As I begin writing this, on Eclipse Day, it feels like we are in a great period for chess. The first four days of the Candidates tournament are in the books, and there have been exciting games and unexpected results in both the Women’s and Men’s divisions. I wonder if the organizers planned the first rest day strategically, so the chess action wouldn’t be, uh, eclipsed by the celestial event. Whatever the case, I am just hopeful that some non-chess players, especially women, will catch wind of the tournament and become intrigued enough by our compelling game to give it a try.
I’m in my third year as an adult chess improver, and I am gaining rating points steadily, if slowly. I am becoming mostly ok with that, but one thing I have noticed is that many of the online chess courses on offer are aimed at people with ratings above 800 or 1000, if not even higher. I have a coach and plenty of self-study materials, but like many of us, when I’m not playing I am doing other chess-adjacent activities, one of which is buying materials that seem to promise–or even guarantee–improvement. In the case of books, it took me a while to realize that I had bought a number of those that exceeded my current chess understanding and ability. Unlike most books, courses for sale often do suggest the range of player strengths for which they are appropriate, but I suspect that some of them exaggerate the lower end to gain more buyers. Fortunately the return policies tend to be generous.
Thus I truly have been overjoyed to see that within the past several months three (3!) courses have been released that really are appropriate for the novice level, and I’m eager to introduce them in this post.
GM Noël Studer’s Beginner Chess Mastery starts with the true basics, including how to set up the board, piece movement, and notation. Those familiar with these fundamentals can simply skip this section (called “Learn the Rules”) altogether, but remember that this information is there when you want to give a non-chess-playing friend or family member a marvelous gift.
The next section is ambitiously titled “How to Reach 1200 Online” (chess.com rapid). An advanced beginner may feel tempted to skip some of this section when they see that it contains subsections devoted to each piece’s strengths and weaknesses, but I recommend watching them all. I certainly found some hidden gems that I wish I had known about before now.
Noël is an excellent teacher and writer of educational material, and his delivery is crisp and conversational. He is very aware of the psychological pitfalls that a player can fall into and offers thoughtful insights about how to deal with these. I have not finished viewing the course yet–it is very comprehensive, even including opening repertoires for both colors–but I am looking forward to delving into the many remaining sections and reaping the benefits of the hard work that Noël clearly put into this.
Next, I was pleased to see that ChessGoals had released a course called “Beating Beginners: Move by Move.” (Disclosure: The link to the course in the previous sentence is an affiliate link. If you use the link to purchase the course and enter “dawn” as the coupon code, you will receive 30% off and I will receive a commission. Purchasing via an affiliate link doesn’t cost you any extra, and I only recommend products and services I trust.) This course is appropriate for players rated below 800 USCF (or chess.com blitz) as well as those below roughly equivalent ratings in other time controls on chess.com and on lichess; specifics are on the course’s home page. I wondered what kind of approach would be taken by a course whose title focused on defeating others. Well, the clue is in the other half of the title, “Move by Move”: this course presents 30 entire chess games, all annotated in great detail in downloadable PGNs, and a video walking you through each game. The first opponent is rated 511 and the final one 792, so the level of play goes up very gradually as you work your way through. The mix of who has which color pieces and what openings are played has clearly been carefully crafted. If you have not listened to NM Matt Jensen’s presentation of chess information before, you are in for a treat. His extremely clear instruction is delivered in a calm and thoughtful manner, and he always provides a succinct explanation of new concepts as they arise. He frequently interjects information on the percentage of the time a certain opening or move is seen at the club level, and in addition to the actual move made he often addresses the question of whether another one might or might not have worked and why.
The other novice course released recently is “Can I Take It? A Beginner’s Guide to Capturing Pieces,” created by WFM Laura Smith and NM Dan Heisman, which is available on Chessable. This short course is appropriate for early beginners. It doesn’t explain how the pieces move, but it starts by explaining the piece values and direct attacks. The final section is on Advanced Counting. This would also be a good gift for a chess beginner in your life. I feel that one picks up much of what is in this course while actually playing, but studying these concepts in this context would save beginners a lot of the heartache associated with learning while playing.