Blunderproof

The library

The coach picks from these rooms for Today. Come here when you already know what you want to work on.

  1. Reading room of the National Library, Reykjavik, 1968

    Openings

    28 courses · 416 lines

    Learn each line with the reason for every move, recall it from memory, play it on the clock, then hold on when the opponent leaves the book.

  2. Max Euwe studying at the chessboard, 1946

    Your mistakes

    From your own games

    Positions where your games went wrong come back as tests. Solve one clean, and it comes back later to prove it stuck.

  3. Fencing bout at the Dutch student championships, 1966

    Puzzles

    35 sets

    Tactics by motif, or puzzles that grow out of the openings you play. The difficulty follows how you do.

  4. Spassky resuming an adjourned game against Radulov, Amsterdam 1973

    Endgames

    15 drills in 3 courses

    The mates and endings that decide games. The method first, step by step, then proving it against a defender who fights back.

  5. No 11 Fighter Group's operations room, Uxbridge, 1943

    Positions

    40 positions

    One quiet move to find, the alternatives priced, and the continuation that shows why it was the move.

  6. Programmers operating ENIAC, c. 1946

    Engine ideas

    51 drills

    Positions where the move most club players reach for and the move Stockfish wants are two different plans.

  7. Samuel Reshevsky giving a simultaneous exhibition, 1920

    Classic games

    10 annotated games

    Replay the classics with notes where they matter, and stop to find the move before it is shown.

  8. WRNS chart room during the Second World War

    Blindfold

    3 steps and practice games

    Learn the board well enough to see it with your eyes shut: square colours, knight routes, then whole games without looking.