Tournament Ready

Are you tournament ready? Good to go? All set to roll?

Chess tournaments are currently played online rather than over the board – but the same questions still apply.

Grandmaster Daniel King and Woman FIDE Master Sarah Longson have teamed up to present four courses for Chessable. The common theme is to help make sure you are ready for action.

A Course in Four Parts

The four parts of the Tournament Ready series cover:

Checkmates

Tactics

The Opening

The Endgame

In a nutshell, the courses offer a complete and highly accessible way to prepare the student for tournament action.

I am in the very fortunate position of having worked with both Sarah and Daniel many times over the years, enabling me to see their respective styles at first hand and this has given me the opportunity to learn from both of them. They both have excellent style, the ability to engage an audience and the material they have selected is sensible and accessible to players of all ages.

Excellent Style

One of the most important aspects of the presentation is that even though the material starts off at a very basic level, Daniel and Sarah never fall into the trap of dumbing down their delivery. Teaching children and inexperienced adults does not mean a childish approach is mandatory, yet it is a path many presenters erroneously travel.

Daniel and Sarah share the explanatory duties in the opening videos for each section. Students are then presented with a plethora of exercises, with points awarded for correct answers.

A Toolbox of Tricks and Tactics

Here are some samples from the second volume, offering ‘a toolbox of tricks and tactics.’ The aim is to ensure the student is tournament ready and not going to be caught out by an unexpected blow.

Daniel and Sarah look at a large range of tactics, starting with Loose Pieces Drop Off and running through various ways to use forks, pins and skewers to more advanced material on tactics such as Discovered Attack and Trapping.

Here are three examples of the exercises from the course for you to try. They are all White to play. The only clue I am giving is in the title of each one.

Queen Forks

Pins and Checkmate

Trapping

Are You Tournament Ready – for More?

Tournament Ready will appeal to juniors and adults who already know the basics of chess. Careful study of this course will take their game to the next level.

The course will be particularly helpful for juniors who will participate in Sarah’s Summer Festival of Chess, which offers a wide range of chess activities under the umbrella of the Delancey UK Schools’ Chess Challenge.

Head here for further details on how to become Tournament Ready.

New to tournaments? Check out The Tournament Starter Kit today!