71 Trainer Titles awarded for the FIDE Trainers Seminar held from 29-31st May 2020

by Sagar Shah - 20/06/2020

A total of 71 titles were awarded on 19th of June for the participants of the FIDE Trainers Seminar for the Indian Subcontinent held from the 29-31st of May 2020. The seminar was in itself a big success as world class players and trainers like Yusupov, Sokolov, Motylev, Yu Shaoteng, Thomas Luther, Dejan Bojkov shared their knowledge. 5 FIDE Trainers, 40 FIDE Instructors, 14 National Instructors and 12 Developmental Instructors were given the titles. The seminar was organized by FIDE in association with ChessBase India and in this article we not only put up the results but also the feedback received from the participants.

The FIDE Seminar for the Indian subccontient was held from the 29-31st of May 2020. The event was organized by FIDE in partnership with ChessBase India. The seminar saw some of the biggest names in the world of chess training come together and train the participants. How often do you get the chance to learn from the greats like Yusupov, Sokolov, Yu Shaoteng, Motylev, Dejan Bojkov and Thomas Luther.

The trainers of the seminar

This was the schedule and the topics covered during the seminar

Apart from strong trainers and a well thought out curriculum, other things which stood out was the enthusiasm of the participants. Over 80 participants were present and completely focused as the absorbed all the learnings from the seminar. At the end of it the assessment of the exam papers as well as the forms took place and 71 titles were awarded on 19th of June 2020. Five players received the FIDE Trainer (FT) title, 40 got the FIDE Instructor (FI) title, 14 were awarded the National Instructor (NI) and 12 received the Developmental Instructor (DI) title.

FIDE Trainers

IM Sharad Tilak is a well known chess trainer and has created many champions. The above picture was taken in 2018 when he was awarded the Shiv Chhatrapati award from the Maharashtra Government for his achievements in training. The FIDE Trainer title is another feather in his cap.

IM Sagar Shah (the author of these lines) was also awarded the FT title

GM Andrey Kvon also achieved the FT title

G. Balaji, a well known trainer with his academy based in Mumbai, received his FT title

FM Emmanuel Nieman from France is now a FIDE Trainer

Five FIDE Trainer titles:

1	5000165	Tilak, Sharad S	IND	1962	FIDE Trainer
2	5022509	Sagar, Shah	IND	1990	FIDE Trainer
3	14201356	Kvon, Andrey	UZB	1989	FIDE Trainer
4	5009910	Guttula Balaji	IND	1979	FIDE Trainer
5	601616	Neiman, Emmanuel	FRA	1964	FIDE Trainer

FIDE Instructor:

