Over the last four days I have attended a training seminar in Glasgow with GM Boris Avrukh of Israel. Graded over 2600 and having been involved in training former world Champion Vladimir Kramnik he is clearly someone who knows a thing or two about Chess! Currently he is working with the young Italian GM Caruana and in tournament play has worked with his teammate Gelfand. He has also drawn with Kasparov and beaten Morosevich in serious games.

On Thursday night his three-hour lecture was on 'Preparation' to an audience including GM Shaw, GM Aaggard, IM Greet, a few other guys and me. This was a very interesting lecture and his style of teaching was entertaining and instructive.

Friday was on his d4 repertoire which is the opening move that I usually play so I found this very useful. Some very interesting lines and some top-level games that followed on from them were shown.

Saturday was on Prophylactic play. This was explained using a few games where the ideas of each player were discussed at each move. The explanation involved explaining the point to each move and how it attempted to combat the opponent's plan.

Today was on attacking play which included a game in which GM Avrukh (the guy giving the lecture) beat GM Morosevich (a Russian super GM graded around 2780). The way Avrukh played was exceptional and if it cannot be replicated by us mere mortals then I think it's certainly inspirational.

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