Prodigy Program - February 2016 Registration Open

Registration for the February 2016 month of the Prodigy Program is now open for our 900+, 1200+, 1500+, and 1750+ Elo sections. Registration is open until  3:00 PM PST on February 12th, 2016. Sign up and join Chess.com University's flagship chess learning program today! Read on for details.

*Chess.com University's Prodigy Program*

Master Chess at Any Age, Within 5 Years

As our most comprehensive and ambitious course, the Prodigy Program is designed to create chess prodigies out of youth players and take them, or any chess player at any age, to master-level within 5 years. By offering the highest quality of live lessons, study guides, homework, personalized game analysis, and unlimited guidance from our world-class team of coaches, we provides ambitious chess players a clear path to chess improvement and mastery. The Prodigy Program is for chess players of all ages. If you love chess and want to improve, look no further than the Prodigy Program.

Important Information:

• The February 2016 month of the Prodigy Program is taught by Kairav Joshi, FM Dalton Perrine, FM Arne Jochens, and GM Alex Yermolinsky.
  
• This month's program offers 12 hours of live lessons (that get recorded so students can review), three detailed study guides, class homework, simuls with masters, online correspondence tournaments, and full email support for students. Plus students can submit two games for one-on-one emailed analysis.
  
• The tuition for February 2016 is $150.
• We offer four rating sections: 900, 1200+, 1500+, and 1750+ Elo.
  
• Program begins on February 13th, 2016 at 10:00 AM PST and all the live lessons will be taught on the 13th, 14th, 15th, 20th, 21st, 27th, and 28th of February.
• Most live lessons are taught somewhere between 9:00 AM to 1:30 PM PST (Pacific Time). Registered students will receive the full schedule by February 12th.

Key Areas of Study in February 2016:

900:

• Basics of king and pawn endgames (winning won endgames and drawing drawn endgames) and discussion of opposition and outflanking
• Improving basic endgame calculation
• Opening principles and basic applications
• Understanding fianchettoes and opening development including stable vs. unstable development
• Elementary opening theory
• Methods for improving the position and combining principles with tactics and forcing moves
• Textbooks: Silman's Complete Endgame Course by Jeremy Silman and Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess by Bobby Fischer

1200:

• Mastering all king and pawn endgames with one pawn
• King and pawn endgames (triangulation, pawn breaks, endgames with multiple pawns)
• Endgame calculation and depth: what chess engines don't understand
• Basics of attacking the enemy king
• Applying forcing moves to find unusual tactics and learning to balance principles with tactical/dynamic play
• Strategy and positional chess such as basics of types of positions and types of pawn structures
• Applying opening principles and opening strategy, opening tactics, opening tricks, and winning games in the opening
• Textbooks: Silman's Complete Endgame Course by Jeremy Silman and Amateur's Mind by Jeremy Silman

1500:

• Improving calculation and visualization
• Positional chess crash course
• Intermediate king and pawn endgame concepts
• Advanced opening topics (how to build your opening repertoire, how to use engines and databases, how and when to memorize opening lines, etc.)
• Typical middlegame attacking plans and avoiding premature attacks
• Textbooks: Silman's Complete Endgame Course by Jeremy Silman and How to Reassess Your Chess 4th Edition by Jeremy Silman

1750:

• Combining tactical and strategic patterns to create great combinations
• Understanding important pawn structures
• Calculation and visualization training
• Advanced endgame play (improving both knowledge and skills)
• Textbooks: Silman's Complete Endgame Course by Jeremy Silman, How to Reassess Your Chess 4th Edition by Jeremy Silman, and Chess Structures - A Grandmaster Guide by Mauricio Flores Rios

Placement:

Naming of our sections is based on over-the-board Elo ratings. FIDE, USCF, and CFC, for example, use Elo for ratings or something similiar to Elo. Online ratings tend to be inflated, sometimes heavily at the lower rating levels. A 1500 correspondence rating on Chess.com may indicate an actual strength of near 1200 Elo. Keep this in mind when selecting a section. Message GeniusKJ on Chess.com for an evaluation if you are not sure which section to join.

Why Join Prodigy Program?:

• The Prodigy Program is the world's first and only online comprehensive chess learning program. It has been running successfully for over a year now.
• The program is led and taught by world-class coaches who time after time have proven their ability to help take chess players to the next level.
• With detailed study guides, homework assignments, puzzle/quiz videos, one-on-one game analysis, and guidance all in addition to the live lessons, the amount students learn each month exceeds what they would get out of 20-30 private lessons with other coaches.
• Our rate of $150/month offers unbeatable value.
• In general, Chess.com University students perform exceedingly well at tournaments. A few students have even won thousands or tens of thousands of dollars in prizes at tournaments like the Millionaire Chess Open.
• No long-term commitment is required. Try out the Prodigy Program for one month and start realizing your chess potential.
• Opportunity to interact with the world's elite chess players. While there are not any guest instructors scheduled in February, during most months we have one or two guest instructors. In January 2016, five-time World Champion Vishy Anand and former world #4 ranked player Alexei Shirov each taught a live lesson to our students. We will have such guest instructors again in either March or April.
• This is the highest quality of chess instruction available. Period. If you truly love chess and want to become a better player, study in the Prodigy Program.

February 2016 Registration:

1. To sign up for the Prodigy Program, follow this link: http://goo.gl/9wWiCJ
2. Then select your section, click add to cart, and click on the cart icon on the top-right. Click on "Checkout" to send payment.
3. After completing payment, you will be prompted to fill out a student information form. Fill this out if you are a new student. If you don't receive this form after completing payment, message GeniusKJ on Chess.com.
   

Registration Deadline:

Registration for the February 2016 month of the Prodigy Program ends at 3:00 PM PST on February 12th, 2016. This means, we must receive payment and your student information (via form) by then. We will accept late payments but late registrations won't be processed until a few days later.

Sign up for the Prodigy Program today and start your journey of becoming a chess master.

Contact Chess.com University President Kairav Joshi by sending a message on Chess.com to GeniusKJ or sending an email to kairavjoshi@chess.com.