Master Class with GM Swapnil Dhopade
On 10th of November GM Swapnil Dhopade was in the ChessBase India studio in Mumbai. Along with IM Sagar Shah, the host of the show, he recorded a 34 minute video filled with instructional material of highest quality. The idea was to teach the viewers about how to handle initiative in chess. In this article we show you the best way in which you can use the video for your chess improvement and pose you with additional two positions which are sure to give you a hard time!
The annoying thing that every Indian chess player has to face every time he wishes to go outside India is the process of applying for the visa. Earlier you could just give your documents to your travel agents and they would do all of the work for you. However, recently in order to get your Schengen (European) Visa, you need to go to the Visa application centre and give your biometrics. This includes giving your fingerprints.
The sad news for the player travelling is that he has to spend time coming to Mumbai (or some other Metro city) for this work. The good news for chess fans is that he comes to the ChessBase India studio where he is able to record a video for all our viewers.
This is what happened on the 10th of November 2016. GM Swapnil Dhopade travelled down from Amravati to Mumbai for his work in the Spanish Embassy. He reached Mumbai at 7.30 a.m. and he had to leave for the Embassy at 9.30 a.m. This gave us two hours and we made sure to create some high quality content that would be of great use to all the readers.
Initiative in chess
We discussed a lot of topics which Swapnil could make a video on. There was his humungous opening knowledge, especially with 1.d4 and the Caro Kann. There was also his excellent positional technique of converting advantages in the best possible manner. Finally we decided to go for a theme which is not at all easy for a student to understand - Initiative in chess. The main problem with Initiative is that it is ephemeral in nature. If you don't do something now, then it can just wither away. In such a situation you not only need an excellent feel of the dynamics in the position, but also an highly evolved intuition which tells you that this is the right moment to switch on the "high alert" mode.
How to work with this article?
We could have just put up the video here and you could have heard Swapnil speak. This in itself would be enough to give you some excellent knowledge of how to work with initiative in your games. However, the better way would definitely be to set up the positions given below and think on them for ten minutes each. Make sure you go in chronological order.
Ten minutes each
Position 1
Position 3
Swapnil went to the embassy at 9.30 a.m. However, the Spanish embassy has a new rule that the invitation from the organizers must be sent in Spanish and not in English (an important information for all of you applying for your schengen visa). It meant that Swapnil had to come back home and we began our chess session again. We solved two positions together and I ask you to have a crack at it.
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