Tom Beckman

Chess Instruction in the Washington DC Area

Teaching Results:

• One of my students tied for 1st in the U1800 section at the 2011 Boardwalk Open ending with 10 straight wins; won 1st in the U1500 at the 2010 Atlantic Open, and 2nd in the U1600 at the 2010 National Chess Congress.
• Another of my students finished in 5th place in the U1200 section at the 2010 World Open.
• Nine months of lessons resulted in a 250-point rating increase and winning several prizes in recent tournaments.

Teaching Methods and Experience:

• Provide customized personal instruction to adults and to younger students.
• Proven teaching methods and exercises quickly improve the student's understanding and enjoyment of the game.
• Current students enjoy the 15-minute game each lesson with openings selected to test the student's abilities.
• Teach how to apply chess principles and thinking method to actual game positions, and how to analyze games.
• Have developed over 20 handouts on checklists, guidelines, themes, and topics to be applied in practical play.
• Actual positions are used to illustrate the lesson themes, and we often play a position from both sides.
• Create a comprehensive, customized opening repertoire for each student that gives an edge from the start.
• Have developed a Universal Chess Strategy consisting of four steps:
• Assess Position: King safety, tactical and dynamic features, material balance, and positional features
• Set Goals: Determine position type, where is my play, where and whether to attack or defend, how to apply the position assessment to setting specific goals, and how to formulate an ideal/goal position
• Develop Plan: Apply thinking methods, especially imbalances, prophylaxis, and piece activity comparison
• Implement Plan: A set of guidelines for king safety, attacking, dynamic, and tactical themes, positional play, maneuvering, weaknesses, and move sequencing.  Detailed guidelines for Selecting Your Next Move.
• Teach Thinking Methods that include:
• A set of tactical and blunder check guidelines
• Where is my play?  When, where, and how to attack, defend, and maneuver
• Restraint/Prophylaxis and piece activity
• Fantasy position and comparing pieces – formulate ideal squares for each piece
• Creating and exploiting weaknesses from weak/strong files, diagonals, and squares
• Significant experience teaching graduate students at The George Washington University in management and IT subjects, and teaching professionals in government.  Taught chess course at the USDA Graduate School.

My Experience and Performance:

• Over 45 years experience playing in chess tournaments
• Currently rated as a FIDE and USCF Expert
• Best Results:
• Draw with GM Friso Nijboer (2585) and GM Jesse Kraai (2531)
• Win against Fabio La Rota (2420) and IM Dimitri Shneider (2410) 
• Win against Angelina Belakovskaya (2410) – US Women’s Champion the following year
• Highest rating: 2285 FIDE and 2225 USCF
• Highest Performance Rating: Over 2400 at the 1995, 1999, and 2002 World Opens
• Tournament Results:
• 2^nd place, 2004 and 2006 NIH Championship
• U2200 prize, 2004 and 2007 UMBC Mintzes Open; Under 2200 prize, 1999 World Open

My Publications, Research, and Analysis:

• Author of Our System: A Complete Opening Repertoire for the Rest of Us, a five-volume opening repertoire. 
• I am a fiend about opening preparation and analysis.  I use Deep Rybka 3 (3300) to analyze all opening recommendations, and all moves from my games and my student's games.  Rybka is always analyzing 24x7.

Contact Info: tombeckman@rcn.com or 202-248-9608            (See reverse side for lesson excerpt)

A Typical Lesson

$40/hr.  Minimum lesson = 1½ hrs.  If lesson is at student’s house, add $20 travel fee. => $80.

30 min.  Review student games and exercises

20 min.  Lesson topic and timed exercises

30 min.  15-minute game

10 min.  Assignments – Exercises on tactics, attacking, dynamics, positional, puzzles, and game analysis

Between lessons, I spend at least two hours analyzing each student’s games, annotating our 15-minute game, and preparing customized instruction and exercises for the next lesson.

