Advanced-Beginners Course (Level-2)

Pre-requisites: Knowledge of rules of the game. Familiarity with chess notation. Ability to mate with queen, two rooks OR successful completion of our beginners’ course.

Contents: A quick review of the Beginner’s course, Basic Checkmates (King & Rook v/s King, King + 2 Bishops v/s King), Simple 1 & 2 Move checkmates, Counting & making wise captures, Conversion of overwhelming material advantage, Scholar’s mate & Fool’s mate, An introduction to tactical themes (Pin trick, Fork trick, Double-attack trick, Discovered-attack & Discovered-check tricks, X-ray or Skewer trick). Basic King & Pawn Endings (Queening square, Opposition, Protected passed pawn, Outside passed pawn). Opening Principles (5 guidelines, Importance of castling, Importance of development), An introduction to tournaments.

Age group: 6 onwards.

Delivery Method: Lessons are taught on an Electronic Demonstration Chess-set, the academy uses state of the art chess-teaching apparatus that saves loads of time and helps include a lot of supplementary material which, the conventional demonstration chess-set does not allow.

Course Schedule: Once-a-week - 90 minutes session- 16 sessions in 4 months.

Practice: A two-hour practice session will be held on Sundays. “Practice makes perfect”, it is an integral part of any learning process; the academy endeavors to maintain a minimum instruction/practice ratio of 1:2, i.e. an hour of instruction is supplemented by 2 hours of practice at least. This helps in reinforcing key concepts as the students get a chance to practically implement the theory taught. Students are given home assignments.

Tournament: A practice tournament will be held at the end of the course.

Duration: 36 hours (effectively).

Batch Strength: Ideally 14 students in a batch.

Course Fees: Rs. 2400/=

Evaluation: To evaluate the knowledge-level of the students an exam will be conducted at the end of the Course.

Validation: On successful completion the student will be awarded a Diploma Certificate.

What to expect: At the end of the course, the student should be able to play a full game of chess at a fairly good level. The student would know the basic principles of the opening and endgame and will be familiar with middle game tactics.