Comprehensive Chess Course Volume II: From Beginner to Tournament Player in 12 Lessons (Comprehensive Chess Course)

896 Pages·1996·6.18 MB·English

by  Roman Pelts

Volume II
of
The Comprehensive Program of Chess
Training

by Roman Pelts
and GM Lev Alburt, three-time U.S. Champion
Copyright 2001 by Roman Pelts
Publisher: Lev Alburt
4th, enlarged edition
All rights reserved.

EBook edition published by Chesswise.com
Originally published by Chess Information and Research Center
P.O. Box 534, Gracie Station, New York, NY 10028

eISBN 1-59062-142-5
Distribution to book trade in North America:
W.W. Norton, 500 Fifth Avenue, New York City.

Photographer: Nigel Eddis
Cover: Grandmaster Lev Alburt teaches chess to Timothy Eddis.

This book is also available in print as ISBN 1-889323-01-2.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Volume II: An Introduction.

Lesson 1 The rules of play.

Lesson 2 Abbreviated notation. Some chess terms and concepts.
Attack and defense. Trades.

Lesson 3 More symbols and terms.
How to start a game.
Mating with a Queen and Rook in the endgame.

Lesson 4 Mistakes in the opening.
Mating with two Rooks in the endgame.

Lesson 5 Opening traps. Mating with a Queen in the endgame.

Lesson 6 The concept of planning.
Exploiting a large material advantage.
Mating with a Rook in the endgame.

Lesson 7 Tactics. Double attack. Pawn endgame.
The rule of the square.

Lesson 8 Pinning. Endgames with King and two pawns versus King.

Lesson 9 The skewer. How combinations are created.
Endgames with King and Rook pawn against lone King.

Lesson 10 Typical mating combinations. The back-rank mate.
Endgame with King and non-Rook pawn versus King.

Lesson 11 Typical mating combinations (continuation).
Mate by a major piece (Queen or Rook) helped by other men.
Endgame with King and non-Rook pawn versus King (continuation).