General Thinking Method

• Assess Position: Every 5 moves
• Assess King Safety
• Assess Tactical Features
• Assess Material Balance
• Assess Dynamic Features
• Assess Positional Features Etc.
• Set Goals: Etc.
• Implement Plan: For every move, follow guidelines for developing candidate moves
• Tactics Checklist: King Safety, Mating Attacks, Other Combinations
• Dynamics Checklist: Centralization, Development, Improvement, Restraint, and Piece Placement
• Statics Checklist: Material, Space, Exchanges, and Pawn Structure
• Strategy Checklist: Type of Position, Attacking, Defending, and Maneuvering Guidelines

Sample Annotated Quick Game:

B90, Erik Blad-Tom Beckman, 15-15 min. game, 2-21-11: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.f3 e6 (This is the Scheveningen version of the English Najdorf attack.  6...e5 and 6...Qb6 are alternatives.) 7.Be3 +.28/22 Qc7 8.Qd2 Be7 9.g4 (Also good is 9.0-0-0 Nc6 10.Nxc6 bxc6 11.g4 e5 +.36/16.) 9...0-0 (Nearly the decisive mistake.  We need to look this up in Villa's Smashing the Sicilian book.) 10.h4 (Also good is 10.0-0-0 +.49/16 Nfd7 {10...Nc6 11.g5} 11.h4 Ne5 12.h5 +.45/18.) 10...Nbd7 11.h5! +.85/17 Ne5 12.g5 Nfd7 (Even worse is 12...Ne8 13.f4 Nc4 14.Bxc4 Qxc4 15.0-0-0 +.95/17.) 13.f4 Nc4 14.Bxc4 +.91/15 Qxc4 15.0-0-0!? (15.f5 +1.31 is also very strong.) 15...b5 16.b3! +1.88 (Stopping Black's counterplay.) Qc7 17.g6?! (This is weaker than 17.Nf5! exf5 18.h6 g6 19.Nd5 +1.73 is crushing.  This way you allow my N back into the game to defend the weak squares.) 17...Nf6! 18.gxf7? (And this is also weak because you allow my Rook to defend the 7th rank.  Much stronger is 18.gxh7+ +1.16 with a nearly winning attack.) 18...Rxf7 19.Rdg1? (Logical but too slow.  You need to throw in 19.h6 b4 20.Na4 g6 -.12/16 and then defend the eP.) 18...b4 20.Na4 Nxe4 21.Qg2?! (And here 21.Qxb4 is a better try despite the fact that you are giving up on the K-side attack.) 21...d5! -1.64/14 (Now Black controls the center, is a P up, has repelled your attack, and is winning.) 22.Nf3?! (Here 22.Qg4 is a better try.) 22...Bf6? (22...Bd7-2.26 is developing and is just winning.) 23.Nd4? (This was your last chance to stir up the pot with 23.Ng5 Bxg5 24.fxg5 Rf5 -1.04/16 although Black is still close to winning.) 23...Bxd4?! (Even better is 23...Bd7.) 24.Bxd4 Qxf4+ 25.Kb2 e5! 26.Rf1 Qg3! 27.Qxg3 Nxg3 28.Rxf7 Nxh1? (Much better is 28...Kxf7 29.Rg1 -2.02/20.) 29.Rf1? (Now you would be back in the game after 29.Rc7 exd4 30.Nb6 Rb8 -.42/19.) 29...exd4 30.Rxh1?! (Better is 30.Nb6.  It is interesting how often the most active move is correct.) 30...Bf5 31.Rh2 d3?! (This eases the pressure somewhat.  Better is 31...Rc8 32.Nb6 Rc5) Later 0-1  You blew me away in the opening after 6...e6 rather than 6...e5.  Then slowly you made inaccuracies in the attack that allowed me back in the game.  It didn't take but one more weak move and then you were toast instead of me!

Sample Customized Repertoire:   White: Double KP Ruy Lopez

Closed Mainline: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.h3

Zaitsev: 9...Bb7 10.d4 Re8 11.Nbd2 (11.Ng5 Rf8 12.Nf3 h6 is the Smyslov with 12...Bb7) 11...Bf8

• 12.a3 h6 +.03/18 13.Bc2
• 13...d5 14.exd5 Qxd5 15.Ne4 exd4 16.Nxf6 gxf6 17.Qd3 Rxe1 18.Nxe1 f5 19.Qg3+ Kh8 20.Qh4 Qe6 21.Bd2 Rd8 22.Qf4 +.12/18
• 13...Qd7 14.Nf1 Ne7 15.Ng3 Ng6 16.a4 c5 17.d5 Qc7 18.Be3 c4 19.Qd2 Reb8 20.Ra2 Nd7 21.Nf5 Nc5 22.Rea1 Ne7 +.27/18  Etc.