Junior coaching ... keep it simple !
By Phil Adams (3Cs' chief coach)
His ability as a chess coach ? Â Just look at 3Cs' records !!!
14 January 2026
CHESS ON THE WEB
You can keep up with events in the chess world by regularly checking out these chess news websites:
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TWIC is an invaluable resource for all strong or ambitious players. Every Monday night or Tuesday morning Mark Crowther provides a FREE file in PGN or CBV format of all the available tournament games played in the previous week !
There is also a website focusing on chess, technology and IT: https://www.chesstech.org
Click on the approprite link above to access the desired website
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WHAT'S NEW IN CHESS
Junior news from the ECF: https://www.chess.com/blog/timpeterwall/english-junior calendar-for-2026-events-qualifiers
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The young Austrian GM Felix Blohberger is very active on YouTube and his material is generally very instructive, although some of it is quite advanced: https://www.youtube.com/@febloh/videos
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GM Rafael Leitão presents his choice of the best games of 2025: https://www.chess.com/article/view/top-ten-chess-games-2025
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ChessEnigma Academy is a relatively new presence on YouTube, with several titled players as analyst and presenters. Their paid courses are expensive but there are a lot of free sample videos that are instructive: https://www.youtube.com/@ChessEnigma_Academy
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For instance, 3Cs players who like the Caro-Kann will probably find this video by GM Miguel Santos interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQEhfmm5HVw
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An instructive article by WGM Tijana Mandura, explaining some commonly reached pawn structures: https://www.chess.com/blog/WGMTijana/the-middlegame-isnt-chaos-you-just-need-better ideas
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Here the English GM and former candidate Jonathan Speelman shows some examples of what he calls “creeping moves, minor adjustments to the position which have a disproportionately big impact on the evaluation: https://en.chessbase.com/post/speelman-agony-235
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GM Mauricio Flores Rios, author of the highly acclaimed book Chess Structures: A Grandmaster Guide, now writes very instructive articles for chess.com https://www.chess.com/member/mauricioflores Just scroll down the linked page to find the list of his articles. He also has some instructive videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MauricioFloresGM/videos
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As well as having written some excellent courses for Chessable, Latvian Champion GM Arturs Neiksans has a lot of free instructive content on YouTube. I can particularly recommend his commentaries to his own standard and rapid games: https://www.youtube.com/@GMNeiksans/videos He also writes instructive articles for chess.com; here’s his latest: https://www.chess.com/article/view/strategies-for-a-must-win-chess-game
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GM Karsten Müller is a great expert on the endgame and frequently explains interesting and instructive endgames at the Chessbase website. Here’s his final article of the year in which he selects his personal selection of the best endgames of the year: https://en.chessbase.com/post/best-endgames-2025# And here’s a complete list of all Müller’s endgame articles available at the Chessbase website; you can learn something useful from every one of these! https://en.chessbase.com/tagged?tag=Endgame
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REMINDERS
Learning how to improve at chess need not cost a lot of money. As well as the traditional way – using good books, both ancient and modern - there is now a huge amount of chess information available for free online. This ranges from very instructive articles by strong players to YouTube videos posted by enthusiastic but fairly weak amateurs. From time to time it's good to check out interesting items that have been 'bookmarked', but perhaps not followed up. That's why some time ago I introduced this section to the newsletter.
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Many players suffer from poor time management during their games. Here are some suggestions for making the chess clock your ally, instead of your enemy: https://www.chess.com/blog/smarterchess2/the-smarter-chess-top-12-challenges-11-the clock-is-a-resource-not-an-enemy
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GM Daniel King is excellent at choosing interesting games and explaining them at his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/powerplaychess
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There are many instructive games and chess topics covered by Danish GM Sune Berg Hansen at his YouTube site. In particular if you play for or against the Caro-Kann Defence there are lots of ideas discussed here: https://www.youtube.com/@GMTalks/search?query=Caro And here he shows a line which might refute the ancient Ponziani Opening, which has recently been given a new lease of life online, where it has been recommended by some popular YouTubers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdT9ycCcPZ0
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GM Greg Serper looks at the surprisingly good endgame skills of 10-year-old WIM Bodhana Sivanandan: https://www.chess.com/article/view/the-girl-who-knows-endgames And here he explains why he thinks that studying short games (aka ‘miniatures’) is beneficial for their instructive value: https://www.chess.com/article/view/why-you-should-study-short-games
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This YouTube channel can be recommended: https://www.youtube.com/@chesswisdom/videos The presenter talks us through a large collection of classic games, based on the widely accepted idea that “classic games are much more instructive than the modern ones, as it is much easier to follow the strategic plans and their gradual implementation”.
