DAVID'S TUITION GROUP
17 April
Tonight we looked at 2 games from England's first GM Tony Miles, both of which were played in 1983. The first was his win against the then World Champion Anatoly Karpov in the Master Game final which was never broadcast due to industrial action and the second was his best game from the Oldham Rapidplay that took place a few days later. I think it fair to say that Miles was a little bit abrasive especially towards Nigel Short who had overtaken him as England's number 1 as he often called him "Gump" - sadly Tony passed away at only 46 but left us some brilliant games to enjoy.
10 April
Tonight we completed our Ladder competition with our latest winner, Walter, edging out Ved, Ben and Will in a close last round. The results have been sent for grading and should appear on the ECF website shortly.
3 April
Tonight I showed a game from 6 time US Champion Walter Browne which turned into a tactical master class. The game demonstrated perfectly how to keep the initiative in chess and why you should almost always castle early.
27 March
Tonight we looked at the then 13 year old Capablanca's endgame technique which was to serve him well during his chess career.
20 March
Last night we looked at some puzzles from Jeff Coakley's excellent book "Winning Chess Puzzles for Kids" and followed this up with looking at some of the players recent ladder games.
13 March
Tonight we looked at a modern game featuring an opening that was invented over 100 years ago, the Colle system.
For those club players who prefer to put off the tactical exchange until later it's a perfect Shield opening with some added venom.
6 March
Tonight I had a night off watching City in the Champions League, Pete and Paul held the fort brilliantly as always.
Our winning run of League matches stretched to 13 with a victory over Bolton.
28 February
Tonight we looked at the game Spielmann v Flamberg which was an objective lesson in how to and how to not handle the opening.
21 February
Tonight I showed 3 games from the thought to be, boring Petroff defence.
- The first was played by the great Frank Marshall in 1912 in his match versus Janowski.
- The second was the unsound Cochrane Gambit by Nigel Short that was just brushed aside by Alexei Shirov.
- The final game was a beautiful game by Bent Larsen against the then World Champion Anatoly Karpov which was said to be the game that convinced Karpov to play the Petroff for Black.
14 February
Tonight we looked at a brilliant game by the American, Harry Pillsbury, who took the chess world by storm when he won the 1895 Hastings Congress finishing ahead of 2 World Champions.
7 February
Tonight we looked at Vehant and Ben's game from the Ladder competition.
It emphasised the need for King safety, transpositions from other openings and also to know when to break the rules.
31 January
We looked at the game between Disalna and Ved explaining some key learning points to the group. Prior to that we looked at some tactics involving in between moves and desperados. The evening finished off with more competitive games in our ladder competition.
24 January 2024
Tonight we looked at a couple of my games featuring how important pawn breaks are in chess.
17 January 2024
Tonight we looked at a couple of William's games from last week's rapidplay match at Chorlton.
The key learning points were to constantly assess the position each move and very importantly slow down in your play and work out which pieces to exchange and when.
3 January 2024
Tonight we looked at the subject of Rook and pawn endings explaining how to win positions using the Lucena method but also showing how to draw similar endings using the Philidor position, sit tight defence and the Lasker short side method.
27 December 2023
Last night of 2023 and a hardcore of 14 players turned up at the club so plenty of play was the norm - hopefully we will be back to normal numbers wise next Wednesday.
20 December - Christmas Party
Tonight we held our annual Xmas party and the evening was spent playing Dice chess and Hand and Brain.
13 December
Tonight the Ladder competition reached its climax with the lead going back and forwards until Andeel was victorious. The rest of the club took part in the very enjoyable and sometimes frustrating game "Hand and Brain".
6 December
Tonight we looked at Toby's league game that ended in a draw in the very sharp Milner Barry Gambit against the French. This was followed by my good friend Kevin Winter's best game prize from a tournament in Crete this year.
29 November
Tonight we looked at the Ladder game between Ben and William, two of our rising stars, which had some great learning points. That was followed by a miniature game with an amazing Queen sacrifice in it.
22 November
Tonight we looked at the brilliant game Mishra v Ivanchuk played in November featuring an amazing piece sacrifice and final attack by the World's youngest ever Grandmaster who won the title when aged just 12.
15 November
Tonight we continued with my looking at some ladder games picking out some relevant learning points.
8 November
Tonight we looked at several of the ladder games for the previous week pointing out some learning points for all of the group.
01 November
Tonight we looked at "Not to take pawns unless you are sure it's safe" and "Knowing your terrain" with the example being the Vienna Gambit which is still very playable and gives White lots of options.
