ORLANDO CHESS HOUSE

July 15-19, 2019: Chess Camp at Bahama Bay Resort

Summer camps are all about creating memories, and this five-day camp in Bahama Bay Resort in Orlando was no exception for the 18 participants.

Five days filled with chess strategies and games, tournaments, new points of view, new boundaries, fun and laughter, nice talk, trash talk, old friendships, new friendships, learning the lazy way, learning the hard way - or simply said, growing wiser. Hope we can do it again next year!

Special thanks to Camille Sibbitt for stepping in as assistant coach, and to Kevin Sibbitt for professional photo coverage beside helping us out with all possible and impossible tasks. Thank you guys!

Andrew Xing wins Autumn Open U1700 - Amy Xing is 2nd

Andrew Xing got his long-expected breakthrough at Autumn Open in Orlando, winning the U1700 section with almost perfect score.

Andrew started with 4/4 wins, defeating his opponents with great confidence. In the last round he faced his sister Amy Xing who also had an amazing tournament and finished on a clear 2nd place. Congratulations guys!

Final standings ...

Sept 3, 2018: Bach with 2350 performance at Fl State Ch

Bach played his best tournament so far, reaching a decent 2350 performance at Florida State Championship!

Playing in the top section, Bach started out by defeating a 2249 opponent, and then continued the solid play throughout the tournament. The crown of Bach's performance was his draw against GM Finegold (2567) in the final round.

Ten year old Bach is no upstart in chess. He is already a serious player, and he showed some vast potential already in July, winning the U2100 Southern Open.

Congratulations Bach! Final standings ...

July 29, 2018: Bach wins Southern Open U2100!

Bach was on the right track at Southern Open, where he delivered a confident 4/5 performance and found himself in a 5-way tie at the very top of the Final Standings. Formally, all 5 participants are considered winners. However, Bach achieved the highest tiebreak, as he collected his points from the strongest opposition.

Congratulations, Bach! Finals Standings ...

July 21, 2018, Central Florida Chess Summit

We had the honor to host the First Central Florida Chess Summit with representatives from all major chess organizations and clubs in the area.

The idea behind the Summit was simply to work as a team, collecting the expertise of all participants with the purpose of promoting chess and its enormous benefits to all age groups in Orlando area.

The Summit was the just first step. Details about our work will be published soon on Central Florida Chess site. Keep updated on https://www.centralflchess.org/

April 27-29, Space Coast Open

Space Coast Open is traditionally stronger than other local Florida events as it attracts a number of strong players from out of state. 2018 was no exception, with 5 GMs in the top section. In R1, Martin Hansen delivered the biggest upset in the Master section by winning over FM Corey Acor (2401). In Class A, Bach Ngo was convincing in all his games except a highly unfortunate mishap in R2, which meant he had to accept a 3rd place tie. Andy Yang had a good tournament, ending with 3.5 p. right bellow Bach. A special shout out to our friends from UCF, Karim Essofi and Tyler Clark who won respectively Class D and U1200! Congratulations to all! Final standings ...

April 6-8: Bach impressed at 2018 National Junior High

4th grader Bach Ngo impressed this weekend, finishing 10th at 2018 National Junior High Championship K-8 section among 300 participants from all over US. What makes Bach's performance remarkable is the fact that all his opponents were 7th and 8th graders, and Bach was both the youngest and the highest placed Floridian. Great performance, Bach!

Final standings ...

March 2-4: Florida State Championships

Nice results at the States by many of our students. Congratulations to all!

 Bach Ngo competed two groups higher in the strong K8 section and finished 2nd!

Andrew Xing was confident in the K5 section, played real well and ended on a well deserved 3rd place!

Daniel Hughes was a bit disappointed with the 3rd place in K3 after being real close to winning his group.

Anthony Dang won 4 and lost to Daniel only. A well deserved 4th place.

February 11, 2018: Master Class on  Maneuvering vs Dynamics

All we can say is: That's the way it should be done. Photos ...

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2017

The Nationals, December 8-10, 2017

K4: Bach and Grayson tie for 2nd with 6/7. Congrats!

K3: Erick with another Co-Champion title!

K3: First National trophy for Daniel for his Top 20 performance!

All results ...

