Charlie Storey: "To be successful you must first enjoy it"

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
4/11/2020 – Charlie Storey decided he would give up trying to be a professional player in order to become a professional chess coach. His approach served him well, as he has collected many success stories during his 25 years as a trainer. In this interview, the FIDE Master from Morpeth, Northumberland shares his views on coaching, the benefits kids get from learning chess and, of course, the Sniper.

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A professional chess coach

Charlie Storey is a chess player and teacher with over 160 victories in open tournaments and several National Junior Chess Champions created, who has worked regularly as coach to England's youth squads. In addition, he is a qualified teacher of Business and Computer Science, performing at 'A' in his Masters in Teaching & Learning. Storey regularly teaches one-on-one via Skype using ChessBase.

Storey is also the creator of 'the Sniper', a sound and universal system that ensures new and creative opening situations full of imbalance and, hence, winning prospects. He has published two DVDs on the subject, a very successful one for Black and, more recently, an adaptation to play it with the white pieces as well. 


The Sniper

You've developed a close-to-universal system for both Black and White, the Sniper. Learning it definitely serves as a time-saving approach, especially for non-professional players. Do most of your students receive it well and employ it in the long run?

Yes, the Sniper is a universal system for both sides and, of course, there is some crossover in the pattern recognition and the middlegame tactics, which is quite a good and unique feature for a White and a Black Sniper practitioner.

My students consist of two types — talented juniors aged 8 -16 and adults looking to developing their Sniper skills. The juniors tend to just build on what they have already learned from school clubs and that means not teaching The Black Sniper. After they have mastered one Black opening (typically 1…e5 or 1…c5) do I then suggest the Black Sniper, unless they are really keen to learn it. The White Sniper is different. This is an excellent universal system  to play for juniors, as the extra tempo makes it easy to learn and play — juniors become very difficult to beat when they have learned The White Sniper.

How much of a difference does it make to play the Sniper with White or with Black? Especially for amateur players, who do not face deeply-prepared opponents frequently.

For amateurs (under 2100), having familiar middlegame plans is invaluable, as it reduces the enormous range of tactical patterns that is needed to know when you play multiple different openings — as all memory decays over time, this helps results. The White Sniper and, to a larger extent, The Black Sniper fly under the radar of traditional main lines, and this ensures your opponent has more opportunity not to know or to recall their learned theory. Most of the traps that are found in the Snipers are favourable too, which is an added bonus of the universal Sniper systems.

When working with beginners, would you say it's easier to teach them the Sniper in comparison to other more classical openings?

The Sniper uses colourful teaching language which helps with the memory of the ideas. Using phrases like Black Dragon / White Dragon and using football teams representing the style of what is going up helps build hooks for our puny human memory in the vast sea of similar chess variations.

I often use the word 'style' to represent how Black plays against The White Sniper. For example, if Black plays the King's Indian Defence against the White Sniper, it is called King's Indian Style, as strictly speaking it is not a King's Indian given the fact that White has not played c4/d4, but this makes it easier to remember the White Sniper variations.

All openings should be learned on a very superficial level, but when you dedicate to one system I do not think that there is a better opening for White than the White Sniper. For Black, now that there is some useful theory it is also an excellent choice. Even though 1…e5 is probably slightly more sound from an engine viewpoint (looking for equality), the Sniper is an excellent human opening for learning traps and learning positional chess, and basic to grasp advanced strategies than can re-occur with some frequency.


The White Sniper is characterised by three moves against any black setup: 1.g3 2.Bg2 and 3.c4 though not necessarily in that order. Think of The White Sniper as a Hyper- Accelerated Sicilian Dragon against anything that Black plays.


Out of all the possible transpositions (King's Indian Defence, Benoni, Pirc, etc) that might arise from the Sniper, which one is your favourite to play against?

I initially had problems making Benonis work for the Black Sniper, but now I am really happy with Black's positions from a complex chaos with soundness. It is one of the best ways to play for a win with Black, although against strong GMs you are still trying to draw with Black.

Please share two of your favourite games with the Sniper (one with White and one with Black).

