Greetings from Nottingham, UK.

Just wanted to say hello, my names James, I'm 21 and from the UK. I'm currently on Month 3 of the course so far but have had little time to commit to the course due to exams, however I plan to review all 3 months later this month. From the parts I have gone through I've been very impressed with how it's laid out and how it engages with the reader.

At the moment I am an unrated player but on most chess sites where I play with 5-10min time control I'm usually around the 1500 strength, I have 1 more year of University to go and I hope this course will turn me into a strong player by the end of the year. I intend after I finish Uni to join a local Chess club nearby my hometown and hopefully achieve a decent ECF grading. I have set myself a target of becoming a FIDE master within 3 years which I realise is probably unrealistic but I like to aim high.

My only slight criticism of the course so far would be they seem to neglect engame study, however after I emailed them regarding this they appear to have plans to bring out a 2nd year of the course that focuses on endgame study.

This is my conversation I had with them via email last week:

22nd Aug 2010

Hello,

I am currently going through the course and am finding it extremely useful so far. And have already seen a dramatic increase in my rating on the online sites that I play at. However I have a question about the endgame. Does the course cover study of the endgame because I can't find any mention of it in the main module summary. I noticed on this part of the site you recommend some books: http://www.chessarea.com/chess-instructions/ that include 3 endgame books. This will be enough to master the endgame? Or is it covered in the course? If not is there any other recommendations you can make on how to improve my endgame?

Kind Regards,
James Byrne

30th Aug 2010

Hello James,

Indeed, our first course does not include endgame lessons as there are some good books which covers everything that should be known for basic theory.
In the second year of the course, we will cover the complex endgames that result from all major openings.

Kind regards,
Raul Neagos

Good to hear from you StarByrne, and thanks for the good news about endgames.

Great to have you here, and great news about the endgame lesson! We'll end up with a whole new section at this site, huzzahhh!

Some more good news, looks like it's coming out in the next 2 weeks. But alas will be many months before I get to view it myself.

31st Aug 2010
Hi James,

The second year will be published in about 2 weeks and it will be available only for the students of the 1st year.
More details will be published at that time.

Kind regards,
Raul Neagos

StarByrne wrote:Some more good news, looks like it's coming out in the next 2 weeks. But alas will be many months before I get to view it myself.

Year away for me

Thanks for sharing the good news.

Hmmm... not sure I like that... I am in two minds about it. Yes, I want to study "year 2", but I am not sure I want to pay for it... that would push my spend up over a thousand dollars! It's kinda hard to justify spending > $1,000 on chess study when chess is only a hobby!

BorgQueen wrote:Hmmm... not sure I like that... I am in two minds about it. Yes, I want to study "year 2", but I am not sure I want to pay for it... that would push my spend up over a thousand dollars! It's kinda hard to justify spending > $1,000 on chess study when chess is only a hobby!

Just one major tournament win.

It will be interesting to see what the course outline looks like and what approach they take. I like the idea of extending the course to look at transitions into endgames that is mentioned.

Maybe there it is. To win that amount of money I would have to win the state championships and at this point I can't even win at my club championship - two players almost always beat me..., which pays NOTHING!

Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE to study endgames here, but yeah, justifying the expense is going to be difficult.

BorgQueen wrote:Maybe there it is. To win that amount of money I would have to win the state championships and at this point I can't even win at my club championship - two players almost always beat me..., which pays NOTHING!

Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE to study endgames here, but yeah, justifying the expense is going to be difficult.

And I apologize for being flippant, it's always the question of priority and value.

No need to apologise, I took no offense. And yes, chess is like that unless you are a professional player and live off the earnings you make... it's always a hard decision whether to spend more money on it or not.

welcome james, good news regarding the endgame!

Mm, hi james, nice to hear, I am very weak in end games, i always loose in end games. !!

I'm ok at endgames, but I suck at openings.

quite 360 for me.. -.