A total of 40 participants were awarded the FIDE Instructor (FI) title

6	614203	Paci, Cedric	FRA	1980	FIDE Instructor
7	5043743	Sekar, B	IND	1991	FIDE Instructor
8	5001013	Thipsay, Bagyashree Sathe	IND	1961	FIDE Instructor
9	5008646	Sauravh, Khherdekar	IND	1978	FIDE Instructor
10	705624	Szakolczai, Peter	HUN	1973	FIDE Instructor
11	5077834	Gajwa Ankit	IND	1997	FIDE Instructor
12	5016223	Phadke Sohan	IND	1985	FIDE Instructor
13	5051517	Pavan, B N B	IND	1989	FIDE Instructor
14	8605718	Liu, Xiangyi	SGP	2000	FIDE Instructor
15	5048842	Arjun K	IND	1993	FIDE Instructor
16	5002958	Singh, Gurpreet Pal	IND	1974	FIDE Instructor
17	5005949	Bhagwat, Vinod	IND	1976	FIDE Instructor
18	5097169	Soham Datar	IND	1994	FIDE Instructor
19	5022487	Chincholimath, Halsagar	IND	1987	FIDE Instructor
20	5006260	Vasudevan, R.R.	IND	1964	FIDE Instructor
21	5012252	Kameswaran V.	IND	1943	FIDE Instructor
22	7101376	Margana, Adhy	INA	1973	FIDE Instructor
23	5037794	Dahale, Atul	IND	1989	FIDE Instructor
24	5059550	Godbole, Atharva	IND	1996	FIDE Instructor
25	5038758	Patil, Pratik	IND	1995	FIDE Instructor
26	7112343	Ahmad Raihan Hasa	INA	1971	FIDE Instructor
27	5001773	Upadhyay R	IND	1970	FIDE Instructor
28	7103263	Rian, Kapriaga	INA	1992	FIDE Instructor
29	814180	Salzano, Guido	ITA	1972	FIDE Instructor
30	25044583	Karthik Raj C	IND	1996	FIDE Instructor
31	5009146	Akolkar, Pranav	IND	1984	FIDE Instructor
32	5029139	Shreyansh Daklia	IND	1991	FIDE Instructor
33	5050421	Mohammed, Dilshad	IND	1992	FIDE Instructor
34	5036631	Shaik, Abdul Azeez	IND	1994	FIDE Instructor
35	5017386	Sreejith, G.S.	IND	1991	FIDE Instructor
36	5400724	Li, Dominique	MNC	2002	FIDE Instructor
37	35047760	Durga Prasad V	IND	1979	FIDE Instructor
38	5061164	Kumthekar, Shubham	IND	1996	FIDE Instructor
39	5040213	Nagaraju, J	IND	1979	FIDE Instructor
40	30974216	Peter Wise	USA	1953	FIDE Instructor
41	5054150	Syed, Rehman Nazer	IND	1990	FIDE Instructor
42	5007607	Kandi, Ravi	IND	1966	FIDE Instructor
43	25043943	Sanjay S Pillai	IND	1998	FIDE Instructor
44	5026725	Vijaya, Bhaskar B.	IND	1971	FIDE Instructor
45	5026857	Kishorekumar, V.	IND	1985	FIDE Instructor

National Instructor:

A total of 14 participants were awarded the National Instructor (NI) title

46	7113072	Darmanto, Heri	INA	1970	National Instructor
47	5060036	Vidya.k	IND	1993	National Instructor
48	25007700	Aryan	IND	1993	National Instructor
49	5807212	Wagish, Kumar Rai	SIN	1991	National Instructor
50	25022938	Naresh T	IND	1983	National Instructor
51	25027980	Unnikrishnan M A	IND	1993	National Instructor
52	25088734	Raja Kumar P	IND	1972	National Instructor
53	35057260	Waghmare Sagar	IND	1989	National Instructor
54		Hu Tao	CHN		National Instructor
55	35071874	Prachand, Shrutika	IND	1994	National Instructor
56	5019389	Raman, R.	IND	1968	National Instructor
57	3221768	Singh, Jaspal	AUS	1978	National Instructor
58	46691499	Rahul Yadav	IND	2000	National Instructor
59	7120508	M. Nuruddin	INA	1964	National Instructor

Developmental Instructor

A total of 12 participants were awarded the Developmental Instructor (DI) title.

60	5007631	Lakshman, YogeshL	IND	1996	Developmental Instructor
61	25076060	Raghava Madhavan	IND	1994	Developmental Instructor
62	7126514	Sutawibawa, Marshell Andhika	INA	1992	Developmental Instructor
63	46699686	Tambe Soumitra	IND	2000	Developmental Instructor
64	33372730	Ganapathy Subramanian K	IND	1966	Developmental Instructor
65	45035431	Tupe Ashirwad	IND	1994	Developmental Instructor
66	45041539	Shubham Trikha	IND	1995	Developmental Instructor
67	5019729	Sneha, Ghatpande	IND	1988	Developmental Instructor
68	25077074	Arhan Boyd	IND	2001	Developmental Instructor
69	2015030	Gondhalekar, Mayur	USA	1983	Developmental Instructor
70	25679287	Sourav Kumar Roy (Ali)	IND	1992	Developmental Instructor
71	33370958	Praveen Venkatachari	IND	1978	Developmental Instructor

The entire seminar would not have been possible without the efforts of FIDE Training Commission Secretary Peter Long. He worked hard day in and out replying to emails coordinating with the trainers and players and ensuring that the entire process of examination and assessment was fair and timely. What's more he even had another FIDE Trainer's seminar going on in America at the same time and because of the time zone difference he hardly got any sleep! Now that's some dedication.