The first is a video of a bullet game played against Garry Kasparov's trainer GM Zurab Azmaiparashvilli, with the legend GM Adrian Mikhalchisin watching on — he was the instructor on my FIDE Instructor course. I won the game in an informal setting played in a wonderful spirit. In Zurab’s defence, he beat me in the following game. 

The second is highly instructive. I needed a draw to secure my second IM norm at the 2019 British Chess Championship — the final position is nothing short of legendary!

 

Chess coaching

What is it that brings you joy from teaching? You've been doing it for so long!

I really enjoy Skype coaching using my ChessBase resources and tools, as I still learn a lot whilst investigating new openings with talented students, and also playing out Sniper Tabiya positions with them. ChessBase is fantastic for Skype screen-share, as there is additional real time data with ChessBase online database and with Stockfish 10 assessments. On my super-fast processor I get to 'depth 30' on new positions very fast — I consider depth 30 on Stockfish to be an extremely credible opinion, more so than the opinion of a strong grandmaster, although it is still nice to see games from the 'best opening moves' position. 

Once Magnus Carlsen said that winning games is one of the most important motivators to keep improving, while it's common knowledge that one learns the most from setbacks. How do you handle this factor with your students? Should they be — at least partially — "shielded" against losing more than necessary?

A great question. The reality is that the nature of Swiss events means you are normally playing players on a similar ability level to yourself, so you are constantly going to score not much more or less than fifty percent.

I teach students in chess and computing — the pedagogy is very similar — that to be successful you must first enjoy it (the teacher should ensure this), embrace failure like it is your best friend, recognise you are human, that you are trying your best and that it is good enough whatever the outcome. We have a tendency to feel 'chess pain', which is good but very painful. It is important to teach students that they can control how much or how little they can comfortably handle when they have inevitable setbacks. This leads to the answer to your question, which is a persistent advice I give: "The only way you lose at chess is if you don’t learn something from the game".

Have you noticed that learning chess helps kids in other areas of their development? If so, which ones?

I have known for many years the benefits of what playing and studying chess does for kids.

  • Gives them the ability to sit down and think
  • Opens a door to education
  • Confidence in your own opinion
  • A scientific and growth mind-set is cultivated
  • Intellectual friendship circle is increased
  • Self-learning is accelerated for all areas of interest
  • Learning how to effectively manage your thoughts and emotions
  • Most importantly, it teaches humility, which is the ultimate power

It also massively reduces ADHD in kids and helps kids with Asperger's and minor autism, as the chess community generally embrace kids like this, whereas in many other sports/activities they are sometimes ridiculed by kids who have yet to be correctly educated. In fact, they can easily excel with their focused mindset.

Online teaching has become much more prevalent in recent years. It's only natural to think that some of the coaching offered might not be of a very high standard. Is this true in the world of chess instruction? How should people avoid hiring non-qualified instructors?

I am a qualified teacher trained at a top university with a focus on pedagogy and I performed at A in Masters in Teaching & Learning, so my view should carry some weight here.

As a chess teacher/coach/trainer of 25 years, I have seen the best and the worst, and it is clear the best are first and foremost excellent communicators with charisma and who have excellent knowledge about chess and also have had many years' experience. The two best I have seen — I have tried to learn as much as I could from them — are GM Adrian Mikhalchisin and IM Andrew Martin. Charisma + Enthusiasm + Knowledge + Experience + Teaching and/or FIDE Training are essentials, but the most important factor is to really care about your students and have fun with them.

If you want the best coaches, they are proven DVD presenters and, as ChessBase is what I call "The Hollywood of chess DVD presentation", I would suggest ChessBase Authors page is the first and best place to seek an excellent proven qualified coach. This normally means they can charge premium prices for their time, but their training and mentorship is worth it and will help the student become the best they can be for the amount of time they have available for their chess learning.

Miscellaneous questions

You've won a huge amount of open tournaments in the UK. What are your ambitions as a chess player?

