No Country For Old Chess

Chess should be made more accessible for the audience and at the same time more entertaining. This could have been done at least 10 years ago and I think chess is long overdue for some necessary changes to adapt itself to the new millennium. The classical format (90 min. or more) should be used just in rare or special occasions (like World Championship Match, although the last one was decided precisely in active chess tiebreak!) and the chess tournaments should be played in active chess (time control of 20 – 25 min for the entire game and maybe a delay of 5 sec. per move). The Elo system will get adapted very easy and fast and every open chess tournament will last 3 days maximum (the expenses for organizing chess tournaments will be less and it is quite beneficial from an economic point of view). Each round may consist of 2 games (alternating colors) and it will not last longer than 2 hours (this means 3 rounds a day = 6 hours playing time daily in total). The participants will play 9 rounds and the result of each one will give the opponents the exact amount of points as nowadays (1 for a total win of the mini match, whether with 2-0 or 1.5 – 0.5, 0.5 for an equal score of 1-1 and 0 points for a lost match – it means a round that you have lost). Only in a case of a final tie at the end of the tournament, then the first tiebreak can be the total amount of points (so it will not be the same if you have won the matches 2-0 or 1.5-0.5).

I think the audience will have a guaranteed exciting time during the rounds and the players will not get so tired and exhausted like in the classical formats. The chess reality today is that quite often the chess players  have to endure  more than 10 hours a day (especially in the open chess tournaments) and hardly have time to get a decent meal between the rounds. There will be no more complains about the number of White or Black chess games, because this factor will never be a problem anymore. This is just an idea, but I firmly believe that chess needs to apply almost entirely active chess formats. Chess has to adapt in order to survive and to be actually present on TV and not only on internet. I would like to think that this will happen soon and I feel optimistic about the future of the chess game.

It needs a lot of love and care and this is exactly what I have witnessed at my first visit at the famous Saint Louis Chess Club. I was amazed not only by the professionalism of the entire stuff working there, but most of all of the many sacrifices they do to push forward the game of chess. To be able to sacrifice a lot for the people or things you care – this really means to be able to express a pure and honest LOVE. LOVE for Chess is what I have seen at the Saint Louis Chess Club and I know that the future of this chess club looks very, very bright!

Chess in school

Kolev Chess Academy

 

Lots of learning, playing, thinking and having fun

at Las Vegas Junior Academy

Kolev Chess Lessons in Las Vegas

Kolev Chess Lessons

Chess Lessons

Chess Lessons

Kolev Chess Lessons

Kolev Chess Lessons

Chess Lessons

Kolev Chess

Chess Game

“A Chess game is a dialogue, a conversation between a player and his opponent. Each move by the opponent may contain threats or be a
blunder, but a player cannot defend against threats or take
advantage of blunders if he does not first ask himself:
What is my opponent planning after each move?”
(Bruce A. Moon)

Chess Game

The Road to Success is paved with HARD WORK

Bobby Fischer

The Road to Success is paved with HARD WORK

Robert James “Bobby” Fischer (March 9, 1943 – January 17, 2008) was an American chess grandmaster, the eleventh World Chess Champion. Many consider him the greatest chess player of all time. In 1972, he captured the World Chess Championship from Boris Spassky of the USSR in a match held in Reykjavík, Iceland, publicized as a Cold War confrontation which attracted more worldwide interest than any chess championship before or since. In 1975, Fischer refused to defend his title when an agreement could not be reached with FIDE, the game’s international governing body, over one of the conditions for the match. This allowed Soviet GM Anatoly Karpov, who had won the qualifying Candidates’ cycle, to become the new world champion by default under FIDE rules.

Fischer showed skill at an early age. At age 13 he won a “brilliancy” that became known as “The Game of the Century“. Starting at age 14, Fischer played in eight United States Championships, winning each by at least a one-point margin. At age 15, Fischer became both the youngest grandmaster up to that time and the youngest candidate for the World Championship.

Why to learn Chess?

