Puzzles 2.0 by Chess Coach Dan Heisman

Solving chess puzzles is fundamental to improving your game. They're invaluable for sharpening your tactical awareness and developing your problem-solving skills. 

But like most training activities, there's a huge difference when training alone versus training alongside a world-renowned coach. In this case we're talking about National Master Dan Heisman. An award-winning coach, NM Dan Heisman covers over 90 puzzles, explaining all the subtleties of each position, showing you how to analyze, spot what's important and come up with the solution.

But what really sets his teaching apart is that he goes beyond just showing 'White to play and win' puzzles, and shares highly instructive puzzles based on his book: Is Your Move Safe? Positions with no winning moves or mating attacks, positions you will learn to assess correctly and ascertain if a given move is safe or not.

Additionally, Dan provides an important drill for improving your game: what he calls 'board vision exercises', puzzles that are unusual and not related to winning but understanding how pieces work together. This helps your tactical vision and has a direct impact on your ability to spot good moves.

In each of the 30 videos of the series, Dan Heisman proposes three puzzles to the audience:

1. The first one is a middlegame position, where white or black can win with a tactical shot, or a strategical sacrifice, or even just forcing its opponent into a blunder.
2. The second puzzle is 'how safe is this move?'. We all know that once you have chosen your next candidate move, the first thing you need to check is how safe or dangerous it is, and coach Dan explains how to look for potential danger and how to assess the pros and cons of the candidate move. 
3. The third puzzle is what coach Dan calls 'Special puzzle.' It does not belong in any category, and often it's quite fun to solve!

Watching these videos will help you improve your tactical sense, your visualization skills, and your general understanding of the game; all things that ultimately will boost your rating!

Run time: 12 hours and 53 minutes.