Wall of love for Journey to Grandmaster

I am Albert Bressler. My current ICCF rating is 1842 (RD= 88)(I have played 45 games by correspondence). My current US Chess Federation OTB rating is 593 (I have only played 4 games in a Local tournament). Prior to the 10 Day Opening course my ICCF rating was 1732 (based on 26 games). I played the English Opening (Botvinnik variation as white and the Hippopotamus Defense as black. After I completed your course, my ICCF chess performance improved from 1732 to 1842. Not because of your openings so much (I now prefer your openings even though I won more frequently when playing the English - Botvinnick as white), but from the strategies and tactics that I learned from your course. As black I have won more frequently with your system than I did using the Hippopotamus system. I loved the course especially all of the strategies and tactics WITH EXPLANATIONS that Yevhenii constantly is teaching throughout the course. The additional instruction in principles, strategies, tactics and CALCULATION.

My name is Jacopo. Before taking this course, I had taken a break from chess for about a year. After getting married, having a baby, and juggling work responsibilities, I simply couldn’t find the time or motivation to play anymore. Before the break, I had reached a 1600 level and read some chess books but everything came to a stop, including online games. The “30-day Training Plan” was exactly what I needed to get back into the right mindset. Day by day, it helped me reconnect with the fundamentals, provided clear guidance, and brought back the joy of training. I went from a puzzle rating of 2500 to nearly 2850 on chess.com, but more importantly, I completely changed my mental approach: I now ask myself the right questions, think in a more structured way, and play with greater awareness. The best thing about the course is that now that I’ve finished it, I can start another one to learn two new openings, and in the meantime, repeat this one to keep building on the habit I’ve started. It’s truly been a turning point in my chess journey.

My chess rating is only around 900 right now. Within the first few days of working through the course, I'm able to beat stockfish on a higher level than before and Yevhenii's explanations and system have really changed the way I'm looking at chess. 

I am 71 and I play chess since 15 years. I am a middle level player. Sometimes I win in a spectacular maner and most often I loose stupidly sometimes against beginers. The 30-day training plan has helped me for the middle game. Your lessons are very lively bur I have a problem with the net to charge the videos. I suppose the this is independant of the team.

My name is Jim, and my rating on lichess is 1620. My struggle was blundering. The 30 day course helped me mostly in using the four active possibilities for moves, both for my own moves and for my opponent's moves.

I am a playing chess for 1 year now and my rating is 800. Before this course i struggled to find the right opening and have a solid setup, so i can especially timewise , focus fully on middlegame / endgame situations. The opening mastery course gives me two really good openings , which are described in absolute detail against so much variations. You will absolutly love it. The best part is how mich time the coach is taking to go through all the stuff and it does not stuff with opening. He will give you a clear idea what to do, what are the goals and strategies and EVEN included some more advice on how to avoid blunders, how to think correct to improve. Its an absolute blast

I'm an adult improver who started playing chess in December 2021. I often struggle to find time for chess, I'm a dad of a 2 year old so my daily life is pure chaos 😆 I can usually manage 30mins - 1hour 3 or 4 times a week. This 30-day Training Plan is a simple training system which allows you to squeeze some quality knowledge in between daily tasks which helped me a lot. I would definitely recommend subscribing to a YouTube channel of the author as well for even more good, educational chess content. The best thing about this project was that you can work through it at your own pace. One more thing I would like to add is that there is a sense of community which provides a little bit of extra motivation to play a good game of chess and share it with fellow improvers who are on the same journey.

My DWZ ist now 1284-1 and online rating between 1300-1400 depending on the time control and I want to understand chess more deeply, therefore I am in this ELO Accelerator Academy. Second reason I am here is, that I also bought Yevhenii's nice opening course and its really great to bring my games into the livesessions to understand the fine nuances that happens in the game with the help of direct explanations, when situations happens in my games so that I understand the opening much better. What I like, that through group lessons, that I have the opportunity to learn also from other students and their games and Yevhenii manage it to explain it in a way, that even its not your game, which is analyzed, you understand really good the principles and how they actually works on the game so that you benefit also from the other games. And for sure, when he analyze your game its also very worthy. Also what I like is, that the livesessions are not only analysis of games. He brings topics to the livetrainings what I personally enjoy really much (for example endgame) or we play simul, where he also comment the moves that we made, why its good or not good, so you learn also through direct feedback and also its nice to play against such a strong chessplayer, so that you directly see, when your move is not working. This raise the quality of your chessplay really much and its also a lot of fun. Also sometimes there is a long calculationworkshop, where you also improve your skills with really high quality puzzles, that are not that easy, but it helps to understand, for what you have to look for, when you calculate. The community is still young and I am looking forward how the Academy will improve and grow over the time.