Supriya Bhat, ChessBase India's Business Development Manager, worked efficiently throughout the seminar and also days leading up to it. She ensured that no participant queries were left unaswered, moderated the lessons and much more.

A final note from Peter Long:

We have published the results of your seminar: https://trainers.fide.com/2020/06/19/results-of-the-fide-trainer-online-seminar-indian-sub-continent-29-31-may-2020/

This will be submitted as our recommendation to FIDE but will likely only be formally approved when they meet in August/September 2020. If you accept the title awarded, please make payment to FIDE for the following title fees (inclusive of a two year licence):

FIDE Trainer - Euros 200

FIDE Instructor - Euros 100

National Instructor and Developmental Instructor - Euros 50

The deadline is end July and please copy me with your transaction record.

Bank Details:

NAME: FEDERATION INTERNATIONALE DES ECHECS

BANK: CAIXABANK S.A.

ADDRESS: AV. DIAGONAL, 621-629, 0828 BARCELONA

EURO ACCOUNT

• IBAN: ES32 2100 0555 3107 0028 5124

• BIC/CODE SWIFT: CAIXESBBXXX

TRG PayPal Account: TRGpayment@fide.com

Participant's Feedback

The seminar was great. Thank you Chessbase India for organizing such seminar. - Shrutika Prachand

Thanks a lot. Really enjoyed all classes. I liked the style of presentation of Mr Sagar shah very much.. I am one of his fan of his youtube videos. Thanks Supriyam Ma’am for moderated all classes in systematic way. 100% happy on this seminar. - Syed Rehman

It was great seminar. Great players like Yusupov, Sokolov, Yu Shaoteng etc teaching was wonderful experience. Enjoyed thoroughly. Nice learning. Very well co ordinated by Chesa base india, Peter Long and others involved. Over all it is life time memory. Thanks a lot. - Kandi Ravi

I enjoyed the seminar so much. Thank you for inviting great lecturers sharing knowledge which is very worthwhile. I feel very grateful for everything you have done for us! - Jack Hu (Hu Tao)

The seminar was very instructive and also to attend a lecture by chess legends like Yusupov was literally dream come true. However I do have a suggestion. It would be great if a well structured syllabus can be provided on what to teach beginners, intermediate and advanced level students. I think if such a syllabus can be formed after consultation with different great coaches, it can be made into a standard syllabus for chess and more coaches would benefit from it. This would help players as well. - Sanjay Pillai

Super Seminar by FIDE & ChessBase India. - Sourav Kumar Roy

Overall, I appreciated this seminar. Some lectures were really instructive and well-explained. Thank you for organizing this event! - Dominique Li

The seminar was excellent All the sessions were very helpful to me both as player and trainer also. Thank you so much. I hope you organize more online seminars for players and trainers. - Soumitra Tambe

This seminar was good and came in good crucial time as I transitioned to a full-time trainer and working on my Chess. It has been great f there was some reading materials that we can keep or resources we could use. Thank you for organizing the seminar, and I feel that it has impacted and will propel the chess community around the world further. - Wagish Rai

It was great experience. We got chance to learn from legends. All of them explained in great details. Also the management was very smooth. Thank you for organizing such a great event. Even more great thing was we can have it at sitting at home. No trouble at all. Wish you all the best.For future events. - Sagar Waghmare

At the outset I would like to congratulate chess base India for the initiative they are taking to popularize chess under active guidance of Sagar. The trainers camp conducted was another step in this direction. - Gurpreet Pal Singh