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The team of masters and grandmasters at Modern Chess produce detailed courses that are mainly suited for fairly high-rated players. https://www.modern-chess.com/ But recently, as well as interviews with strong players they have started posting some samples at their new YouTube channel and these are quite instructive in their own right! https://www.youtube.com/@modernchess2908/videos
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At his website the Swiss trainer GM Noël Studer offers a lot of free practical advice for players who are trying to improve at chess: https://nextlevelchess.com/articles/ Studer has now also started posting short advice videos at https://www.youtube.com/@GMnoelstuder
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GM Greg Serper introduces a useful concept when thinking about which opening variations are worth studying: POH – “probability of happening”. This is a very useful concept! It’s possible to waste a lot of time, energy and money studying opening lines that you are only very rarely going to see on the board in front of you! https://www.chess.com/article/view/the-most-dangerous-gambit
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This video by IM Alex Astaneh Lopez complements the Serper article above: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_spruzp7tw
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There is a lot of interesting and instructive free content at https://chessmood.com/ Of course, this is offered in the hope that you will sign up for one of their paid courses, but nevertheless the free material at the site is well worth exploring, for example here's how they suggest dealing with a range of dangerous black gambits against 1 e4: https://chessmood.com/courses/#the-refutations-of-abracadabra-gambits
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For already strong or ambitious players, a useful sources for keeping up to date with the latest developments in your favourite openings is https://www.chesspublishing.com You have to subscribe (to one or more sections) to be able to read or download the detailed annotations, but the free-access pages can be useful in their own right, for pointing you towards the most important recent games in each opening, which you can usually find at TWIC or in an online database and then download for study. There is also a “forum” (at https://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/chess/YaBB.pl ) where you can ask questions and discuss openings and other chess topics.
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This site https://www.openingtree.com/ can help you research the online games of future opponents.
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*** Chessable are still offering a FREE course in basic endgames. *** https://www.chessable.com/basic-endgames/course/6371/
N.B. You will need to turn off your VPN to access Chessable.​​​​​​
Some suggestions for self-preparation
The Covid health crisis gave many chess players more free time to practice their skills, yet, although the pandemic has largely abated, such self-assessment and training is still required in order to maintain a level of play in readiness for when regular competitive matches restart.
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Hence, the following are some suggestions to prepare for such occasions ...
1: Learn or revise basic endgames from books such as Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual, How to Play Chess Endgames by Müeller & Lamprecht or 100 Endgames You Must Know by De La Villa. The work you put in now, learning and practising basic endgames, will be useful to you for as long as you want to keep playing chess and (unlike openings) it will never go out of date!
2: Play through practical endgames, using books such as Endgame Strategy by Shereshevsky, How to Play Chess Endgames by Müeller & Payeken or the excellent books by Glenn Flear or John Nunn.
3: Play through as many of the great games of the past as you can, collected in books such as The Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Chess Games.
4: Learn and practise some strong main-line (or at least “respectable” secondary) openings and defences.
5: For relaxation as well as practice:
a) play some on-line blitz at 3’+2” or 5’+3”, but use these games mainly to practise your openings – save each game in PGN as you go along and look at them again later, especially in respect of the opening;
b) solve puzzles or endgame studies e.g. at chess.com, maybe using “puzzle-rush”.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
“I see way too many players on all levels spend way too much time on openings. The game is usually not decided in the opening stage of the game!”
GM and trainer Noel Studer.
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“In order to improve your play you must study the endgame before anything else.”
José Raúl Capablanca, World Chess Champion 1921-27.
3Cs' head coach Phil Adams providing valuable instruction to 8 year old Zayeem Alam as well as his dad Shahed who also plays for the club ..... we shall refrain from discussing which one of them is in more need of Phil's coaching !
How do you learn tactical patterns?
My first and absolute top recommendation would be to read these two books one after the other (available from the 3Cs' library):
1) "How to beat your dad at chess" teaches you all the most important checkmating patterns.
2) "Chess tactics for kids" teaches you all the most important chess tactics patterns....
.......and then read them again!
3Cs often ask other people to assist with coaching at the club so as to gain different points of view. This photo shows FIDE Master Alex Longson (grey top near the door), himself a product of the 3Cs' coaching system and a former England junior international, who has taken charge of many of the club's coaching sessions. Alex also organises the Delancey UK Chess Challenge along with his wife Sarah who also assists at the club.
A suggested thinking routine after your opponent has moved ...
1: Write the move down.
2: Check it is a legal move (Some people may try to cheat or bluff you).
3: Is there a threat ?
4: Can I ignore the threat ?
5: What are all my options ?
6: What seems to be my best option ?
7: Give your proposed move a final "blunder check" before touching the piece.
Ideas by 3Cs' senior coach Phil Adams on how to specifically make new young players feel welcome at a chess club as wel as tips on coaching methods for them and which can be downloaded via this link....
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Although the attached notes were written several years ago (ie: ask your parents if you don't understand what Phil means by a "VHS tape" !!!), the ideas are still very much relevant and have proven to be very successful at 3Cs for generations of young players at the club.
Learn these simple rules ...
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a: Â Often the best moves do TWO good things; most notably the double attack (eg: a fork)
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b: Â Always look at the forcing moves
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c: Â f2 and f7 are the weakest points in the first part of the game
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d: Â In the opening, don't move the same piece twice without a good reason
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e: Â When ahead on material, exchange pieces not pawns
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f: Â When losing on material, exchange pawns not pieces
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g: Â With the safer king, keep the queens on
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h: Â When under attack, try to exchange queens
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i: Â When attacking, invite everyone to the party
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j: Every pawn move creates a weakness.
(ie: Don't move a pawn when stuck for a move - try to improve your worst piece instead)
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k: Chess is two-way traffic - always look at what the opponent is trying to do
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