The Chess Experience
The Chess Experience
Aggressive Openings & Innovative Strategies for Club Players w/ FM Midas Ratmas
Our guest this week is a self-taught FIDE Master, coach, and popular course creator hailing from the Netherlands: Midas Ratmas.
Midas has built his chess career around helping club players and beginners.
As such, he’s developed a special talent for teaching chess to players at this level.
Midas has already published over a dozen Chessable courses covering areas like the opening, tactics, and strategy - with many more on the horizon.
In this episode, we talk about:
- The 3 ways he makes opening courses more accessible and easier for club players to manage.
- Why beginners - and maybe even club players - should learn the strategies that stem from each of the individual chess pieces.
- How he plans to achieve his goal of earning the IM title.
- Straightforward advice on endgames & calculation from his upcoming courses.
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Hey, welcome to the chess experience On this show. It's all about helping adult improvers. I want to make learning chess easier for you to navigate and I also want you to have a more fun experience along the way. I'm your host, daniel Lona, a fellow chess amateur. Let's get to it.
Daniel:This show is sponsored by chesscom, the world's largest chess community. One of chesscom's most popular features is called Game Review. This feature weaves together a lot of benefits. In one post-game analysis, for example, you can see how accurately you played, whether you made any moves that were deemed brilliant or great, which makes me feel a lot better about my chess when I get one of those. Accurately you played, whether you made any moves that were deemed brilliant or great, which makes me feel a lot better about my chess when I get one of those. And Game Review also offers a virtual coach that gives insights on every move. It'll also show you alternate lines that would have been better for you to help you understand how you can improve your game. So go on chesscom, play a game and try out the Game Review. Welcome to this week's show.
Daniel:Before I introduce today's guest, I want to discuss the upcoming schedule of episodes for the next couple of weeks. This Thursday I'll release a World Championship Preview episode for the match between Ding and Gukesh. For that episode I'll be interviewing FIDE Master Karsten Hansen, who did the World Championship Preview match for my podcast last year. So he'll do it again this year and he was fantastic last time. I think you'll enjoy hearing from him again, or for the first time if it'll be your first time hearing from him and that episode will come out late this Thursday US time, probably early evening US time. I admit that Thursday was a little later than I wanted for that episode for that topic, but it'll still give you several days to listen to it before the championship begins on November 25th and even with that said, I think it'll still be a worthwhile listen, even several days into the match itself. Also, there won't be an episode released next week because I'll be doing two this week and next week also has Thanksgiving for those in America.
Daniel:All right, today's guest is Dutch FIDE master Midas Ratsma. Midas is a coach and course creator. What separates him from many folks in those categories is that he focuses on helping beginners and club players. Midas has already released six popular chessable courses. His courses cover complete opening repertoires, tactics and strategy, with many more courses from him on the way. A link to all of his content is in the show notes. In this episode we talk about the three ways he makes opening courses more accessible and easier for club players to manage. Midas also has a different approach to teaching chess strategy for beginners and even some club players, which is to learn the strategies that stem from each of the individual chess pieces. We talk about that in our conversation. Midas also shares some advice on end games and calculation from his upcoming courses on those topics and, of course, much more is discussed. Here's my interview with Midas. I hope you enjoy it. Hi, midas, I'm excited to have you on the show. How are you doing today?
Midas:Yeah, thank you so much for inviting me for the podcast. I'm doing great. How are you?
Daniel:I'm excellent. I'm really excited to chat with you.
Daniel:Yeah so you know this already because I mentioned it to you, but I don't know that many other people do which is that I have your Black Repertoire course for club players, and the main reason I bought it a couple of years ago was because I was struggling so much with finding an opening to play against 1D4. There wasn't anything that I found that I could be comfortable with until I heard about the Albin Counter Gambit, and at the time you were I believe at the time, at least a couple of years ago you were the only course that I could find in Chessable that taught how to play that and it saved me. I could feel good about playing against 1D4 for the first time in my chess life.
Daniel:So I want to say thank you for creating that repertoire and including that yeah. So for that reason too I'm excited to chat with you because I've known your course, I've been studying that part of it with those lines and familiar with your work. So I'm very excited to have you on the show today. So I'm glad you're here.
