21 Days To Supercharge Your Chess by Yury Markushin

I recently bought the training program 21 Days To Supercharge Your Chess by Yury Markushin.

https://www.thechessworld.com/supercharge/

Both me and my son are spending approximately 1 hour each day to go through the book and their web site for theoretical and practical sessions. The recommended allocation of time is -

• Reading the theory = 10 minutes
• Studying masters’ games/ Working on the attacking chess = 20 minutes
• Solving tactics = 20 minutes
• Endgame clinic = 10 minutes

In Day 3, I learnt how to analyze a position. I knew each of those separately but its nice to get it in a bullet point together.

1. Material on the board
2. Presence of Threats
3. Position of the Kings
4. Presence of open files and diagonals
5. Pawn structure, weak and strong squares
6. Center and space
7. Development and Pieces Activity

In Day 9, I learnt how to analyze a chess game.

Opening: Develop Your Pieces

• Was it a home preparation line or you had to diverge from it?
• What other variations of that opening line you have previously played?
• Did the opening lead to the type of position you want to achieve?
• Did you obtain any positional/material advantage out of that opening?
• Overall, whose position was better after the opening?
• Write down the problems you might have faced in the opening (Development of pieces, Space, King safety, Pawn structure etc)

Middlegame: Realize A Plan

• Formulate a plan (Minority attack on the queenside, Taking control of the center, Preparing attack on opponent’s castled king etc)
• What are the tactical and positional possibilities in the position?

Endgame: Count Every Advantage

• Prepare an endgame plan (winning or drawing) to make every little advantage count

Day 13 teaches to always evaluate the most forcing continuations first in complex situations when a lot of calculations need to be done.The order should be checks, then captures and then threats and this will help reducing the number of variations to caculate.