The How to Study Chess on Your Own Workbook: Exercises and Training for Club Players (1800 - 2100 Elo)

Preface

In my 2021 book How to Study Chess on Your Own (referred to as HTSCOYO from now on), I provided comprehensive advice on optimizing one’s chess studies. Judging by the overwhelmingly positive feedback I received, I could tell that the book had largely succeeded in its primary goal. It inspired many chess players to approach their chess studies more thoroughly, independently, and in better-organized ways. I couldn’t have asked for more.

Through this feedback, I have also learned a few more things. Firstly, some of the study methods I presented in HTSCOYO were relatively unfamiliar to the average reader. And secondly, the book could have used more exercises for practice. Combining these two insights, I decided to create a follow-up workbook (referred to as Workbook from now on) that would fill these gaps. Having the big picture of how to study chess is essential, but doing the actual work matters even more. With this book, I set out to enrich and diversify your chess training, move by move.

When designing training routines, I often ask myself: ‘How can they best mimic the decision-making process of a real game?’ In other words, how can I make chess training practical and relevant to the issues one will face over the board? I have found that training methods that encourage analytical thinking work best, and I decided to promote such an approach in this Workbook. In HTSCOYO, you could already get a taste of some of them, like ‘find the best move’, simulation, and deep analysis. The good news is that we will drill them here.

Of course, your task, in a nutshell, will still be to look for the best moves and variations in the exercises. However, how you arrive at the answers will be slightly different than what you might be used to in other chess workbooks. This is not your typical chess puzzle book with hundreds of diagrams with straightforward ‘White/Black to move and win’ puzzles. Instead, it is a collection of positions and games carefully selected to develop your practical skills and encourage deeper reflection.

As you work through the Workbook, you will ask yourself questions like: ‘Who is more likely to have a tactic here, White or Black?’ or ‘Which plan is better, the one on the kingside or in the center?’. You will be assessing whether it is better to employ active or passive defense in various endgames, and have a chance to convert an advantage in training positions. As you go along, I hope you will quickly get used to the new format and enjoy the fresh perspective it will provide to your chess training.

I thoroughly enjoyed creating the somewhat unconventional types of exercises for this Workbook that, in my view, can prepare you best for the realities of a chess game. Even though the target audience is broadly in the 1800-2100 FIDE Elo range, I am sure that any ambitious player can benefit from it. Whatever your current level, how much you will get from this Workbook depends mostly on how much effort you will be willing to put in. So, get your chess set out, and let’s get to work! ☺

Finally, let me note that the material in the Workbook is very suitable for chess coaches and teachers and can be applied in one-on-one lessons, as well as in study groups in chess clubs, schools, or online classes. I hope that it will benefit ambitious chess players in pursuit of improvement and provide inspiration to other chess authors.

Davorin Kuljasevic,

Plovdiv, July 2022

CHAPTER 1

How to use the Workbook

In the Workbook, you will get a chance to train your skills in Tactics, in the Middlegame and in the Endgame, three of the five major study areas of the chess game that I elaborated on in HTSCOYO (note that in the Workbook, I refer to study areas as ‘training modules’). The other two, Openings and General Improvement, are not so well suited for this format, so I left them out.

Nevertheless, I am sure you will discover that the 120 exercises I provided here, 40 for each of the three training modules, will be good for many hours of chess training. We will talk a bit later about how I divided them into even more manageable chunks of work. But first, let me introduce the training methods you will use to solve the exercises. Note that in HTSCOYO, I referred to them as ‘study methods’. They can be used interchangeably, although I will use the term ‘training methods’ here because it sounds more appropriate in the context of the Workbook. Please refer to the table below for a quick overview:

Table 1: Overview of training methods in the Workbook

If you have already had a chance to read HTSCOYO, you will probably recognize these five training methods. All five (in bold) score high on the quality criteria matrix below.