December 3th: Master Chess on  Hedgehog and King's Indian Attack

The last Master Class before the Nationals was both about Mastering the already known approach and introducing new initiatives. So far no more classes planned for the year. When we resume in 2018 the plan is to put some seious work on the practical side of chess - application of theories in practice. See you in 2018!

November 5, 2017: Master Workshop on Pawn Structures

Adopting the Master Aproach is a lot less challenging and time consuming when working under GM guidance. Great to see it's working.

September 24, 2017: Martin co-winner of Autumn Open

Martin continued his winning streak at Orlando Autumn Open, finishing on another 1st place tie with John Ludwig and Abhimanyu Banerjee. Bach (9) was in the fight for the top places too - in the Premier group. After R4 Bach was at a tied 2nd place with a personal performance of 2430 and finished the tournament on another personal high rating, 2030. Congratulations guys! Final standings ...

September 4, 2017: Andy Yang is Florida State Champion U2000

Andy got his first serious breakthrough at the U2000 Championship, winning with style, a full point ahead of his competitors! Strong results like this never come as a surprise. Knowing Andy, we believe that this is just the beginning... Congratulations Andy! Final standings ...

September 4, 2017: Amy Xing is Florida State Champion U1600!

Amy delivered an amazing performance at the 2017 Arnold Denker Florida State Championship - a performance that brought he the title Florida State Champion U1600. Technically, she tied for 1st with David Sheppard from GA, who was not in the run for the FL title. Congratulations Amy! Final standings ...

August 20, 2017: Master class on Pawn Structures

Yes, we are taking shortcuts ... to mastering the Middlegames. Pawn Structures are going to be the Master Topic of the fall and we expect to get around almost everything. Both specific and meta level instruction by GM Lars Bo Hansen and WIM Jen Hansen. Photos ...

August 13, 2017: Bach 2nd in Ocala Open

After a rock solid +3 -1 =5 performance at World Open U2000, Bach continued his success streak in Ocala Open, finishing 2nd in the Open group, a whole point ahead of the rest of the crowd. His result in Ocala added 51 points to his rating! Bach's current 1971 could easily prove to be a Top 5 position in the US Under 9 on the September list. Way to go Bach! Final standings...

July 4th, 2017: Martin winner of the World Open U2200!!!

Yes, he is the actual winner of World Open in Philadelphia U2200 by tie-break, even if the Final Standings Table doesn't really show it. Great achievement by Martin, who couldn't stay away from chess after the 9 rounds main event and also joined the Blitz in the evening - and won against GM Fishbein among others. Final standings ...

July 4th, 2017: Great performance by Bach at World Open in Philadelphia!

Bach proved that he belongs with the big guys after a super solid +3 -1 =5 performance at World Open U2000. Bach was seeded in the lower half which meant that he was paired against higher rated opponents in every round - Not a problem at all!

While still waiting for the World Open to be rated, looks like Bach moves up to top 5 in US in his age group. Congratulations Bach! Final Standings ...

June 24th, 2017:Martin wins the OCG Quick

Martin won his prep tournament before World Open in Philadelphia next week after winning all his games. The half point bye in the first round was a necessity, as Martin is helping us coach the beginner class held next door. Final standings...

June 23-25, 2017: Bach and James tie for 2nd at the International Open in Kissimmee

Both played one section up, which means that they were bottom seeded in the initial lineup. Both ended in the top demonstrating strong play and fighting spirit! Besides being coached by us, Bach and James recently started working with each other, playing training games and analyzing. A bit unfortunate that they had to face each other in the final round.

Final standings ...

June 16-18, 2017: Zoe with impressive result in Las Vegas!

4.5 of 5 and a winning position in the final round: looked like Zoe was winning the U1900 section of the National Open in Vegas! But chess can be that cruel, one simple mistake! Nevertheless, winning 116 rating points in one tournament is sensational and a strong statement by Zoe that the chess world has to pay attention to her name! Final standings ...

June 9-11, 2017: Sunshine open

Martin ties for 3rd in the Premier section with 3.5/5! Strong play and strong performance by Martin!

Another confident tournament for Bach in the U2000! Bach was in the game for the 1st place before last round but lost to Paul Leggett by a blunder in a draw position. Bach shows that he is ready for a breakthrough very very soon! Final standings...