Midas:That's lovely to hear.
Daniel:Yes, yeah, absolutely. I want to just start with just a little bit of conversation about chess in your life, when that began in earnest for you, when it became a big part of your life yeah, so, uh, I started, uh, playing chess and I was, uh, when I was a kid.
Midas:My father told me the rules and then, uh, since I was quite young already, uh, I went to the chess club also, uh, also together with my sister, and um, yeah, since then, um, I've been starting also to play more tournaments and uh, yeah, we had actually two great teachers at our chess club who are, even these days, still teaching the new youth players. Uh, and uh, yeah, they really made, made us improve a lot and, yeah, since then, I've always kept playing tournaments and been excited about chess. That's awesome.
Daniel:So did you start playing tournaments shortly after you got into the game?
Midas:yes, so every Friday evening we were always having the club evenings at the chess club and also, yeah, started playing tournaments. So yeah, that's awesome.
Daniel:And then did you continue to compete throughout your I don't know, call it childhood, necessarily, but your youth, when you know, basically before you were 18, before you're an adult, were you, were you continually competing and playing chess?
Midas:yes, I was, uh I was competing continuously and uh I I became more serious um in uh the matches when I was also studying. I had some more time to practice. So, uh yeah, during those, uh those years, I trained more and I then also reached my fetal masteraster title.
Daniel:I see what years were those that you started training more.
Midas:Yeah, it was around eight years ago during my university years, and then, yeah, in 2018, I became Fidemaster eventually.
Daniel:Yeah, that's amazing. Was that title something that you were working towards or? Did it just come naturally from improving your chess.
Midas:No, not really. I didn't at the time had the goal necessarily to become a FIDA master. It was more that, yeah, the tournaments were just going well and then suddenly I reached the title. It wasn't also the case that I was already close to it for a long time. There were just a couple of tournaments that went very well and then suddenly I was Speedmaster yeah, but now I think I'm more goal-oriented and also still aiming to improve and also become International Master.
Daniel:Yeah, yeah, We'll talk about that more later in terms of your future competitive goals, but that's exciting that you're working on becoming an international master. I'm always curious about someone's chess journey in terms of whether they work with a coach or not. So I don't mean in recent years, but I mean on your way to that period where you know you got into chess and then ultimately became a FIDE master. Did you get much coaching in that time?
Midas:No, I didn't. Before I became FIDE master, I never had individual lessons. Sometimes I had some group lessons before that, before that uh, but no, I mainly just uh trained myself and uh, yeah, also uh, sometimes together with friends.
Daniel:That's really impressive because I'm curious your thoughts on that, because I'm the audience that you coach, um, and so are my listeners are typically or club players, and like, if I wanted to jump from, oh I don't know, let's say, 1400 to 1600, I feel like it's very, like that's that's difficult for me to do without a coach. It's like it's much, much easier for me to do that with a coach.
Daniel:Um, yeah, so I mean all the more impressed that you can reach fm without a coach. I mean, like, were you like very honest with yourself, very analytical in your games, in terms of like just being honest and what you needed to work on?
Midas:well, like I feel, uh, I feel first I was also struggling to improve and uh, and at one point I mainly struggled also because I didn't have a structured training program for myself, and uh, yeah, my sister is also a competitive chess player and she was having individual coaching and she also helped me to be more structured with my own training schedule and this way I could also understand more easily how to improve during those years.
Daniel:I see, I see, yeah, well, you know, as you mentioned, you got some a little bit of a help from your sister, but I mean, even still, it's pretty impressive to reach the FM title without like having a regular coach to work with all the time. I'm just, I'm very impressed by that. Thank you, yeah. So, yeah, I'd like to shift towards talking about the work that you do basically with chessable courses and your teaching through that medium for club players and beginners. That's of interest to me because, like I said, I'm one, my audience is one. So what is your interest in focusing on helping club players?