* I am hobby chess player with 1700 rating * My biggest problem was calculation * After course I was able to calculate quickier and deeper * I at all the time liked and enjoyed very instructive explanation of coach and his enthusiasm

It's help change my focus I haven't had much of a rating boost but accuracy is improving. The course provides lots of helpful information and now it's up to me to use it consistently

Hi, i’m william, 43 years old and I used to Play club level Chess until the age of 14. Now 30 years later I tried to start playing again. I usually only play daily matches for 2 reasons. I get way too nervous when there is time pressure (need to work on that, but that is not for this course) and I like to think Some time, move the pieces without making a move. My daily rating is around 1500. This course helped me a lot to understanding that tempo and piece development is way more important than material advantage. I usually just grab a pawn, but than lose some material after a few moves, because my opponents pieces were more active. The checks, capture, threats method, combined with the “stop for a moment and think about your opponent ideas” is working. I blunder less and my games feel a lot smoother.

Albert Bressler, ICCF rating = 1732 (109) I knew two very solid openings (white & black), but struggled with the middle game afterwards. And when an opponent knew how to attack during my 10-12 opening moves, I consistently lost. Yevhenii’s course has given me a MUCH LARGER REPERTOIRE of openings AND an understanding of when they must be adapted to my opponent’s moves. The principles that he has taught has helped me TREMENDOUSLY in my middle game. I now know magnitudes more of practical chess strategies and principles along with an understanding of WHY they are important.

My name is Chris, I am 64 years old and started getting more serious about chess around 6 months ago. I got my rating up to 430, and it fell to 280. I had no idea why. I was hoping that this free (!) course might help. And it does! I am currently at 380 and working my way back up. If I simply slow down and do what this course teaches, I do well. If I simply blast through the game, I lose. I need a STFD (Slow The eff Down!) sign to remind myself to slow down and follow the other principles taught, I do fine. The UI was a bit glitchy on my Android phone, but the convenience of using my phone was great. Wonderful course and a great teacher. Highly recommended.

My name is Matthew Wetherbee. I play on both lichess.org and chess.com as leafofrage. I am rated 688 on chess.com and 907 on lichess.org. I would say my biggest struggle before the course was bishop blindness. I still seem to have it a bit but am better at noticing threats before making a move than I was prior. The 30 day course seemed to help me connect my pieces better and give me better attacking ideas. Also developed good habits. I didn't do as many puzzles or analyze my games as often prior to the course. I think the really solid, simple openings that help you get the pieces developed and are adaptable for multiple different opponent openings are super great.

When I started this 30 day journey my current rating was 1410. As rating fluctuates and given the types of opponents I was losing against, my honest feeling is my real rating was closer to 1350-1400. After the course, my current rating is 1514 with my highest ever peak now being 1543. During this time I've had winning positions vs 1600-1700 level opponents. I feel like the past days I've been on a downswing but now certainly feel closer to 1600 than to 1350. I found that most of the value came from spending time calculating - as Yevhenii says it doesn't matter if you find the right move. The videos brought value as well (in particular the bonus analysis of my game). Despite the fact that there was some repetition in the videos (e.g. 1000 times "you never play alone") maybe this brainwashing did help and it's impossible not to remember things you've heard repetitively for 30 days straight. :D Yevhenii's philosophy of never moving backward, finding the most active move, 1 piece 1 move and using the initiative worked wonders in instilling the importance of time in chess which leads to more dynamic games. Definitely a good investment of time!

My name is David and i am 1518 ELO Fide player. My main struggle before taking the course was in two main areas: calculation and thinking about my opponent options. The course helped me a lot to focus on the main aspects during the game and learn how to pay attention to the important steps to improve my chess. The best thing for me about the plan is how simple and easy Yevhenii explains everything with great examples. I really recommend the plan if you want to grow as chess player.

Thank you for all of the hard work you put into making this course. I had previously started this course and made it to Day 3, before I was distracted. This time around I am making a concentrated effort to finish. It took me 11 days, but I made it. I wasn't sure about the Black Openings, but I see how they are all tied together. Your PGN file makes it easier for me to learn. There is a lot of information in those files. I can see your understanding of the various Openings. Because. you know them so well, sometimes your explanation of the position is so quick that I miss a lot of what your trying to convey. I am not sure if it was on purpose, but the puzzles seem to be about an upcoming Opening, they don't line up with the video explanation. I find myself going back one on the practical tasks, it helps me see what you were talking about. Again, a great job.