25 October
Tonight I showed a couple of games from our recent Manchester League matches.
Toby's game featured a line that I had shown in the game Fischer v Benko some months ago and Paul's game featured an unusual imbalance of Queen v Rook and Bishop.
18 October
Tonight we looked at 8 positions involving Rooks and how to use them along an open file and on the 7th rank. The content was courtesy of my very good friend Phil.
11 October
Last night I gave the group 12 tactics puzzles of varying difficulty to try and solve and then we worked through the solutions.
Once that was complete the first week of the U1451 Ladder competition got underway with 18 players signed up. At present Vehant leads the race for the prize money.
27 Sep 2023
Tonight at the club I showed 12 game positions explaining when it is correct or when it is likely to be a mistake to exchange pieces.
GM William Lombardy once said "There's no such thing as a fair trade in chess".
20 Sep 2023
Last night I showed 2 games from IM Mike Basman who played some of the most creative chess ever seen in the UK. I'm not recommending that we play like this, just take note as to how difficult this style of play is to cope with. After that I did a short tutorial on a few things that Chessbase can provide to help improve your game.
16 August 2023
Tonight we looked at one of Morphy's wonderful attacking games where his opponent moved his Queen early and then it was chased all round the board.
The 2nd example was from the Austrian player Robatsch demonstrating that if you keep making threats and attacking moves even very strong players will make mistakes under that pressure.
9 August
Tonight we looked at one of the greatest games ever played being the 6th game in the Fischer v Spassky match in 1972. Prior to that we looked at a few examples of swindles from "The Complete Chess Swindler" by GM Smerdon.
2 August 2023
Tonight we looked at a game from the Karpov v Kasparov match in 1990 which featured a terrible blunder from Kasparov highlighting the fact that even the very best make mistakes. I also pointed out that when your opponent plays a move you've not seen before to try and not rush but try and work out why it may be a mistake.
26 July 2023
Last night the presentation was about blunders in chess. We have to accept that this will happen from time to time as we try to improve as players. I showed an example of that from our recent League match against Urmston and then a terrible blunder from the World Champion, Boris Spassky in his match against Bobby Fischer in 1972.
19 July 2023
Tonight I showed the classic game Bernstein v Capablanca where the 3rd World Champion demonstrated the correct strategy of dealing with hanging pawns. His legacy was used by both Fischer in 1962 and Short in 1993 who both showed that we should learn lessons from the old masters. The game concluded with a stunning back rank combination
12 July 2023
Tonight I showed 12 tactic positions kindly supplied by my very good friend Phil Adams.
Tactic practice teaches pattern recognition even if you don't solve every one of them as it is the attempt that helps the player.
5 July 2023
Tonight we looked at the game Gligoric v Larsen from 1967 which was a real heavyweight clash between 2 of the best players of that era. Both players were playing for a win with Larsen seeing just a little bit further than his opponent, culminating in a beautiful sacrificial attack.
28 June 2023
Tonight we looked at a study by AA Troitsky who left us a book containing 360 pieces of magic for us to savour.
I then finished the lesson with a warning with examples about online chess gurus and coaches who are often selling ready made solutions as to how to play chess especially in the opening. This is then followed the week after by a course doing the exact opposite.
21 June
Tonight I demonstrated the game Fischer v Bolbochan which shows how to use the d5 outpost to attack the castled King and features a stunning x-ray attacking move, Qb3 to administer the coup de grace.
14 June
Tonight at the club it was such a beautiful evening that we played outside in the courtyard with a little bit of tuition thrown in along the way. It looks like that might be a one off as it is forecast rain next week. Welcome to new members Daniel, Dale, Stan and Sari.
7 June 2023
Tonight I showed the lesser known but equally brilliant Evans Gambit game by Bobby Fischer v Celle in a simultaneous clock exhibition in 1964.
31 May 2023
Another quiet night at the club with only 24 in attendance !
Lots of games played and a couple of new members...
24 May 2023
A quieter turnout this week probably due to the nice sunny weather, a league match being on and exams starting.
Even though it was a quieter week we still have to shoehorn people out of the door at 9pm - I am sure some would stay all night if we provided pizza and beds....
17 May 2023
David is off for a couple of weeks, so, this week Pete and Sacha were in charge (loose term of the word)
Sacha ran a Blitz competition for those interested and the results are:
- Tim
- Stephen
- Ayaan
- Ved
- Andeel
No entry fee and therefore no prize but everyone seemed to have fun, including the 2 new members who joined in.