June-July 2017: The new Beginner classes

Summer time is chess time, and time to pick up new challenges. Beginner classes were never in our thoughts but a number of requests convinced us to give it a try. We started in June, and now we have smooth running classes every Saturday throughout July. Photos from the classes ...

New participants are accepted at any time. We have additional coaches to help us welcome and include new students. More info and registration ...

May 12-14, 2017: The Supernationals

The Supernationals are without comparison the biggest chess event in the US. This year the event attracted over 5000 kids from all over the country.

A few of our student went to Nashville and made it to the top placements in their groups!

K3: Bach Ngo started out with 4 out of 4 and looked like a strong candidate for the first place. His fifth round was the critical one facing top seeded Mardov from Chicago. Bach had to win his game and after 20 moves it looked like his victory was only matter of time. Unfortunately, he made a few small mistakes that his more experienced opponent confidently took advantage of. Bach recovered in the last two rounds and finished 8th of 218 participants. Still a real good result!

K3: Erick Zhao finished 17th winning 5 games out of 7. Before the last round Erick was in the fight for the 3rd place but the odds were against him having to face a 2000+ opponent in the 7th. Anyway, another great performance by Erick!

K3: Daniel Hughes gained valuable experience and confidence winning three of his games. This performance was a strong confirmation that Daniel is ready to break through the 1100 barrier any time soon!

K6: Zoe Zelner is never bothered by the fact that she is one of the very few girls in a tournament. In fact, she took the Silver last year and working with her for 8 hours at the Fast Track just before the Supernationals convinced her that she can repeat the success. Zoe had a flying start with 4 out 5 and looked like a strong candidate for top placement. Unfortunately she lost in round 6 against a top seeded guy and finished with 4.5/7 after a draw in the last round. Good performance by Zoe winning rating and experience!

K8: Timmy Mayes played his best tournament ever finishing with the impressing +2 score in a rating field that averaged 250 above himself! Timmy is extremely serious with his chess. Of course he also took the the 8-hour Fast Track chess challenge right before the Supernationals, and his level convinced us that he was ready to play in the top. All in all, Timmy delivered the largest number of upsets winning 80 rating points in the process!

K12: Brandon Sibbitt took a last minute decision to participate, a combo of an opportunity to go to Nashville with friends and a confidence boost by the Fast Track chess marathon 3 days before the event. After a shaky start in the first round, Brandon won every game he played! Brandon has been on a winning streak lately and we are going to see him cross the 2000 very soon!

Supernationals Final Standings ...

5/7/2017: 8-hour Fast Track class before the Super Nationals

Six of our highest rated students couldn't think of a better way to spend the Sunday before the Super Nationals. This was our toughest class ever, 8 hours with high level concepts, and it of course with improvised blitz after closing hours. Good luck in Nashville everyone! Photos ...

4/9/2017: Bach and Erick tie for 3rd in the strong Palatka Open!

Bach was real close to winning all of his games, beating a number of higher rated opponents and finishing with the mpressive 2180 performance. Way to go Bach!

4/8/2017: Master Workshop on Best Strategies in Key Positions

Probably one of the most challenging topics of all: When is it time to transform the game and what is the best way to do it? We wish to believe that the recent wave of good results by our participants is a reflection of both Master classes and private lessons. Photos ...

Photos ...

3/18/2017: Master Workshop on Key Positions

The best thing about any workshop is to see  the new knowledge in use.  We only gor started with this Key Topic. We continue three weeks from now, and we'll bring some new elements too. Photos from the class ...

Photos from the class ...

2/25/2017: Master Chess Workshop on Strategies that Work, Wesley So’s approach.

23-years old Wesley So has won a number of super GM tournaments during the past year, and has climbed up to #2 in the World Rating List. This Saturday we looked deeper into his playing style in attempt to reveal the secrets of his success. Photos ...

2/17-18/2017 USAT Championsip

The ladies, with Jen on Board#1, were the only of our teams to get trophies at the USAT Championship in Orlando. Nevertheless, we had some real good individual results all over the field. Martin finished on +2 (3.5/5) on the tough Board 1 in the open section. Brandon had his breakthrough against a number of 1900-2100 opponents and showed that he is only a step away from defeating them with confidence. Bach reached a milestone winning against his first 2000+ opponent. Cannon crossed USCF 1000. Photos from the event ...

