The Steps Method

For our lessons we use the Steps method which was developed by Rob Brunia and Cor Van Wijgerden. All information about this teaching method can be found at www.stappenmethode.nl.

The great thing about the Steps method is that it is the thread that runs through the chess training. But with following the lessons and making the exercises alone you are not going to make much progress as a chess player. You can only get better by regularly playing real playing real games on a regular basis. This will give you the chance to actually apply what you have learned in the lessons in a game. And this is not easy, because after each move in a game you have to make a new task, as it were Find the strongest move.

You can practice with other kids from the club, but participating in tournaments outside the club is also possible. There are regular tournaments for beginners, the so-called ‘debutant tournaments’. There are also in Flanders about 11 youth tournaments which are part of a ‘criterium’. As a club we participate in most tournaments and transportation is provided.

What is certainly as important as playing games is to ‘analyze’ them. This is to go over the moves you have made with a stronger chess player and see what you could have done better. So you learn quickly from your mistakes and you play the next game a strong move. Who said again “You learn twice as much from a lost game than from a won game”?