Table 2: 15 Study methods and quality criteria (excerpt from HTSCOYO)

Such high scores should give us confidence that using these methods consistently in our chess training will bear fruit in the long run. Empirical evidence of study habits of players who have ‘made it’ in chess, indicate that some mix of these has to be present for success.

Let me go ahead and introduce the methods one by one and explain how best to use them to solve the exercises in the Workbook.

Blindfold training

This kind of training aims to improve your visualization, undoubtedly one of the fundamental chess skills. Of course, you don’t need to wear an actual blindfold; the point is that you train yourself to imagine the chessboard and positions of chess pieces inside your mind without any visual aids. The degree to which you can do that accurately and reasonably quickly, is usually highly correlated with the level of your calculation skill.

Therefore, the next chapter of the Workbook, Visualization Bootcamp, is dedicated exclusively to blindfold training. It consists of exercises such as ‘How many available squares does a piece have?’ and ‘Name the remaining squares on the diagonal/knight route’. I invented the Blindfold Woodpecker Method, which I will introduce in Chapter 2 as a warm-up exercise before the tactical, middlegame, and endgame exercises that follow.

However, your visualization training does not have to be confined to this chapter alone. While you will need a chessboard for most exercises in the Workbook, you are welcome to try and solve any of them without it if you feel like your blindfold skills are strong enough.

Find a hidden tactic

One of the most memorable moments in recent World Championship history occurred in the sixth game of the 2014 rematch for the World Title between Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand. The start of the game was relatively uneventful, as the players traded queens early and proceeded to maneuver their pieces in a quiet endgame. And then, after the 25th move of the game, something extraordinary happened.

Example 1

Magnus Carlsen 2863

Viswanathan Anand 2792

Sochi Wch 2014 (m/6)

The young World Champion played

26.♔d2??.

Naturally, he wanted to centralize his king in the endgame, but this move is an outright blunder due to the discovered attack with 26...♘xe5!. In the video footage of the game, you could see Carlsen stopping for a moment right after he made his move and writing it down on the scoresheet with hesitation. Experienced chess players know what that means – he spotted his oversight and, filled with dread, started calculating what happens if Black takes the e5-pawn.

Fortunately, it seems like he managed to keep his composure well enough not to reveal anything to Anand with his body language. And, just as astonishingly, the former World Champion returned the favor with

26...a4??.

After the game, Anand reported that he was so focused on obtaining counterplay with the advance ...a5-a4-a3, that he realized too late that the unprotected g4-rook might be a target. Instead, he could have won two pawns by force with 26...♘xe5! 27.♖xg8 ♘xc4+ 28.♔d3 ♘b2+! (this key intermezzo makes the whole combination work) 29.♔e2 ♖xg8 and it would be silly to expect anything other than Black winning this endgame in a World Championship Match.

27.♔e2

Carlsen removed his king from harm’s way, making 27...♘xe5 impossible. Even though White’s advantage in this endgame is only minimal due to his vulnerable pawn structure, Anand collapsed surprisingly quickly. Missing the opportunity to punish Carlsen’s blunder on the move 26 might have played a part.

27...a3 28.f3 ♖d8 29.♔e1 ♖d7 30.♗c1 ♖a8 31.♔e2 ♗a4 32.♗e4+ ♗c6 33.♗xg6 fxg6 34.♖xg6 ♗a4 35.♖xe6 ♖d1 36.♗xa3 ♖a1 37.♔e3 ♗c2 38.♖e7+ ♔a6 39.♖xh6 ♖xa2 40.♗xc5

Black resigned.

How do we explain that the two best chess players in the world missed such a straightforward tactic, particularly for their standards? After the game, both admitted the primary reason for the mutual oversight. Neither had expected that there would be a tactic in such a position! Indeed, one usually doesn’t look for discovered attacks and intermediate checks in a technical endgame full of maneuvering.