Many years ago, back in 1991, I had a 'religious experience' which resulted in a vision. This vision guided me to become a chess teacher (perhaps one for another interview as this experience had a deeply profound effect on me!). After studying the Bible, it became clear to me you had to give up your life to find your life — for me that meant giving up trying to be a chess professional player and instead becoming a professional chess coach. My ambition was to become the best chess teacher in the world. I'm not quite there yet, as Adrian and Andy Martin are still above me, but I am catching them!

As a player, I am a FIDE Master with two IM norms and I have won over 160 UK Opens consisting of standard, rapidplay and blitz. The latest IM norm I got was using the Black Sniper and the White Sniper at The British Chess Championship 2019, and I need to play a few more tournaments to get the rating up and the final norm, but I often find I have to rush the end of my games in tournaments to get back to do the coaching. This sometimes has an effect on my performance, but it's still worth it, as first and foremost I am a dedicated chess coach.

Do you have chess idols? Who are they? Why?

I am a Christian and don't believe in idols. However, I respect the best chess teachers, so back to Adrian and Andy. I use a lot of Capablanca's games in my endgame training programs and I think Karsten Muller is worthy of immense respect in the endgame.

Who would you want to see challenging Magnus Carlsen in a World Championship match? Why?

I would like to see a woman challenge him and win it, preferably also a Viking!

Do you feel nostalgic about the pre-computer era in chess?

ChessBase and computers have been interwoven in my life since 1992. I love everything about ChessBase and to be a FritzTrainer author is literally a dream come true for me. I would like to have all of the ChessBase programs on display in my study when the royalties from this White Sniper enable me to buy a bigger house! I have memory of going through an ECO Tomb with a highlighter trying to remember the variations. That was so very boring — thank God for ChessBase!


Links


Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.

Discuss

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Storey_Sniper Storey_Sniper 4/17/2020 03:54
My Policy when dealing withe people online in all forums (I am trained Computer Science teachers who also teaches online safety to teenagers) is to try and be nice to them even when they start with hidden barbs -I then give them a quick chastisement and then ignore them until a see a genuine apology and they have researched gaslighting and other psychological disorders.

if anyone has any genuine questions about White or Black Sniper I am happy to help. Without going to deeply into Sociopathic, psycopathic or gaslighting behaviourism; just be nice and I will be nice back, otherwise you will be given a quick chastisement and then ignored...forever.

IntensityInsanity may the Heavens keep you safe.

Scorpion29 - make sure every comment you make is nice and I will respond and if you don't like my opinion deal with it effectively and in a positive manner.
Scorpion29 Scorpion29 4/13/2020 06:10
The purpose is the search for the truth. My intention was not to offend, but seeing as my fellow debater got in a few jabs of his own, I thought I'll try and add a few valid points.

If he was kind enough to provide us an email ID to this link I will happily delete all my previous comments and apologise for this apparent rudeness, this of course conditional to him proving atleast two of my points wrong.

Why is it you think I am bombarding him? Is proving one of the core lines of a dodgy DVD arrogant to you? Then God Bless you, I can't say anything else. Even for a sub 1800 finding the moves I mentioned as a refutation are not difficult.

It is your opinion that you find his story reasonable, and I respect that, but it is also fact (not just my opinion!) that such systems can be refuted with a simple developmental scheme. Why doesn't he say a thing or two about that, instead of hiding behind the agree to disagree clause?

I will not post anything further. I have made my point as it is, as the author hides behind a fantasy he claims to be a reality. I respect his attempt to create a new developmental scheme, but calling the 1.c4 2.g3 English a Reversed Sniper is renaming a respectable opening system that has had far more competent coverage from people like Marin.

Since I am yet to look at his second DVD, I will not attempt to make judgements about it. What is clear is that his black one in my eyes and the computers has been refuted. Simple as that.

Again, apologies if I sound rude or arrogant, but there is a valid point to be made, and I am making it.
IntensityInsanity IntensityInsanity 4/13/2020 04:09
Scorpion, you wrote:
"Hey Charlie, It seeems that you have gone out of your way to try and offend me."

However, you were the one who earlier began your posts with things like,
"It seems you don't understand computer analysis fully, so let me explain."

- in case you haven't learned this, your approach is borderline rude and quite arrogant.