Midas:Yes, I really enjoy also making the courses for beginners and club players. Beginners and club players also because, um, it feels more rewarding in a way because, um, for a beginner or club player, with one course, well, you could learn so much that it could, uh, maybe transform, uh your whole chess or, um, it, uh, it could perhaps, uh, with an, with an opening course, maybe learn new openings that can make you reach winning positions in most of your games. Whereas for players above that level, well, courses can still help them, but I know that there are also already a lot of alternatives out there for them. There are also already a lot of alternatives out there for them and, uh, you know, to make a player that's already a very strong win, even a couple of hundred points more is is like a very big challenge.
Daniel:So, like, I love focusing on the beginner and club player audience, yeah, that's awesome yeah, I love hearing that, and I know that you also coach club players as well yeah, you know, you're coaching club players, you're helping them through courses, and so from all that, I assume you've perhaps seen some patterns or some trends in what club players struggle with and what their challenges are. So what would you say are maybe one or two common areas of struggle at this level?
Midas:Yes, yes, yes, I would say that deep concentration is always necessary to improve in chess but also to enjoy the game more at the same time. So that is something that I feel like, uh, quite some club players are are struggling with and also, um, for a lot of them, it's to really calculate the moves. So, uh, when I am in a lesson with a lot of my students, they they are suggesting uh many different moves. They are giving their faults on that, but generally they tend to quickly jump from one move to another without calculating a couple of moves or several moves ahead. And yeah, I feel like, like, really, uh, making that step to start calculating all the time is one main challenge for improvement. And also to have a structured training program where, you know, also game analysis is an important part, and preferably game analysis where the computer isn't used too quickly, right, right.
Daniel:Yeah, I'd like to talk a little bit more about that calculation aspect because I think that's a big one for well, of course, for every level, almost starting at the club level. But yeah, I think club players particularly struggle with that. Sometimes it's just being able to accurately hold and visualize an accurate position of the board at a certain depth. Other times, like you say, I think that it's just telling yourself okay, I need to calculate here and kind of having the discipline to do that, but I just want to get your feedback on something. So sometimes, yeah, I struggle with that myself and I try to tell myself to just maybe calculate at least just one or two moves deeper than I would normally feel comfortable with, because sometimes if I think, oh well, this could be a seven move sequence, I I just kind of shy away from it. I don't calculate at all.
Midas:but yeah, that's kind of intimidating right, yeah, yeah.
Daniel:But if I just say, okay, just do, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, actually to always go through four different steps for every move they are making.
Midas:So first they should consider moves and then it's starting maybe with the most forcing moves.
Midas:So you first want to consider captures or checks, and once you consider those moves, then the calculation steps is coming in.
Midas:And then it's very important that with the calculation step someone also should calculate until you can evaluate, and you can only kind of evaluate a position when the dust has settled down. So if there are still good captures left or other good forcing moves, then it's too early to already start evaluating the position. And yeah, after that evaluation step you will have another step where you can either decide to play the move, go with the move, or you can decide not to play it, and in some cases it's also good to decide not to play the move yet still consider other options, but kind of make a note in your memory of how good the move was that you considered. I try to encourage them to to always be structured on that process of deciding what move, uh, to play next. But then I feel like if I don't push them so much to do all those steps, then, generally, the calculation step is a step that they tend to skip and, yeah, that's something quite dangerous, of course, to skip that step.
Daniel:Right. So basically you're saying that if they follow this process, this four-step process that includes calculation as one of the steps, they're more likely to do it than if they don't feel like they need to follow any structure or framework?
Midas:Yes, yes, with that framework they make better decisions. And often also the calculation step is the most difficult step in the game. It's a step that requires very deep concentration. Yeah, it's Therefore also the most difficult step to perform, also because you need that visualization as well. You need to keep in your mind where all the pieces exactly moved and when you start going a couple of moves ahead. That can become quite challenging.
Daniel:Yeah, absolutely quite challenging. So, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely Well, and we'll touch on that a little bit more later in the interview too, when we talk about your future courses. But speaking of your courses, I'll talk about what you already have out right now, because I think that'll lend itself to some good discussion on how people can improve their chess. So you have a good number of testable courses. I forget the exact number, but you have a good number already out there for people. One of them is chess strategy for beginners.
