For which level of players is the Vishy Anand camp aimed at?
Vishy Anand will be having a training workshop at the PYC Gymkhana, Pune from 9.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. on the 16th and 17th of February. Anand will be joined by India no.3 Vidit Gujrathi as a co-trainer. This is your unique chance to learn from two of the greatest chess players that our country has ever seen. A common question that we have been receiving is - for which rating level of players is this camp useful. In this article IM Sagar Shah tries to explain how the camp would be useful to just about any ambitious player with the help of his favourite Vishy Anand game - Ivanchuk vs Anand, Linares 1992.
We told our readers about the Vishy Anand camp in Pune on the 16th and 17th of February 2019. A lot of people enrolled for the camp, and a lot of them had questions on their mind. The most common question that we received was - what is the level of the camp? For which rating level of players is this camp aimed at?
Well, let me try to explain this with the help of my favourite Vishy Anand game. Although Anand has played some lovely games in his chess career and we made a nice recap of it on his 49th birthday, the game which stands out in my memory is his victory over Vassily Ivanchuk from Linares 1992. Let's go over the game without any annotations:
Once you have played through the moves, you realize that there were three key moments of the game:
Now I know exactly why Vishy made each of these moves. He played gxf6, h5 and Bc4 all with a concrete reason to get a grip around the light squares on the kingside. Let's imagine that I am attending the camp and Anand decides to show this very game. A few years ago, when I was a young boy, I would have been pretty upset about the fact that I am being shown something that I already knew. But spending my time in the chess world, interviewing the top players and also analyzing games on a regular basis, I have realized that the mistakes we make in chess are often very basic and the things that we often miss are the things that we already know. The reason is that knowing something on the surface is not enough. You have to know them at a deeper level. So deep that intuitively you are able to reproduce it over the board. This is precisely the reason why I would love going over this game again with Anand's explanations. It will add depth to my understanding of these positions that I already know. Especially because I will get to know from the player himself as to why he made certain decisions. But more than that it gives me a chance to consolidate my knowledge. One more point which should be mentioned is that Anand never takes such assignments lightly and prepares for such camps very seriously so that he can add value to the time and money that each of the player is spending.
That's the reason why I feel that this camp is useful for players of all levels from 1000 to 2400. All of them can surely learn something from this at their own level. Take another example: Anand is going to speak about classics and the great champions whose games he studied to become a better player. The advice that is given by Anand, if implemented in the right way can help any budding youngster. So essentially what you would learn in the camp is not just chess knowledge that will be taught by Anand, but you will take back home ideas and techniques that have to be integrated into your daily training schedule. If you can achieve that, you should see that you will improve as a player.
Entry Fee:
The entry fee for this 12-hour workshop is Rs.8,000 + 18% GST, which comes to Rs.9440. However, if you book more than one ticket, then you get good discounts. Here's how the discount slabs work:
1 ticket: Rs.8000 + GST = Rs.9440
2 or 3 tickets: Rs.7500 + GST = Rs. 8850 per ticket
4 to 9 tickets: Rs.7000 + GST = Rs. 8260 per ticket
10 tickets: Rs.6000 + GST = Rs.7080 per ticket
Imagine if 10 students of one academy would like to come together, then you would save a lot of money by booking 10 tickets together.
Book your tickets from here
In the entry fee you get a t-shirt for the camp and a kit which includes material that will help you during the camp like writing pad, pen and much more. All of this material will have Anand's branding on it. The entry fee also includes lunch on both 16th and 17th of February. Note, only if you register before 11 a.m. on the 1st of February will you get the t-shirt of your size. Because the organizers are going to give them for print on 2nd of February.
Note: The maximum capacity for students to attend this workshop is 200.
Special ChessBase India offer:
The first 40 tickets that are sold before the date of 1st February (we have extended it by one day) will get Vishy Anand Vol.1 + Vol.2 combo of ChessBase DVD (downloadable format) on Anand's chess career for free. The actual worth of these DVDs is Rs.2122.
Note: You have to buy the tickets from ChessBase India to avail of this offer. If you buy the tickets offline, you will not be able to avail of this offer.
For travel and accommodation in Pune