1/29/2017: Zoe Zelner wins 2017 Central Florida Class B! Zoe (12) is real serious with her chess right now, working with three chess coaches and attending every single Master Workshop. Congratulations with the impressing achievement, Zoe! All results here ...

1/21/2017: 6-years old Cannon Farragut ties for 2nd

In the 3rd Grade group - playing one group up - at Florida North Regional Championship! Cannon, student of Jen Hansen, is only starting with chess, but he has already attracted lots of attention with his sharp play. Congratulations, Cannon!

1/22/2017: Master Chess Class

This workshop was about integrating opening-specific preparation into existing knowledge of chess - and using this new knowledge back to solve unknown positions. Photos from the event ...

1/15/2017: Orlando Chess Festival

We teamed up with the UCF Chess Club and Orlando Chess Academy to organize the first annual Orlando Chess Festival. Thanks to our partners, all kids and parents, and everyone who showed up at UCF for this event! Photos from the Festival ...

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2016

12/18/2016: Bronze medals at the Nationals!

Bach  Ngo and Erick Zhao both finished third in their categories at the Nationals 2016!

Bach (student of Jen) started the tournament with 5/5 and the dream about becoming a champion seemed very very close. Playing on Board#1 can make anyone nervous, and R6 showed the importance of experience. In spite of his loss against the top rated player, Bach bounced back in the final round and the win secured him the 3rd place trophy! Congratulations, Bach!

Erick is only partly our student being a regular participant in our Master classes, but this does not make us less proud of his result! Erick was a National Kindergarten Champion (with coach Miguel Ararat), then he won another National Champion Title  last year in the K1 group (with coach Jen Hansen) and became 3rd this year (with coach Brett). Congratulations, Erick!

12/04/2016: Master Chess Class on Strategies in Action

They say there are no shortcuts to becoming a chess master, but we might have invented one. We started last time and continued this weekend with a concept that moved many participants levels ahead. Thanks to everyone for another great class! Photos ...

11/06/2016: Master Chess Class on Strategies That Work

It is amazing how a little adjustment of attention in the right direction can change the game. They say we nailed it this time, and we probably did :-) Judging by the practice games, everyone moved at least a few steps forward. Photos ...

10/30/2016: Nikhil Kumar is The 2016 World Champion U12!

Nikhil delivered an absolutely amazing performance at the World Championship in Batumi. He did not just win the title World Champion, he impressed everyone with his confident play, winning easily against his top rated opponents. In fact, Nikhil secured the title one round before the end by winning against another US participant.

What was the recipe of Nikhil's success? A combination of great talent, hard work, extremely supportive and dedicated parents, and of course, the best coaching in the world! Nikhil's World Champion Title is probably the highest achievement of a Floridian Chess Player ever! Congratulations, Nikhil!

10/16/2016: Master Chess Class on Modern Ideas in Chess

Chess today i definitely not the same as chess  back in  the eras of Morphy, Botvinnik or Nimzowitsch. There are lessons to be learned and choices to be made. But first of all, it all starts with knowledge.  This was one of those classes where concepts were turned upside down.  Photos ...

9/25/2016: Southern Class   Championship

Strong performance by our students at Southern Class Championship in Orlando

Nikhil: 1st place in Expert Class. National Master title!

Theo: 2nd place tie in Expert Class

Naman: 4th place tie in class A

Timmy and Arnold: 1st place tie in Class B

Connor: 4th place tie in Class B

Jasper: 2nd place tie in Class C

View all results here ...

9/18/2016: Challenger Workshop on Center and  Space

Good chess, at any level, is about controlling space. For a first time ever, we replaced the quiet playing exercises with consultation games played in Ultimate Moves format. Discussing strategies with teammates is all about learning. Definitely a success!

9/11/2016: Master Workshop on Central Pawn Structures

The Master class is entering a totally new stage. We are moving fast forward, from fundamentals to the higher levels of strategy - having solid fun in the process! Video evidence ...

