Training by GM & FST Efstratios Grivas
Schedule – Hamburg, 22.01.2011
10:30-10:50 |
Physical
and Psychological Factors; Getting to know Ourselves |
11:00-11:50 |
Building a Repertoire; Chess Literature |
12:00-12:50 |
Activity of Bishops and Knights |
Break |
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14:00-14:50 |
The Backward Pawn |
15:00-15:50 |
The Art of Exchanges |
16:00-16:50 |
The Golden Rules of the Endgame; How to Think in Endgames |
The aim of this series of lectures is to enable participants to teach young
and gifted players in schools and chess clubs, and to educate trainers and chess
teachers not only in their own countries but also on an international basis.

Successful chess trainer GM Efstratios Grivas

Training session in the ChessBase office with young talents from Germany

Attentive students: FM Hagen Poetsch, 19, and Jonas Lampert, 13

IM Elisabeth Pähtz, 26, the highest ranked female player in Germany

WIM Melanie Ohme, 20, the poster girl for German chess

WGM Marta Michna, formally from Poland, now playing for Germany
The material started to develop in early 2004 and was used Grivas' personal
training sessions, where he developed a system based on serious sport (chess
is treated like a sport) and chess material (focusing on middlegame and endgame).
"I use this material to make my students understand that health and other
sport assets are valuable for a chess player's improvement, and not just never-end
analysis in openings," says Stratos (as his friends call him). "For
example in Turkey, where I am working on my program, all my trainees exercise
some physical activity in accordance with their chess education." Since
middle of 2006, when he started training youthful Turkish talents, three players
have made their grandmaster norms and two more are close to this goal. And a
number of IMs have also arisen in the process.
Trainers (and players) all over the world can use the series presented on
the ChessBase news page freely. Any question can be addressed directly to the
author: GrivasEfs (at) yahoo.co.uk.
Getting to Know Ourselves
By GM Efstratios Grivas
It is essential to become acquainted with ourselves chesswise so as to be able
to identify and codify the assets and weaknesses of our chess personality. Many
trainers and trainees have asked me how this can be done properly. Well, as
when you ‘feel the pain’ you make the necessary examinations to identify the
problem, the same you should do with your chess!
But how can this be done? Our basic source shall be the recent games we have
played so far. We must re-examine this valuable and important material (yes,
you should write down all your games!) and produce an 'X-ray' image of our chess-self.
This examination must include all three parts of the game, opening, middlegame
and endgame, for each of our games.
Starting with the opening, we shall fill up two charts, one for the white and
one for the black pieces. These charts will provide very clear-cut information
about ourselves (provided of course that we do this work with strong self-criticism)
and will show how well we understand the openings we have chosen or, in the
bottom line, whether these openings really suit our style (difference between
opening outcome and game result). The bigger the sample, the more accurate the
conclusions (it is advisable to twice photocopy the following – one for
white / one for black).
Opening examination
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Games with
white |
Opening outcome |
Game result |
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Opponent |
Rating |
Opening |
+ |
= |
– |
1 |
½ |
0 |
1 |
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Totals |
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Opening examination
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Games with
black |
Opening outcome |
Game result |
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Opponent |
Rating |
Opening |
+ |
= |
– |
1 |
½ |
0 |
1 |
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Totals |
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In the ‘Opening outcome’ column, ‘+’ means that we got a better position in
the opening, ‘=’ means that we had an about equal position in the opening and
‘–‘ means that we did not really knew the opening or just that we got a bad
position out of it. It is advisable that you should fill the charts alone and
then ask the help of a trainer in case you feel uncertain or simply you need
a second opinion. Here is an example of how to fill up these charts:
Opening examination
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Games with
white |
Opening outcome |
Game result |
|
Opponent |
Rating |
Opening |
+ |
= |
– |
1 |
½ |
0 |
1 |
Shirov,Alexei |
2732 |
Sicilian Defence |
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Χ |
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Χ |
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2 |
Gelfand,Boris |
2690 |
King’s Indian |
Χ |
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Χ |
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3 |
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Next, we shall move on to a similar chart in order to examine our performance
in the middlegame. This chart will contain our games with both white and black,
and requires (as usual) a sample of at least 40 games (20 with white and 20
with black pieces) to produce reliable results.
Middlegame
Examination |
Games with
white and black |
Handling |
Game result |
|
General type |
Middlegame type |
+ |
= |
– |
1 |
½ |
0 |
1 |
Strategy |
Open position |
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2 |
Semi-Open position |
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3 |
Closed position |
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4 |
Tactics |
Attack against the king |
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5 |
Defence of the king |
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6 |
Combinative play |
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Totals |
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An example of how to fill up the middlegame chart:
Middlegame
Examination |
Games with
white and black |
Handling |
Game result |
|
General type |
Middlegame type |
+ |
= |
– |
1 |
½ |
0 |
1 |
Strategy |
Open position |
4 |
2 |
0 |
5 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
Semi-Open position |
2 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
Closed position |
0 |
3 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
6 |
4 |
Tactics |
Attack against the king |
5 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
Defence of the king |
1 |
0 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
6 |
Combinative play |
6 |
2 |
2 |
5 |
4 |
1 |
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Totals |
18 |
10 |
12 |
19 |
7 |
14 |
We will then work similarly to create our endgame chart:
Endgame
Examination |
|
Games with white &
black |
Handling of
the endgame |
Result of the
game |
|
Endgame type |
+ |
= |
– |
1 |
½ |
0 |
1 |
Pawn endgame |
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2 |
Queen endgame |
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3 |
Rook endgame |
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4 |
Bishop endgame |
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5 |
Knight endgame |
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6 |
Combinations of the above |
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Totals |
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After completing this work we will have a much clearer picture of both our
weaknesses and our strengths. It is recommended to repeat this process at frequent
intervals, provided of course that we have gathered enough material from recent
games. In this way we can evaluate our improvement or discover other hidden
aspects of ourselves.
Grivas lecture series
Efstratios Grivas
Efstratios Grivas is a grandmaster and highly experienced chess trainer
and chess author.
e lives in Athens, and he is also a FIDE Senior Trainer (Secretary of
the FIDE Trainers' Commission), an International FIDE Chess Arbiter and
an International FIDE Chess Organizer. He has represented his country
on a great many occasions, winning the fourth position in the World Junior
Championship 1985, an individual gold medal at the 1989 European Team
Championship and an individual silver medal at the 1998 Olympiad.
In 2010 he was awarded the worldwide highly important FIDE TRG Awards
– the Boleslavsky Medal (best author) for 2009. |
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Copyright
Grivas/ChessBase, photos by Frederic Friedel