Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. In fact, I prepare a complete unique program of training and preparation for each of my students. It is based on the creative works of the greatest chess masters and trainers of our time. Such a program provides: Analysis of the student's games and showing as well as removing the defects in them, preparing and learning new opening lines, examination of new essential typical middlegame positions, improving of the student's endgame technique, learning the games of the classic masters and many more.

Every chess player has the potential needed to become a FM, IM or even GM. I can choose the best approach and teach you fast , but everything else depends only on you. If you want to succeed, you will always have to apply a strong will and willingness to work hard. I can help you progress in your chess development surprisingly fast, but don't forget that I am just a helper, a coach, who can show you the way to success and lead you through it. You should never forget that the way to chess mastership is not an easy one and you will have to train a lot if you really want to get there.

When I am going to analyse with my student their games, it is very important what approach I will choose, simply because every student has his specific understanding of the game of chess and I have to find out the best way to explain different things while analysing, so that he learns from that game and remembers the most important points for a long time. As you may know, chess players can learn most from their own games. If the student has lost the game, before we start analysing the concrete variations, it is very important to first take into account the side factors behind the game itself, such as student's physical hardiness, emotional condition, overall state during the game , because through collecting this psychological data, I will be able to see if some blunder made by the student in the given game is a result of defects in his play or is due to these side factors. It's the same when the student has won the game. Then I will be interested not only in their state while playing the given game, but will also take into consideration the opponent's one. In this case, what the student had seen and considered in their opponent's behavior during the critical moments of the game will be important. You know there is a saying "Stupid people repeat their mistakes and smart ones learn from their and also from others' mistakes". Therefore, when we finally begin looking at the variations of the game, I will not only be concerned in improving the possibilities in the opening of my students' game, but also in improving my student's style of play in all aspects.

Firstly, you need to know that acquiring a reliable endgame technique is not easy. Most chess players can play endgames with a reasonable success, but only few can play them skillfully and benefit from any minor mistake their opponent will most likely make which will decide the outcome of the game. For this reason, unlike the opening and the middlegame, the endgame needs a specific approach of evaluating and learning. For most endgame positions which arise in modern practical chess, the plan one will choose is a decisive strategic intention in each game. Plans may seem very easy to prepare, but this usually happens to be the most important stage in each endgame position, since almost always the fate of the whole game depends on it. So if you would like to expand your endgame knowledge, you need to take serious preparatory studies in this direction. I eagerly recommend you to study the theoretical chess endings. That way, you will not only expand your endgame knowledge, but also promote your "planning vision" in the endgames.

Well, the process of studying an opening line or system is not difficult. Nevertheless, you need to know a few important things before you begin studying the opening theory. Actually, the learning of chess openings may look easy for doing, just looking through the moves one by one and remembering them in the right order. But here I must warn you that learning openings is a very important stage of every player's preparation, and if you don't know the right way of doing this, it may seriously affect your performance. First of all, when you learn openings, you should not try to memorize the moves mechanically, one by one, but to understand the sense of each move and to remember the basic points and ideas of the specific opening structure, because, that way, you will be able to truly learn it, that is, remember it for a long time. Know that it is absolutely forbidden to memorize the opening lines move by move, mechanically. This is a principle when studying chess theory and here is the place I should quote the great chess master of the past - Aaron Nimzowitsch who said: "Try to get rid of the slavery under opening variations. Instead, learn a few type positions and study them thoroughly. Positional sense should free you from the slavery of 'variations'".

Before I answer to this question I would like to mention that in my library and my computer I have an enormous number of books, databases with famous games and many more. There is really a lot of materials to look at. It is certainly inconceivable for me to read and explore all of this stuff, but when I explore or study some book or opening system, my purpose is not to read all the stuff inside, but to extract only the most important information from it. When I proceed that way, it is really very easy for me to read a lot of materials and remember only the most essential things I will easily recall at the right moment while playing in a chess tournament. That way I keep in mind the lines and ideas from the most interesting and exciting games in my databases for a long time, so that they often help me defeat my opponents using similar ideas as those I have observed in them. Another important activity with which I am usually preoccupied while working on creating suitable opening lines for my students is to deeply analyse the lines I have found in my databases and to make sure that they will be compatible with the playing style of a given student. Furthermore, different opening lines need to be explored and prepared in different ways before including them in one's opening repertoire and starting using them in real competitions. Therefore, when I begin working on a given opening line or system for one of my students, I free my positional sense to be able to see and feel what the peculiarities of the line are and also to correctly anticipate the arising middlegame positions after the different variations. This is the way I work on creating a suitable opening line or system for a particular student.

First of all, you have to know that I have a huge collection of chess opening lines, which I've been gathering and precisely analysing through the years. This collection contains lines of almost each opening system for both white and black. In the opening variations I have prepared, there are very different types of lines, so no matter if you are a beginner or grandmaster, there can always be strong lines suitable to your level. Thus, I can always select exactly what opening lines you need, so when you learn them, understand them and finally start to play them, you will get great results using them. You should also note that in some of those lines, new more effective line continuations have been found all the time by top GMs and chess instructors which remain unknown to the chess players using the official theory for a long time. That being said, traps, novelties and even crushing lines emerge on the chess board out of the blue when an experienced chess player using also the most recent findings of his colleagues around the globe easily beats his conservative opponents. By being informed of the most up-to-date trends in the opening theory, you will be able to defeat much stronger opponents with ease and I can help you do so!