Dear Supriya,I was very interested by the seminar. The format (video on line with questions in the chat) is perfect. All in all, it was positive, but my final appreciation depends on whether (and when)we will receive the documents that several trainers accepted when asked to send us -this is in my opinion a minimum for the lecturer to provide the bases with the games and positions that we have studied in such a seminar -that also means valuable material for active trainers like me. I was very happy with the lectures by Yusupow, Motylev and Sokolov -those lecturers were in fact the main reason for my inscription. If I can make some reproch, they should not use so many well known examples as exercices . All in all,I was very pleased to hear them, they were good ! I was also very interested by the subject of Chess Base preparation (Sagar Shah) and learned (or was able to remember thx to Sagar) several useful tricks. The main problem of the seminar is that the level was not homogeneous. I expected the public to be composed only of experienced trainers with a certain level, like 2200, as the announce of the seminar in Ch Base had led me to think. When I did such a seminar in France, 1993, public was +2200. Nevertheless some subjects were interesting only for beginners (players or trainers), like Yu who basically did two hours of endings lessons lessons for a 1400/1500 level, without other than technical explanations or Boskov who spoke about elementerary psychological notions, that could apply to anything. I believe psychology could be a great subject, if specific and dealing with competitive chess,explained by a specialist. Those two lectures were uninteresting to me. I don't think that the level of the lecturer was the problem, but may be the level of the public they adressed. This is something to change I think, or may be some lectures could be seen in common, and others by level/experience. Luther spoke about useful topics, and was ok, but not so interesting that he could have been, had he shown more examples and more explained his practice. In general that was a problem, most trainers, when dealing with positions and games, treated us like normal students,-Yusupow apart who was the only one to be specific about what a trainer could /should do. So a positive opinion, and very positive if I receive the bases with the games and positions that we treated. All the best from Paris. - Emmanuel Nieman

I am very much impressed by the seminar. The world famous trainers shared their experience as a player and trainer. Their experience, their insight towards the chess is very much helpful for the trainers like me. All most all the trainers are very good... I was enormously benefited by three ... In fact they changed my vision towards chess...

1. Mr. Arthur Yusupov:

He showed the way how a classical game knowledge help the trainer/player to go for an extra mile of distance. The studying of classics is must for understanding the concepts more deeply. All these are good.

2. Mr. Sagar Shah:

Apart from using of chessbase for opening preparation and prepare against the opponent at higher level, Sagar shah revealed a secret about Corrospondance Chess Database. Most of the people using the correspondence database for opening reference only. I think 99% are doing the same. But in his lecture Sagar Shah showed us how a Rfb8 move replacing the move Rab8 change the result from losing to draw. It was really amazing. From this I came to learn how to use the Correspondence database to analyse the middle game positions. It is really really a great secret... Iam sure no body knows it... Thanks a lot Sagar....

The second point I would like to mention in Sagar lecture is in Vidith's opening preparation went upto 26 moves where he deliberately avoid preparing the Anand game Knight sacrifice at d4 and preparing the side line also very thoroughly... A Grand master's thinking and Grand Master's preparation.

The third point- Right from the Chessbase 9, I have been searching the an option called "Generate Report". We prepare a repertoire and mark it as repertoire database. Then select the new games from TWIC or Update from Mega DB, click on the generate report buttion, then the new database is select those games which are in our opening repertoire. This way we can save lot of time and no need to see those five/three thousand games. In my opinion, only chessbase 9 have this option, later chessbase versions i could not find. Hence, still this day iam using chessbase 9 even simultaneously Iam using chessbase 15. But yesterday, Sagar Shah showed my this option in CB 15. I asked many senior players including two GMs about this. Surprisingly, they not even know this option lies in Chess base. Thanks a lot Sagar, about this awakening.

3. Ivan Sokolov:

I read his book on middle game and worked with some examples, but in a true sense, he gave a beautiful key to lock open any position. The key is Dynamic structure/ Static Structure. When to convert the structure from one type to another as per our convenience. If the resulting structure is beneficial for us we go for conversion, If it is not beneficial then we try to restrict/stop the conversion. In the light of this concept I studied two games last night, surprisingly this works and the depth of understanding has been enhanced at least 100 points if we calculate in rating wise. Like this, I can share much more things about the seminar. My overall experience of this seminar is outstanding and life time opportunity.. Thanks to Chessbase India, as it always brings down the things with low price to reach much more needy (books, softwares, chessbase account all are very reasonable price), this time also it did a great service to Indian Chess... Last but not least, I am very much well versed with the features of Zoom software. Upton now, I use team viewer and watsup video call for the online chess. Now, I realized the user friendly features of zoom software and it can be multi/meeting type environment where a trainer save lot of time. I am going to subscribe zoom premium account and make all the students to join two to three classes in a week and I can utilize my free time to improve my chess and read/practice new literature in chess. Before that I conducted classes at two three areas at city and conducting separate online classes. All will come into one platform now. Zoom is such a great time saving software...Thanks a lot...In fact, thanks is very small word... I am indebted to chessbase India for life time... - Rajkumar Potnuru

