White Plains Summer Classes - July

INSTRUCTOR:  JON RIGAI

DESCRIPTION: Due to the overwhelming success of our summer chess clinics at the NSCF office in White Plains last summer, we’ve decided to continue the programs throughout the summer of 2018 too. The goal of these chess clinics is to challenge all participants through the Socratic method over the chess board. All chess players need to be challenged in order to improve in playing strength and increase their understanding of the game. These classes are geared for players (1000 + USCF) looking to stay sharp both tactically and positionally.

All classes will meet from 4-6 PM every Monday and Wednesday starting Monday July 9th and running through Wednesday August 22nd. The following topics will be addressed during the classes.

• All practical endgame positions chess players must know. These include checkmating patterns with all the pieces and pawns. 

• Deep middle game calculation improvement - This is designed to help students find the best moves quickly in their games regardless of the difficulty of their positions. 

• Psychology of competing at tournament level: This will cover the psychological aspects of how to handle high level competition and how to use one's lost games to better themselves as chess players overall. Most children sulk when they lose a game, whereas my students use that knowledge to better themselves.

• Tournament level practice games against stronger competition to help build your child's technique, ability and confidence.

• All students will learn how to set up a database of their own games and how to study from the master game database.

* Chess Homework will be distributed at the end of each class to keep the kids working throughout the week on their own.

* Lastly these classes will help to avoid the drop off that many chess players experience over the summer due to lack of practice and or playing in tournaments.

Instructor: Jon Rigai (1973 USCF Rating) and very active on the tournament circuit.