Yusupov's award-winning Training Course

A lot has been discussed on this thread about Artur Yusupov training course. Since this is a great resource and is not so well known (yet) I think it deserves a separate thread.

I'm reaching the half of the first book and I consider it to be a great complement for the beginner study plan from this site. After going twice through the study plan you'll benefit a lot by going through this book.

I hope that what I've said above it's true for the blue books and the intermediate study plan. I'm planning to do them both.

I think that tactics puzzles on a daily basis + chess.com study plans + Artur Yusupov books should take every beginner to a very decent level. All you need to do is get dirty!

I have the build-up series. They are a tough series of books to work through ...  very good, not just for beginners but intermediate players as well.

I don't really think even the first book is for absolute beginners with no tactical knowledge since he doesn't really explain basic motifs just give examples of some intermediate level tactics.

I'm working throught it and liking it, it is hard work but I'm finding it achievable, scoring mostly good/excellent, apart from the centralisation chapter where I bombed.

I think it will be a good way to find your weaknesses and work on them, and not waste time on things you know (e.g. pawn endgames I had no problem with).

A common mistake people make is thinking the book order is: 

Build Up Your Chess 1

Build Up Your Chess 2

Build Up Your Chess 3

Boost Your Chess 1 ... etc.

But that is not the case. 

The proper book study order is 

Build Up Your Chess 1

Boost Your Chess 1

Chess Evolution 1

Build Up Your Chess 2

etc.

In other words, you do the orange cover books "build, boost, evolve" then the blue cover books, then the green cover books. 

The common confusion around the study order is due largely to the order in which the publishing house doing the English translation decided to release the books. I guess they wanted the 1st book for each of the different levels out at roughly the same time, and thus the publising order has been to do each of the "Build Up" books, then each of the "Boost" books then lastly each of the "Evolve" books in English. 

Aside from the excellent instructional value the books provide in general, this is one of the great strengths of the series -- it really helps you figure out what you need to work on!

For pure beginners, Cor van Wijgerden's "Step" series is an excellent resource, but is really based on the idea of a student/teacher environment.  

Is the ninth, and final, book of the course still not out yet? That link leads to a bundle of only eight books, rather than all nine.

Not in English. Quality Chess has the release date set for January 2013 for the english version. 

So, any idea on who the Fundamental Series is aimed at? Suggested rating ranges maybe; I haven't seen anything in a cursory search.

I'm thinking about picking up one of these books after Christmas and want to make sure that particular set (the Fundamental 1 series) isn't too much of a beginners book.

Of course, I probably would be better off actually going through more of the books I already have but will have some extra money to spend on books so I want to get something good :D

I think I've answered my own question after skimming through the topic linked in the first post.

U1500 is supposedly who the fist series is geared towards though it was suggested that adults U1600 shouldn't really use them ... so I guess that means they should be strong enough for me to try out.

I credit the first two orange books for getting me TO 1500 USCF, so your milage may vary. It really depends on how hard you're willing to work, I think. I would say that U1200 USCF is almost certainly not going to be able to do them. 

I'll probably grab the first one and see how it goes and how well I like it. I'm floating between mid-1400 and mid-1500 right now, though I have been having spotty perfomances with mid-1300 to mid-1400 players.

I'm running about 50% in casual games at the club with an upper 1500 player (has made it to above 1700 recently and fell back down) so I think this series might be a good fit or at least a baseline.

I'm working trough a tactics book now and have another I want to complete after that one, so it might be a while before I actually start the Yusupov book.

So, btw, just to show that these do work. 

On 2011-09 I was rated 1288. I picked up the first of these texts that month. 

Next month I'll be at least 1486 (barring a total collapse in my current tournament). I hit 1529 in the last 6 months. 

Lifetime OTB scores against rating groups:

1200: 56.9%

1300: 51.9%

1400: 32.8%

1500: 22.4%

1600: 19.8%

1700: 17.2%

My OTB performance for the last year:

1200: 50% 

1300: 100%

1400: 50%

1500: no games played

1600: 50%

1700: 20%

All I've done for the last year are the following things:

1) study Yusupov's books and Cor van Wijgerden's "Step" book (half-way thorugh the Orange Evolution in the first and half-way through Step 3 in the second). 

2) do tactics using Chessimo and chesstempo.com

3) play through commented games

4) watch the videos here

5) play chess 

A year ago sitting down to a 1650 player I expected to lose. Today I expect to make a real fight out of it. 

It's not all roses, I had a horrible tournament in September, losing every game. But by and large I'm winning or drawing more than I'm losing these days.

It sounds very similar to the ICS (international chess school) program, only you can do it on your own accord. Also it is a lot of money for the nine books.. However Yusupov is one of my favorite players of all time because I love his style of play and the fact that he plays (or has played) similar openings I do - particularly the Colle Zukertort! 

I don't know why people always think books are expensive... I mean you get tens of hours of selected and structured training material for 30$...

Each book is ~$30. 24 chapters, each chapter takes me 3-4  hours to get though. 

So that's roughly 100 hours of structured chess instruction for $30 from one of the world's top trainers for about $.30 an hour. 

Yeah, real rip off there . .. 

Nobody said rip off, they said a lot of money, which depends on your financial situation.

I guess so, but for all of the books it is still a lot, particularly if I end up not using them. btw how does the series compare with Pachmans books and the ICS course? I have Pachmans books and think the material is great but I have found that, particularly in the first book, the material is quite basic (which has caused me to skip some topics), but I am enjoying the second and third books.

Since I don't have either the ICS course or Pachman's books I can't answer that question. However, Yusupov's books are designed for use in a 3 year long formal chess instruction program. I doubt Pachman's books are strucutred that way. 

So studying 1 or 2 chapters / weekend and repeating the diagrams during the week makes sense

yes