GM R.B.

Ramesh 52-Week Program

Week 11– The Ghost Navigation
Introduction

The Ghost Navigation

The path you take may not be pretty, but the destination you reach should
be the stronghold from where we take command of the battle.
Why maneuver?

In the opening by focusing on development purely, we may not place our

pieces in the best possible squares. In the early middlegame or in the
middlegame we can correct these mistakes and place the misplaced
pieces in the best squares.
Difference between
maneuvering and improving pieces
• Improving pieces takes place in one move. On the other hand
maneuvering of pieces takes more than one move.

• Maneuvering takes more time than improving pieces.

• In Maneuvering a piece generally goes from one bad square to another

bad square and finally lands in a good square.
When to maneuver?
• When your opponent cannot open the position.

• Maneuvering involves time wastage.

• In maneuvering one piece from a bad square will go to another bad

square and only then to a good square.

• Maneuver only when your opponent does not have any active pawn
breaks.
Aim of making list
• Not to get confused.

• If we make a list there can be too many moves in the list and it can
get too complicated.

• Making lists opens our mind to different possibilities that exist in the
position.

• If there are many moves in the list then we should be extremely

careful because if you choose the wrong one, your position can get
worse.

• Whenever there is a choice, usually one can make mistakes there.

How to find the best move?

1. Using Calculation

• Eliminate some moves from the list.

• However you cannot calculate every move. You can calculate only
where there are forcing moves.

2. Logic, common sense and our knowledge of chess principles.

• Use this when no forcing moves is available.

• Think and decide which principle to follow.

How to know which side you are strong

1. Pawn majority

2. Where you have more pieces

3. Where opponent has less pieces

4. Presence of weakness
Which piece?

• When there are 2 pieces that have not developed, then think and
decide which piece to develop. Dont take this decision casually.

• The piece that does not have a choice, develop it first. The piece
which has choice, develop it later.

• Normally the mistakes we make are when we have choice. If one has
only one move then he will not make mistakes.

• If both pieces have choices, then try to improve the worst piece.

• If both pieces are placed badly then try to improve the piece that can
be improved easily.
Learning mindset while working at home
• Learn on your own, one cannot learn everything from coaches.
• Learning from books is an important way to learn.
• Don’t try to learn big things. Try to learn a few small things in every session. That is more useful
and helps in improving your strength.
• Teach yourself chess!
• When you see strong players games, try to guess moves and see.
• Tell yourself that you will not repeat this mistake in the future.
• Improving your chess means making small-small corrections.
• Casualness is a big enemy that will hinder one's growth. Fear, Overconfidence etc. are by-
products of casualness.
• Don’t play chess casually. Take chess a little more seriously.
• Also, take chess practice seriously.
• Internalize what you learn.
Think about how to become a good player.

• Should I do something different during the tournaments.

• Am I satisfied with how things are going?

• Am I lazy?

• I am working hard what is not happening?

• What to do different in home preparation?

• Upgrade yourself.
Weaknesses and Bad pieces
• In the middlegame sometimes it is OK for bishops to be bad.

• To make all pieces happy and active one piece will sometimes be bad.

• If your opponent has one color bishop, put all the pieces on the opposite
color.

• Be aware of your weaknesses but also be aware of your opponent's

weakness. Being aware of opponents weaknesses can give us hope.

• In general don’t play on the side where you are weak

• When you have bad pieces don’t try to open the position.

• When you have something bad in your position try to solve it.
General principles
• Minor pieces should be developed before major pieces generally.

• We should go for pawn breaks at the right time. But there is no formula for
right time.

• Learn to go from one type of advantage to another type of advantage.

• The passed pawn should be blocked by minor pieces in the middlegame.

• The rook and queen are poor blocaders.

• It is very easy to play natural looking moves. But a strong player will not
make natural moves all the time.

• Strong players look at opponent's idea.

Good books on Calculation
Good books on Puzzles/combinations/tactics
• Anthology of chess problems 2345 - 1997

• 101 brilliant chess miniatures by Nunn 1999

• How to calculate chess tactics by Beim Valery 2006

• Speelman's Chess Puzzle Book - 2008

• A course in chess tactics by Vladimir Georgiev

• Imagination in Chess by Gaprindashvilli

• Perfect your chess by Volokitin

• Extreme chess tactics by Afek

• Invisible chess moves by Afek

• Positional chess sacrifices by Suba

• Creative chess by Amatzia Avni

• Surprise in chess by Amatzia Avni

• Studies and games by Jan Timman

• Domination in 2545 endgame studies by Kasparyan

• Draw! By John Nunn

• Solving in Style by John Nunn

Good books on Positional play
• Improve your positional chess by Hansen Cartsen 2004

• The complete manual of positional chess volume 1 and 2 by Landa and Sakaev 2016

• Improve your practical play in the middlegame by Dreev

• Chess middle game strategies by Ivan Sokolov

• Positional decision making by Gelfand

• Foundations of chess strategy by Lars Bo Hansen

• Lessons in chess strategy by Valeri Beim

• Find the right plan by Karpov

Good books on Attack
• Art of Attack by Vuckovic

• Attacking Manual 1 and 2 By Jacob Aagaard

• On the attack by Timman Jan

• Rocking the Ramparts by Christiansen Larry

• Secrets of attacking chess by Mihail Marin

• Fighting chess by Kasparov Gary

• 1001 deadly checkmates by John Nunn

Best game collections (part 1)
• My 60 memorable game by Fischer, Taimanov Mark - Taimanov's Selected Games 1995

