In a world of child prodigies and professional superstars, has the average chess improver been forgotten?

Not at all! Ahead of the Chess Punks Tournament Finals, we wanted to bring the spotlight back on what the tournament and the Chess Punks community is all about - chess improvement. 

Leading up to the Finals on Sunday, October 22, we’ll be interviewing each of the coaches preparing the combatants about their top chess improvement tips.  

Today’s star coach is International Master Yuriy Krykun - a long-time coach, popular Chessable author, and former Ukrainian youth champion. Known for his offbeat but practical approach to opening courses, Yuriy emphasizes positional understanding over rote memorization of lines...an approach that has gotten him scores of 5-star reviews on Chessable, and a heap of student success stories! Here are his chess improvement insights: 

What is your coaching philosophy?

Whenever I meet a new student, we always define their ambition and availability, make sure they know the most objective way forward and if they want to get better but also throw in a bunch of activities that allow them to enjoy the game as much as possible. 

I also find it incredibly important to observe how a specific individual learns best. Some people have terrific visual memory, some want to take things slower and review them multiple times, and some improve really fast by playing and analyzing a lot. It’s key to find the individual approach, adjusting for the student’s age, goals, and learning style!

Suppose a player has only 3 hours a week for chess training? How should they spend their time?

I can close my eyes, not know anything about the player in question, and say “play a bit, solve a bit” and it would be pretty solid advice. 

Of course, the devil lies in the details. For example, sometimes an 1800-rated club player is busy between tournaments, but won’t play for the next 6 months. In that case, it could be best to spend this time acquiring new knowledge, and solving their current problems, - a lousy opening repertoire or poor practical endgame skills. 

On another hand, a 900-rated amateur would certainly benefit the most from playing as much as they can and improving their tactical skills.

What is the biggest factor for improvement for players under 1200 (Chess.com)? Under 2000?

For the beginner and post-beginner level players, tactical skills are by far the most important aspect of the game! 

Chess strategy can be a fascinating thing, but making a great positional move doesn’t help if you blunder a piece. Most games at that level are decided because of tactical errors, therefore it’s key to learn as many tactical and attacking patterns as possible, drill them hard, and play some more!

On the other hand, players under 2000 (especially in the higher end of that range), already know a ton of patterns, and have a ton of chess habits - a certain repertoire, preference for a certain type of position, potentially time management problems, and so on. Here, it gets a lot more complicated and individual. 

The best general advice is to look at the last 10-20 lost games and find the most common reasons for losses. Was it bad endgame play? Indecisiveness when you were attacking? Or maybe very ambitious, aggressive moves that weakened your position strategically?

At this level, most people greatly benefit from learning how to properly analyze their games, and from reading a few books on strategy in depth. You don’t need to process a lot of information, but you do need to think deeply about the things you are learning and retain them very well!

What is your preferred way to improve at tactics and strategy?

With great puzzles, of course! 

What you want is a situation where you can solve the puzzle when you try hard enough - at least, likely! And you want puzzles that take a reasonable amount of time - not 10 seconds, but also not 30 minutes! 

On average, the best puzzles are the ones that take 5-7 minutes, and where your success rate is about 60-70%. This way, you are challenging yourself hard enough and staying motivated to keep going! 

For strategy, it’s a combination of game analysis and reading. It’s impossible to become a good musician if you’ve never heard good music, so you have to study master games. But also, it doesn’t make sense to only study high-level games and not analyze your own mistakes. 

The biggest challenge a lot of improvers face nowadays, to my mind, is the amount of information around. They often rush and assume that more information = more improvement. In reality, the best piece of advice is to slow down and make sure you are deeply understanding whatever new knowledge you are acquiring! 

What is your preferred way to improve your openings? What approach to chess openings do you teach your students?

May I say Chessable? Haha!

On a serious note, it’s a combination of accessible, non-overwhelming material with clear explanations and practice. 

Many resources are simply too big and too encyclopedia-like. You don’t memorize encyclopedias, but many people try to memorize hundreds of pages of books on chess openings!

That’s how I approach my courses. I want to make sure that a few hours of immersion in the explanations set you up to try the opening and feel like you have a solid grasp on the main ideas. Then you play, succeed in some cases, fail in some, review, and re-iterate. Rinse and repeat. Practice makes the master!

What is your preferred way to improve your endgames?

A bit of the same things above! Practice and great examples. 

One is the incredibly overwhelming amount of unnecessary theoretical positions. I know numerous GMs who have never heard of them, yet so many club players feel pressured to study them. Often, it’s a waste of time! 

The second challenge is studying too broadly. In my experience, focusing on specific patterns and aspects of the position, on certain topics, offers clarity and helps you improve much faster. 

What are we studying today? Maybe an outside passed pawn, or the principle of two weaknesses, or the importance of activating your king. Not just endgames in general! 

And of course, it’s incredibly useful to make sure you take away general conclusions and lessons from each game. Can you explain in a few short sentences what you just looked at and learned? If so, you are likely making progress! If not, it might be useful to slow down, review the example again and summarize the takeaway, so you can benefit from the knowledge you just acquired in your own games - not just tomorrow, but for years to come! 

Yuriy’s Courses

If Yuriy’s advice resonated with you, make sure to check out his Chessable courses! You can try them for free here: 

Short & Sweet: Krykun’s 1.e4 Get a taste of Yuriy’s complete 1.e4 repertoire for White. The positional approach championed in this course keep memorization low and all but guarantee rich, interesting positions that you can outplay your opponent in.

Short & Sweet: Krykun’s French Defense One of the most solid defenses against 1.e4, with some new twists! Learn how to spice up your French Defense with novel lines your opponents will hardly see coming.

Short & Sweet: 1.Nf3 A unique opening repertoire for White, based on Yuriy’s novel “Reversed Queen’s Indian” setup. Sure give you a home turf advantage in the opening!

And be sure to check out the Finals of the Chess Punks Tournament, streaming Sunday, October 22 on Chess.com.

A Game of Yuriy's