As good as an average chess mortal might feel about top players making such blunders, for Carlsen and Anand such situations are exceptions rather than the rule. However, for most chess players, particularly the target audience of this Workbook, missing or allowing unforeseen tactics like 26...♘xe5 is more common. So, the logical question to ask is: what is the best way to work on reducing such mistakes and improving your tactical alertness?

In HTSCOYO, I already explained the limitations of drilling tactical puzzles from diagrams for that purpose. While undoubtedly helpful in perfecting tactical pattern recognition and calculation of forcing variations, this popular training method has one major downside regarding its relevance to a real chess game. It virtually gives away half of the solution by telling you there is a tactic in the position!

For example, how long do you think it would take Anand to find a winning combination if he knew there was a tactic after 26.♔d2 ? Carlsen spotted it virtually the instant he played the move, so I do not doubt that it would also take Anand less than 15 seconds to see that 26...♘xe5 wins on the spot. However, no one will come and whisper into your ear during the game that you or your opponent have a tactical shot on the next move. This information would be particularly vital in apparently non-tactical positions, such as the one from the Carlsen-Anand game.

I tried to address this issue by designing a different type of tactical puzzle called ‘Find a hidden tactic’ (I will use the abbreviation FHT in some places in the book). In it, your task is to discover a tactic that is ‘hidden’ within a three-move sequence. However, two big unknowns make this exercise more challenging than a typical tactical puzzle. Firstly, you don’t know on which move the tactic is hidden; it can be on the first, second, or third move. Secondly, you have no information whether it is White or Black who has a tactic; it can be either side. Consequently, a tactic may be hidden in any of the sequence’s six positions (three for White and three for Black), and you will have to play detective to find out which one it is.

It’s important to note that you can move the pieces to examine only the given three-move sequence. However, you are not allowed to analyze other possibilities over the board, since the goal is to spot the hidden tactic without playing out the actual solution.

Let me demonstrate how this exercise works with the following simple example.

Find a hidden tactic – Example

Example 2

Blitz game, 2017

Your task is to find a ‘hidden’ tactic that was missed by one of the players in the following three-move sequence. Feel free to move back and forth through the segment as you try to find the answer.

27.♘g3 h4 28.♘e2 ♕e5 29.f4 ♕xd4+

Let’s check the solution.

27.♘g3 h4?

This is a blunder, enabling White to carry out a ‘luring’ tactic:

28.♕xg7+!

Just like in Carlsen-Anand, the oversight in this blitz game was mutual because the players were too focused on the maneuvering battle. It continued 28.♘e2? ♕e5 29.f4 ♕xd4+ 30.♘xd4, etc.

28...♔xg7 29.♘h5+ ♔h6 30.♘xf4

As a result of this petite combinaison, White can claim a healthy extra pawn in the endgame.

This type of puzzle will form the backbone of the Tactical training module. Its primary purpose is to help you become tactically sharper by training the skill of spotting unexpected and unplanned tactics. In Chapter 3, I will provide a few more examples to get you fully prepared for the test section.

Find a mini-plan

This training exercise is exclusively a part of the Middlegame training module. Like ‘Find a hidden tactic’, your task will be to examine a short, usually three-to-five move game segment. However, this exercise aims to train your strategic thinking instead of your tactical vision. More specifically, you will focus on recognizing essential positional features first. Then, you will form and execute relevant short plans based on that knowledge. Since positional and strategic questions in the middlegame are often complex, it’s advantageous to refine the skill of breaking them up into simpler, smaller ones. Thus, the primary purpose of this exercise is to help you hone your short-term planning.

As you do that, the principal themes to remember are improving pieces, controlling outposts, and pawn play. You also need to pay attention to the opponent’s intentions and sometimes adjust your plans according to what he does, e.g. prevent his maneuvers, exchange his strong pieces, etc.

I should also point out that, unlike FHT, where you provide a single solution for the whole puzzle, here you will be giving answers on every consecutive move in the sequence. So, in effect, you will solve several middlegame puzzles within one ‘Find a mini-plan’ exercise (I will use the abbreviation FMP in some places in the book).

