Thanks to all for your comments and suggestions
and enjoy your chess!

I'm gonna sign up for that site I think.

Looks awesome. And I have money.

Please keep us posted on your progress.

I have come across a number of sites but I haven't really been looking for something like this. This site only promises to bring me to where I already think that I am or at least where I used to be and where I should be able to return once I shake off the rust. In "Chess for Zebras" GM Jonathan Rowson talks about giving lessons through ICC which I don't belong to. Looking at last year's Zagreb Open in Croatia, I see a large number of grandmasters for a tournament in a modest sized European city of around 750,000 people. My suspicion is that there are a large number of grandmasters out there that might supplement their income by giving lessons. Steve Giddins wrote about his experience receiving modestly priced lessons from a strong Soviet IM in his book on building an opening repetoire.

Previously I was working with a couple of talented senior masters and I kind of miss that now. Rowson talks about the temporary surge that you might experience just after reading a good chess book but also warns of the experience where a few months later you fall back into old patterns.

Perhaps you could take their course syllabus and design your own improvement program around that. There seem to be so many good books out there these days. It is a question of filtering out all but the best.

Crash

Well guys, I went ahead and signed up for the International Chess School website. I'm doing well for myself these days, and have the money to burn.

I honestly have to say, I don't think I've ever seen anything like this. I really think I've hit pay-dirt, for real. I have about 50 chess books, and this looks more promising than any of them. It really is arranged, as though it were a high level college course on advanced chess. Not simply arbitrary information from a book here or a book there, but a very solid, well structured ciriculum that seems to really take you through everyhing needed to be very strong. Very neat, and organized, and the explainations, and the actual "teaching" is better than I think I've seen in any book, save for maybe, and only maybe Silman's books.

Books seem to portray information, which you can absorb, but this site seems to actually present the material in a way that actually "teaches."

For years, I've dicked around with books and programs, and practice, opening training, and playing, and yeah, it helped. But ultimately, I've stayed the same for years. I'd read a few chapters in one book, put it down, a chapter or two in another, put it down, a few pages in another, bored, put it down, and so on. Simply a mixture of information from arbitrary, differing sources, resulting in what must have been a fractured, incomplete knowledge base. Useful knowledge base yes, enough to be between 1200-1600 or whatever I am, but incomplete.

But this site seems to really have everything I have ever heard of that is important for chess covered to a pretty advanced level, structured in good order, missing nothing fundamental or even reasonably advanced. The teaching and description is done in uncommon detail.

So I don't know, I think it's worth 25 bones a month, since I'd pay that for a chess book anyway. I'll keep you guys updated, but it does seem truly different, and pretty promising. The only thing it seems to lack a lot of content on is the endgame. It is primarily a site on middlegame, planning, thinking properly, and all the ways to properly evaluate a position based on everything important. I have several good endgame books anyway.

As far as you Crash, I'm not sure there are any online courses to get you from 2300-above. I'm not even sure how people get above that, other than being gifted, and training in real life with Grandmasters and playing seriously with high level people.

As far as my own program, yes, you are right, and I've done that in the past with limited success. You said it, really, filtering out all but the best. I am not certain what is the best. Don't get my wrong, I'll always read heavily through my 50 chess books I already have, but this site really seems to be a good supplement, with what seems like a proper structured program from IMs.

It does look intriguing. Let us know how it goes and keep us informed of your progress. I think that if you follow up on their training that you will make good progress.

For now I will work on my own and look for books that describe what grandmasters do for their own training. Eventually maybe I'll try to pick up some outside training but right now it seems to me that I can still accomplish a lot with the tools that I already have.

I wish you luck and believe that you will do well with this program.

Crash

Thanks. I am confident I will improve as a result of this. I can honestly already see ways of thinking that have not occured to me in years of reading chess books. In a month, I should be sharper than I have ever been. In 6 months, I am confident I will be able to notice an increase.

Well, figured it was time for an update.

I have the second month's curriculum now, and so I have seen the material for the first and second month. Man, I'm telling you, I really haven't seen anything like this before. I think this is it, the missing link. This might be the best instruction that I have seen, and yes, even including Silman.

I don't know what's up with these guys, but the way they present material is more comprehensive, accessible, and conducive to true, deep understanding than anything I've seen. So far I'm very happy. This site was a great find, and I don't mind paying the monthly tuition at all.

This really could be what I've needed for years.

That's great news M.!

I'll enroll for sure after the Xmas holidays!
Do you find the workload and pace of the course just right or a bit too much?

C.

Oh it's not too much at all. It's enough to easily get through in a month, and then some. If you finish early, best is just to go over it again, and review, because we never retain everything the first time. Considering that people need review to retain something, it's probably just the right amount.

Plus, you get several, excellently annoted games covering the current month's theme that adds to the material. Plus where the meat is, is the monthly lecture PDF's and "Theory" articles, which for some reason, simply seem to be things I have never seen in any book, and I've seen a lot of books.

Several "tests" and "quizzes" too, to give you a chance to come up with some solutions for yourself, before checking the answers. In a way, I like having only so much a month, instead of all at once. If I recieved all 12 months at once, it would probably just be like a book, and I'd glance at it, and go on to somethign else. But this way, you are more inclined to go through all of the available material completely, instead of mindlessly skipping around.

After I get my new Plasma TV situation taken care of (have to trade in for a better quality one) I'm going to add in the month openings module to my account.