Modern international coach education in Berlin – Train the trainer!

Reported by GM Uwe Boensch, Headmaster of FIDE Trainer Academy

In the meantime the fourth international training course for chess pedagogues at the FIDE trainer academy in Berlin already took place. From 26th February till 2nd March 2006 nine trainers from seven countries seized the opportunity to refresh their knowledge and to get new insights in the sport of chess. FM Hasan Abbasifar, who operates a chess-school for 700 children in Shiraz, Abdoullah Zibaei from Iran as well as Julius Anuari from Uganda also showed their interest in a chess-specific advanced training. But the strained political world situation prevented their coming, because of unfortunately they did not get a visa in time.
Also the Indian trainer Anil Kumar from Thrissur did not succeed in mastering all organizational obstacles. But he announced obligatorily for the next course will take place from 21st till 27th July 2006.

Since the combined training as the FIDE-trainer or FIDE-instructor worked satisfactorily in the past courses, it was kept up for this meeting too. Though it is considered perspectively, advertising in each case separated courses for the title acquisition.
As participants with the aim as FIDE-trainer applied: Martin Neubauer (Austria) and Xavier Partmentier (France). For title of the FIDE-instructor: Giovanni Vignato (Italy), Henrique Pinela (Portugal), Tal Granite (Israel), Dominique Wiesmann (Switzerland), Ali Oezen, Aykut Ilker Mete, Baris Akyildiz (all from Turkey).

   Lectures
A high specific competence showed the lecture team of: GM Juri Razuvaev, Russia (chairman of the FIDE Trainer Committee), GM Uwe Boensch (Federal Coach), Horst Metzing (Secretary General ECU and Secretary of the German Chess Federation), PD Dr. Marion Kauke (Social and Pedagogical Psychologist) as well as IM Michael Richter (ChessBase-expert), who all gave lectures in English.

As in most countries no founded educational coach training is offered, the participants come to the courses with completely different training levels. It is still the primary object to provide course participants with the skills to train young trainers with proved methodical principles in their countries independently. Experience exchange showed that it is not as simple as that. For the lectures, on the other hand, it was not easy to meet different training levels, experience values, performance levels and age categories from a didactical and methodical point of view. The lectures were excellently managed to balance various educational or language levels or differences in performance levels as well as to provide material which was intelligible to everybody.

The in the meantime technically well equipped international trainers' academy with modern computers, new software with training effects, permanent fast DSL internet access, webcams, big tv-screen (42 inch), video and overhead projectors, demo boards and flip charts provided an excellent basis for appropriate chess training with the possibility of a feedback effect for the participants. Further the internet could be used and mails checked and sent any time.

   The Course Slogan: Train the Trainer!
Friday evening Horst Metzing, