Jacob and joy in the city of joy!

Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Delhi witnessed huge number of players looking to improve their chess by attending the lectures delivered by Jacob Aagaard. But one thing that separated Kolkata and Chennai from the first three cities, was the participation of grandmasters!

But let’s begin from the 1st of April. It was the first rest day for Jacob Aagaard after six gruelling days of lecturing. Half of the day was spent in Delhi and in the evening we left for the city of joy – Kolkata.

On the first day as you entered the room where the training was to take place, you already saw the biggies of Indian chess. Ganguly, Barua, Diptayan, Neelotpal, Saha, Sengupta were all analyzing a position together. Jacob entered the room and took a picture of the position. The puzzle was forgotten and the lecture went on normally. Next day when the session began Jacob setup the position again and showed his analysis to the grandmasters.

Grigoriev, 1932

Some of the positions given by Jacob were really difficult. Let's have a look at a classic. It's an ending played by Paul Keres in 1954.

Fairhurst vs Keres

Try to see as deep as you can. The knight on c2 is trapped, but Black can activate his king and kingside pawns. In such situations accurate calculation is a must. It's your turn. White to play - hxg3 or Kxg3.

"Slow down and look." This is an extremely important principle that Jacob has repeated again and again on this trip. Many people think that slowing down would mean getting under time pressure. But imagine this scenario: You have to deliver a parcel to your friend's house. You have the address with you. You are running on the street in order to reach his place as soon as you can. While you are trying to run fast, you also need to slow down to check the name of the street and make sure you reach the right address. This is exactly what slowing down means. You have to look in the right direction. Now let's put this theory into practice and try solving this position:

Try to slow down and look at your options carefully. Once you have your answer ready check out the explanation of Jacob.

Another thing to learn from Aagaard is the fact that just about any game can teach you something. The above position is taken between Harshvardhini (1239) and Ayantika Das (1453) from the under-11 girls Indian championship in 2016!

West Bengal Secretary Atanu Lahiri is the man who organized the Jacob Aagaard in Kolkata event. A completely dedicated person, Atanu left his job at LIC so that he could boost the game in the state of West Bengal. And he is doing some phenomenal work which includes the first Eco camp and tournament for students of the tribal area. Expect an article on those events on our newspage.

One of the main reasons for going to Nisha's place was for Jacob to sit on the Jacob sofa! Jacob sofa? What is that? This is what Nisha explains on Facebook:

"For many years I have been pestering my dad to come along with me to get some nice sofa for our house but he never showed any interest. Then I got to know that my good friends Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal will be coming to Kolkata along with Jacob for the training camp. Since I have shifted house, I always wished Amruta and Sagar come home, so I was expecting all three of them at home during their short visit. I told my dad that now I just need the sofa as there should be some nice place for Jacob to sit! Finally 3 days before they came, we went to a shop and got "my first ever sofa"! We named it 'The Jacob sofa'!"

In case you are not exhausted by reading this report, here's a final cute little position for you to solve.

Hammer - Neiksans, Pro chess league