Train your chess with Rucha Pujari

Chess Coaching Camp in Nagpur by Rucha Pujari 

I was invited to conduct a chess coaching camp in Nagpur from 7th - 13th July 2016. It was great to interact with upcoming players and share my knowledge with them. Those were the seven days packed with chess, learning and fun.

I could have just published the coaching camp report here. While it would have been fun to read, it wouldn't have helped you become stronger as a chess player. In chess, like any other sport, the best way to improve is practice. You have to make your brain work. Hence, I present to you five test positions, which each and every aspiring and ambitious chess player must try to solve.

I recommend that you take out your chess board and pieces (they are somewhere in the attic!), setup the positions given below and try to solve the test in the stipulated time that is given. The reason for using a chess set, rather than solving the positions from the computer or mobile screen, is that it give you a tournament-like feel. After all we play our games in tournaments on a chess board. The total thinking time is one hour. Here are the five test positions:

Position 1

Position 2

Position 3

Position 4

Position 5

The answers to the above positions are presented at the end of the article. 

The Coaching Camp report

Topics Covered:

1. ·       Famous and instructive games
2. ·       Openings – Introduction
3. ·       Knowing the World Champions
4. ·       Solving – how to think in a position, correct assessment and thought process
5. ·       Improving calculating ability and looking for new ideas
6. ·       Defending techniques
7. ·       Building the basic foundation in all areas
8. ·       Must-know endgame position and techniques
9. ·       Puzzles and learning chess in fun ways
10. ·       Additional guidance besides the chess board

DAY 1

The camp was inaugurated, followed by an interactive session with parents. We started with a very interesting game Lasker – Thomas, where White checkmates Black with the move 0-0-0!

Then we played a class game, where students were given a position to remember for few minutes and then to produce on their boards - blindfold chess. Initially I gave with few pieces, and then made it more challenging with complex middle game positions. All did really well, so I gave them more difficult random study like positions and I was impressed that the students accepted the challenge and produced them correctly on their boards. I gave them more visualization questions. We saw some puzzles and played blitz games at the end of the session.

Day 2

We started with the famous Adams – Torre game, letting them understand the ideas and guess the moves. For all those who haven't seen this amazing game here it is.

Then we went back to the history of Chess, learning about the World Champions. It was followed by the analyzing and discussing the game between Fischer – Spassky.

DAY 3

We studied endgames, a lot of endgames! Starting from the basic, we advanced to the complex ones. We studied not only positions, but ideas and patterns. We discussed some of the theoretical positions like Lucena position and Saavedra position among others. Like after every session, they were given homework positions to solve.

DAY 4

We started a new topic today – defensive ideas. We all like to attack, but it is also important to be able to defend the positions. It is important to be able to look for resources, to save or equalize the position.

Then after a small break, we resumed to study a very instructive and crucial game of the World Championship Match Topalov – Anand, game 12. Topalov’s defense and Anand’s attacking ideas were quite impressive, learned a lot from this game.

DAY 5

We started with understanding the symbols in chess and followed by learning how to note down and read the moves, variations in a correct way. This will help the students understand easily when they will start studying on their own, using books and databases.

We solved middlegame tactics, and I checked their notes and corrected whenever necessary. We then analyzed one of the famous attacking games, Kasparov – Topalov. (check at the end of the article)

DAY 6

This day was all about openings. I explained to them opening principles and general ideas. We then discussed the general ideas of the different openings, and I gave them notes and names about different lines in 1.d4, 1.e4, 1.c4 and other first moves.

DAY 7

We started with learning some interesting facts about chess, followed by looking at short games. Students really enjoyed this session. It was followed with an interactive session with parents.

I would like to thank Nagpur Chess Academy for organizing and inviting me for the camp. It was a great opportunity for me to be able to interact with upcoming players from Nagpur and encourage them for their future.

I think it is wonderful that Nagpur Chess Academy has created a platform for the players to grow and progress. Many thanks to Mr. Pagay sir and family for their wonderful hospitality and my gratitude to Mrs. Kanchan Pagay for making my stay nice and comfortable.

Solutions to the five tests

Solution 1

Solution 2 

Solution 3

Solution 4

Solution 5 

Beautiful Puzzles - ebook by Rucha Pujari

Rucha's first ebook Beautiful Puzzles is available on Amazon Kindle.

You can buy the book from the link given below

• Amazon.com Kindle price - US $ 2.2
• Amazon.in Kindle price is Rs.149

Note: All those who have subscribed to kindleunlimited can read the book for free.

For more information about the book you can read the ChessBase India article.

About the author

Rucha Pujari is a Woman FIDE Master from India. She fell in love with chess when she was six, and ever since has been actively competing in tournaments. Apart from chess she likes to read, paint, write, travel and take on new challenges. She has written around 35 articles in a weekly column of a very famous Marathi newspaper, where she talked about Chess and life of a sportsperson. She has also taken part in promoting the game in her city by starting the Ruchess Academy. She maintains a personal blog.