Seminar was great. GM Yu Shoateng explanation was short and to the point but his accent made it difficult to understand. And the voice kept breaking. Otherwise throughout the seminar it was smooth and without interruptions. You and IM Sagar Shah were great. Sagar said he will share power point file with trainers. (We did not receive). Luther, Dejan were also great. And meeting and listening to GM Arthur Jussupow was like a master lion speaking about chess to all animals of the Chess world. I suggest in future lectures please add GM approach to Beginners level, GM approach to Intermediate level and GM approach to Advanced level. Also in lectures GM Suggestions of books at each level. (Recommenced). GM approach of physical activity required as kids are sitting preparing for tournaments and simultaneously going to school. Yoga was mentioned but would like to listen GM saying more on it. And suggest some YouTube channels. Rest if I recall will email you. Also please update when will the results of this seminar come out. And I’m sure you will email us. This seminar was really good. Will implement lot of suggestions to my students. - Jaspal Singh

I think the seminar was already good, such as the timing, the theme and the invited resource persons. continue to improve service to participants. my suggestion is that there is an active personal in charge who contacts the participants and is ready to provide answers if there are complaints - Nuruddin M

The online programme was meticulously planned and executed.. Though our trainers are great players , they are so simple and humble while teaching us . At this age my eagerness to know more and more about chess fulfilled here. Among the Trainers/Lecturers , I have personal acquaintance with both Sagar Shah and Artur Yussupov. I met them on different occasions and also Similarly I know personally both Jacob Aaagaard and Peter Long the tireless officials. Ms Supriya Bhat , the Chess base India official monitored the programme so well with her simple and kind words. I was so elated that I was one among the seasoned and also young talented coaches both from our country and also abroad. Among the 80 participants or so, I had the opportunity of even playing with my good old chess friends including IM Sharad Tilak, WGM Bagyashree Thipsay, IA R.R.Vasudevan , Vinod Bhagwat to mention a few. Overall I admit that I learnt a lot and further more enjoyed this online programme very. All those chess I come across in the meeting would be surely useful for me to train my students in the "Kameswaran Chess Academy" and share the knowledge with my current contacts too. My wife Mrs R.Hemalatha , my son FIDE Master & FT K.Visweswaran and other members in the "Stay Home" here in the Covid period encouraged me and also appreciated my pursuit of chess knowledge . . I felt that I was in the programme as in reality and not felt that I was online throughout ! Well done ChessBase India !! - V. Kameswaran

I hope that in the future FIDE will often hold a short online training by Mr Jusupov for participants who pass this seminar, at a reasonable cost.. Nice experience join this seminar.....I am happy. - Ardhy Margana

Thank you so much ChessBase India and team. It was a great experience. - Vid Krish

My impression during the fide trainer online seminar was of course very happy and beneficial for me because I learned directly from great people. A lot of new knowledge I gained, especially how to learn and teach better in the future for my students. I hope chess can bring me to be successful like the successful people in chess so far. Hopefully I can get yesterday's teaching modules or referrals and suggestions for developing achievements in the world of coaching or the world of athletes - Rian Kapriaga

It was indeed great pleasure listening to lectures by IM and GMs. "That was nice move !"- I wish it continued for a week! A model question paper and answers would have boosted the confidence of the aspirants. With immense gratitude - R Raman

