Manual

Manual for chess trainers Step 3

Substantially revised edition with 17 base lessons, 14 plus lessons and additional thinking-ahead guidance.

Contents

The manual is a great support for the teacher, even for an experienced one: ready-made lessons, hints on how to use the workbooks and how to give assistance. The 10th edition is substantially revised compared to the previous edition (16 pages more) — the answers are no longer in the manual but only available as a download, and various lessons have been expanded with extra material.

Introductory articles about, among other things:

  • Teaching material in the third Step
  • Tactics
  • Other themes (pawn endings, defending, small plan, draw, minor promotion)
  • The opening
  • Knowledge and skill
  • Calculating
  • Thinking ahead
  • Homework
  • Practice games
  • Discussing games

Themes

There are 17 lessons for the base workbook:

  • Finishing the opening
  • Discovered and double check
  • Attack on a pinned piece
  • Mate in two (access)
  • The square
  • Eliminating the defence
  • Defending against double attack
  • Small plan
  • Draw
  • X-ray
  • The opening
  • Defending against the pin
  • Mobility
  • Key squares (1)
  • Pinned pieces
  • Threats
  • Key squares (2)

Deepening

Plus 14 lessons for the plus workbook:

  • X-ray protection
  • Pinned pieces
  • The rook pawn
  • The intermediate move
  • Vulnerabilities in the opening
  • Small plan
  • Mate
  • Eliminating the defence
  • Minor promotion
  • Development
  • The pin
  • Defending against mate
  • The square
  • Discovered attack

More information

For Step 3 thinking ahead there are no ready-made lessons but mainly guidelines for giving thinking ahead a more important place in the lesson. The focus is on the workbook: how do we give help? Which mistakes occur with the various tactical themes?

The blindfold exercises are a stumbling block for many — unnecessarily so. The threshold is a little higher, but after some persistence most students get the hang of it. For higher-step students too, Step 3 thinking ahead is highly recommended.