I’ve beaten a few, so I should know, right? It used to be so easy. I would go on an open tournament and breeze through the first several rounds, without preparation or anything. Those days were only a bit more busy than a rest day. In the 1990s club players didn’t know anything. They didn’t know openings, they didn’t know middlegame plans, they had no positional understanding, they didn’t know endgames. Beating them was basically a matter of showing up and waiting for them to mess up, sooner rather than later. Things slowly started to change in the new millennium...

Every chess player wants to improve their game. There are some players, for which improving is extremely difficult. And we’re not talking about those players who hit their rating ceiling, plateaued or physically (or should I say theoretically) are not capable of playing better chess. No, these players cannot improve for completely different reasons. Curious? Read on.

The daily chess training is something every ambitious player should take seriously. No matter what your rating is, if your goal is to become a better player within a short period of time you must train regularly and actively. This is, of course, an obvious observation, the question is how? What exactly should you be doing in order to achieve your goal?