Yusupov's award-winning Training Course

I've been working on Build up your Chess 1 for a couple of months now and I'm seeing improvement OTB already. Not much mind you, but I found the first two chapters on Mating Motifs very difficult and after I'd worked through them I learned a lot of new patterns and attacks some of which I used in my games. I have a long way to go but I think Yusupov is honest about the level of calculation and analysis required to improving one's rating - too many players want 'GM in one week' type books that are unrealistic.

the first puzzle, "puzzled" me. It was quite easy to spot the first move. A bit harder to find the second as there where 2 choises, the rest seems straight forward , but i did wrong because there is also an alternate checkmate:

@ghillan - I guess you can award yourself 2pts. as well

Of course i would do, but when it happens, i spend half hour triing to figure out "why the hell the other way doesn't work?!?". Only to realize that there is nothing wrong with the opther solution. Obviously we can consider it as another way to exercise, but rage raises when i find out that i spend a lot of time looking for an error that doesn't exist! 

Good puzzles should have only one solution, or mention all the possible solutions, or stop earlier.

After 4. g4+, 4... Bxg4. No mate on the next move.

 a-ha!! here it is!

thanks Martin

Thanks for this contrast.  I am wondering how accurate the other provided ratings (U1500, U1800, U2100) are, because I know a 1300 level player tell me to get the fundamentals.  He found it extremely difficult, which I thought is odd, since he's 200 points below 1500.  I was going to skip the first set of three books, but maybe I should not!

Thanks again.

I'm in the 1500s and was still when I did the first three books in the series. I had a number of chapters I failed (4 in the first, 5 in the second and 6 in the third). I got a few excellent scores in a number of chapters but for the most part got scores of passing and good.

I managed to pass all the finals but there is still plenty of room for improvment there. I actually started the 1st book in the second grouping and am finding it harder. I still need to work over all the first series chapters that I failed and any where I at least didn't get close to excellent.

In my opinion, 1500 rated players (USCF) can get a lot of benefit out of the first books.

Great, I really appreciate the recount of your experience.

I am rated USCF 1845 - I am currently working through the 3rd book of the orange series (fundamentals). The exercises are challenging for sure. I think it makes sense to go through all nine books. Publisher GM Jacob Aagaard recommends the same. There may not be a better source of chess improvement for players under 2000 in my opinion.

I wanted to add to this, having gone through only 6 chapters of the first blue book (not doing the chapters in order). Rated 1850 USCF.

I can't say enough good things about this book! These books are NOT just for people who want to improve. It's NOT necessary to buy more than one book. The examples chosen are gems. These books are suitable for those who simply love chess! So don't be afraid to just buy one book. In my opinion they're hugely underpriced for the work it must have taken, and for the number of hours of instruction contained within.

I already consider this one of the best books I own, and I'm not even half way through it.

As someone who wants to improve, there is real meat here. The chapters are broken into two parts: examples and puzzles. Yusupov says both sections can take 1 to 2 hours each. But for positions that were very instructional to me this has been extended. I've easily spent an hour on just one position, doing my own analysis and exploring variations not given in the book. And this is where the love comes in, I'm not even sure this is an efficient use of time to improve... it's just a joy to work through some of these super high quality positions, often taken from world class games. The few variations given in the book do not exhaust such positions!

And so far it's been like this chapter after chapter. I feel I could easily spend a year with just 3 of these books. I can't believe the low price.

As for the tactical chapters such as "The double attack" there is not as much to explore after seeing the solution here. But they are challenging and again, there are some gems... beautiful solutions. I can't believe the overall quality of this book.

A good suggestion to me, made by member Silentknighte5 on here, is to go through the chapter tests and final test again, once you've moved on to the next book (or another book).  Comparing your scores between the first time taking the test and the second indicates how much integration and retention you experienced, and also let you know whether you should go back through any given chapter in any particular book/level of the series.  I am not 100% sure, but I think the mentioned chess.com member does the problems in abstracto, converting each test position into a PGN --this way, there's no reference between the position and the subject of the chapter, i.e., you get no help at all.

That would be very challenging.

I vaguely recall something I read about memory, advising people to review material on day 3, day 14, and day 30 after seeing it for the first time. I've set up a calendar to do just that with these books. I also take notes while reviewing the solutions which will aid the reviews. If this goes well, then I'd hope to do well on such a final test.

This is a good suggestion. I think an easy way for me to do this would be to save positions as pictures, their names can reference the chapter and exercise number. When viewing it as a randomized slideshow I won't be able to see where they came from.

I like that idea.  

If you are doing them they way they were designed to be done, it should take a year per book

That may be closer to the pace he intended. I don't imagine he intended it to be as long as a year per book though.

Although I suppose he does say that ideally you should be reading other books and playing in tournaments at the same time.

It took this fellow about a month and a half to get through the first book (http://p-r4.blogspot.com/2015/03/yusupov-fundamentals-book-1-week-6.html).  This is consistent with my experience.  Actually, I'm a bit more of a zealot, possibly, and it took me about 1.5-3 hours per chapter, and I polished off the first three books in just under 4 months.  Considering that I worked through other content simultaneously, I imagine that the books can be passed through more quickly, but probably at the cost of retention.

Kasparov's books --now those might take a year and more to go through.  I'll let you know in the next 12 months.  

Oh, I went through the first three books pretty quickly, about a year total I think. I'm just saying the course was designed to be a year per book. I think the idea is that you should spend a lot more time on each chapter and really get to know the material.

It would probably help if there was supplemental stuff to study, tied to each chapter and likely with a coach, the material could be added to make it last longer.

I liked idea about re-traversing the material twice, as a rule.  I've never don that explicitly, except in instances where I covered a common topic in two books, such as Grooten's "Chess Strategy for the Club Player" and then Srokovski's book, both focusing on Steinitz' elements.

Retention and ability to apply is the next tricky step, once one get all of those ideas into his/her head.  Lingering on the material for a year might be the idea behind the course's suggested speed, too.

I am curious as to how you guys study these books? Is it enough to read and study the examples before carefully analyzing the exercises? Or should you carefully analyze the positions given in the examples as well, approaching them as if they were test questions.