• Life and games of Akiba Rubinstein

• Life and games of Mikhail Tal 1997

• Achieving the aim by Botvinnik

• Spassky - The master of Initiative by Raetsky

• Golombek - Capablancas 100 best games of chess

• My Best games of Chess by Alekhine

• Chess at the top by Karpov

• My 300 best games by Karpov

• Fighting chess by Kasparov

• Fire on the board 1 & 2 by Shirov

Best game collections (part 2)
• My Junior years in 20 games by Anish Giri 2014

• Bologan selected games by Bologan

• My best games of chess by Smyslov

• Master of counter attack – Bent Larsen

• It’s only me – Tony Miles

• John Nunn’s best games by John Nunn

• Taimanov’s selected games by Mark Taimanov

• My life and games by Vladimir Kramnik

• I play against pieces by Gligoric

• Rubinstein’s chess master pieces – 100 selected games

• Chess is my life by Viktor Korchnoi - 1978

• Gata Kamsky - Chess Gamer , Volume 1 : The Awakening

What to work at home (part 1)
1. Solve 5 to 10 puzzles from Imagination in Chess / Perfect your chess /Chess café puzzle book /
Speelman’s Chess puzzle book / The Magic tactics of Mikhail Tal /Advanced chess tactics by
Psakhis / A course in Chess tactics by Vladimir Georgiev / Encyclopaedia of chess combinations /
Encyclopaedia of chess middlegames / Anthology of chess problems. While solving do not move
pieces on the board. It is not enough to get only the first move correct but complete answer should
be found including opponents best defensive idea.

2. See 10 games minimum of players above 2600 (one player atleast) from Follow Chess app or any
good website (games played that day or the day before). Observe which openings are popular at
top level and learn from them.

3. Revise one opening variation (not complete opening) from white side, one opening variation each
against 1.e4 and 1.d4 as black.

4. See 5 games of past world champions (Alekhine, Capablanca, Tal, Botvinnik, Karpov, Fischer,
Rubinstein, Smyslov or any player you like.
What to work at home (part 2)
1. See 5 games of a modern player you like (Carlsen, Nakamura, So Wesley, Caruana,
Mamedyarov, Aonian, Kramnik, Artemiev etc.)

2. Read 5 pages daily from DEM (Dvoretsky endgame manual) to improve your endgame skills.

3. Read 5 pages from any Dvoretsky middlegame book (to improve your middlegame
understanding).

4. Read 5 pages from Aagaard book (any book same purpose as above).

5. Solve 3 to 5 compositions/studies daily from Studies for Practical players by Dvoretsky, Studies
and games by Timman, Draw by Nunn, Solving in Style by Nunn, Surprise in Chess by Amatzia
Avni, Creative chess by Amatzia Avni (to improve concentration, calculation, confidence),
Domination in 2545 endgame studies by Kasparyan.

6. See 5 games from How to play chess endings book by Karsten Muller, Endgame strategy by
Shereshevsky, 100 endgames you must know by De la Villa, Endgame secrets by Lutz.
What to work at home (part 3)
1. Analyse your own games without engine at first and with engine again to understand how you play
also analyse with your opponent after the game is over.

2. Playing blitz few games a day after completing the days preparation is good to improve our
instinct, reaction time, reflex etc.

3. Playing training games in openings we have learnt recently is a good idea to gain experience.

4. A player should move from playing only side lines to main lines gradually as his rating increases.
Playing multiple openings helps in across the board learning.
Take Away from the Q&A session
• Beating the Sicilian by Nunn is a good starting point for learning the Sicilian from Whiteside.

• Tempo is a move that gains time.

• Ideally 3 hours of chess a day is needed everyday.

• Learn different approaches and try them out. Experiment and learn

• When playing blitz games and you have many choices ,trust your intuition and play!

• Sacrifice when it will work in our favour!

• Before tournaments usually the openings should be revised and work on calculation to not miss
tactical opportunities.

• Sleep well at night, atleast 8 to 9 hours and dont skip breakfast/lunch etc. Eat well. Do exercise if
you are physically weak to improve your stamina. Finally tell yourself, I will be strong and will not
get tired during a tournament.

• When there are no pawn breaks, when there are no direct threats then we can waste time with
such b6 type of moves.
Take Away from the Q&A session
• Believe in yourself, go with a positive frame of mind, try to play a good quality game.

• Good opening preparation can help a lot as the first 15 moves can be played pretty fast, play a lot
of blitz to improve reflex, solve many position in less time. All this can help in resolving time
trouble issues.

• Dvoretsky Endgame Manual, Basic chess endings by Rueben Fine and Silmans endgame book
are few good books for endgames

• During School days prepare for 3 hours a day and in holidays prepare for 4 to 6 hours a day.

• It is normal to lose drawn positions or lose winning positions etc. Dont worry about these things
too much. Just learn some good lessons and avoid such mistakes in future if possible.

• Many strong players do not play the Scandinavian regularly. They may play it for surprise but not
regularly.
Take Away from the Q&A session
• While analysing you game, go throught the game little slowly and see if you can come up with
better moves than what you played in the game and also try to find where you could have made
mistakes. Finally check these conclusions with engine.

• Try contacting your friends online and play training games with them.

• Analyse games with your opponent after the game, after the tournament is over analyse without
engine once and with engine once.
Eljanov
vs
Alekseev

White to play
Gashimov
vs
Wang

Black to play
Alekseev
vs
Grischuk

Black to play
 Polzin
vs
Svidler

Black to play
 Balogh
vs
Kempinski

White to play
Delchev
vs
Ibrayev

White to play
Gelfand
vs
Radjabov

White to play
Kramnik
vs
Carlsen

Black to play
 Quote

“Avoid the crowd. Do your own thinking

independently. Be the chess player, not
the chess piece.”
-Ralph Charell

Let’s Chess!