What a fantastic course. Professional and clear, it's obvious that a lot of effort has gone into making it. Highly recommended. As well as providing clear opening lines, this course also reinforces the ideas and the chess principles behind those openings. The course doesn't simply provide opening moves to be made automatically, it presents idea behind the moves, what the immediate threat is and what the goal is. Most importantly for me, it shows how deviations in the opening are not necessarily to be feared, reducing my panic when I see my opponent play something unexpected. 

I'm over 40 and only recently started playing chess. I've always had problems finding a move when my opponent simply plays a move I wasn't expecting. My knowledge of openings was quickly lost. The course has helped me to find the right ideas and after I have worked through it once, they are slowly coming to my mind better and I am finding better moves. I will certainly go through this course 2 or 3 more times until everything has really manifested itself, because it really changes a lot. Especially the perspective of active playing. That's something I'm going to adopt, because I'm usually the one who reacts to the other and doesn't act. Thank you for helping me to put all this into practice.

I am a 42-year-old from Sussex, England, rated 1776 ECF (OTB). I have played chess for 15 years, and have struggled to improve recently. So many resources are available that it is easy to get lost in the sea of information. I have tried many methods to improve, including online training programs and websites, books, and coaches, to little or no avail. One reason is that I have constantly changed my openings. I want to stick to a dedicated training plan, but have found it hard to grasp any one repertoire. Most courses give you lots of lines to memorise, failing to explain the key ideas. This means that I try new openings and abandon them because I just don't understand them. I find opening books difficult to read. When playing main-line openings, I struggle with how prepared my opponents are, whilst playing off-beat openings can simply give them an advantage. I found IM Yevhenii Yelisieiev's '10-Day Opening Mastery' course via his YouTube channel. I was instantly impressed by how he explained key concepts and ideas, combined with his enthusiasm and character. His love for the game is apparent. The course is by far the best opening course I have ever studied. It is simple enough to be able to grasp but advanced enough that it will serve at a high level. Whilst there are many long variations, IM Yelisieiev is keen to make the point that you don't need to memorise them; they are shown as examples of how the game could go. His approach teaches openings, middle-game strategy, and endgame technique all at the same time. I have finished the course feeling empowered to move forward with my chess training, knowing this one resource, combined with analysing my games, will provide me with everything I need for my opening. I am 100% converted to a Philador player! Whilst there are a few minor flaws, the quality of the material and its presentation are outstanding, more than enough to forgive any minor discrepancies. Some key lines are missing, and I think it will take more than 10 days for most people to study the course effectively (and much longer to master these openings, but that is true of any). I don't think this should dissuade anyone, as this course will enrich your understanding of chess, not just the opening. After 5 days of studying the course, I played the best game of my life at my local club in the variation given against the Kings Indian Defence. This wasn't because I had memorised the moves, rather I found myself understanding the chess board better than I ever had before. That night I scored 4 wins in 4 games, playing at a much higher level than ever. Thank you, IM Yelisieiev, for a great course; I look forward to using these lines in my future victories!

I am Dante Messina and i am 16 years old. My struggle was my opening preparation as i played E4 and the Caro-Kann which contained a lot of complicated variations. This course has helped me so much because i don t have to memorise these complicated variations. The best thing about this course is that the openings are based on fundamental principles and that the ideas are easy to understand even for a beginner.

I am 1500 Elo-rating player, focusing on becoming a good player rather than knowing theory. Then, you save yourself a great amount of time and aggravation. And, just trying to keep upto date with all these random lines.
Thanks to "10-day Opening Mastery" I have adopted the new way of thinking, I have to do that all the time.... But you can do this Yevhenii. You say it like it is. In fact, not many others say, or teach. This is how today's chess training looks like, how you learn something, seriously. This is not just an opening repertoire, but much more than that. Congratulations! 
It's always fun to do the impossible. This is a practical masterpiece. Thanks in advance! Have a good time and good luck with chess and life.

Greetings fellow seekers of the art of Chess Mastery, I am a young (48 years old) Canadian, always wanted to play chess, and started this journey two months ago. I have been learning a lot through youtube videos, and find myself a bit overwhelmed. My rating as of now, on Chess.com, is 816. Having gone through the course, I few more secure at the starting phase of the matches. Before, I was always lost, without knowing what to do as the games started. I still have a long road ahead, and all this new information has still to sink in. I find myself re-watching the videos again and again, and that is being really helpful. Wish all the best to all of you! Thank you kindly, Rafael

My name is Greg G, I'm a 1000 on chess.com. Iv'e used 10 or 30 principles of chess articles and videos, no real openings. This course has gave me a foundation for openings with a system. I like that it was done with video and in segments.