Lesson 12 Tests

Afterword: Moving On to Expert and Master
VOLUME II: AN
INTRODUCTION
W
elcome to Volume II, the second level, of our Comprehensive Chess
Course. It is aimed at those students who have completed and mastered
the lessons in Volume I. In addition to numerous corrections and
alterations to this, the third edition, a new chapter has been added,
“Moving On to Expert and Master.” It addresses the concerns of many
readers who want a guide for consolidating the progress made during the
study of volumes I and II and concrete suggestions for advancing toward
expert and master.
TEACHING INTERMEDIATE PLAYERS
Although Volume II is designed for players who are familiar with the
main rules of play set forth in Volume I, teachers are advised to review
these rules during the first lesson of the intermediate course. There are
always a few players who do not know them thoroughly. Also during the
first lesson, students will be introduced to the triple repetition and 50-
move rules, which means that they will now know all the rules of chess
play.
Experience has shown that the following lesson plan works well for
intermediate level students:
1. Iron out difficulties, if any, in the homework assignments.
2. Review previously studied material.
3. Introduce and explain new subject matter.
4. Assign homework for the next lesson.
5. Supervise practice games, a portion of the lesson that should
occupy half the time of the total lesson.
When discussing homework from the previous lesson, the teacher should
consider not only questions asked by the students but also what he deems
to be particularly interesting or instructive points in the assignment.
Relevant positions should be set up on a demonstration board, and a
student who has answered a given question correctly in the homework
assignment ought to be asked to explain the solution to the entire class.
The next step in the lesson is to review previously studied materials, with
special attention being given to mastery of the chessboard. Each chapter or
lesson contains several review questions of varying difficulty. In most
instances, the teacher should select three or four of these questions with
which to drill the class. Direct the easier questions to weaker students
(gradually leading up to more difficult exercises) and the tougher
questions to the stronger students. The point behind this drill is not to
stump students but to stimulate their thinking and, in the process, to
activate their knowledge.
Following the review segment, new material should be presented. If
during the introduction and explanation of this material, the students
appear tired and begin to lose their concentration, then it is advisable to
break off the theoretical portion of the lesson as soon as possible. Hand
out homework assignments for the next lesson and begin the practical or
game-playing portion of the lesson. (Course material that still remains to
be explained can, if possible, be included in the homework assignment or
be introduced at the next class session. Teachers must be certain that
students assimilate the material even if it requires extra meetings for
review purposes. It may happen, for example, that 12 class sessions are
insufficient to cover the 12 lessons in Volume II. Frequently, coaches
extend the number of classes to 15 or 16.)
Beginners are attracted to chess primarily as a game, and some of them
have little patience for studying. Teachers need to convince students that
the more they know about chess, the better they will play it and the greater
they will enjoy it.
As already noted in the Introduction to Volume I, each student should be
provided with a separate board and set so that he can follow the teacher’s
explanations during the theoretical portions of the lesson. The same goes
for copies of Comprehensive Chess Course. If each student has his own
copy, then the teacher’s task will be both easier and less time-consuming.
If that proves impossible, then teachers will have to make copies of
homework assignments and distribute them along with solutions to the
questions. We believe that students should not spend vast amounts of time
trying to solve various problems. Five or ten minutes on an individual
question is enough. Students should then consult the solution and
endeavor to reason it out.
At the end of each lesson in Volume II, teachers will notice a section of
supplementary material, which they may wish to incorporate into the
lessons or use for class contests. For readers studying on their own, we
suggest that they set up the positions on a board, devote no more than five
to 10 minutes to any given position, consult the answers and discover the
whys and wherefores. The benefits of this kind of independent work are
considerable. About self-study, more a bit later.
If Volume II contains a huge amount of material (illustrated by nearly 800
diagrams!), the student can nonetheless master it successfully. Decades of
experience in the former Soviet Union proved that anyone willing to work
hard can reach advanced levels of play. The great Emanuel Lasker, for
example, stated flatly that anyone this side of an imbecile could become a
master. Moreover, by the word “master,” Lasker did not mean someone
who peaked at 2203; he meant someone who won at least one-third of his
games, the famous Meisterdrittel, in a premier master event. For the
moment, students need only do their homework assignments with gusto
and activate their ever-increasing theoretical knowledge by playing several
games each week between lessons.
Lesson 12, the final chapter of Volume II, consists of 20 separate tests
with six questions each. The tests are of approximately equal difficulty.
Students are allowed one hour to answer all six questions on a test. Those
who fail to answer more than three questions correctly may be allowed to
try another examination. The first five questions in each test count 15
percent each, and the final question (on pawn endings) is worth 25
percent.
Coaches must decide which students have adequately completed the
second level of Comprehensive Chess Course and do not require further
instruction with this manual.
