Chess.com University's 1st Chess Class: Strategy & Tactics for 1200 - 1500 ELO Players!
Thanks to an overwhelming response to my initial post on Chess.com University chess "classes," I have decided to offer a sample chess class this summer:
Strategy and Tactics for 1200 - 1500 ELO Players!
This is NOT a Chess.com University seminar.
A Chess.com University chess "class" is like an online college class:
- Syllabus
- Video Lectures + Written Notes
- Class Textbook
- Assignments With Feedback
- Assessments
I had initially planned to offer thorough classes that are taught over the course of 3 or 4 months but because these classes could take months to create, I am offering a sample class that will be taught over the course of four weeks.
Strategy and Tactics for 1200 - 1500 ELO Players Class Overview:
This is a thorough class covering everything chess players between 1200 and 1500 ELO must know about tactics, strategy, thinking, calculating, and planning.
This class is designed to train students, not just teach content.
- Pretest (available before you sign up for the class)
- 4 live 1-hour chess lessons.
- 5 written chess lectures.
- Approximately 30 to 40 hours of homework will be assigned.
- 5 to 7 assignments will be assigned and graded.
- An assessment to determine how much you learned!
- Amateur's Mind 2nd Edition by Jeremy Silman will be the textbook for this class.
- A one-month chess.com diamond membership is included with the purchase of this class! If you already are a diamond member, then this class costs $8.00 less for you.
- Class is scheduled to start on July 27th, 2013 but the exact start date won't be finalized until July 20th.
Unlike in Chess.com University seminars, only about 10% to 15% of the class instruction will be live for this chess class. Only the orientation, 4 1-hour video lessons, and the closing will be live. I will try to schedule these lessons so that every student is able to attend at least half of the live lessons. Video recordings will be available for download so attending the lessons live is not required.
This way students from any time zone with any kind of schedule may take this class! This class is extremely flexible and learner-friendly.
Students may even join the class late and still have access to all of the material covered!
Chess classes allow students to simply relax and stop thinking about what they should do to improve at the game. We do all of the organizational work for you!
I believe the online college class approach may be best for students because the class would be thorough with never-ending resources and assignments to those who want to practice. Additionally, students would have to keep up with the pace of the class.
For those of you who truly want to improve at chess but get lazy after a while, classes would be the perfect solution as if you get lazy after paying for a class, you would just waste money and that would wake you up again and force you to study! :-)
As the amount of content/work/learning would be equivalent to the average college class, the tuition will be higher than that of an average seminar and I will only offer this sample class if at least 10 students preregister.
Tuition Formula: $175 - $5*(# of student) for first 15 students.
This means if the class size is 10 students, then the tuition will be $125/person. If the class size is 15 students, then the tuition will be reduced to $100/person.
If more than 15 chess players take this class, the tuition will be $95/person.
If you took Chess 231 or Chess 232 (Development & Initiative Parts 1 and 2, respectively) you are eligible for a $5.00 discount on this sample class!
The class will be delivered entirely online using chess.com, livestream, and other mediums. Most likely there will be a class website as well where students may log in and access all the material but this will depend on how much time I have left after designing and creating the class.
Also, I will have "office hours" each week during which students may call me on Skype to ask questions!
In order to register or preregister for this class, please message me on chess.com.
Class syllabus is available upon request.
I apologize for writing such a dense and unorganized announcement. I didn't have any time to write this and at the same time had to post something to get the word out! Will edit/organize this post next week. Thanks!
