Day 1

9:00 - 9:30am: Welcome and expectations speech.

9:30 – 11:30: The importance of fighting spirit in modern chess. Examples from Hikaru Nakamura’s games.

11:30 – 1:00: Rook endings part I: Basic R + p vs R endgames, and advancing progressively.

1:00 – 2:00: Lunch

2:00 – 4:00: Analysis of the Student’s Games

4:00 – 4:45: Solving Excersizes

4:45 – 6:00: More analysis of Student’s Games

Day 2

9:00 – 11:00: Discussion about the role of psychology in chess. Students share the stories about overconfidence and fear. How different is to play against higher and lower rated opponents?

11:00 – 1:00: Analysis of the Student’s Games, especially those dealing with the above topic.

1:00 – 2:00: Lunch

2:00 – 2:30: Solving Excersizes

3:00 – 4:30: Rook Endings Part 2

4:30 – 6:00: Analysis of the Student’s Games, with a focus on those involving Rook endgames.

Day 3

9:00 – 11:30: A discussion rich in examples of how to form plans and correctly evaluate unfamiliar positions. How to know ‘where to put the pieces’

11:30 – 1:00: Analysis of Student’s Games, especially those dealing with the above topic.

1:00 – 2:00: Lunch

2:00 – 2:30: Solving Excersizes

2:30 – 4:30: Explaining the ideas behind opposite side castling, and opposite side play by using classical examples.

4:30 – 6:00: Analysis of Student’s Games, especially those dealing with the above topic.

Day 4

9:00 – 1:00: Analysis of Student’s Games

1:00 – 2:00: Lunch

2:00 – 2:45: Solving Excersizes

2:45 – 4:00: Ulf Andersson as a great endgame player. When trading into an endgame is a necessity and when it’s just a question of style? Exercises from his games.

4:00 – 6:00: Learning to play positionally by choosing a close opening. Michael Lee presents his homework on Botvinnik games in English opening.

Day 5

9:00 – 11:00: A discussion on how to study an opening, Daniel Naroditsky presents his homework on Najdorf Sicilian.

11:00 – 1:00: Mikhail Tal: how good was a tactical genius in positional play?

1:00 – 2:00: Lunch

2:00 – 3:00: Camp Summary, Q+A by the Students

3:00 - ?: Blitz tournament and dinner to be held at Gregory Kaidanov’s home.