Chess Chess is not only a fun game to play and learn that can provide a lifetime of enjoyment, it is also a powerful educational tool. Any game can help build self-esteem and confidence but chess is one of the few that fully exercises our minds. Most six or seven years old can follow the basic rules and some children as young as five can play. Chess can enhance and develop: •  Concentration •  Patience •  Perseverance •  Creativity •  Intuition •  Memory •  Critical Thinking •  Problem Solving Skills •  Flexibility of Thinking Chess can equally challenge the minds of girls and boys, gifted and average, athletic and non-athletic, rich and poor. Chess teaches the importance of planning and the consequences of decisions. Chess teaches how to win and lose gracefully.

The Meaning of Chess

The history of chess goes back a very long way. Many thousands of years ago – no one knows exactly when – people began to satisfy their need for play by fabricating primitive game boards, marking lines on them, arranging little objects like stones or pieces of wood on the squares (or on the intersections of the lines) and moving these objects around. In this way the game of draughts and many others arose. Illustrations of such games have been discovered in the ancient Egyptian pyramids. They are mentioned in old songs and sages. One Chinese game is said to date back four thousand years: the game of chess has been known in India for more than two thousand. The Indian form of chess gave rise to large number of games that are widespread across Asia.

Indian chess travelled across Persia and penetrated to Europe. The rules of game changed – they were made more rational. Chess underwent its last significant change about four hundred years ago in Italy. But it still took a long time for the new rules to gain universal acceptance in Europe. What became “European” chess is now widely disseminated in all parts of the world.

In India, chess was an image of war. The chess board figured as battlefield. The pieces were divided between two hostile camps that were distinguished from each other by their colors (black and white). The classification of pieces according to their types of weapon was modeled on the ancient Indian army. At the head of the army stood the king, and it was for his life that the battle was fought. The army consisted of fighting elephants and horsemen, distinguished by their great strength and mobility, as well as lightly armed infantry. The pieces on the chessboard were moved by the players in keeping with prescribed rules. Each player strove to eliminate his opponent’s pieces and reach the enemy king, in order finally to “put him to death”.

With the passage of time, the character of real war changed. The time when the life of one person – the king – was the prize of stake in the battle, receded into the distant past. So did the time when army elephants had taken part in hostilities. Yet the game of chess still retained the character it had had at birth. Every day, a chessplayer moving his pieces according to the established rules can view himself as a warlord in battle where success depends on how well he has devised his plan. If we wanted to represent modern warfare in chess, we would need to alter all of the rules of the game. The players, however , would gain precisely nothing from such an alternation, because what interests them is purely the execution and evaluation of cleverly conceived plans; and any rules that make this possible will serve – provided they are acknowledged by both opponents and strictly observed by them. All the better when the game possesses a very long history and a vast literature, from which advice and instruction may be gleaned.

Main areas of Kolev’s chess work

Opening preparation

General principles of opening play
Setting up a repertoire in accordance with one’s individual style
Specifics of computer analysis
Preparation for the opponent

 

Middlegame

Connection between opening and middlegame
Typical pawn structures and plans
Determining the critical point of the game and searching the right solution
Calculation techniques

 

Endgames

Technical positions
Concrete positions
Typical positions

 

Personal approach

Deep analysis of played games
Working on calculation technique
Fighting against time trouble
Elements of psychological preparation

 

Chess is awesome

Benefits of Chess

Chess can raise IQ

 

Chess improves memory

Chess improves concentration

 

Chess increases creativity

 

Chess increases problem-solving skills

 

Chess improves reading skills

 

Chess is one of the most powerful educational tools available to strengthen a child’s mind. Most 6-7 year olds can follow the basic rules and some children as young as 4 or 5 can play. Whatever a child’s age, chess can enhance concentration, patience, and perseverance, as well as develop creativity, intuition, and memory. Most importantly, children can develop the ability to analyse and deduce from a set of general principles, to make tough decisions and to solve problems flexibly.

 

How to improve your chess playing

Many chess players have gone years without making any significant improvement, even after studying many chess books, courses or hiring personal chess teachers. Many players get stuck below or around the 2000 rating and, little by little, their initial joy for the game diminishes.
IMPORTANT: You cannot improve at chess by any means. No-one improved at chess by just watching 2-hour videos or by buying courses or books like “ultimate…”, “how to beat…”, “secrets…”, “grandmaster over-night”, “quick…” and so on. NO, chess improvement means high-quality chess lessons, professional written courses, individual work, positional training …and a bit of talent.

Anatoly Karpov