Hi guys, I started a new channel entitled 'Tnk64ChessCourse' on YouTube. This channel will aim to offer a structured series of video that I hope will be able to help a beginner improve. Anyway, it would be good to have some feedback on the course,

Hi guys, I started a new channel entitled 'Tnk64ChessCourse' on YouTube. This Channel will aim to offer a strucutred series of videos that I hope will be able to help a beginner improve. Anyway, it would be good to have some feedback on the course, which can be checked out at http://www.youtube.com/user/Tnk64ChessCourse, or on my webiste at http://tnk64chesscourse.co.nr/, thanks for your time,

Thomas

A Brief Overview of the Tnk64ChessCourse

 The Tnk64ChessCourse is an online chess course that is designed to help you improve your chess. The course will help you to organize your study, and will also help provide you with theoretical that is essential for aspring chess players. Unlike most YouTube chess channels, the Tnk64ChessCourse features a methodical, step by step video experience, which helps players to organize the order in which they view the videos.

What you Need:

1. A computer with internet access.

2. A Chess Set.

3. Program: Scid, for managing databases.

4. Program: BasbasChess, for playing chess on the Free Internet Chess Server.

5. Application: Chesstempo, for doing tactical problems

Lesson 0: How to Play Chess (Watch Playlist)

Thomas King explains how to play the great game of chess.

Part a: The movement of the pieces (Watch Video)

Part b: Winning, Drawing and Special Moves (Watch Video)

Part c: Board Setup, Notation, and the Chess Clock. (Watch Video)

Recommended Study for Students of Lesson 0:

• Play 3 Blitz Games (recommended time control – 3 2) on FICS every day.

• Solve 15 Blitz Problems on Chesstempo every weekday.

• Solve 15 Standard Problems on Chesstempo every weekend day.

• Improve your vision of the knight's awkward and unintuitive movement by practicing the Knight Sight drill once each day.

Lesson 1: Managing Your Programs (Watch Playlist)

Thomas King explains how you can take advantage of the best freeware available for maximum improvement.

Part a: Scid (Watch Video)

Part b: BabasChess (Watch Video)

Part c: Chesstempo (Watch Video)

Recommended Study for Students of Lesson 1:

• Play 3 Blitz Games (recommended time control – 3 2) on FICS every day.

• Solve 15 Blitz Problems on Chesstempo every weekday.

• Solve 15 Standard Problems on Chesstempo every weekend day.

• Try to play one (and only one) correspondence game on a correspondence server (I personally recommend “RedHotPawn), when you are finished, upload the game to a Scid database entitled 'My Games'.

Lesson 2: Knife To The Face! (Playlist Later)

Part a: Superior Force (Video later)

Part b: The Fork (Video later)

Part c: The Pin (Video later)

Part d: The Skewer (Video later)

Part e: Deflection (Video later)

Part f: Decoy (Video later)

Part g: Zugzwang (Video later)

Part h: Zwischenzug (Video later)

Part i: X-Ray (Video later)

Part j: Windmill (Video later)

Part k: Mating Patterns (Video later)

Part l: Tactical Landmines (Video later)

Part m: The Knight Sight Drill (Video later)

Part n: The Concentric Square Drill (Video later)

Part o: Backward Problem Solving Drill (Video later)

Part p: Landmine Identification Drill (Video later)

Part q: Benefits of Playing Blindfold Chess (Video later)

Part r: Summary and Test Yourself (Video later)

Recommended Study for Students of Lesson 2:

• Play 3 Blitz Games (recommended time control – 3 2) on FICS every day.

• Solve 15 Blitz Problems on Chesstempo every weekday.

• Solve 15 Standard Problems on Chesstempo every weekend day.

• Try to play one (and only one) correspondence game on a correspondence server (I personally recommend “RedHotPawn), when you are finished, upload the game to a Scid database entitled 'My Games'.

• Improve your vision of forks, pins and skewers by practicing the 'Concentric Square Drill' once each day for two weeks.

• Make one of your weekday Chesstempo blitz sessions, and one of your Chesstempo standard sessions, one of 'backward problem solving'.

Lesson 3: Grinding the Opponent (Playlist Later)

Part a: What is Strategy?

Part b: The Value of the Pieces (Video later)

  i)The Bishop on an Open Diagonal

ii) "Good" and "Bad" Bishops

iii) Opposite Coloured Bishops

iv) The Bishop Pair

v) The Outposted Knight

vi) Bishops vs. Knights

Part c: Bishops and Knights (Video later)

Part d) The Power of The Rook (Video later)

1. The Creation of Open Files

2. The Conversion of Open Files

3. The Rook Lift

4. Rooks on the 7th and 8th Ranks

Part e) The Power of the Queen (Video later)

Part f) Pawn Structure (Video later)

1.  The Passed Pawn

2. The Backward Pawn

3. The Isolated Pawn

4.  Doubled Pawns

5. The Minority Attack

6. Common Pawn Structures

Part g) The Advantage in Space (Video later)

1. Space Advantage in the Centre

2. Space Advantage on the Wing

3. Unresolved Pawn Tension

4. Space Advantage in Closed Position

 Part h) Dynamic Advantages (Video later)

1. Lead in Development

2. Piece Co-ordination

3. Positional Sacrifice

Part j) The Weakened King (Video later)

1.  The Uncastled King

2. Focal Points Around the King

3. Ranks, Files and Diagonals To Assist in the Attack

4. Pawn Storming

5. Defending the Weakened King

Part k) Summary and Test Yourself (Video later)

Recommended Study for Students of Lesson 3:

• Play 3 Standard Games (recommended time control – 90 30) on FICS every week. When playing these games, use the thinking process that you've been taught in this lesson and double check using a checklist.

