 1960

Letelier Martner,Rene – Fischer,Robert James [E70]

Leipzig ol (Men) qual-D Leipzig (8), 24.10.1960

N: Which is your next event?

H – Abu Dhabi International Open

N: Do you have plans of training players in the future?

H– Definitely not in the near future. But when my playing career comes to an end, I will certainly open an academy and try to help players to reach their goals.

N: How important is the dress code for chess players in today’s world?

H- Well, I think it is not very important but, the basic dress code which we have now is fine.

N: What are some of your chess habits?

H- One of my habits is to follow new chess books and games.

N: What is your way of handling losses during an event?

H- To write down my thoughts and to motivate myself to start fresh again.

N: How do you celebrate your wins?

H: I just share my happiness with family and friends. I also pamper myself for a couple of days.

N: Favorite chess opening:

H- Reti

N: What are some of the chess accessories you own?

H: Not much. I just have a checks shirt and a chess pieces bed sheet.

N:  A chess book you would recommend to a beginner?

H – My system by Nimzowitsch

N: Three favorite non-chess books excludingThe secret & The Chimp Paradox

H: Open by Andre Agassi, A shot at history by Abhinav Bindra and Tinkles

N:  Favorite time control?

H- Blitz, 3+2

N:  Favorite chess quote:

H–  I am convinced, the way one plays chess always reflects the player’s personality. If something defines his character, then it will also define his way of playing. – Vladimir Kramnik

N: Have you had a tragicomedy in an endgame recently?

H – I cannot recollect one, but I feel the Knight vs Bishop ending which I couldn’t convert smoothly is bit of a tragicomedy. (classical game against Tan Zhong Yi in world championship semifinals)

N: What is your secret behind staying happy most of the time?

H – I just try to stay positive as much as I can.

N: If Panda were a chess piece, how would it move?

H- It would stay at one place and wouldn’t move at all 🙂

N: What would be the title of your autobiography if you ever wrote one?

H- Well, I don’t know. Maybe, ‘The belief of my life’.

N: That was a lot of chit-chat! There is a special addition to the interview. Let’s get to the board now

White to Play

N: What is so special about this position?

H- Every move is forced until mate.

White to Play

H- Kxe1,  h3,  h8N, takes c5 pawn and then c4 pawn and Na5

Can you win with white? ☺

White to Play

N: Can you elaborate on how you decided on a move in this position?

H–  I felt all my other pieces are in perfect squares and black can’t do much than waiting, so I got time to regroup my knight to a better square.

Harika,Dronavalli (2528) – Hou Yifan (2649) [A10]
chess.com IoM Masters Douglas ENG (7.13), 07.10.2016

And I hope it was fun and worth your time!

There are a lot of ways to get better at chess. Trainers, books and other sources of chess materials might have had an influence on our working methods. Ultimately, it is the balance of different subjects and skills that make us a better player.

In this article, I will share 10 different methods of working in order to get better at the game.

1. Move by Move:  This is an interactive way of going through a game. It could be a classical game, a stem game of your opening or a recent game derived from TWIC base. Everyman has also allotted a special category called ‘Move by Move’ series on the subject where the Q&A format helps in improving your understanding of the opening or the player you are studying.

Even ChessBase Magazine(CBM) has a column with Q&A with special points assigned for good moves. One of my students told me about Jeroen Bosch’s The Chess Combat Simulator which offers multiple choices in many positions and one could tally up the scores at the end of the game.

Sources: Everyman books, CBM Magazine, The Chess Combat Simulator, Chess Vibes Training.

2. TWIC Check: Every Tuesday morning, Mark Crowther releases a twic issue at www.theweekinchess.com that consists of games played globally throughout the week. Filtering games using ECO codes relevant to your opening could fetch you the games to update your repertoires. For example, you play the Grunfeld with black and you want to know the latest games played during the week. All you need to do is filter by ECO D70 to D99! You could update your surveys with the important games, thus staying equipped with new ideas.

3. Training with a partner: Internet can create a game environment if you are serious enough to make use of the time in the best way. In this aspect, Training with a friend/partner online – has many advantages:
1. You can experiment your openings
2. You can play out practical endgames
3. You can play out studies (Refer Studies for Practical Players)
4. Analyse critical positions from your games
5. Learn the nuances of the opening by exchanging key games

4. Chess Gym: In order to keep your chess mind fit, you need to exercise regularly. Pick tactical positions from a magazine, website or any book and solve them as much as possible. After two weeks, attempt the same positions and see if your timing is improved. Do not rely on the memory while solving the exercises again.

5. Pick a champ: Depending on the need of your understanding, select a player and study him/her for a fixed duration. If you want to feel energetic, pick Kasparov. Study his life, his games with annotations and prepare takeaways from your session. By doing this, you seek more than just the moves of the game.

6. Revise Must-Know Endgames: Revise the basic endgames as the knowledge might come handy in your tournament games. 100 Endgames you must know by Jesus De La Villa could be a good starting point.

Refer: How to play chess endgames by Karsten, Fundamental Chess Endings by Karsten Mueller, Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual and 100 Endgames you must know

7. Study Structures: Phildor’s quote Pawns are the soul of chess holds true even today! If you understand the nuances connected with the pawns in the openings you play, you will avoid strategic errors in your games. It is important to devote some time to study the structures of the openings you play.

Refer: IQP: Winning Pawn Structures, Flores’s Chess Structures, Endgame Strategy 1 & 2 by Shereshevsky

8. Blitz Training: Playing blitz during weekends is a good idea; Kasparov used his blitz games as a way to train for classical games. Recently, Aronian adopted the same method in Norway. Three games with white, three games with black is more than enough. After the games, immediately check the reference base for opening relevance and spot errors and form conclusions. This is a good way of increasing your knowledge in short time.

9. Solve Studies: Solving study improves visualization, creativity and imagination to a great extent. It also refreshes your mind and enhances your thinking abilities. You could use this as a bridge-break between other activities.

10. Analyse your games: Of all the things mentioned, analyzing your games should top the list. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses could help you in planning and execute well in the future. Therefore, do not neglect your own games. Analyse them, make conclusions and move on!

A balance of all these things is necessary for your overall chess improvement. Manage your chess time in such a way that you devote time to each of these aspects. Good luck!