10 May 2023
Tonight I demonstrated the power of the 3 point King in the endgame with games by Espig and Carlsen and then finished with the most famous King march in chess from Short v Timman in 1991.
3 May 2023
Tonight I showed the game that William had played in the EPSCA U9s where the game ebbed and flowed between who was winning and losing.
It was a typical game for junior chess and emphasises the need to assess which pieces need to be kept to ensure you can win a game.
Finally the ending showed how an active Rook and King are so vital.
26 April 2023
In recent weeks there have been some incidents regarding the laws of chess so tonight I ran through some of the lesser known rules and the basic etiquette of the game.
Following that I moved on to the main event which was the classic game Petrosian v Pachman which features a stunning Queen sacrifice leading to mate.
19 April 2023
Tonight I showed the game Smyslov v Rudakovsky which featured how to create and then use the d5 square as a blockade and a method of a King side attack.
12 April 2023
Tonight I showed a tactic pattern that former World Champion, Smyslov missed that had been seen 40 years earlier in Chigorin v Rubinstein.
This was followed by the main event which was to show the game Dizdarevic v Miles from 1985 that featured a tactic that was missed in the recent Reykjavik Open by a 2650 player.
It pays to study the Classics.
5 April 2023
Tonight I showed probably the most famous game in chess which was Morphy at the Opera where he demonstrated that he was so far ahead of his time in understanding how the game should be played.
29 March 2023
Tonight I featured the classic King Hunt in Lasker v Thomas where White could have mated by playing long castle but instead chose Kd2.
22 March 2023
This week I continued my series of games that you should know by heart with the classic from the first World Champion, Steinitz against Von Bardeleben. This features how to stop your opponent's King from castling and the beautiful move d5 which is a square clearance sacrifice.
15 March 2023
After my extended break it was great to get back to the club.
I showed the game Tarrasch v Marco which features one of the longest opening traps in chess. As my good friend Phil says - long variation, wrong variation.
28 December 2022
A relaxed evening with a friendly fun lightning competition - last club night of the year:
1-2 Sai 4.5/5 - won in a play off
Tim 4.5/5
3 Daniel 4/5
4-7 Mahin 3/5
Dylan
Kunish
Andeel
8 Leo 2.5
9-13 Sachin 2
Ved
Jackson
Krish
Jason
14 Walter 1.5
15 Shayan 1
16 Sriansh 0
21 December 2022
Club Christmas get together. No coaching but still chess being played inbetween getting nibbles and drinks....
14 December 2022
Last night whilst Paul was out on his work Xmas party we spent time looking at some opening traps that hopefully no-one falls into.
7 December 2022
Whilst Pete was having a deserved night off I presented 3 model games for Black to combat the tedious and popular London system.
These covered alternatives if you play a Queen's Gambit, King's Indian type set up or the Dutch.
30 November 2022
Tonight we looked at Sacha's game as White from the County match v Yorkshire and Daniel's game as Black from the 4NCL Online. There were many interesting learning and tactical points to pick up on.
23 November 2022
Tonight we looked at Paul's great finish against Nagy in the Manchester League and a couple of William's 25 minute friendly games which contained some excellent learning points.
16 November 2022
Tonight we looked at one of Sai's games from the Scarborough Congress which took place over the Halloween weekend.
He plays the Queen's Gambit which leads to a more positional type game than 1.e4.
9 November 2022
Tonight we looked at the game Van Foreest v Ganguly which featured a brilliant pawn sacrifice just to stop a Black piece developing and then how space is such a big advantage in chess.
26 October 2022
Tonight we looked at an incredible tactical battle with the strangest inbalance I have ever seen where White had a Rook and 4 pawns against 3 pieces.
19 October 2022
Tonight we looked at the game Hardy v Loiret from a blitz competition in France back in the Summer of 1999.
The main points were to explain that you need to keep up to date with your main openings and see what the top players are playing by using sites such as "The Week in Chess" where the previous week's games from around the world are collected.
After that we looked at a real life example of how to checkmate with Bishop and Knight against a lone King using the W method.
12 October 2022
Last night we looked at a brilliant game by Akiba Rubinstein who but for the outbreak of WW1 would surely have been World Champion. As well as a master tactician he was a magician of the endgame as most of the greats were.
5 October 2022
Last night we looked at a position from a club friendly the previous week considering the strategies that each side should try and employ and then looking for moves that fit that plan.