The Summer of 2016

This summer brought a number of well-deserved victories for our students. We wish to thank everyone for making us happy and proud! Some highlights:

• Daniel (age 7) won the U1000 Ocala Summer Classic and officially doubled his rating from the beginning of 2016!
• Theo (age 15) impressed in the U2100 section of Southern Open in Orlando winning the tournament with a perfect score 5/5!
• Bach (age 8)  has gained 450 new rating points this year, approaching Master level - at the age of 8!
• Naman (age 9) won the 2016 US Blitz Championship in Indianapolis U2000, a regular open tournament for all ages.
• Naman won the U2100 side event at the World Open in Philadelphia in July, moving up to top 10 in US in his age group.
• Nikhil (age 12) tied for 1st in the U2100 section of World Open in Philadelphia in July. (Open event for players of all ages)
• Nikhil tied for the second in the U2200 section of Washington International in August (Open event for players of all ages)

8/9-8/12/2016: US Chess School in Orlando

It was a real pleasure  to coach the 4-day chess camp by US Chess School held in Orlando. Sixteen of the best young players in the country were gathered in Bahama Bay Resort in Orlando. As one of the participants expressed it: " I learned more in the one week that I ever remember learning, and I had the best time ever" Thanks to Greg Shahade for organizing this event! Photos...

7/16/2016 Master Class: The Art of Doing Nothing

We came up with this topic during the Fast Track Week while discussing strategies. A conversation went like this: - Is the position  ready for attack? - No, not yet. - What do we do then? - We do nothing. - How do we do nothing? ... long silence... Balanced positions might seem dull, but beyond the surface they invite for both challenge and excitement. Yes, we are moving up! Photos...

7/10/2016 Challenger Class: Strategies

Acknowledging the fact that learning is best in active settings, we didn't even consider lecturing. Instead, we gave the participants a challenge: Observe with focused attention - Figure it out - Reflect - and Teach!!! The youngest - and toughest - teacher of the day was 7 years old Daniel. Photos ...

06/20-23/2016  Fast Track Chess Camp

The Fast Track Chess has become a summer tradition. This year too we had  a super intense chess week of 20 hours of Master Level chess. Keeping up momentum for four days in a raw  surely  pushed some limits! Average level of participating players was the highes ever,  1770. Photos ....

05/15/2016 Master Chess Class on Seeing the Invisible

This class was about the themes, ideas and pitfalls that only emerge when looking beyond the surface. It is about how to work with chess understanding on  a real Master level. Photos ...

03/19/2016 Master Chess Class on Flow

It was easy to lose track of time and space while mastering the  Flow of the game.  The day was simply not long enough: 30 minutes past the closing time everyone was still deeply engaged solving the clallenge of building graceful continuity in their games. Photos ...

03/13/2016 Two Champions and six runner ups at Florida States

Nikhil and Erick left no doubt about who the best player was in the K-8 and K-1 Florida State Championships this weekend. Nikhil finished with the perfect score 5 out of 5, Erick gave one draw in the last round and won the rest. Congratulations to our Florida State Champions!

Bach was in the game for the first place throughout the whole time winning his first 4 games. Unfortunately he couldn’t get more than a draw in the last round which left him at the "disappointing" 2nd place. Congrats, Bach!

Zoe, Naman, Connor, and Tim finished all in a tie for  2nd place  with 4 out of 5. Something to be happy about – and some space for improvement too! Congratulations guys!

Daniel is storming through at the moment. Well coordinated play and 3.5 points brought him the 7th place in the K-1 and a trophy almost bigger than himself! Only lack of experience kept him away from a 2nd place tie, after he took a draw in a totally winning position last round.

Tim was the most unfortunate 2nd place tiers in the K-8 Championship where 11 players tied with 4 out of 5. Tim had to go home without a trophy this time due to a low tie-break. Still, nothing can take away the fact that he played strong chess and performed well!

Shaya ended 50 rating points higher in the 8th place out of 51 participants in the K-8 U1000 Championship. With even stronger motivation for the game. Way to go, Shaya!

02/21/2016  Lars wins the Orlando Magic Chess Knight

A truly unique initiative by CFCC, combining basketball and chess. Winning the event, Lars earned two VIP seats for the Magic-Pacers game and the right to present the game ball mid-court to the officials and the two captains. View all results.  Photos from the event here ...   

02/20/2016  Board Vision

This Master Chess Workshop was about  the hard work behind the magic. Normally, the class would start at 10:05, or 10:15, spending some time to talk about recent tournaments, an interesting game, or a theoretical discussion. This time the class was  on at 9:45 already! Fourteen people in deep flow, absolute silence. And wait - No chess boards on the tables – all blindfold work!