Daniel:Peeking through that course a bit, I noticed something interesting that stood out to me. One is how you structure the course itself, like the topics, specifically the different topics that you have organized, and the topics are broken down by the individual chess pieces king, queen pawn, et cetera. That's different than most of the strategy books that I've seen. Now, admittedly, I haven't seen a ton of strategy books, but the handful that I've gone through myself, they're not typically organized that way. They're typically organized by, say, development or piece mobility as different topics, but in your course and maybe it's because it's for beginners you focus on the individual pieces. I'm curious why you did that and how that's helpful.
Midas:Yes, yes, you know, for every piece there are certain strategical plans that you really have to know, and I also feel like starting out with uh pawns in the first chapter is something that uh makes the start a little bit easier, also compared to uh the other pieces that that will follow after that. Um. So this, uh this course is also a lot about how to make plans, and the concepts are always explained in a way that's easy also to understand for beginners.
Daniel:Sure, sure. And I mean, given that you appropriate for intermediates to look at it too, or club players in general, given that you know we typically just don't see that perspective, and maybe that would help illuminate some things for us.
Midas:Yeah, the course is mainly aimed at beginners, but the concepts in the course they can also be very valuable for club players. And something that could be a downside is that exercises they start quite easy, so when you would follow the course, perhaps in some of the exercises you would immediately already spot the answer. There are also more challenging puzzles in the course as well. So the main purpose of the course is not only to follow the exercises but also to really understand the underlying strategical concepts, to master them, and for that the course can definitely be very valuable for club players.
Daniel:Yeah, yeah, absolutely so. Yeah, as I referenced Mides earlier in the beginning of our interview, you know I have one of your opening courses for club players. You have, you know, a complete repertoire for black for club players and a complete repertoire for white for club players. I'd like to know just what goes into making courses more accessible for club players, particularly opening courses. How do you make opening courses more accessible for club players, particularly opening courses? How do you make opening courses more accessible for club players?
Midas:Yes, there are lots of things I take into account. So one thing is also, when I make the course for club players is to refocus on the lines that are mostly played at the club player level. And for that, you know, luckily I have access to a database with more than a billion games at the 1600 level, so then I can really discover, you know, where club players will most likely make the mistakes. And the goal of the courses is quite ambitious. So you really want to take down the opponent in the opening. You want to get positions where, well, statistically speaking, in 80% of your games you should have a winning position in the opening, and for that also, I really try to use consistency in the plans. So whenever the same plan works well, I recommend that plan and I don't make things too complicated by recommending a different plan all the time.
Midas:Yeah, it's about focusing on the lines that are mostly played. It's also about this consistency and some other things that I always like to do with my attacking courses is to design the course in a way that if you go through the course once, that you do all the tactics twice. So that's why, after a free tier red code chapter, I make additional tactics chapters and those tactic chapters. They basically just repeat the tactics that you already have learned in the theoretical chapters so that, well, during the games, you will be very sharp on your, on your tactics.
Midas:Besides all those things, I really try to be strict on the depth of the lines, so I don't want to go in too much depth. I don't want to make the courses overwhelming, so I try to focus on how much variation statistically occur and then only place them in the course if you will face them in a reasonable amount of your games as well likely with with other courses that are, you know, also targeted at more advanced players. There there would be lines in the courses that you would likely never get on the board. So I think that, yeah, that could make quite some difference also for how well course could work out for a club player.
Daniel:Yeah, that's awesome. Okay, so I confess I have not done my tactics chapters in your course but now that I know that's important, I will do that?
Midas:Yeah, why not? Why did you skip that?
Daniel:I'll be honest, because I kind of compartmentalize how I study. So when I'm studying openings, it's just openings, and so I thought of it as like well, I need to learn my lines right now, not practice tactics, and then later when I'm doing tactics. I didn't think to go back to the course for that. I just, you know, I like my other resources for that, whether it's chesscom or leechess for puzzles, so I I've separated them out. But now I I think like I need to just include your tactics chapters when I'm studying my tactics. I think that'll work best I would recommend that.
Midas:Yes, yes, yeah. So then you will make sure to know the most important moments even better than other moments.