Also, you wrote, "then god bless you and your students - they'll get destroyed against serious players!"

Again, this is the type of thing you contact an author privately. It is quite rude and arrogant to attempt to expose an author in a public forum. That being said, I found the author's (Storey_Sniper) responses quite reasonable and convincing, though of course I am no expert in this system and I am no judge as to its quality or correctness. I just find it quite rude of you, Scorpion, the way you seem to bombard the author, like it is your intention to raise yourself up while putting someone else down. What purpose?
Scorpion29 Scorpion29 4/13/2020 03:20
Hey Charlie,

If it was that simple, I would have done it with my first post. However, I don't like it when people with insufficient knowledge make tall claims, especially when it comes to the use of chess engines, and telling a Morra Gambit player that he plays tournament games against humans!

Nice to see you don't have a single concrete comeback to my answer, and it shows to the readers how much you as an author and player need to improve. Anyways, I hope to see you come back with an improved version of the Sniper that is objectively sound as Black, and fighting for an advantage as White, not an unsound Modern and sugarcoated g3 English, next time. Good Luck - you need it.

If you want we can both continue this on a different platform so that more of these facts are not exposed. Have a nice day.
Storey_Sniper Storey_Sniper 4/13/2020 02:30
Hi Scorpion,

Lets just agree to disagree.

Have a nice day.
Scorpion29 Scorpion29 4/13/2020 07:02
Hey Charlie,
It seeems that you have gone out of your way to try and offend me. Well, this is what happens when 'coaches' are shown defects in their methods, but hey, no offense taken.

By the way, I am a practical player too, and I have draws against a GM, IM and FM in OTB chess, so I am not living in a 'correspondence' bubble as you claim. My main repertoire consists of a gambit on move 2 against the Sicilian, and it is not just because it is simpler to learn (it is more complex than this developmental scheme), but because in all the best lines my comps and I see full compensation for the pawn.

I don't know what your sources are for claiming the Marshall is the best sequence White and Black have - in his recent CB article Albert has written that the Berlin endgame and Be2 Najdorf are best according to Leela and Fat Fritz respectively. Thus, there are a lot of options. Your choice of sticking with 1 shows how rigid you can be!

There are many ways to get an acceptable game in chess while retaining winning chances. Sadly, the Sniper is not one of them, as far as Black is concerned. You get your reality straight first - what is so difficult in finding my sequence of moves?One doesn't need thousands of hours for doing what you did - a little bit of common sense and rational analysis is enough to find tough paths for both sides.

Any reversed system is objectively equal, but I agree that with good knowledge one can win games with it. But claiming a slight edge is absolute rubbish - it shows how much objectivity you lack.

There should always be a balance between subjectivity and objectively. Sadly, as with all these 'system' advocates, you lack the latter in spades. As a former Sniper, I am disappointed to see its creator continue to sugarcoat his systems instead of accepting the objective inferiority.

The recent Giri - Grischuk game effectively equalises for Black in 1.c4 e5 2.g3 c6. Do check it out. Good day.
Storey_Sniper Storey_Sniper 4/13/2020 01:42
Scorpion

Your White Sniper Question is answered here;