01/31/2016 John, Bach and James winners at CFCL!

Real good results for three of our students at Central Florida Class: John Ludwig dominated the Master class winning all his games.  James Wnek made a 98 rating points jump by winning 3 games and 2 draws in Class B. This was enough to secure him a shared 1st place in the final standings. Bach Ngo (7), rated 1167 before the tournament, didn’t want to go for a predictably easy win in U1200 class. Instead, he insisted to play in Class D, to fight and learn against the tougher guys! Four victories and one draw later, Bach found himself in the very top of the final standings, on a tied 1st place, landing at 1374. Way to go boys!

01/23/2016 Daniel Hughes wins the 2016 Florida North/East Regional

Great performance by Daniel in Daytona Beach, winning the K-1 section with 3.5 points out of four! Mental toughness and determination: Daniel surely  has what it takes to be a winner in chess!

01/16/2016 Decision Making in Chess.

The more people study chess, the better they play. Of course. That's the obvious part. And we all know that's only half the story. The other half is the sum of all these weird things. In this class we took the chance to explore the link between Happiness and Chess: Stay centered – Keep it simple – Appreciate what you have – Learn from mistakes and then forget them – Have fun! Yes, some of the basic rules of making strong decisions in chess.

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2015

12/12/2015 The Music of Chess.

Definitely a different class! Chess explained with music or chess explained by music? Either way, music did create a state of mind to play  harmonious, creative, inspired - GOOD  games. Photos ...

December 4-6:  Nine trophies at the Nationals!!!

So happy to see  our kids among the winners!

Here are the trophy winners:

1st Grade Championship: Erick Zhao, 6.5 of 7. National Co-Champion!

2nd Grade Championship: Bach Ngo, 5 of 7, 13th place tie (173 players)

4th Grade Championship:  Naman Kumar, 6 of 7.   3rd place tie (184 players)

5th Grade Championship: Zoe Zelner, 6 of 7. 2nd place tie  (196 players)

6th Grade Championship: Timothy  Mayes, 5 of 7.  13th place tie (199 players)

7th Grade Championship: Nikhil Kumar, 5.5 of 7. 5th place tie (141 players)

7th Grade Championship U1400: Nathan Foo, 4 of 7. 3rd place

9th Grade Championship: Theo Slade, 5 of 7. 7th place tie (89 players)

10th Grade Championship: John Ludwig, 6.5 of 7. National Champion!

Details and more results here ...

11/21/2015 How to handle Opening Surprises. This highly relevant topic attracted 15 participants to the November Master Class. Only two weeks left to the Nationals. High focus and even higher efficiency!

10/22/2015 Stephen Han is a scholastic champion!   A great news from Taiwan and congrats to 8 year old Stephen! Stephen and his 11 year old brother Nathan became my students (Jen) this summer while visiting their grandparents in Orlando. Now, back in Taiwan, they still study and play chess with same contagious enthusiasm.  Looking forward to the next good news from you guys!

10/15/2015 Nikhil Kumar ties for 3rd place in the Open section of Autumn Open! Nikhil finished ahead of a number of strong 2150-2200 players. His success does not come as a surprise for anyone who has been following the 11 year old boy from Miami. As his coaches, Lars and I  are confident that Autumn Open was only the beginning! Cross table with results ...

10/05/2015 October Online Master Chess: Seems we have found the right format for the online classes. October class participants are telling us that they really enjoy their Mondays with   Strategic Endgames. They are also learning from the best :-) It was no coincidence that Lars  wrote Secrets of Chess Endgame Strategy: Lars is nearly impossible to beat in endgames. Search in ChessBase and you’ll find his games against Carlsen, Kamsky, Radjabov, Nakamura, Kramnik, Shirov, Ivanchuk, Adams, to mention few – and none of these top players managed to win against him.

10/04/2015 Pattern Recognition. We all know that chess is about pattern recognition. Patterns help us make the best decisions. Sunday Oct 4th was about learning the patterns of attacking the castled king.  Pleasure to see that  everyone advanced during the day - tons of beautiful attacks. This means that same players were also able to put up a decent defense. Bach impressed by finding an improvement  for Karpov with the defending pieces!