It was truly a privilege to have attended this seminar listening to great chess players including Artur Jussupow and Ivan Sokolov. Thanks so much for opportunity. Zoom connectivity was absolutely fine except some minor technical issues during Yu Shaoteng’s session. With 80+ participants, its actually a good idea to mute everyone and get questions answered through chat channel. Sesssion with Sagar was enriching on how to make maximum use of Chessbase. Overall, it was an enriching seminar. Only feedback I would have is that the participants are notified about login details, atleast couple of days before event or an email update stating when exactly login details will be sent. In my case, I didn’t get any email until Thursday morning (for an event starting Friday) and I had to search online to figure out whom to contact (no telephone details available anywhere) for getting an update. - Praveen Venkatachari

It was a very well organised camp by chessbase India. I really enjoyed and learned a lot of new things. Thank you. - Sauravh Kherdekar

Congratulations to Chess Base India for organizing this FIDE Trainer Seminar Online and let foreigner participating. Most important takeaways for me: - „Story-Telling“ very important for remembering - Now I know „the topics“ to teach to my students - „ChessBase Software Functions“ new for me - Never hit a Chess Student if 😤! - Know how works „Zoom Meetings Group“ to apply by myself. Remark: - Sometimes the course was more about „teaching me“ instead of „teach me how to teach a chess student“ In general I give the course 8 points of 10. Best regards from Switzerland - Andrin Wüest

The Fide Trainers seminar which was help on 29th to 31st May 2020 was excellent. I have learned a lot from these sessions about FIDE trainers commission, calculation ideas, psychological training methods, opening preparation and , end game training to give to kids. Also learned about how to study the classical games, difference between positional play and tactical play, pawn structures and understanding about static position and dynamic positions. Thank You for providing the world class trainers to this seminar. Overall its a great experience to attend the sessions and i can train the students with more confidence. - Vijaya Bhaskar

I really enjoyed the session, it was very instructive to how to teach kids and also how to get them intrested in learning. Not only that, also how to work with advanced students. And it’s best that we could utilize our time in lockdown and learnt something useful. Thanks to chessbase india to make this happen! - Pratik Patil

Excellent training sessions and organizing, learned a lot of new things. Sending material regarding the seminar on the topics covered would make us feel happier. - Abdul Azeez Shaikh

It is really very nice and informative in all terms. Thanks a lot to Chessbase India for organising it smoothly.- Vinod Bhagwat

Firstly, A warm thanks to you all for arranging and conducting such a wonderful workshop for the upcoming and seasoned trainers. It was great to hear from many GMs and experts and some of them were idols - like Yusupov and Motylev!

It was also a great opportunity to network with others across India and all over the world!

As regards to the feedback, here is a somewhat detailed:

1. Started with an excellent session by GM Luther - while it was more introductory on FIDE, I enjoyed it thoroughly. Could have been a little bit more content-wise rich for Trainers perspective.

2. Second session by GM Bojkov had some technical glitches to start with but came out well. He also extended it to cover the lost time. His session on what it takes and matters to be a good trainer was extremely valuable focussing on the soft skills which do not normally get covered. Would be great to have his slides or notes for reference.

3. Third session by GM Sokolov was an absolute delight on the nature and effects of static and dynamic positions. Amazing insights! Would love to get the games he covered as part of the session.

4. IM Sagar Shah's session was very enlightening on the various features and capabilities in ChessBase and how we could utilise it. Hopefully, you will make it available on CB India youtube channel as well. Good stuff! And he promised to share the "notes" that he recorded during the session. Can you share it please ?

5. The GM Shaoteng-session on importance of endgames was good but I sincerely felt this was one session whose focus could have been better aligned. Many of the endgames were already known to most plus we expected more on how to teach endgames to students better.

6. GM Motylev's sessions on Sat night and Sun morning were simply beautiful. Great illustration, insight into thinking of GMs and enlightening in so many ways. Superb!

7. The 8th session by former World No. 3 GM Yusupov was the most enjoyable - for his sheer simplicity, the anecdotes and historical context and examples and a very nice storytelling style. I will remember it for long.

Overall, a very well conducted workshop and I hope we build on this and have some more follow-up programs later in 2020 or 2021. If you can help with getting us the notes/slides that the presenters agreed to share, it would be stupendous! - Shivaji Apte