What to do with 1.c4 e5 2.g3 c6 3. Nf3 / Bg2 4. Bg2/Nf3 - See DVD
Play a 'Reversed Pirc' gives White a Tiny edge with good practical winning chances with 4.Nf3
Storey_Sniper Storey_Sniper 4/13/2020 01:35
Hey Scorpion
For a correspondence player you should know best available deep theory by now, so you should know that White and Black's best moves are in fact the Marshall gambit.
You may want to review your deep theory assessments / sources if you are not familiar with that yet. GM Tuning will also weaken the engine at times not improve it. You should also understand that with best engine play for both sides it will be a draw. Humans do not play the best play and it is wise to understand why they do not and also when they do not; this varies from person to person. This may be different for ''correspondebce chess" It seems to me you put way too much faith in a 3500 v 3500 engine assessment which is not especially useful for Under 2300 Players playing each other without engines which is the Target for The Sniper System repertoires. That is across the board players at classical, rapid and blitz. i could show you many positions where it is a minus for Black and you would not find the correct move or plan which would therefore turn the evaluation on its head only if you had an engine. You live in a correspondence bubble wheras I live in a competive across the board bubble. Yours is a bit of a fantasy and mine is reality. Fantsay is great but I prefer reality. You are correct about a depth 40 being better, but actually not much better, especially for across the board chess; the human would not be able to remember the offroad permetations that would happen then play them with the required accuracy to persisiently maintain micro advantage. I have spent thousands of hours with engines and forming human based learning algorithms from them and turned them into chess courses.
Scorpion29 Scorpion29 4/12/2020 05:34
Hey Charlie,
It seems you don't understand computer analysis fully, so let me explain. While your claim of Stockfish depth 30 beating Magnus seems fair enough in most positions, it takes time for it to fully understand the position. Something like Komodo on the other hand with a lot of GM tuning instantly zones in on a critical continuation, so a depth 30 with it is reliable. For Stockfish, you can consult any engine expert you want - a depth of 40 is critical to establish a playable continuation, and a depth of 46+ to find the best possible move in the given position.

I am a correspondence player, so I do know what I am talking about with respect to chess engines. I am no Sniper expert, but many of the lines are border-line unsound from Black's perspective, and perhaps just playable from the White side. I wonder what you intend to do after 1.c4 e5 2.g3 c6?

Also, one more way to refute this developmental system - 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 c5 4.Be3 Qa5?! 5.Nf3! with an eval of 0.84 at the respectable depth of 34.

I am all for playable opening systems. But claiming a variation is for play against humans just to end up with a big minus seems absurd. If all your openings are researched to the depth of 30, then god bless you and your students - they'll get destroyed against serious players!

Also, one more thing - the Marshall is not the only best move system - did you forget the Berlin and the Petroff?
Storey_Sniper Storey_Sniper 4/12/2020 04:52
Hey Scorpion

Depth 30 on Stockfish will destroy Magnus Carlsen so a bit harsh to call that a joke. The Sniper Systems are designed for practical ways to try and win vs a Human Being. If you want the best moves play 1.e5 e5 and take a draw in the Marshall Gambit.
Storey_Sniper Storey_Sniper 4/12/2020 04:49
Hi Sli Gunner
Great name.... I am an Arsenal supporter maybe subconciously why I went for THE SNIPER name.

My 2011 book on The Sniper I went wth 3...c5 vs Nf3 but with deep analysis I felt White could get a small plus and further, there are some traps in Whites favour. With lots of study you can navigate the traps but then must remember them. I found it hard to remember the antidotes to the traps so Exploting Whites 3.Nf3 simply avoiding Dangerous 3.f4 Pircs and taking on a harmless 3.f3 Pirc is good. If you want to play 3...c5 there is a simple manoeuvre when Queen takes on c5. Put it back to a5 rather than c7.
sligunner sligunner 4/12/2020 12:31
Hey Charlie, answer me this, please: in your video you state that, after 3.Nf3 for white black should not play 3...c5, but instead should play 3...d6 (a nice and easy Pirc line). In your book 'The Spider' you recommend 3...c5. Which is it, and why the discrepancy?
Scorpion29 Scorpion29 4/12/2020 10:55
Charlie, depth 30 in Stockfish is an absolute joke, for Komodo that particular depth is viable, but for Stockfish you need atleast depth 40 to be sure. Otherwise, very interesting interview, hope you become an IM soon!
FMMichaelBaron FMMichaelBaron 4/12/2020 01:44
I retired from chess a while ago....last fide rating 2330 i think ...checked yours 2220....not sure what you need I am norms for ...need a fide rating of 2400....this is a along road.
Storey_Sniper Storey_Sniper 4/11/2020 11:11
Hi MichaelBaron, I only have 2 IM Norms, I notice you ar also a FIDE Master do you have any IM Norms yet?
FMMichaelBaron FMMichaelBaron 4/11/2020 12:37
I played him on chess.com in 3 0...no wonder he gave up on becoming a professional player...
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