Daniel:Right, right, yeah, I got a really good tip from you for that. I appreciate that. Oh and yeah, I just wanted to ask a question about it, because you talked about move depth and how you try not to go too deep. You know, for club players, would you say that there's like an average move depth? I mean, I know it's going to depend on the line, of course. Yes, yes yes, um.
Midas:So in my courses for club players the average move depth is around, uh, seven to eight moves. Um. So, yeah, the most important battle is mainly in the first 10 moves of the game, and after that there are still a couple of variations that go a little bit deeper, but they are also just quite forcing variations that can still happen a lot. I think that's, for club players, an ideal move, that not to get too much overwhelmed.
Daniel:Yeah, that's awesome. Just a couple of questions for you on the specifics of those opening courses, because I love talking about this. For the white opening repertoire, you chose as the main line that could be played to be the Scotch. Why did you find the Scotch? You know the main opening of choice for white there.
Midas:Yes, yes, yes, yeah. In the attacking course for white, I recommended the Scotch Gambit actually yes.
Daniel:Oh, I'm sorry, I apologize. No worries, no worries, yeah.
Midas:So, yeah, this is an opening that puts puts a lot of pressure on like it's hurry attacking. So so, basically, what I did for all the lines in the opening is to is to really study this um database with the 1600 level games and see where they are most likely to fall for the traps. So yeah, against e5, this scotch gambit came out as my favorite choice there, because they are your first, okay, sacrificing a pawn, developing very quickly, putting the pressure on the opponent. Yeah, when your opponent is making the obvious development moves, you always have a way to put pressure on them and also perhaps make them fall for nasty tactics. So, yeah, that's why that opening has been chosen.
Daniel:Yeah, that's excellent. And then the same question basically for you regarding the black opening repertoire that you have for club players. I referenced this earlier, that I you know that's the course of yours, that I had already before we did this interview and I just absolutely loved the lines of the Albin counter gambit against 1d4. I know why I personally love that opening, but I'm curious to hear why you chose that for that course.
Midas:Yeah, so the Ovid Counter Gamut is also an opening that will surprise your opponent, for sure, and that's something important. And yeah, against D4, I would say that choosing the opening was one of the most difficult tasks because, uh, after 1e4, always the positions, uh, they become very fun, very fighting, um. But um, yeah, this all-in counter gambit, it's a nice way to uh to directly, uh get a little piece activity by breaking open the center, and I like to recommend mostly open and attacking positions, because then, well, all your pieces can develop much faster and also this gives the best tactical opportunities. So that's why this has been chosen.
Daniel:Right, yeah, so my experience for that was and I've kind of had this validated from many other club players too not all of them, but many feel that the more popular and traditional responses to 1d4 of, say, queen's Gambit declined or Slav things like that tend to be more positional Not exclusively, but they tend to be more positional, and that's an area of struggle for club players. They're particularly great yet at positional play and that's part of the reason why that may be more difficult for them. So I have a two-part question for you. Have you observed that in club players, and if so, is that part of the reason why that may be more difficult for them? So I have like a two-part question for you. Have you observed that in club players and if so, is that part of the reason why you chose the Albion Counter Gambit?
Midas:Yes, like what I've observed is that when I make opening courses, my goal for club players is to reach a winning position, basically, and to do that, the position needs to be very sharp. And to do that the position needs to be very sharp, you know, you need to have, you need to have those open tactical positions where, generally speaking, only one or two moves from the opponents are good and where the opponents are under pressure. You know, and uh, yeah, with, uh, with the queens, again, with the decline or the slav, yeah, those positions tend to be slower and I think there are also openings that are just quite unlikely to surprise the opponent because, uh, when white is playing d4, they have, they have seen those moves before. So, yeah, that's why I chose not to recommend those yeah, that makes sense.
Daniel:So I'd like to talk a little bit about your upcoming chessable courses. We've talked about a few that you already have out and we'll have links to all of those in the show notes for people to check out. Definitely encourage people to to take a look at your courses and see if it's right for them, because I think you have some fantastic stuff. But as far as the future goes for you with Chessable courses, what are you working on right now?