September 13: How to study chess was one of the most unconventional classes so far. Thinking about thinking – the Meta level challenge. A happy thought that we don’t have to shoot clichés to make people interested.

August 22: Chess Weekend in Gainesville. A truly inspiring weekend working with last year's National champions  from Gainesville.  Big Thank you to Coach Pyne, Miguel Ararat, Robert  Kaplan-Stein and John Harris for making this possible! More ...

August 1st: Old Style Master Chess is back in a one-day edition. Key Positions were tricky to work it, no doubt, so spending enough time on the homework was essential for this class. We were real pleased to receive so many creative and independent solutions with depth and thoroughness that you can't even expect   from high school students!  Photos ...

June 22-25: Fast Track Chess. This four-day chess camp was probably the most knowledge intense kids-only camp. Amazing to see levels rising day by day! Photos  ...

April 18-19: Playing good chess means knowledge, creativity and ... GOOD HABITS! This was by far thye most creative workshops we've held, and we are sure we broke up lots of bad habits to replace them with better ones. Our promise was "Improve by 200 rating points in one weekend" Exciting to see how people perform at Space Coast next weekend! 

March 21-22: Master Level Openings. The crowd is getting tougher, and so does the level of the workshops!  The Saturday was all about the openings, bringing it to the next level.  Believe it or not, this was the easy day!  Sunday was really intense, integrating Strategic and Technical endgames.  Thanks to all participants for two wonderful days! Photos ...

February 21-22: The Power of Natural Moves. Natural moves are tricky for the obvious reason that you need to define them as such. And the definition will be unique to its owner. This weekend's workshop  was certainly an eye-opener to everyone who was not a GM! Turns out, both “boring moves” and “wild sacs” belong to that category – you just have to know where and when to do what.  We repeated the format Rules-Reinforcement-Repetition. Yes we played Blitz! And tricked our brains to develop some new receptors  :-) 

January 10-11: Improvement Techniques.

The new Blitz format of the class was even a bigger success than expected. We are already looking for ways to build further on it - and we thank all our participants for their valuable feedback! The winners of the day were: January 10: Connor and Paul. January 11: Billy and Paul. Congratulations to you all! Photos from both days ...

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2014

December 6-7.

Another real good chess weekend with Positional Play as a catch-all theme. Most participants are playing at the Nationals next week, Good luck to everyone!!! Photos from the class here... 

Nov 8-9: 

If success is measured by achievements, this last workshop was probably our best so far. We worked with the advanced topics of positional play, maneuvering, building small advantages and practically turning an equal position into winning. In the three playing exercises all five games followed closely the plans from the actual grandmaster games! Confidence and mastery!   See photos ...

Sept 6-7:

Workshop on Sacrificing Material - Gambits, Attack and Defense.  As expected, the theme evolved to include thinking out of the box, challenging yourself to push own boundaries, and the path to excelling in chess. Probably the most demanding workshop since we started. Thanks to everyone who accepted the challenge! Photos  from the workshop ...

Upcoming event Oct 10: 

MAKING THE RIGHT MOVE UNDER UNCERTAINTY: A grandmaster perspective on Business Strategy, Chance and Risk. Keynote by Lars Bo Hansen, GM, PhD, MBA on Chance Management in Business.  For details: email lars@orlandochesshouse.com or check out our web site  later.

August 16-17: 

HOW NOT TO LOSE IN CHESS.  This workshop was about building up  sense of danger and learning how and when to employ different defensive strategies. We have already seen some of our participants using these strategies in their games! Photos from the August class here ...

July 19-20: 

This weekends's workshop was about PLAYING WITH THE MINOR PIECES. First time at the new place in Oviedo. Worked out great! Welcome to our new participants and thank you all for the amazing energy you brought with you! Photos ...

May  31- June 1: WINNING BETTER POSITIONS. 

One of our best seminars so far! And the last one in Bahama Bay Resort.  View the photos ... 

May 10-11, 2014: CLOSED PAWN STRUCTURES. They might seem pretty straight forward. However, closed pawn structures turned out to be a lot more dynamic than their reputation. We look forward to see some brilliant attacks in French, Caro Kann, King’s Indian by our players! Photos from this workshop ...

