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I'm joining the International Chess School

I payed for my first month over at International Chess School. They have a 13-month course which looks interesting. Each month you get new study material which includes theory, annotated games, and various tests with annotated solutions.

The first nine months the focus is on developing basic positional understanding. The final four months are almost exclusively focused on calculation/analysis (see schedule below).

If you are interested in doing this course with me, then come on over and join the International Chess School Forum. I realize it will likely just be me there posting my thoughts/analysis of the different articles, problems, and such in the forum pages. It took me way too long to organize the forum categories and such. Egads.

For those thinking of becoming chess bloggers, ICS would be a great vehicle for starting a blog: track your progress through ICS on your blog (Chess? has already been doing this and pretty much inspired this new project).

Note the forum I created is brand new, and I'm just getting the hang of how to administer the thing. I plan to start a new month every thirty days, so right now only the material from the first month has a subforum devoted to it.

Here is their study plan:
Month//Subject
1//Think Like a Strong Player
2//Watch the 2 Centers
3-4//Master the Piece Play
5-6//Master the Pawn Play
7-8//Pawn Structures Explained
9//Advanced Fighting Strategies
10-13//The Art of a Master: Analysis

The course is not cheap (it's $24/month). That's the major limitation.

Note the material isn't super polished, and the language is sort of stilted and strange (in that characteristically Eastern European way). You can get free sample material from the first month here. So far, I can understand what they are saying and I'm happy with most of the material.

Comments


  • 6 Months Ago

    traveler2

    Is anyone still enrolled? I'm considering it as well and would appreciate thoughts from those of you who've had some time to work with the material. 

  • 10 Months Ago

    Chemwong

    Hey, it is $34/month now, +$5 for opening module

  • 18 Months Ago

    Conflagration_Planet

    I'm not.

  • 3 Years Ago

    Kjaye

    Hey Blue Devil Knight, it's Bilbo here, I joined your forum a couple weeks ago!

    Cool idea to start a blog I'll keep up to date on your progress.

    I'm absolutely loving the material so far I feel like I am getting so much out of it. The college study style approach appeals to me and having a set amount to get through each month keeps me focused.

    I've decided however to make it a two year course now as there is simply no way I could retain all the information they provide in a single month and fully understand it.

    My plan is to get to month 4 and then see if I can postpone payments for the summer and resume in the autumn as I cannot see myself keeping up. I'm already a month behind and I've only been a member for two months!

    I own over a hundred books and I can honestly say their material is better, in terms of practical application than any books I have.

     

    The only thing I've been disappointed with so far is the Opening Reportoire Module. I've not really had time to look at it but they seem to be giving us the information in a very haphazard way. I wonder if I would have been better for opening study just to work through John Watson Mastering the Openings 3 volume series which is excellent.

     

    I'll still keep subscribing to it though as I imagine in the fullness of time it will build into a very comprehensive reportoire and unique to ICS so not known to my opponents. The openings and lines they choose at least seem to be very good.

    I've just got the tests to finish for month 1 now and then next week I will be ready to start Month 2!

  • 3 Years Ago

    BlueDevilKnight

    Loomis. Yes, the hiatus is over for now. Laughing

  • 3 Years Ago

    Loomis

    This seems to indicate a change in the chess hiatus plans. I'll be interested to see your progress as usual.

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