Midas:Yes, I'm working on a lot more projects actually and yeah, today I just heard that for my next course the Attacking Repertoire for Beginners, about the Jobava London that it will be published in around two weeks, on the 25th of November.
Midas:And yeah, this is a course I'm also really excited about because it has a similar concept also to these attacking courses that you are studying, and the Jabata London is an opening where White has so many different attacking plans to play for, so I think the cup players and beginners will really enjoy that one. But also I am working on courses in this beginner's guide to chess series that I am making, and for this beginner's guide to chess series, the goal is to have a series of six courses that teach all students anditsunoto reach 1600 level and, yeah, for this, the courses on strategy tactics and also complete black and white opening repertoire have already been published. But the next course I'm working on is the calculation course there and also on the endgame course there and there will the endgame course there and there will be one other course also about the opening principles. So I'm really excited about all the upcoming projects.
Daniel:Yeah, that's fantastic. And I have a few questions for you on all those. The first one that you talked about the opening repertoire for beginners. I'm sorry, did you say beginners or for white? No, for beginners. About the opening repertoire for beginners. I'm sorry, did you say beginners or for white?
Midas:No for beginners. About the Jobava London.
Daniel:Okay, okay, so is it just a Jobava London course.
Midas:Yeah, so such as Jobava London course, it will be a complete repertoire for the white pieces with the Jobava London. Yeah, Gotcha, gotcha.
Daniel:Okay, yeah, so that in particular I wanted to ask you about, because I'm not terribly familiar with the differences between the Jabava London and the London in terms of why you would choose one over the other. So what was the reasoning with Jabava London over just the regular London?
Midas:Ah, yes, yes, yes, there are quite some differences between those. So with Joe Bava London you are playing the setup with D4, bishop F4, and then Knight C3. So in the London usually you play the pawn to C3 and the pawn to e3. And in London you usually go for a slower positional setup, whereas in the Jobava London very often you're going immediately for an attacking plan together with your bishop and your knight. So you can aim for a knight b5. So you can aim for knight b5, you can aim for a fork on the king and the rook very early on. And yeah, the openings are actually very different. So I would say the Jobava London is a much more attacking opening than the regular London Nice, yeah, I see a theme here with all than the regular London, nice yeah, I see a theme here with all of your opening courses.
Midas:Yeah, I like the attacking style.
Daniel:Yeah, that's great, I love that. So, with respect to your calculation and end games courses that are coming up, I was wondering if, because those are two hugely important topics for club players and beginners calculation and end games I was wondering if perhaps you could give one piece of advice on each of those topics for people listening just to, maybe something that's covered, ideally something that's also covered as advice in each of those. So can we start with maybe a calculation?
Midas:Yes, yeah, let's start with the calculation. So in my calculation, calculation course, I will use one framework and I I made a sentence to make sure that the framework is easier to remember. So if you take the sentence just calculation eliminates doubt, then the first c stands for consider. So first you want to consider a move, then the second C stands for calculate. You want to calculate and think about what your opponent will play, what you will play after that, until the dust has settled down, and then you can evaluate. And then, from doubt, the d stands for decide, and after you evaluate you will decide to either play the move or or not to play it and perhaps also to keep in mind how good your evaluation was for the move and still consider other moves. So if you use all those four steps to consider, to calculate, to evaluate and to decide then you have this framework of four steps that you can use to make a decision in basically any position. You'll still make a decision in basically any position.
Midas:The framework that I hear a lot of club players using is this captures, checks, frets framework. This is actually only the consider step. So you consider the captures first and then the checks and then the threats, but after that there there is the calculation step and the evaluation step and, yeah, one, one extra piece of advice is that that you cannot evaluate every position you know. You can only evaluate when the dust has settled down. So you only can truly consider a chess move if you also calculate and then evaluate. So that's my piece of advice there. Regarding the calculation Regarding endgames, I would advise I'm sorry.
Daniel:Can I just really quick before we dive into endgames? Can you repeat that entire phrase again for the mnemonic that you gave?
Midas:Yeah, so the phrase is just calculation eliminates doubt, and then it's. It stands for the C from consider, the C from calculate, the E from evaluate and the D from decide.
