Hello all,
Discussion on format for future coaching sessions for the next few months.
There will be a coaching session of uncertain format held on Sunday 04
September 2016. Those wishing to attend should follow the instructions given
below the discussion proposals.
Please, there needs to be a change in the format of coaching sessions for at
least a few months. It is all about time. The 3 hours spent on Skype or so on
Sunday are not a problem. It is the time consumed in sifting through candidate
games, selecting, and then spending 5 hours or so on Sunday preparing for the
afternoon study. Then comes the even greater time-consumption spent of
annotating the study game.
Proposals.
The possibility of closing down the sessions for a while is the last option and
should be avoided if possible. Some study must be better than nothing, but
what? Perhaps starting with finding the winning continuation in late opening /
middlegame / endgame positions? Perhaps people can bring one of their games to
the session and there will be group advice offered? Perhaps Spoken Thought
games can be revived? Other suggestions welcome.
Anyone wishing to bring a game to the session should contact me at my personal
email address to reserve a place on the agenda. Please, do not reply to
whichever list you receive my emails. There might be many offering games, there
could be none. Games will be processed in order of request. Early response is
advisable. This seems better than having 5 or 6 people turning up with games
when there might not be enough time for all to receive study and feedback.
These changes are intended to be temporary. Sometime around 2012 or so I
started on a personal project. This involved much research time without making
much progress. About Christmas 2015 when perhaps 60% complete doubts began to
set in. These escalated, the pendulum swung from side to side on the value of
the work, resulting in the entire project being abandoned. You can guess what
has happened since. It has started up again, this time with clearer objectives
and being more direct. There have been occasional coaching breaks taken in
which progress has been made but still the end seems a long way away.
Completing this project must become the top priority for me. This is where the
released time will be spent. Chess will not entirely disappear from my life. A
commitment to play in one Skype event has been made and will be kept, but it is
almost certain that other future events yet to be announced will be missed.
Paul Benson.
* * *
Date: 04 September 2016.
Time: UTC 14:00, which is, BST 15:00.
Please follow the instructions below to arrive in the correct host venue.
Host venue, Skype id:
salon-echec
.
The host room, salon-echec is part of the open-aurec project in France. You
must enter the room yourself, there will not be a call to your Skype id. The
coaching will start at UTC 14:00, please enter the room about 5 minutes before
the start. For first-time participants, please try to enter salon-echec a day
or two before the session and report any problems if entry is blocked.
Important: When testing for entry to salon-echec remember the salon might be in
use, a game may be in progress. Please, remain silent if a game is in play.
Paul Benson.
