Pawn Play

Anyone have feedback on IM Grefe's course "Pawn Play" ?

He'd love to hear it!

Thanks :)

It's a good course, and I am learning alot about the ideas with pawns in that course, but it's a little hard for me (mainly because my rating is 200 points lower than the rating of the questions).

hard to solve them on your own; or hard to understand after reading his explanations? (thanks for the feedback!)

I checked out the first three lessons after seeing it highlighted on the main chess mentor page.  I haven't done much chess mentor, but it's one of the most fun courses I've come across.  All three of the games were exciting choices and showcased a distinct pawn theme.  So I like it!  It has spirit like pawns have soul.

The only thing to critique is some of the notation could be confusing.  A move most might call Nxd4 will be written in the course as Nd4 and some of the numbers could be misleading, but it only took me a second to figure out what it meant:

thanks :)

I'll try when I have time, too much school work now!

% complete: 95.24%

Avg. score: 86.35%

What is the % complete? I have done all lessons

i dont know?!?

no problem

oooops, when i edited it, i thought i remembered that being clear! thanks!

My pawn play sucks and I really need to understand how to play with them. Grefe's lessons are good but maybe little bit advanced to me. Hope you'll make more pawn lessons. Also for complete patzers like me :) Methinks most of us lower ranked players have serious trouble to understand how to play pawns correctly.

Hi David!

Please let IM Grefe know how much I liked his course, and I am eagerly looking forward to more. E.G. pawn blockades...how to break up the different formations, how to set up a fortress etc. For example, I am wondering how black should handle the "minority attack" in the Queen's Gambit Declined. It is my understanding from Daniel Rensch's video, that black's three options were not good.

Also, please let GM Bojkov know how helpful I found his Bishop vs. Knight course and I am looking forward to Part 2, as well as examples where the knight prevails.

I am so pleased with all of the Chess Mentor courses. I feel that they are really helping me understand chess better. In fact, I recommend it to anyone I know interested in expanding their chess horizons.

Incidentally, I was recently reading Howard Staunton's classic "The Chess Player's Handbook", and I was struck by his comments about the King's Bishop. He states "When the game is opened by each party with King's Pawn to King's 4th square, the King's Bishop is somewhat superior to the Queen's because it can be sooner brought into play, and may be made to bear immediately on the King's weak point, his Bishop's pawn. It is desirable therefore generally to exchange your Queen's Bishop or Queen's Knight for the adversary's King's Bishop. The King's bishop should rarely or never be played to the Queen's 3rd square before the Queen's pawn is moved." I am wondering if either you or GM Bojkov has a comment on exchanging the Queen's Bishop or Knight for the opposition's King's Bishop in a King's pawn opening. I am confused because I am relatively new to chess and have only heard/read that one's inactive pieces should be exchanged for your opponent's active ones.

Much obliged to you and all the staff at Chess.com.

Tanya

hi Tanya,

that comment from Staunton sounds like nonsense. The notion you put forward, to exchange the opponent's active pieces sounds a lot sounder to me, as a principle to play by. i don't think anyone in Staunton's time was very strong, so i don't think there is likely to be great value in his text for a player over 1500... that said, i haven't read it.

-David

Thanks for your input David to my query.

you are correct, that should be an "alternate correct move." thanks for finding it, and sorry for not finding it first!

     Hello Kacparov!  If I am not mistaken, the % complete indicates your score for the lessons.  Since you have completed all lessons, try to go back to the lessons you did not score 100% on.  If you do them again, and score 100% on them, I believe that this will reflect in the % complete score.  Once you have done all of the lessons (and completed them with 100% score on each one), the % complete should read 100. 

Hi David!

I really enjoyed GM Bojkov's new Knight vs. Bishop course. I have a question concerning lesson #3, Barrier, however. What happens if on the 3rd move the opponent's king takes my knight? When I use the computer option to finish the lesson, I keep losing when the opponent's king takes the bishop. The comments in the lesson do not address this. Can you help me please?

you push a3-a2-a1 and get a new queen. if i'm understanding correctly what position you are asking about.