looking for study partner

I am looking for a study partner to dive deeper into chess. I am open to any rating level, provided you have a serious commitment to learning and improving.
The plan is to meet once a week on Zoom for one hour. We will select a chess book together, read a specific chapter independently before our session, and then use our meeting time to:

• Go over specific drills from the chapter.
• Discuss the strategic ideas and concepts.
• Practice the positions together in real-time.

If you are interested in a consistent, structured way to improve your game, please reach out!

Awesome idea; Avetik Grigoryan wrote about the value of having a training or sparring partner. In my case, the time zone difference is a bit inconvenient. (I'm in the Central European Summer Time (CEST) zone.)

Do you already have specific books in mind?

Hi! It’s a pleasure to meet you! The time zone might work out depending on your work-life schedule. I’m in Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) in Los Angeles, CA.

I recently got these two books that we can look at, but I’m open to any suggestions: 100 Tactical Patterns You Must Know by Frank Erwich and The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings by Reuben Fine. There is also another book, 100 Endgames You Must Know by Jesus de la Villa.

Did you have any thoughts on the structure of your time? Do you like to focus on one key area at a time or a multi-layered approach? Personally, this will be the first time for me doing structured learning versus just winging it and falling into the trap of buying a book and not studying it properly. That is my primary goal for this study partnership: to really dive deep and keep us on track to reach our chess Elo goals.

Hi,

There's a difference of nine hours between our time zones. This is fine on Sundays; other days could be less convenient (at least for me).

With regard to the books:

• 100 Tactical Patterns You Must Know by Frank Erwich is on a my wishlist.
• The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings by Reuben Fine is a book that I still see people recommend but I think it's out of print (I currently don't know where to get it) and it is strictly speaking outdated. In a review posted on ChessCafe (in 2002?) Bill Kelleher wrote, "(...) Ideas Behind the Chess Openings is seriously out of date. Chess is a far different game than it was in 1943. Reuben Fine was a great player and an excellent chess writer, but this book retains value only as a snapshot of the state of opening theory in the middle of the last century. It cannot be recommended to the modern student seeking to improve his or her understanding of opening theory."
• 100 Endgames You Must Know by Jesus de la Villa is a book that I've been aware of for some time, but as far as I know, it's more advanced than Silman’s Complete Endgame Course (which I own).

I listed some of the chess books I own in Chess book curriculum for getting back into chess? Those books are mainly on the post-beginner to intermediate level. I can provide a list of higher-level books if you're interested.)

Wednesday night for you around 8pm your time, Wednesday day for me is convenient for me.

Im open to a different opening books but as I don’t know most opening theory past 1-3 moves old new at my level doesn’t Make much of a difference.

As for middle game and end game theory I’m open to book suggestions.

For the one zoom session I think it would be cool to split the time between the classic three point of the game drill the ideas and then do a few practice games to practice the ideas on each other. If we have time analyze the games to see where we went wrong and what each of us were thinking at different points.

I won't do a bunch of zoom sessions but I'll be happy to run some practice games/spar.

Some alternatives to Fine's book that are worth considering:

• Sam Collins: Understanding the Chess Openings (Gambit, 2005; 224 pages).
• Paul van der Sterren: FCO: Fundamental Chess Openings (Gambit, 2009; 480 pages).
• Martyn Kravtsiv: PCO: Practical Chess Openings (Gambit, 2025; 544 pages).

(I don't know why these books all happen to come from the same publisher.)

For the purpose of studying an entire book together (or a reasonable portion of it), the shortest may be the best option. It is comparable in page count to Fine's book, whereas the other ones are much longer.

Or we could just start with Erwich and figure out the next book later. Studying too many books in parallel is not effective.

Wednesday 8 p.m. (my time zone) would actually work.