SELF-STUDY FOR VOLUME II
As already noted in the Introduction to Volume I, Comprehensive Chess
Course can be used profitably for serious self-study by both adults and
children. The lessons are largely self-explanatory, and the tips given in the
Volume I Introduction help players to create active knowledge which, as
noted, is knowledge that can be readily applied in practice.
Still, students who learn in a classroom situation or with a personal coach
possess certain advantages, including insider advice from veteran
instructors about how to avoid accidents along the way. This advice
includes such common-sense ideas as to count the material balance as it
exists on the chessboard rather than count the captured pieces alongside
the board. Another suggestion is that if a student tends to make elementary
blunders, then when he is about to make a move, he should take a brief
moment to look at the position with the eyes of a complete beginner.
Forget about deeply laid plans and multi-move combinations and simply
take a second or two to see if you are tossing away a piece, overlooking a
back-rank checkmate and so on.
THE GREAT MEMORIZATION MISTAKE
Many instructional books begin with an explanation of the rules and
follow this explanation with a section on opening theory, thereby
beguiling beginners with the notion of being able to play correctly the first
10 to 15 moves of a game. So tempting and ultimately so wrong!
Unfortunately, opening theory is based on subtleties that can be grasped
only by strong players. A weak player may be able to parrot opening
variations, but he does not understand them. And since understanding —
as evinced by thoughtful play — is the goal of every chess player, it
follows that rote play is harmful. Players ought to know the purpose of
every move that they make. What happens otherwise is the common case
of amateurs who waste their time and energy memorizing opening
variations, only to stumble pitifully the moment an opponent makes a
move — good or bad — that is not in the books. Such well-booked
amateurs are helpless even in simple positions.
Mindless memorization is inimical to good chess not only in the openings
but also in the middlegame and endgame. What students need is to
understand the principles of sound play and the reasoning behind those
principles. Once a student has developed this understanding, he will
remember variations and specific endgames almost effortlessly.
Chess books usually tell students what to learn but say almost nothing
about how to learn. These books are laid out in chapters. One chapter is
devoted to the openings, another to the middlegame and still another to the
endgame. But decades of chess teaching in the former Soviet Union
demonstrated that beginners are far from keen about studying endgames.
In Comprehensive Chess Course, we have tried an end run around this
difficulty by devoting a section of each lesson to endings.
The lessons in both Volume I and Volume II place considerable emphasis
on tactics, which is to say, combinations. The emphasis is not accidental.
It is crucial for players to master the various tactical themes in order to
make combinations, to find hidden possibilities in positions, to understand
an opponent’s plans, and to play creatively. Many outstanding chess
masters began their careers as tacticians and only later mastered the
nuances of positional play.
Keeping in mind our injunction against unthinkingly teaching opening
variations to beginners, the initial lessons of the current course instead
acquaint the student with general principles of piece development in the
opening and give guidelines on how to avoid mistakes. For a beginner, the
assimilation of these principles, along with assiduous study of middlegame
and ending play, will prove quite enough to put up a good fight in most
games.
SEEING THE WHOLE PICTURE
The ability to picture in the mind a position as it could be within a few
moves is absolutely indispensable to chess players. Moreover, this feat of
visualizing the chessboard with the position of the pieces changed from
the way they are on the real board presents the greatest difficulty to
beginners.
The specifically chess-related knack of being able to picture future
positions can only be developed gradually. The first step for a beginner is
to learn to visualize clearly all the squares of an empty board. A series of
exercises have been devised to achieve this goal. Gradually — step by step
— the board in our visualization exercises will be “peopled” by more and
more chessmen, until the student develops the knack of forming mentally
a clear picture of positions as they may become within a few moves.
PRACTICE AND ANALYSIS
A chess player can make progress only if he coordinates study with
practice. Practice means playing games, and in a game, a player has to go
through an opening, middlegame, and sometimes an endgame. That is why
in each lesson of Comprehensive Chess Course, we provide information
about the middlegame and endings. We also frequently present entire
games so that students can get acquainted with openings placed in context.
About 100 games are presented in this course, with almost all of them
specially annotated for students of Volume II. The games in each lesson
have been chosen to illustrate the themes discussed in that lesson. For
example, Lesson Eight contains games employing the theme of pinning.
By studying these games and internalizing the pinning theme, students
will be able to build their own combinations. Indeed, nice combinations
such as the following pin, counter-pin, counter-counter pin passage of
arms:

Michael Franklin–Harry Golombek
British Championship, 1962

Black had only a minute on his clock, but 60 seconds were more than
enough time to force resignation by 1. ... Bxe5 2. fxe5 Rg2 3. Bf6+ Kg8 4.
Rg1 (for a moment, White appears to win with this counter-pin, but...) 4.
... Qf4+!, White resigns.
Another example of matching illustrative material with subject matter is
Lesson 10, which concerns mates along the back rank. Students who
master this useful theme will one day find themselves pulling off coups
such as the following: