In this review I will be talking about How to Beat Titled Players video course by GM Igor Smyrnov.
He claims that to beat stronger players (300 points higher than yourself) ‘you need to have special knowledge which is not presented in the chess books’ and also ‘some unique skills’ that only strong players possess and won’t tell you.
What’s going on here? Let’s take a closer look.
After becoming familiar with How to Beat Titled Players course I noticed that its shares similar ideas with my article How to Beat a Stronger Opponent at Chess. It’s more detailed and obviously more advanced, but it has the same main point that a weaker player is capable of beating a stronger opponent by using, what GM Smyrnov calls the ‘special weapons’.
The course is composed of 6 video lessons in which GM Smyrnov doesn’t waste your time with long introductions and examples. He goes straight to the point and talks about the things you need to know about winning chess games against stronger players. Some people would get surprised since the duration of the lectures is only about 2 hours. But, as we all know, more is not always better. We all want to improve our chess and increase our ELO in the shortest amount of time possible. If something can be taught in 2 hours it’s absolutely not necessary to spend 20 or 200 hours on it.
This course would suit all sort of chess players from beginners (1300 ELO) to masters (2200 ELO) and beyond. Stronger players would learn the information provided in the course faster due to their greater experience, while beginners might need to go through the course couple of times.
Lesson 1: The Key to Victory
Lesson 2: The First Weapon
Lesson 3 The Second Weapon
Lesson 4: The Third Weapon
Lesson 5: The Fourth Weapon
Lesson 6: The Fifth Weapon
After studying the video lessons and going through all 100 practical positions that accompany the course you will learn how to play against stronger opponents and increase your general chess strength (aka ELO). GM Smyrnov does a good job showing on concrete examples when and how his technique can be used in real games. He also gives you the detailed instructions on what and how you should train.
Main interface view after you open the program (which is about 70 Mb)
The presentation looks much like a power point with a sound and occasional transitions to this:
Chess board appears when needed
Overall the course is of high quality and I recommend it to anyone who wish for fast improvement in chess.
Note: this is an affiliate link, meaning that I will get a small commission when you make a purchase. I have used this course myself and solely recommend it to my readers because of it’s quality and not because of any profits I may get.
Arny34, the course can be used on mac, not inherently but by using a windows emulator software. The support for iOS will be added soon.
Kamishar, yes the course isn’t cheap, but as Gm Smyrnov stated it, it worth much more since it’s a really effective program. Also it comes with a full [b]money back 30 days guarantee[/b]. You have nothing to lose… just to gain rating points 🙄
69$ is really expensive! is there any discounts .. like 75% off for New Years?
Can it be used on Ipad, Iphone, Mac platforms?