April 20, 2014:ATTACK-DEFENSE-AND COUNTER ATTACK The theme was a one-day follow up to our November class. Four of our most dedicated participants decided to spend their Easter Sunday learning  how to organize a sound attack, when and how to defend, and how to be ready to strike back when the opponent makes a mistake. Photos ...

April 5-6, 2014 Rook endgames are extremely tricky and evaluations can change with one inaccurate move. Knowing your target positions is essential for making the right choices. The technical endgames are the building blocks of understanding, the rest is creativity. We thank all participants for being well prepared, for working hard and focused for hours and for the great creative atmosphere both days! Photos from the class in our gallery …

February 22-23, 2014 We are happy to announce our first Full House with Turbo Master Chess! Probably the toughest weekend so far for the participants. Everyone had just one day to learn how to make the computer work for you in your opening preparation. And another day on self-improvement. Those are huge themes in tournament chess and we will definitely repeat them later. Photos ...

January 25-26, 2014 Turbo-Master Workshop on Pawn Structure Chess. Great atmosphere, high motivation, and quality chess: The best way to describe our first merged class, with both kids and adults. Most participants have already signed up for the next class, February 22-23 on Expert Level Skills. View photos from the past weekend ...

January 11-12, 2014 Master Chess on Calculation Techniques. Glad to welcome some new people, hope to see you again at our next class! View photos ...

2013

December 7-8, 2013 Turbo Chess on How to Choose and Study a Master Level Opening and The Transition Between Middlegame and Endgame. The strongest group on board so far, with average USCF 1378. Good luck to everyone at the Nationals next week! View photos ...

November 9-10, 2013 Turbo Chess Class on Calculation Techniques and Active Play in the Opening and Middlegame. Probably the toughest Turbo Weekend so far! However, an amazing thing happened. By the end of the second day, when everyone was simply drained after 11 hours work, the quality of the games and the follow-up analyzes soared to nothing less than brilliant! Good work, everyone! Keep it up! View photos from this class ...

November 2-3, 2013 Master Chess Weekend dealing with Attack, Defense & Counterattack. At the Master level, organizing a successful attack is far from the idea of a One-man-show as often seen in Basic level chess. For the advanced player, attacking and defending skills are closely related to each other, allowing to use the dynamics of the game to attack, defend, and counterattack. Photos ...

October 5-6, 2013 Turbo Chess runs at nearly max capacity. The 9 participants worked for 10 hours with How to Plan the Middlegame and How to Build a Counterattack. View photos and video ...

September 28-29, 2013 Master Chess Weekend at Bahama Bay Resort, Orlando, FL. Thanks to the 10 participants, we hope you enjoyed the workshop and gained a lot of new chess knowledge. View photos and join the forum on Facebook: Orlando Chess House

August 24-25, 2013 Our first Turbo Chess Weekend was held in Bahama Bay Resort with five participants. The three of them who attended Florida State Championships the week after gained combined 202 rating points! We are thrilled to witness such an amazing advancements! Visit our Facebook Page for photos.

July 12, 2013 July Chess Camp in Photos. Thanks to all participants and parents for a great chess camp at Orlando Chess & Games Center. We hope you enjoyed the camp, made new friends, and learned a lot.  View photos from the camp...

July 2nd, 2013 GM Lars Bo Hansen is now contributing to probably the most visited chess site in the world owned by Natalia Pogonina. The Free Weekly Lessons, originally published on GM Hansen's Facebook Page WWGMD can now be found illustrated on Natalia's site.

April 12th, 2013 Summer Chess Camps - Registration opens today

April 11th, 2013 GM Hansen will be commenting Live on ICC's Chess.FM from Alekhine Memorial, Paris (France)/Saint Petersburg (Russia)

March 29th, 2013 Spring Break Chess Camp in Photos ...

February 5th, 2013 The Future of Chess Publishing

January 7th, 2013 Spring Break Chess Camp Registration (closed)

January 7th, 2013 GM Hansen is commenting Live on ICC's Chess.FM from Tata Steel in Wijk aan Zee, Holland.

December 11th, 2012 Connect with us on Facebook -News, Photos, Events, Discussions.

December 9th, 2012 GM Hansen is commenting Live on ICC's Chess.FM from London Chess Classic