Jeremy's Chess Ascent · The Training Workbook
Thirty sharper exercises for the climb from 1600 to 1800. Book Two.
Written for you, and with you, by Dad.
A letter before we begin
Jeremy,
You have worked Book One, and it shows. This is the next thousand feet of the climb, the 1600 to 1800 stretch, and I have made it harder on purpose. The tactics now run two and three moves deep, and some of them are traps: a capture that looks free but loses to an in-between check. The openings go past the first plan into the exact middlegame each one is really steering toward. And the endings are the ones a real player must simply know: the bridge, the third-rank defence, the right square for a rook.
The habits do not change, though. Board first. Say it aloud. Then check, and score yourself honestly. What changes is the depth of your looking. At this level a move is not enough; you must calculate to the end of the line, past the obvious capture, all the way to the quiet position, and only then judge it. That is the whole difference between 1600 and 1800: not knowing more, but seeing further.
I built every tactic in here against a chess engine, so when a puzzle says a move wins or loses, it truly does. Trust the book, and let it teach your eyes to go one move deeper than they want to.
See further than the first capture. That is the whole climb.
Dad
How to train with this book
Work every exercise the same way as Book One, but calculate further before you commit to an answer.
Set the position up on a real board before you read the question twice.
Do not stop at the first capture or check. Follow the forcing line to its end, then judge the position that remains.
Give the whole line and the verdict in full sentences, as if teaching me.
Open the Coach Key, compare, and give yourself a fair mark out of three.
| Score | What it means |
|---|---|
| 0 | No usable idea. |
| 1 | The right feeling, but the calculation or reason was wrong. |
| 2 | The correct idea and move, clearly stated. |
| 3 | The correct idea plus the full line calculated to the end. |
Each unit is out of 18. Aim for 70%, but the real gate is the same as always: three scores of 70% or more on three different days, plus evidence from your own serious games. And come back to each unit three weeks later and do it again from memory.
Seeing one move further than you want to is uncomfortable, and that discomfort is exactly where you grow. The mind, like the body, only gets stronger at the edge of what it can already do.
“Let us press on to maturity.” Not staying safe at what you have mastered, but pressing one step past it, again and again, is how a boy becomes a master of anything.
Hebrews 6:1
The exercises
Board first. Calculate to the quiet position. Then score yourself honestly against the Coach Key. Whose move it is appears under every diagram.
Two-move and three-move shots, and the traps that refute a natural-looking grab. Calculate to the checks, not just the captures.
1You are White in an Italian-style game. Black keeps the pin with 5...Bh5. Find the combination, and calculate the greedy reply.
Your answer, move or calculation
2You are Black in the Cambridge Springs (a QGD line with ...Qa5 and ...Bb4). White has just recaptured the pawn with 10.Nxc4. Win a piece.
Your answer, move or calculation
3You are White in the Queen's Gambit. You can win the d5-pawn with Nxd5. Calculate carefully: should you take it?
Your answer, move or calculation
4White to move. Deliver Philidor's Legacy: a forced smothered mate. Find all five moves.
Your answer, move or calculation
5You are Black in the Advance French, and the d4-pawn looks winnable with ...Nxd4. Calculate to the end. Is it safe here?
Your answer, move or calculation
6White to move. A knight leap near the castled king wins the day. Find the family fork.
Your answer, move or calculation
Past the first plan. The critical move-orders and the exact middlegame each of your six openings is really steering toward.
7You are White in the Giuoco Pianissimo, pieces fully mobilised (the knight has re-routed Nbd2-f1-g3). Name the break you have prepared, and the two conditions that make it strong.
Your answer, move or calculation
8You are Black in the Advance French. You have routed a knight to f5 to hit d4, and ...f6 is coming. When do you play the ...f6 break, and what does it achieve?
Your answer, move or calculation
9You are Black in the Classical Caro-Kann. You have traded the light bishops and offered a queen trade with ...Qd5. Why is Black so comfortable heading into the endgame, and the one thing to watch?
Your answer, move or calculation
10You are White in the Carlsbad (Exchange Queen's Gambit). Lay out the minority attack move by move, and say exactly what weakness you are trying to create.
Your answer, move or calculation
11You are Black in the QGD and have played the Lasker Defence with ...h6 and ...Ne4. Explain the idea, and the simplification you are inviting.
Your answer, move or calculation
12You are Black in the Accepted. White has just tried to break the tension with d5. How do you meet it, and what is your rule against White's isolated pawn when d4 stays put?
Your answer, move or calculation
The pawn skeletons in full: whose plan is faster, which pieces belong where, and the break that decides.
