Congratulations, you have found us!
What you’re about to experience here at Capital Chess is something that the chess educational landscape hasn’t seen prior, but before you are to be presented with that, allow me to take you with me on a journey into the past to explain the motivations behind our mission.
More than 16 years ago, when I just started learning the rules of the royal game, the chess scenery was much different than today.
The best players in the world were still trying to compete against computers, online chess existed but wasn’t taken very seriously, and even the FIDE rating systems were being updated only once every 3-6 months. Life was flowing at a very slow pace, and chess was no exception.
At that time, I stepped foot into a chess academy for the very first time at the age of 4 and quickly became entangled in what would later become the passion of a lifetime.
I began to absorb knowledge about the game from every possible source. I read all the books we had at our house, learned as much as I could from all the coaches that I’ve worked with, and participated in all the tournaments held in my home city.
What I quickly realized was: I never liked following the “golden rules” written in stone when it came to chess, as did I not like following them in any other field of life.
I was playing “unorthodox” openings from an early age, was giving away my Bishops for Knights in any possible scenario, and was winning almost all the games deep in the endgame.
The funny thing is that what we’re being taught about chess is the complete opposite: “Play as aggressively as possible when you’re starting out in chess, dabble with unconventional openings, but overall play “correct” lines”, and the one I’ve heard a million times in my life: “DON’T GIVE UP A BISHOP FOR A KNIGHT FOR NO REASON” ~ Everybody.
You probably expect me to say something smart in my defense, but the truth is, the “traditional” advice I received was, in fact, right, even the one about the Bishops, however, most people miss a key element in this story:
It’s not about being told whether something is right or wrong, it’s about figuring it out for yourself. Because then, you gain something far more important than some tournament or rating points. You gain understanding.
Here, at Capital Chess, we believe in challenging the status quo. The concepts we’re going to share, the openings we’re going to suggest, the psychological tricks we’re going to reveal, all have one underlying reason behind them. It’s to broaden your chess horizons and make you understand that there isn’t one correct way to play chess. There’s your way of playing chess.
This approach to chess and life in general helped me achieve results that might seem unimaginable to the untrained eye, however, our mission is to make you realize that you can accomplish anything you want both in chess and in life if you have the courage of following your path despite what others tell you to do.
We’re happy to have you here and we hope to disturb your mind and shift your paradigms because that means that you will have begun your unique journey towards chess mastery.
