Running up all the way through
I told here the story of my studies that won 7 times the second prize in composing tournaments last year. This has just become the topic of the current column of Harold van der Hijden on the popular website 'Schaaksite':
http://schaaksite.nl/page.php?al=eindspelstudies-49-de-zoetemelk-van-de-eindspelstudie-2012
The article is written in Dutch however following the studies and the photos is possible whatever your command of the language is.
Visiting my native country
I spent the last 3 weeks in my native country of Israel. Those weeks were mostly warm and lazy (and tasty too!) ones meeting family and friends. After all I had spent there 48 years of my life. Nevertheless there was some chess involved too. Besides playing a game for my new club of Kfar-Saba I held there 2 workshops: one about planning after the opening and another one demonstrating brilliant games from Wijk aan Zee. Reactions were fairly enthusiastic so I may expect some more of the same soon enough.
Workshop in Kfar-Saba Chess Club ( photos: Leon Landa)
Regards from Tel-Aviv
While in Europe the winter refuses to take its leave in favour of the long awaited spring I am pretty happy with my much warmer vacation spent these days in my native city of Tel-Aviv.
Most of my days here are taken easy and based on pleasant meetings with family and friends. Nevertheless chess must naturally be part of the fun. In the first weekend here I played my first match for my new team – the second team of the club of the city of Kfar-Saba, led by GM Ram Soffer. The match concluded successfully with a nice 4:1 victory against “Gambit” Kyriat Bialik. I won my own game on the fourth board and after the 5th round the team shares the second place in the northern second league together with Madatheque Haifa on 20 points, following the leading team of Elitzur Jerusalem (led by GM Leonid Yudasin!) on 22.
Yesterday I gave a workshop in my new club. Its topic was selecting the best plan right after the opening. Another workshop is expected at the end of this weekend but beforehand I will take part in the annual meeting of the Israeli problemists. I will give there a lecture on Environmental friendly Studies…
My article about “Amazing resources in the Endgame” was published in March issue of the British monthly Chess.
Posted: March 24 - 2013
Winners Batavia GM Alon Greenfeld and IM Twan Burg with organizer Peter Tames (Photo: official website).
Chess is the best healer
I was pretty sick last week and I even had to cancel my training sessions on Friday. What I couldn’t postpone were the team matches planned for the weekend. It was a too short notice to invite any substitutes. I had no idea how I would be able to function over the board with all those symptoms and medications of a heavy cold but the extra Adrenalin apparently helped to accelerate my recovery and a happy weekend has eventually been recorded again.
First, Saturday in Wageningen:
Ebook Developing Chess Talent
The book ‘Developing Chess Talent’ is now available as an ebook. See a preview on www.chesstalent.com.
‘Developing Chess Talent’, comprising 256 pages, discusses creating a chess culture, coaching, training, organization and communication.
Also included in this title are interviews with grandmasters David Bronstein and Jan Timman, as well as plenty of helpful and practical information.
Authors of the book are Dutch psychologists and chess trainers Karel van Delft and IM Merijn van Delft.
The book includes a foreword by GM Artur Yusupov with whom they have been collaborating for many years.
