Ask Me Anything! With GM Sipke Ernst & Karel van Delft

We’re pleased to announce an upcoming Ask Me Anything (AMA) session with Grandmaster Sipke Ernst and Karel van Delft!!

Date: Friday, August 1
Time: 16:00 CEST
Location: Right here in the forum

GM Sipke Ernst brings years of high-level tournament experience, while Karel van Delft is widely recognized for his work in chess psychology and training methodology. This is a unique opportunity to ask your questions on topics such as chess improvement, training routines, mental preparation, and more. They recently launched the Chessable course, Find Your Next Move: Candidate Moves and Thinking Tools so feel free to ask anything about it too! 

You can start posting your questions in advance, and they will answer them directly here in the forum thread on the day of the event.

PS: We’ll be giving away a one-month Diamond Membership to two lucky participants!

We look forward to your questions and a great discussion

any tips for the middlegame

Top

How to basically find sacrifices when in a good position and should I play a rated tournament too early as iam rated 1600 on chess.com??

Same

Also, any tips for getting to 1000 in blitz and back to 1000 in daily?

And what is the best opening I should play?

how can i reach 1500 elo as early as possibe because now i am 750

I'm 1087 rapid rated, and started playing almost 2 years ago. Can you tell me, if I can reach 2200 in 2 more years if I practice intensely, seriously and with passion?

Why does the Bishop have a cut on his head?

Is it something to do with the Protestant Reformation?

I want to prepare for a tournament in a month. Can you please provide me tips for preparing for the tournament. I am 1400 rapid on chess.com and the opponents in the tournament will be slightly more advanced than me.

Any tips on how to convert positional advantage into a win?

I have this situation: next game is a decisive one in the last round of a open tournament(otb)

My opponent is much younger than me,rated 300-400 points higher than me and had won last 4 encounters with me. How must I prepare for the game, I mean mental preparation,but also what strategy to adopt in the opening ? Thank you !

How do I improve my chess psychology and positional understanding

I know it might seem weird when I ask about it, but what are the real differences between tactical and positional play, attacking style and defending style? I’ve heard about these things a lot, but I don’t really know what is the differences if people would try to play to find the best moves. Also, how to analyze and learn from chess grandmasters in the most effective way, and if you have bots of grandmasters like Tal bot or Carlsen bot on chess.com, how could we use them to help us understand more about the grandmasters style?

How do you keep a constant motivation in chess, to learn whatever you want: read a chess book, do tactics, play games and analyze it, study an opening, practice endgames, do all these important stuff for chess improvement without getting burned out, stressed, or tired?

What's the best way to improve visualization? Practicing it during games, studies/problems, or something else?

Any tips to improve my game

How do I get more elo. I have been winning like i don’t know? 65% of my games and yet, I’ve literally made no progress

Hello Sipke and Karel! Sipke, I met you many years ago at the Lost Boys tournament. Karel, it is nice to see you on here doing what you do best( please tell Merijn hello) My question to both of you is- What is the best way to combat time trouble. I find as I get older I am having more and more issues with this. Thank you!

Wishing you and your family well!

PS Chess for Educators is a great book! 

Sincerely,

Nikki