We then went on to look at the great hook and ladder tactic.
28 September 2022
This week we looked at 2 games from the Manchester League match v Swinton where our players won due to a better understanding of how to play the positions that were in front of them.
21 September 2022
This week we looked at the training games from the previous week. There was some good chess played but the stand out learning point was not to play a move your opponent wants you to play anyway. Additionally try to cut down on pawn moves in the opening so as to speed up your pieces development.
The best game was Dylan v Andeel which is shown below
14 September 2022
Last night at the club we played a 25 minute training game whilst our Summer League match was taking place.
The games were notated by the players so I can put notes to them ready for next week.
7 September 2022
After a week off watching football last night I showed 2 games from Ben Finegold demonstrating how to win a won game.
24 August 2022
Last night we looked at Dylan's game from our recent Manchester Summer League match.
It contained several good learning points and in particular how an active King in the endgame can win the game.
17 August 2022
Last night we spent time looking at King and pawn endings working out on which rank the King needs to be to win when in front of the pawn. We also looked at the theory of the opposition, triangulation and outside passed pawns. To conclude we made a start on next week's topic of Queen vs a pawn on the 7th rank.
10 August 2022
Whilst Pete and the beginners relaxed in the cool of the courtyard the rest of us sweltered in the Hall.
This week I showed some ideas in the Smith-Morra Gambit both if White accepts or declines the offer of the pawn and the tactics that White can unleash on an unprepared opponent.
3 August 2022
Last night I showed a game in the Moller variation of the Italian game which featured some incredible tactics and imaginative play by Nick Rossolimo who is famous for the anti Sicilian move 3.Bb5.
27 July 2022
Last night I showed a couple of Mohammed's games from the South Wales International Open where he scored a very creditable 4/9.
The learning points being that the pawn structure in chess should tell you which pieces to keep and the plans you should have in mind and that piece activity is so important.
20 July 2022
This week I demonstrated the game Fischer v Benko from the US Championship in 1963/4 which Fischer won with a 100% score of 11/11. It features an amazing obstruction/interference sacrifice similar to the game I showed last week by Ben Finegold.
13 July 2022
After swanning around Spain for 3 weeks I was back at the club demonstrating the game Finegold v Jimenez. The learning points being the use of space when attacking, Rook lifts and when not to go pawn grabbing.
15 June 2022
Last night at the club we concentrated on tactical examples and particularly the fact that pattern recognition can help enormously when looking for that killer blow to win the game.
8 June 2022
This week I showed a game that Denzel played a few years ago against Alan Beresford who is a very experienced and strong club player. It emphasised how tactic pattern recognition can help and that pawn breaks and piece placement especially with Rooks can be so important.
1 June 2022
Last night I showed Tim's recent game from the Manchester League explaining that when you are a piece up, exchange all the pieces, try to castle on the same side as your opponent so it avoids any pawn storms and above all keep it simple. The second game was one of mine from the 4NCL in 2014 against a strong 200 player where I was surprised in my pre game prep and at the board where I consistently kept missing his moves. In those situations just try to keep calm and don't lash out. In the end the game was drawn which helped the team to a well earned victory.
25 May 2022
This week I showed a game that I played in the Manchester League in 1997 showing that early Queen moves aren't normally good and that when ahead in development you should attempt to open the game up to exploit this advantage.
4 May 2022
Last night I showed more games this time from the main line of the Oxford variation of the Vienna gambit. This featured a game of mine for the Rochdale League from 1983 and the classic double Bishop sacrifice in the game Nunn v Hebden from 1979.
27 April 2022
After 2 weeks off watching City I was back at the club to demonstrate a game from one of my new students. It is a typical example of how inexperienced club players play where the game swings back and forth until someone makes the final fatal mistake. It also shows the real benefit of following basic principles and when you are being attacked looking for for a counter attacking move rather going onto the defensive.
6 April 2022
Last night I started looking at the Vienna Gambit which I believe is still very playable even against strong club players. The main moves we looked at were where Black gives up the centre after 1.e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. f4!? then plays Nc6 and exf4 moves that have been played many times against me both over the board and online even by players rated 2000.
The next session will feature better tries by Black on move 3 and transpositions into the Kings Gambit Declined.
30 March 2022
Last night we hosted Bury 1s in our first over the board match for 2 years.
Prior to that I showed the game Fischer v Addison from the Palma Interzonal in 1970 which was one of the 20 consecutive games that Fischer won on the way to winning the World Championship in 1972. Don't let anyone ever tell you that he wasn't the greatest of all time.