13Carlsbad structure, and Black has played ...a5 to restrain your b4. As White, how do you keep the minority attack alive, and what is the ideal end picture?
Your answer, move or calculation
14Same Carlsbad, but you are Black, defending. White is set for b4-b5. Name your three-part counter-plan and where your play must come.
Your answer, move or calculation
15You have the isolated queen's pawn on d5. Set out the OWNER's plan: which squares your pieces want, and the break you are always looking for.
Your answer, move or calculation
16Black has hanging pawns on c-file... in fact here White faces Black's c7/d5 duo potential. Explain, as the side WITHOUT the hanging pawns, how you fight them, and when they are strong.
Your answer, move or calculation
17Advance French pawn chain, both sides fully engaged. State the golden rule of pawn chains, and which end you strike here, and why.
Your answer, move or calculation
18Advance Caro-Kann. Your light-squared bishop stands free outside the chain on f5, while White's is hemmed by his own e5 and d4 pawns. Explain the good-bishop-versus-bad-bishop battle and how you nurse the edge.
Your answer, move or calculation
Choosing under pressure: candidate moves, the soundness of a sacrifice, prophylaxis, and when to simplify.
19You are White; Black has just struck with ...d5 in the centre. Give three candidate moves of different character and choose, explaining the principle.
Your answer, move or calculation
20You are White in a Colle/Queen's-Gambit-style middlegame. Black has no knight on f6 to guard h7. Calculate the classic bishop sacrifice: is Bxh7+ sound here?
Your answer, move or calculation
21You are White in the QGD. Black has just played ...Nd5, offering trades to free his game. What is Black's idea, and what is the prophylactic reply?
Your answer, move or calculation
22You are Black; you have just grabbed on d4. Judge the position: what did you give and get, and is the pawn worth the exchange White may pursue?
Your answer, move or calculation
23White to move and hold. Black's queen is menacing, but the position is a fortress if you find the right idea. What is the defensive principle here?
Your answer, move or calculation
24You are Black in a Queen's Gambit Accepted endgame; the queens are already off. When is trading into an endgame the right decision, and how do you judge this one?
Your answer, move or calculation
The won and drawn endings a strong player must convert on demand: the bridge, the third-rank defence, the right rook.
25White to win: the Lucena position (rook and pawn versus rook, pawn on the seventh). Describe the winning method, 'building a bridge'.
Your answer, move or calculation
26Rook and pawn versus rook, but the defending king is in front of the pawn. Describe the Philidor third-rank defence that draws.
Your answer, move or calculation
27Passed pawns and rooks. State Tarrasch's rule and apply it: where does the rook belong relative to a passed pawn?
Your answer, move or calculation
28Opposite-coloured bishops with an extra pawn for one side. What is the crucial drawing (or winning) principle here?
Your answer, move or calculation
29Knight versus bishop (here you have the knight). When is the knight the better minor piece, and when is the bishop? State the rule of thumb.
Your answer, move or calculation
30A pawn endgame idea, no pieces. Explain the principle of two weaknesses and the outside passed pawn, the engine of endgame wins.
Your answer, move or calculation
Unit 06 · Track the climb
Score each unit the day you do it, and again three weeks later.
| Unit | First date | Score /18 | Retest date | Score /18 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 · Sharper Combinations | ||||
| 2 · Deeper into Your Openings | ||||
| 3 · Structures and Plans | ||||
| 4 · Calculation and Judgement | ||||
| 5 · Endgame Technique |
| Book | Why, for you, now |
|---|---|
| Build Up Your Chess 1 · Yusupov | The best structured course for exactly this band. Work it slowly, one lesson at a time, and take the tests. |
| 100 Endgames You Must Know · de la Villa | The essential technical endings, including every one in Unit 5. Learn the method, not the move. |
| The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played · Chernev | Model games explained in words, to grow your planning and your feel for structures. |
| Chess Structures · Rios | Dip into the chapters on the structures your openings produce: the Carlsbad, the isolani, the French chain. |
A word before you close the book
Son, if you take one thing from this whole book, take this: the difference between where you were and where you are going is a single move of extra sight. The player rated 1800 is not cleverer than the player rated 1600; he simply refuses to stop calculating at the move that looks good, and checks the reply, and the reply to that, until the line goes quiet. That is a habit, not a gift, and habits are built by exactly the work you have just done here.
So keep looking one move deeper than is comfortable, in chess and in everything. The lazy glance sees the free pawn; the trained eye sees the check that wins it back. Grow the trained eye, and it will serve you at a chessboard, in an exam, in a decision, for the rest of your life.
I am proud of the work you are putting in where no one can see it. Onward, to the next thousand feet.
Dad