Chess Journeys: Tales of Adult Improvement Ep. 259 Ono (1800 Dutch)
Mar 26, 2026
A wide-ranging chat about turning chess coaching into a career and how adults can structure learning. Practical resources, book and endgame recommendations are highlighted. They rethink opening study and repertoire building tied to middle-game plans. There is lots on blunders, mindset, balancing study and play, and plans for an online chess club.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Start With One Accessible Strategy Book
- Do give beginners a single accessible strategy book to learn chess vocabulary and concepts before anything else.
- Ono recommends Bruce Pandolfini's Weapons of Chess for quick, boardless learning and then one strategy book like Simple Chess for deeper study.
Study Openings To Learn The Middlegame
- Insight that studying openings can be valuable if you learn the resulting middlegame plans, not just memorise moves.
- Ono built a practical repertoire with Chessbook/Chessable and stops at typical middlegame positions to study plans he lacks.
Bucket Your Opening Weaknesses For Targeted Study
- Do bucket recurring middlegame positions from your games and drill the specific plans for each bucket.
- Ono watches blitz/rapid games to find gaps, groups them (e.g., King's Indian) and studies targeted resources for those buckets.
