Topic Suggestions

That sounds great. Could you give an idea of when they'll be available?

EDIT: And who the authors are?

i can't wait!!! 

i want to work my way up to Silman's course.

should be one published on Sept 1st.

Cheers 

paul, the exercises are tailored to different levels. and by very good chess teachers who know that chess level is not defined by how many moves long an example is. there are 1 move puzzles that are extremely difficult, and 5 move puzzles that are extremely easy.

How about something on how to stop screwing up tactics problems.

I am happy to see that a novice level strategy course is on the way! 

sounds like the free demo doesn't give you a very good sense of what chess mentor is, and i should look into changing the demo.

Hi!

I think there are som very great lessons in chess mentor. What I am missing do is the conection to the videolessons...

To illustrate my point... There is a great videoseries of rookendgames by mr Rench and there is a chessmentor course in rookendgames but there is no realconection... What if mr Rench during his videolesson stopt at a specific time and stated that the viever shuld do lesson 2 and 3 in that specific chessmentorcours before continuing the videolesson...and so on...

My belife is that the learning experiens shuld be greater and even boost chess.com as a hole!

What do you think mr Dpruess?

Perhaps Analyzing Opening Variations?

David,

   This might not be the place for this comment, however until joining chess.com I have been completely self taught. Many of the mentor problems start with titles like "the Rubenstein version for the catalan" (just made That up) and since I never learned book openings, my moves are constantly met with comments like "good move if this was the scoth, but this is a catalan".

   I don't feel like I learn as much during these lessons because I never learned the opening to begin with. At least on video lessons I can pause and explore the opening main lines. I know there are other places to explore book openings, I spend a lot of time there but perhaps a course on openings should be a pre requisite or addition to the mentor course.

  I feel that sometimes chess.com was built for 1800+ rated players with years of chess education. I just wanted you you to know that there are a few of us who joined the site at about a 1300 level and could use some secondary education before the graduate work begins.

   I think you have a great site and don't want people a little less obsessed than myself to lose interest.

   Sincerely Carl Twoblkaces

P.S.  Oh yeah, a comment section after the lesson would be a good idea. I was so frustrated after Fm Wolski gave us a tactical position, then upon solving it in perfect order asked us to show other wins and began docking points for not playing sub par chess. A place to vent would be nice. Getting discussions going is never a bad thing.

Is it possible to arrange a course where you play an tactical endgame? Idea:
 - You have to play many good moves in order to win. The solution is not just one move - it's like many combinations in the same exercize.
 - If you don't make the correct solution you will finish the game against the computer.

It's both playing and solving in the same exercize. 

 That's a good point toffe! Utilizing and combining the features chess.com has to offer. I tried something similiar in my Lesson 1 - Tactics (page 1/page 2) blog:

• Chess.com - blogs
• Links to chessopedia (if possible)
• A static diagram's
• A link to a Chess.com video (if possible)
• Puzzle diagram's

 Linking chess mentor to chess.com videos or creating videos for a small introduction on one chess mentor lesson is excellent. (or at least showing video links related to the chess mentor lessons.) It should be kept as simple as possible. Having 15 links to different author's makes it difficult to learn, since you reread many thing's etc.

@IM klippfiskkjerringa
How about linking some of these lessons to the Computer Workout?

Regarding discussion/comments !AFTER! one lesson seems good. BTW there are active groups for some of these lessons.

Carl Twoblkaces,

i assure you chess.com was built with all players in mind, from those learning the rules all the way up to professional players. there is plenty of content for experienced 1800+ players, but there is also plenty of content for 1300 players, and you can just pick and choose which courses to look at. notice that when you go to http://www.chess.com/chessmentor/courses.html you can see the average rating of the lessons in each course, and thus pick a course that's more or less at your level. also within the courses, you can see which specific lessons are at your level.

i don't think chess mentor is the best tool to teach self-taught players the names for all the openings. perhaps an encyclopedia of opening names in article form.

hi Kotomitsuki,

i have edited the mentor courses appearing over the last 3 years that i have worked at chess.com, but i'm not going to go back through hundreds of old lessons from before my time. it's too much work. :(

have you done these:

http://www.chess.com/chessmentor/view_course.html?id=302

http://www.chess.com/chessmentor/view_course.html?id=319

http://www.chess.com/chessmentor/view_course.html?id=321

http://www.chess.com/chessmentor/view_course.html?id=318

http://www.chess.com/chessmentor/view_course.html?id=317

http://www.chess.com/chessmentor/view_course.html?id=344

i've got an advanced endgame course coming out april 1st.

i'll pass the video suggestion on to Danny and Dejan.

ofc the two Scotch courses may not be in your repertoire-- they aren't in mine. but i still found that i learned some very interesting things about chess from them. so if you were just looking to spend some quality chess time, i thought those might still hold some interest for you.

cheers!

no, i don't use a computer to check them.