As a Chessable author, students tend to like lots of explanation of moves and thorough analysis of alternative moves in tactic courses ("Why doesn't reasonable-looking-move xyz work?"). Not sure how important this is for a tactic course targeted for u1000 rated players though. Also, students tend to like when courses are regularly updated or when the author answers questions that are asked in the forum/position comments. With a tactics course I don't think updating the course later on with additional puzzles is necessary but answering questions and making small updates to the text tends to be a good thing to consider and keeps students happy while also looking good for potential future students.
Dalton's courses are a fantastic model for how to maximize the Chessable course structure. His French Simplified is terrific. I am a huge fan. Representing ideas "theory sections" vs a "tactics section" is quite helpful.
I think if you could build a course that works all around a traditional opening, highlighting typical tactics that you can see in that opening you would have something quite popular.
Most of the time, this would be the result of "bad play" in which someone doesn't get what should be happening on the board.
u1000 players don't want to be "that guy" and they want to see how to punish opening mistakes. They know they should be able to but they don't seem to have the imagination to snag much more than hanging pieces. Tactics centering around pins, deflection, simple double attacks--but that are reached out of the same opening would be useful.
Or maybe you could turn things around and offer simple defensive technique out of 1...e5: typical beginner attacks and tactics that someone can anticipate. I wouldn't do anything deeper than 10-12 moves.
A Chessable course format I really like for tactics: “Common Chess Patterns”. This course shows tactics by theme and also shows these tactics in a “stripped down” format with minimal pieces in each puzzle. Quite good for learning fundamentals.
As an eternal novice, I'd say that many courses for novices tend to emphasize certain basics (what is a fork, what is a pin, what is en passant), which many of us know. What we lack is the consistent practice of fundamental motifs. We know what they are, we can recognize them in a puzzle, but we don't recognize them quickly enough, and certainly miss them in our games (mostly when our opponent is deploying them against us). I'd be happy with a course that skips the very basics, but that provides needed practice.
"As an eternal novice, I'd say that many courses for novices tend to emphasize certain basics (what is a fork, what is a pin, what is en passant), which many of us know. What we lack is the consistent practice of fundamental motifs."
I think you nailed it. That is something I have noticed also!
I'm always looking for good tactics courses that help me get better at the game, especially if those courses help find them better in actual games. So if you're planning a course on Chessable like this that will help a relative noob like me, I'd be happy to see it.
As a Chessable author, students tend to like lots of explanation of moves and thorough analysis of alternative moves in tactic courses ("Why doesn't reasonable-looking-move xyz work?"). Not sure how important this is for a tactic course targeted for u1000 rated players though. Also, students tend to like when courses are regularly updated or when the author answers questions that are asked in the forum/position comments. With a tactics course I don't think updating the course later on with additional puzzles is necessary but answering questions and making small updates to the text tends to be a good thing to consider and keeps students happy while also looking good for potential future students.
Thank you, Dalton! That is good advice. Also something I have noticed with good courses.
Dalton's courses are a fantastic model for how to maximize the Chessable course structure. His French Simplified is terrific. I am a huge fan. Representing ideas "theory sections" vs a "tactics section" is quite helpful.
I think if you could build a course that works all around a traditional opening, highlighting typical tactics that you can see in that opening you would have something quite popular.
Most of the time, this would be the result of "bad play" in which someone doesn't get what should be happening on the board.
u1000 players don't want to be "that guy" and they want to see how to punish opening mistakes. They know they should be able to but they don't seem to have the imagination to snag much more than hanging pieces. Tactics centering around pins, deflection, simple double attacks--but that are reached out of the same opening would be useful.
Or maybe you could turn things around and offer simple defensive technique out of 1...e5: typical beginner attacks and tactics that someone can anticipate. I wouldn't do anything deeper than 10-12 moves.
A Chessable course format I really like for tactics: “Common Chess Patterns”. This course shows tactics by theme and also shows these tactics in a “stripped down” format with minimal pieces in each puzzle. Quite good for learning fundamentals.
I will take a look on that course for inspiration :)
As an eternal novice, I'd say that many courses for novices tend to emphasize certain basics (what is a fork, what is a pin, what is en passant), which many of us know. What we lack is the consistent practice of fundamental motifs. We know what they are, we can recognize them in a puzzle, but we don't recognize them quickly enough, and certainly miss them in our games (mostly when our opponent is deploying them against us). I'd be happy with a course that skips the very basics, but that provides needed practice.
"As an eternal novice, I'd say that many courses for novices tend to emphasize certain basics (what is a fork, what is a pin, what is en passant), which many of us know. What we lack is the consistent practice of fundamental motifs."
I think you nailed it. That is something I have noticed also!
Good luck!
Thank you, John!
I'm always looking for good tactics courses that help me get better at the game, especially if those courses help find them better in actual games. So if you're planning a course on Chessable like this that will help a relative noob like me, I'd be happy to see it.
Sounds good! Are you in the 400-1000 range on chess.com?
Yes, at the higher end. I haven't played on chess.com for a while but I'm rated 924 in Rapid.