GM Dhopade to give online training to beginners

By Paritosh Pramanik
Oct 10, 2020

ENCOURAGED by the huge success to his online chess course, head coach of Chess Pathshala Grandmaster Swapnil Dhopade has decided to move a step further and train budding chess players around the world.
The first Grandmaster of Vidarbha Dhopade has decided to introduce a course exclusively for the beginners.
Earlier this year Dhopade, who has created many a chess champions, had planned to start chess academies at Amravati, Yavatmal and Wani. But due to COVID-19 pandemic he could not start them. However, Dhopade and his team decided to promote chess online and make future champions.
“Now we are concentrating in providing online coaching,” Dhopade told ‘The Hitavada’.
Informing about his new course for the beginners, Dhopade said the course has been divided in three levels which will be of 25 days each.
“The first level will be for students who have learnt rules of the game.
“This is the best course to start with assuming that the players know how to play chess.
“Through this first level, the player will learn the basic mates, captures, defence and tactics. The last part of this level will be test sessions which will evaluate the learning of the player,” he explained.
“The second level will see players learn principles of opening, introduction to various chess openings, basic endgames, a complete opening repertoire from white side and also from the black side.
“This level will also culminate with test sessions,” he added.
“In the last and third level of course, a player will be taught common tactical themes of the game, basic knight endgames, bishop endgames and practical pawn endgames,” said Dhopade who works as Office Superintendent with Central Railways at Nagpur.
“The beginners will also he taught about common mating patterns and will also have playing and analysing sessions with the coach. This level will also end with test sessions,” he added.
The course is getting good response and over 30 players have already enrolled with Chess Pathshala. Not only from India, budding players from the United States, United Kingdom, Norway, UAE and Bangladesh have also joined the course.
The coaches who are working with Chess Pathshala are the ones who are trained by Dhopade himself.
“The coaches are trained by me and they are well versed with the training material,” informed Dhopade who won the GM title in 2015. Dhopade has worked with players like GM Raunak Sadhwani, Sankalp Gupta of Nagpur. Dhopade, who decided to stop playing competitive chess and took coaching three years ago, was coach of Indian women team at the Asian Nations Cup and at Batumi Olympiad 2018.
“I want to produce champions from rural India and specially Maharashtra. There is a lot of potential. They only need the correct guidance.
“That’s what I am trying to do,” Dhopade concluded.