Master The Mindset #6: Psychological Aspects Of Being Better Or Worse

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Hi all,

In this video I point out some psychological mishaps that are common to our games.
Pay close attention and enjoy ;-)

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Lesson #23: The Positional Approach - Rules For Material Imbalances

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Hi all,

After so many lessons on the Analytical Approach, is time to start looking at the Positional Approach. Don’t forget they somehow always come together!
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Lesson #22: How To Play The Endgame - Some Misconceptions Taken Away

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Hi all,

Many of you are interested on tips on the endgame. You find you don’t know what to do when and endgame arises, find endgames elusive or even scary or even prefer to avoid them at all cost.

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Lesson #21: How To Calculate - Which Candidate First?

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Hi all,

It’s back to candidates again!

In this lesson I give some practical tips on spotting and calculating them.

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How To Lose In Chess (Or Not Win) #4: The Fixture Of The Mind’s Eye

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Hi all,

In this lecture I discuss a peculiar peculiarity…

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Question #7: How To Study Chess Games?

Hi all,

Jerome asks:

Hello,

first of all, thanks for your very nice website and your very instructive videos.

I have a question about studying chess games. What do you think is the best method ?

- go quickly through a lot of games, just to get a feeling of where the pieces go (and maybe improve your intuition).

- go through commented games and try to follow the comments (preferably without moving the pieces on the board)

- look at the game from the point of view of the winning player, and try to guess each of his moves. This is bit difficult to do with printed games, because your eyes may slip to the answer, but it can be done with computer softwares by hiding the next moves.

I guess one could or should do all of them, but what do you think ? How are you doing to prepare your commented game videos ?

A side question: I like very much to watch live games, for two reasons:
- because there I have no choice then trying to guess the next move
- because I find very instructive to see how quickly / slowly the players play, depending on the situation. One can really follow the “tempo” of the games when looking at live games.

Do you know if there exists games recorded with “time tags” and a tool able to replay a game at the real speed ?

Thanks

Jerome

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Question #6: How To Deal With Nervousness Prior To And During A Tournament?

Hi all,

Greg asks:

I am playing in a Swiss System weekend tournament in a few days, and I am concerned about the amount of anxiety I feel before and during competitive events like this. I love chess, but I often become so anxious that I am often unable to think clearly and to play as well as I can. In post mortem analysis, many times I cannot even recall why I played a certain move in a given position. Have you any suggestions to help me overcome this anxiety?

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Master The Mindset #5: Chess Player Apply Thyself!

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Hi all,

In this lecture I discuss a very and also underestimated aspect of chess playing strength: fighting spirit and the measure in which we apply ourselves at the board.

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How To Lose In Chess #3: Small Mistakes Add Up…

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Hi all,

Welcome to yet another well succeeded video lecture if I may say so myself. In this video I discuss one of my losses from the viewpoint of the mistakes I made.

There is normally a technical and psychological side to these moments. When you make a number of them there is the risk that they start to add up.

I hope you will have some “Aha-moments” and recognize what is going on. That way you can avoid the typical mistakes that are made on the club and tournament level.

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Lesson #20: How To Calculate - Chess Is Not Checkers!

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Hi all,

In this lesson you are going to try and unlearn something ;-)
By the way, I added something new: exercise sheets.

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