A few days ago, I shared with you the story of my friend and student, Ram S. Krishnan. If you missed it, you can read it here. It’s not the end of the story though. We need to approach the ‘happy end’ and draw some useful conclusions from it. Then you’ll be able to apply it in your chess battles.
In the previous article, we ‘left Ram in stagnation’. No matter how hard he trained – it didn’t work. By the way, he is an active follower of RCA and studied all my chess courses. Although he managed to win some nice games, his results remained unstable. Consequently, his rating kept decreasing…
When I came to India, Ram volunteered to be my translator during the seminars. Not all the local chess players could understand English and so we needed a translator (into a local language – Tamil).
When I came to India, Ram volunteered to be my translator during the seminars. Not all the local chess players could understand English and so we needed a translator (into a local language – Tamil).
While performing this translation activity and communicating with me, Ram repeated the fundamental chess rules. He knew them already, but happened to repeat them once again.
Guess what happened? After a few days, Ram called me. I could barely recognize him through his excited tone: he had just lifted a trophy in the local tournament, winning almost all of his games! 
Ram is second from the right
Why did this happen? Of course, he learnt some new ideas during my seminars. However, I think that was not the main reason. Primarily, he REALLY digested chess fundamentals.
There have been some interesting research studies carried out. They discovered that a person digests around 20% of new information. For example, if you read a book – you’ll remember about 20% of its ideas. If you watch a video chess lesson – in fact, you’ll learn only 20% of its rules.
As you can see, it’s not that easy to learn new things. Moreover, it takes a lot of effort to convert this new information to an automated skill. Most chess players out there hope to find a ‘powerful opening’ or ‘GM’s techniques’ or other kinds of ‘magic pills’. You may join this horde of gold seekers.
As you can see, it’s not that easy to learn new things. Moreover, it takes a lot of effort to convert this new information to an automated skill. Most chess players out there hope to find a ‘powerful opening’ or ‘GM’s techniques’ or other kinds of ‘magic pills’. You may join this horde of gold seekers.
Alternatively, you may take a more solid approach. Reduce the quantity of chess information you learn, leaving only the most important knowledge. And then put in some training to acquire and automate these skills. It DOES work. It has worked very recently for Ram and will work just as well for you.
Now you may test your skills in an interesting position from Ram’s ‘tournament of glory’.
Ram – Rakshith
White to move
How would you play here as White? As usual, you should not simply identify a single move. Instead, calculate all lines and come to a final conclusion. Then you are welcome to check the actual game.
NOTE: I suggest that you go through this whole game (not just the final position). It contains useful annotations that will help you learn some new chess rules.
Check the annotated game here: LINK
P.S. Don’t forget to purchase my seminars to learn the most important knowledge. You can buy the course by clicking here.
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