• Solve 15 Blitz Problems on Chesstempo every weekday.

• Solve 15 Standard Problems on Chesstempo every weekend day.

• Try to play one (and only one) correspondence game on a correspondence server (I personally recommend “RedHotPawn), . While you are playing, type up your thought process for every move and save it to a document entitled 'My Correspondence Games'. When you are finished, analyse the game, ask yourself if you were making note of the right imbalances in the position and if you missed any tactics. Annotate the game in your Scid database.

• Start playing one blindfold chess game a day against an engine. This will greatly improve your visualization of the position.

• Make one of your weekday Chesstempo blitz sessions, and one of your Chesstempo standard sessions, one of 'backward problem solving'.

Lesson 4: Finishing the Blow (Playlist Later)

Beginner's Course 

Part a) Studying the Endgame in Chess 

Part b) The Staircase

Part c) The Box. 

Part d) Bishop vs. Queen

Part e) Knight vs. Queen

Part f) King and Pawn vs. King

Part g) Opposition

Part h) The Weakness of Rook Pawns in the Endgame

Part i) Fox in the Chicken Coup

Part j) Freezing the Opponents Pawn Structure

Part k) Knight vs. Pawn

Part l) Rook vs. Pawn

Part m) Summary and Test Yourself 

Intermediate Course

Part a) Square of the Pawn

Part b) Outside Passed Pawns and Outside Pawn Majorities

Part c) Knight and Rook Pawn on the 6th or 7th vs King

Part d) Bishops of Opposite Colours

Part e) The Salvio Position

Part f) Front Side Checking and The 'Rule of Five' 

Part g) The Philidor Position

Part h) Trapping the Enemy King Away From the Action

Part i) Queen vs. Pawn

Part j) King and Two Pawns vs. King 

Part k) Clearance Sacrifices for Creating Passed Pawns

Part l) Triangulation

Part n) Outflanking

Part o) Rook and Two Connected Passed Pawns Vs. Rook

Part p) Checkmate with Two Bishops

Part q) Summary and Test Yourself 

Advanced Course

Part a) Strange Pawn Races

Part b) Rook and Pawn vs. Rook Pawn 

Part c) The Tarrasch Rule

Part d) Bishop and Two Connected Passed Pawns vs. King

Part e) Fortress in Bishop Endgames

Part f) The Flowchart

Part g) Rook and Two Connected Passed Pawns vs. Rook and Pawn

Part h) When Philidor Let's You Down

Part i) Pawns on One Side of the Board in Rook Endgames

1. Rook and Two Pawns vs. Rook and One Pawn

2. Rook and Three Pawns vs. Rook and Two Pawns

3. Rook and Four Pawn vs. Rook and Three Pawn

Part j) Bishop and Pawn vs. Bishop

Part k) Blockade - Queen vs. Rook and Pawn

Part l) Blockade - Queen vs. Rook and Pawn

Part m) Sadism for the Chess Win!

Part n) The Principle of Two Weaknesses

Part o) More King and Pawn Endgames

Part p) The King in the Endgame

Part q) Queen and Pawn Endgames

Part r) Wizards of the Endgame:

1.  Jose Raul Capablanca

2. Akiba Rubinstein

3. Vassily Smyslov

4. Bobby Fischer

5. Anatoly Karpov

Part s) The Beauty of An Endgame Study 

Recommended Study for Students of Lesson 4

• Play 2 Standard Games (recommended time control – 90 30) on FICS every week. When playing these games, use the thinking process that you've been taught in this lesson and double check using a checklist.

• Solve 15 Blitz Problems on Chesstempo every weekday.

• Solve 15 Standard Problems on Chesstempo every weekend day.

• Try to play one (and only one) correspondence game on a correspondence server (I personally recommend “RedHotPawn), . While you are playing, type up your thought process for every move and save it to a document entitled 'My Correspondence Games'. When you are finished, analyse the game, ask yourself if you were making note of the right imbalances in the position and if you missed any tactics. Annotate the game in your Scid database.

• Start playing one blindfold chess game a day against an engine. This will greatly improve your visualization of the position.

• Make one of your weekday Chesstempo blitz sessions, and one of your Chesstempo standard sessions, one of 'backward problem solving'.

• Start to review over previous lessons once or twice a week, this will help you to best improve from them.

   

Lesson 5: Seizing the Advantage (Playlist Later)

Information later.

how am I suppose to Start playing one blindfold chess game a day against an engine. This will greatly improve your visualization of the position its not like the eengine wont hide the pieces on the screen and play ? and what is 'Concentric Square Drill'  ?

This will be explained in lesson 2q "Benefits of Playing Blindfold Chess", where I will explain how this can be done in Scid.

Can you at least PM me I'm actually in the middle of a month long blindfold traing program but can only play myself.