Day 16 Part 2 - Coaching with IM Vladan Rabrenovic
Today I had 2 more hours of chess lessons with my coach IM Vladan Rabrenovic. I have used "Rabren" (his nickname) for quite some time and we had our first lesson already late back in October 2016.
Below you can see a photo of my coach and friend.
I have played chess online at ICC for a while, when I discovered that it was possible to hire a coach. So I started browsing the list of trainers and then I found a friendly face of a guy named Vladan. He had some good reviews, so I decided to give him a chance. I really wanted to improve and get better at chess. Before I got to know Rabren I believed that I knew a lot about the amazing game of chess, but he has opened my eyes to a beautiful New World! I learn something new every day.
Solving Tactics and Endgame Studies.
In today´s lesson we started off with solving tactics but also some endgames studies. In this way you warm up the brain to be ready and to have the right focus. I really enjoy his way of doing this!
Some examples of tactics below:
Good Advice
After that we discussed about some good advice about getting better results playing OTB (over the board) tournaments, because to be honest that´s something I struggle with and getting the results I want.
Rabren told me that playing OTB compared to online, are 2 VERY different things, for sure. So to get better at playing REAL tournament, you have to try playing as much as possible. My problem with this, is that in Norway, (there are quite many tournaments), but to participate in as many as possible I have to drive long distances and use maybe 5-7 hours, paying for Hotel (which is very expensive in Norway) and tournament fees. So for me as an amateur, its not easy to attend and play all the tournaments I want, because players with titles usually get all costs covered, but sometimes also get paid to participate, unfortunately I don´t have that luxury YET! I try not to drive for more than 3 hours to play chess tournaments, so the number of tournaments I can play gets very limited.
He further advised me that if you can´t play OTB tournaments regularly, then the next best thing is to play as many games or tournaments as you can online! Play a minimum of 2-3 games of a minimum of 15 minutes, each day and a total of 20 in 1 week.
Vladan also mentioned that after you have played a game, write some notes about your thoughts, ideas, plans, strategy, mistakes, critical moments, etc, not only from your point of view but also from your opponent´s. After that you should sit down at a real chess board and try to analyse and assess your own game (s), without the help of a computer. What you need in order to make real progress in chess is not more computer input, but increased understanding. To fully digest all available data and to discover the ultimate secrets of chess you must dislodge your decision making from your addiction to the computer and (re)develop the habit of using your own brain. Only after you analyzed your games, you can check with the Silicon Monster if your assessment was good or bad.
He also instructed me to solve tactics with same approach as analyzing your games. Which means to sit down at a real chessboard and when you think you have the correct answer, only then you can double check with a PC.
Rabren informed me of a good way to learn about both the opening and middle-game by reviewing Master Games.
Formula to review Master Games
1. Use 5 minutes on the whole game, read it like you read a newspaper or a magazine.
2. Go over the whole game again but then you use on 15-20 minutes (complex games may need more). Stop at critical moments which need further analyzes. But at the same time try to understand the idea, plans, strategy etc for each move.
3. Then you repeat step 1 and use another 5 minutes.
4. At the final stage you try to memorize 20-25 moves.
I really love and enjoy this way of reviewing Master Games, it really helps to understand Chess better!
Baltic Defense A New Line In My Opening Repertoire
At the end of this professional lesson, Rabren showed me a new line in my opening repertoire of The Baltic Defense. He showed me 2 games (rest of the games are homework, sent as a pgn file) and he used the formula I described earlier. The new line is:
Finally he tested my memory to see if I remembered the first 20 moves.
Once again, a very well organised and high standard lesson from a professional coach! My homework for next lesson is to use the Formula of reviewing Master Games (23 games in total).
Thank you Vladan for an amazing lesson as always!