Let us look at the following example to understand this training practice better.

Find a mini-plan – Example

Example 3

Kevin Wang 2389

Oliver Barbosa 2505

New York 2022 (5)

White has a stable space advantage in this middlegame. Black controls some outposts in return.

For the following exercises, I suggest spending up to five minutes on each move. You can use a folded sheet of paper or a bookmark to cover the text below so that you don’t see the move that you are trying to guess. You should do the same for the Simulation exercise introduced later in this chapter.

Exercise: It is Black to move. Your task is to find the best mini-plan.

15...♘e7

This is the best move in the position for two reasons. Firstly, it allows us to maneuver the knight to f5 or d5, and secondly, it increases the scope of the black queen. In general, we should strive to maximize our pieces’ potential and coordination while carrying out such mini-plans.

Now is a perfect moment to introduce scoring, a valuable feature of most exercises in the Workbook. You can earn a score for virtually every move or variation you analyze as part of the exercise. I would like to credit grandmaster Daniel King (and his column ‘How Good is Your Chess?’ in the magazine Chess) for this teaching method. In this instance, you get two points for 15...♘e7.

I also provide a score for the most important alternatives. Thus, you earn one point for either one of 15...♘d5 and 15...♗e7. In both cases, Black improves his position slightly, but the potential of the c6-knight remains untapped. You get no credit for any other suggestion, even if it is a decent move that doesn’t blunder anything or worsen your position. This way, I would like to encourage you to look for the most purposeful moves and plans.

16.♘c5

After the opponent’s response, you have a new assignment.

Exercise: Black to move. What is the best square for the queen?

16...♕c6

Two points. This is the ideal square. 16...♕d5 (one point) seems to be more active, but it leaves the queen more exposed to enemy attacks; for example, 17.♖ac1 ♘d7 18.♘c3, and the queen has to flee. 16...♕c8 (one point), on the other hand, is solid yet much more passive than the text move.

17.♖ac1

Exercise: How would you continue as Black?

17...♘d7

Two points. It makes sense to quickly deal with White’s most annoying piece, the c5-knight. Sometimes, it’s best to put your main plan on hold to address a more pressing positional issue. Nonetheless, you also get two points for 17...♘f5 – a logical continuation of our mini-plan. Black could aim to exchange the c5-knight with ...♗e7 next.

As you solve these exercises, you will learn that it is not uncommon that the alternatives are just as good, or even better, than the main line. So don’t be immediately discouraged if you see that your solution doesn’t match the text.

You earn one point for 17...♘bd5; a fine choice since Black prepares to expel the knight with 18...b6. White does not want to trade the queens due to his space advantage, so he should continue 18.♕d3. After a logical sequence like 18...♘xe3 19.fxe3 b6 20.♘e4, he seems to have a preferable position.

18.♗g5

White wants to swap his ‘bad’ dark-squared bishop. However, this is a poor choice. 18.♕b3 ♘xc5 19.♖xc5 would have been better. The position would have remained roughly balanced after 19...♕a6.

Exercise: It’s your turn again. The tension in the position has increased. How would you continue?

18...♘xc5

Two points. The simplest solution. Black looks forward to the piece trades because they neutralize White’s space advantage. 18...♘f5 (one point) is also good, inviting further exchanges. However, the game continuation is more precise.

19.dxc5

White did not want to trade the queens, but this is a second consecutive positional mistake. For better or worse, he should have gone for the following endgame: 19.♕xc5 ♕xc5 20.♖xc5 c6.

Exercise: Black to move. How would you punish White’s play?

19...♘f5

One point. An elegant move. Not only did we complete the knight maneuver that we initiated in the starting position, but we also prevented our opponent’s activity with 20.♘d4. After the bishops’ trade, Black will get his rooks to the d-file. He can claim a slight but