Essential Chess Calculation Guide - Volume 1: Creative Play

Grow Your Calculation Muscle. To get in shape, whether it's getting buff, getting faster, or getting better at chess, you need to form good habits. Essential Chess Calculation Guide - Volume 1: Creative Play is like a personal trainer that shows you how to improve most efficiently, focusing on growing your calculation muscle.

All players have a limit to their calculation ability. Whether that's 3 moves, 5 moves, or 10 moves, at some point the position gets cloudy. It doesn't matter what that number is - adding to it is your key to getting better.

GM Swapnil Dhopade and GM Surya Ganguly have devised a 5-step training plan to push your calculation even deeper.

Your five-step plan
1. Warm-up - Start with tactics with just a couple of moves. For example, a famous century-old queen sacrifice that still catches GMs out. The calculation required is minimal, but the moves can be counterintuitive. This prepares you to get into the creative mindset
2. The Magic of Combinations - Focus on forcing moves. Learn what a grandmaster's thought process is when calculating forcing lines and how you can improve your improvisation. Reevaluate common motifs you've learned and take them a step further, for example, the Greek Gift sacrifice.
3. Become an explorer - Learn to question your ingrained pattern recognition - by doing so you will learn to form habits that push your ideas further and go beyond your intuition. This will allow you to uncover hidden concepts, both for yourself and your opponents
4. Get creative - Learn to play in the present moment. Positions change rapidly in chess - just because you had a plan doesn't mean you should follow through with it - find the best plan in that moment
5. Exam time - A jumbled mix of everything you've learned - you are tested on everything you've learned up to this point - time to flex your calculation muscle!

Two expert trainers - Two courses in one
Grandmasters Swapnil Dhopade and Surya Ganguly are some of the most credible chess trainers out there. Ganguly has worked as a second for Vishy Anand's championship-winning team, while Dhopade coached the Indian women's team at the World Team Chess Championship.

They are both five-star Chessable authors as well, and they want to not only stretch your calculation ability but teach you to think outside the box when approaching the board.

To that end, Dhopade has provided the text and Ganguly the video, independent of one another. That way you get different perspectives on a problem, both from top-notch chess professionals.

Adding to its uniqueness is that it shows you positions from modern games. The authors understand that as chess evolves, new patterns emerge. Be at the forefront of modern calculation by studying modern games - from all levels and time controls.

Take your calculation ability where you thought it could never reach with Essential Chess Calculation Guide- Volume 1: Creative Play.

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