Chess Strategy Lessons!

GM Miguel Illescas - Photo by Przemysław Jahr / Wikimedia Commons

GM Miguel Illescas doesn't need presentation, but just to put things in the right perspective, we're talking about one of the most influential chess players in the last decades, especially in Spain.
Miguel, so far, has won the Spanish national championship of 1995, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2007, and 2010. In team competitions, he has represented his country at many Olympiads, from 1986 onwards, and won an individual bronze medal at Turin in 2006. Miguel won international tournaments too, such as Las Palmas 1987 and 1988, Oviedo 1991, Pamplona 1991/92, 2nd at Leon 1992 (after Boris Gulko), 3rd at Chalkidiki 1992 (after Vladimir Kramnik and Joel Lautier), Lisbon Zonal 1993 and 2nd at Wijk aan Zee 1993 (after Anatoly Karpov). He kept winning during the latter part of the nineties, also: Linares (MEX) 1994, Linares (ESP) Zonal 1995, Madrid 1996, and Pamplona 1997/98.  Some Palmares!

GM Illescas is a trained computer scientist and participated in the team that prepared Deep Blue to the epic match against Garry Kasparov. He worked with the likes of Joel Benjamin,  Nick De Firmian, and John Fedorowicz.

We all know how that match ended, and Illescas showed he had a good understanding of the way the grand champion Kasparov played chess. Such a result made Miguel a natural choice for Kramnik, who hired the Spanish GM as his second for the World Championship match in 2000. Kramnik became champion, and the winning partnership was restored for the 2004 defense against Peter Leko and the 2006 reunification match with Topalov.
In 2004 Miguel was awarded the title of FIDE Senior Trainer.

GM Illescas has established a chess school: La Escuela de Ajedrez de Miguel Illescas, or EDAMI for short. The school is flexibly structured. It allows students to learn at sessions held in the schools around Barcelona, or on the internet. 

EDAMI and GM Miguel have been collaborating with the Internet Chess Club for years, and it's a pleasure to have him contributing some fantastic content, with this first video series in English.

In this series, titled "Chess Strategy Lessons," GM Illescas shares with us his in-depth knowledge of the game, and - most importantly - teaches us how to use the thought processes that turn an amateur into a chess player.
The content is absolutely fantastic. You'll find yourself using what Miguel shows in these videos, and it will give your game a boost!

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