Daniel:Fantastic. Yeah, that's great, I love it. Okay, sorry to interrupt. Go ahead with the advice that you have on regarding endgames.
Midas:Yes, yes, yes. So regarding endgames in endgames, actually, calculation is also very important. Regarding endgames In endgames, actually calculation is also very important. But the main advice on endgames is to always have a plan. You want to know your plan and you want to know your opponent's plan. Once you know that, you can start, you can start thinking more, you can start calculating more, yeah, but you first need to figure out what you are playing for in general, not just about the next move or the next couple of moves, but but about a bigger aim how to win this end game or how to save this end game. Um, also one one other piece uh of advice for end games is just never to resign too early, because sometimes it can feel like maybe you're completely out of plans, you don't have any way to make progress, but it doesn't always mean that you're losing. You know, maybe for your opponent it will also be really difficult to make progress. So so always just keep fighting, don't resign too early yeah, that's awesome.
Daniel:That's something that I've definitely learned over time, which is to not only maybe not resign, but I I've also been encouraged to not take draw offers in an endgame or basically almost at any point, but just to play through and learn what I can learn from still playing. Would you agree with that as well?
Midas:Yes, yes, yes, yeah. Always playing on is definitely good.
Daniel:Right, right, I just want to talk a little bit about your you know we're on the subject of the future a little bit your future chess courses, and I also want to talk about your future competitive goals in chess that you still have. You mentioned the beginning that. Uh, you mentioned in the beginning that you're interested in earning the im title and uh, yeah, I'm just curious like how that's going for you or what's involved in your plan for that yes, um well, lately the tournaments have been going quite, uh, quite well and, um, yeah, in my last uh tournament, uh weekend tournament in amsterdam, I managed to get a shout first place.
Midas:I was very happy about that. Um, that's great and um, yeah, mainly I. I feel like it's important to uh just put in the work for that, to uh to also spend uh enough time for my own chess training uh. So, yeah, I've been also really focused on coaching on the courses, but now the last month I also spent some more time on training myself and that helped a lot for the game.
Daniel:So yeah, yeah. Where do you stand with the norms?
Midas:So currently I don't have any norms yet. I was quite close several times to score an IAM norm, but unfortunately I don't have any yet.
Daniel:I see. Do you feel there's a main area that you need to focus on to get you to that IAM title?
Midas:I feel like the most important thing for me is to just keep training regularly. So with calculation, I should do regular exercises on that, and with the opening lines that I learn, I should also take the time to frequently repeat those. So I feel like at this stage I know what I need to do to improve, but it's mainly just a challenge to find a deep concentration and the time to do that.
Daniel:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think myself and everyone listening can relate to the challenge of being consistent with the improvement work. For sure, very relatable. So I thought I'd finish with well, before we get to my segment of just some fun rapid questions. The last topic I wanted to talk about briefly is our upcoming world championship between Ding and Gukesh. Just because it's relevant, it's on a lot of chess players' minds right now. So let me start by asking you do you have a prediction for who will win?
Midas:I think Gukas is a clear favorite for the match, also because, yeah, aden has been a bit out of shape the last year or month. So, yeah, gukaj also, of course, performed so good in the Chess Olympiads together with the team from India, so they really had an amazing performance there. So I think that the match could get really exciting in case Ding manages to find back his form that he used to have like two three years ago. So I hope that that will happen and that the match will become exciting.
Daniel:Do you think that becomes apparent within the first few games, whether Ding has a chance to, as you said, regain his fighting form? I mean, do you think after a few games we'll know whether that's happened or not?
Midas:Well, maybe, but I think still a few games is too early to conclude that, you know, like, perhaps also he just starts off with a bad game but he finds back his form later on. Or it's also interesting to see how Gukash will respond to not playing a match for the world championships, because well, he is still also, uh, very young and perhaps also nerves will play a role at some point. So, uh, I don't, yeah, I, I wouldn't already want to make a conclusion after a couple of games okay, yeah, yeah.
Daniel:Well, that's fair and I uh appreciate your perspectives on on that. So I want to finish, then, with a segment that I do regularly with my guests now for a couple of years, which is just a series of just some fun questions, some fun chess questions. They're a little shorter, faster for the most part, than all the other ones we talked about With that said, my first question for you is knights or bishops?
Midas:yeah, I like, uh, I like knights quite a lot also. Uh, yeah, uh, you can do a lot of forks and tricks with them what's your favorite time control?
Midas:so 90 plus 30, and I feel like sometimes playing games where you have you have 30 minutes additional after 40 moves can be a bit unfair, because sometimes you get those situations where both players are kind of blitzing out the moves can be a bit unfair, because sometimes you get those situations where both players are kind of blitzing out the moves to survive it, to move 40, and then suddenly one player has half an hour extra to maybe calculate how to continue in a position that's now winning for them Right.
Midas:I also really enjoy the Blitz and Rapid. I really like all all time controls.
Daniel:That's cool well, yeah, if I were to answer the question. 90-30 is my favorite as well, so I love hearing when any guest also cites that as their favorite.
Midas:Perfect, yeah. Who is your favorite player of all time? Oh, I.
Daniel:So I love hearing when any guest also cites that Ah, perfect, yeah, who is your favorite player of all time?
Midas:Oh I, no, I would say Carlsen. Carlsen is so strong already for the last decade and I think it's incredible how he plays.
Daniel:If you could play any of the top players in the world right now, would it be?
Midas:like I would like to play against uh, irigasi, uh, and preferably with the white pieces, if I could choose uh, because, uh, yeah, he has been playing so, uh, so well the last uh months. He has across the 2800 and it feels, feels like also, he is always trying to come up with kind of original ideas to surprise especially lower rated opponents. So it would be really exciting to see what he would come up with and yeah, it would be fun.
Daniel:I mean, I know, white playing playing white is typically, you know, I mean it's just generally preferred, but is there a reason you prefer it against him?
Midas:Yes, yes, yes. I think that if you would play against a really top player, it feels like they would always be forced to make the game more complex to make sure that you don't get to a situation where you can just quietly exchange the pieces into some drawn endgame and then, when they have to take those risks, they sometimes have to play something. That's a little bit dubious. There lies the chance there to try and get a better position. Of course, it would be very difficult to play against them, but there's always some chance.
Daniel:If you could hang out with any chess celebrity for an evening, who would it be? And by saying chess celebrity, that just means someone well-known in the chess world. They don't have to be a great player.
Midas:Ah, okay, okay, yes, I think it would also be great to spend an evening with Gaspado. Yes, yeah, because he has been so strong, but he also, of course, switched from chess to politics more so that's very interesting to hear more about that yeah, lots to talk about with him.
Daniel:Hang out with an evening with him? Yeah for sure. And what is your favorite opening as white?
Midas:I like playing 1 e4 and I also like playing playing against the open Sicilians, because their variations are always very sharp and aggressive, so I love those yeah, what's your favorite opening as black? It's difficult for black. I quite like you know, after e4, just playing uh, just playing for e5. But I also like the carol can uh. Carol can a lot uh there are many openings.
Daniel:I like with black if you had to choose a career other than chess, what would it be?
Midas:I always really like teaching other people something else, so I think that either being perhaps a financial advisor or maybe a psychologist would be quite nice.
Daniel:That's awesome, that's great. So final question for you If a chess genie existed and could grant you any one chess wish, what would you wish for?
Midas:Oh well, I think I would wish to have the same memory as Carlsen, to remember everything.
Daniel:Yeah, that is a good one. I love it. Well, it was great chatting with you. I just want to say thank you so much for being on the show today.
Midas:Yeah, thank you so much for hosting this show and for inviting me.
Daniel:Oh, yeah, my pleasure. It was exciting to get a chance to talk to you live after studying your course for so long and, yeah, I think you do great work with your courses and I encourage everyone to check them out. And I just want to say thank you so much for being on the show.
Midas:Yeah, thank you so much as well.
Daniel:Thanks for listening. This has been a production of my Business, adult Chess Academy, and that has a website with the same name. If you want to look for it, you can also find me being way too active on Twitter by searching my username, lona underscore chess See you next week.