23 March 2022
Last night we looked at a game of mine from the Rochdale League in 1996 with the learning points being that if you want to draw against a higher rated opponent that is more likely to happen if you play for a win. Simply exchanging pisces isn't enough as good players very rarely let you exchange on your terms.
16 March 2022
After a week off for the Champions League I showed Joel's classic game from the 4NCL back in February where he demonstrated how to use a Knight outpost to great effect.
2 March 2022
Last night we looked at 4 of the training games from the previous week. As well as welcoming a couple of new members an old opponent of mine from 1984 turned up to play. This was in the days when I was playing at 3Cs and he played for Ashton.
23 February 2022
Last night after completing our tactics puzzles we played 25 minute per side training games - 4 of which are attached for you to view.
16 February 2022
After completing our tactics exercises we looked at Mohammed's great tactical win in last week's 4NCL and Sithun's long grind in a Rook endgame in the same match which we won 4-0.
2 February 2022
Last night we spent time looking at the pawn structure that can arise from the Exchange Caro-Kann/London System and the plans associated with this structure. This was followed by the brief analysis of 2 games.
26 January 2022
Last night saw us look at our set of tactics puzzles and this was then followed by looking at the brilliant games that Joel and Ben played this week in the 4NCL. One a positional masterpiece the other a stunning Kingside attack.
19 January 2022
Last night we looked at the unusual Belgrade Gambit which I once played myself against Dave Aspinall in the Manchester League as far back as 1992. At move 5 White plays Nd5!? rather than the more natural Nxd4. I went on to explain that if you see a move like this which moves a piece twice and offers a second pawn you should be very suspicious of it. The best plan is to take a deep breath, stay calm and try to work out what the flaw is.
12 January 2022
Last night we reviewed the games the group played last week in the King's Gambit themed match ups.
This was followed by some tactics puzzles before everyone paired off for some friendly games.
5 January 2022
Last night we looked at a King's Gambit I had played on the internet briefly demonstrating the ideas for both sides. We then played a 25 minute each side training game from the King's Gambit start position which the players notated. The idea behind this is to make the players work out what the plans are for both sides from what is an unusual position for them. I will be annotating the games over the weekend and feeding back next week.
29 December 2021
Last night we looked at what happens if White closes the position in the semi endgame that I covered recently. Following that we spent the evening playing hand and brain - back to our normal coaching next week.
22 December 2021
Last night my coaching group looked at the semi endgame that arises after 1.d4 d6 2.c4 e5 and how deceptively good this position is for Black despite the fact that he cannot castle and spends the next few moves just moving pawns. Afterwards we spent the rest of the evening playing the ever popular Hand and Brain chess.
15 December 2021
Last night I showed a brilliant attacking game from Richard Reti before he had formulated the ideas of the hypermodern way to play chess by controlling the centre from a distance.
Following that I gave a 10 board 25 minute on each clock simul.
8th December 2021
Last night I showed the game Botvinnink v Flohr from their 1933, 12 game drawn match where the future World Champion expertly kept the Black King in the centre.
Following that we played a 10 sec lightning tournament where Max Rogers won with 4/4.
1st December 2021
Last night I demonstrated the class Isolated Queen Pawn game Keene v Miles from Hastings 1975/6 which involves a beautiful sacrificial attack by White. We also looked at 12 pawn promotion tactics.
24 November 2021
Last night we looked at 3 Paul Morphy games played when he was 10.12 and 13.
To this day they remain stunning in their simplicity.
10 November 2021
Tonight we looked at the pros and cons of the Isolated Queen Pawn using the games Jacobs v Adams and the classic Smyslov v Karpov where a previous World Champion beat the future World Champion in fine style.
3 November 2021
Last night we looked at more studies by Troitzky - this one being White to play and draw. After that we looked at the career of Samuel Reshevsky and I demonstrated a quite stunning attacking game of his from the US Open in 1944. Rather overshadowed by Bobby Fischer he holds the record jointly with Fischer of 8 US Championships and was in the World's Top 100 even in his 60s
27 October 2021
We started off with a study by AA Troitzky which as part of the solution contained 2 double pins - see if you can work it out it is White to play.
We looked at some basic King and pawn endings demonstrating that to win these the King needs to be in front of the pawn. In summary if the King is on the 5th rank it depends whose turn it is to move but on the 6th rank it should always be a win regardless.
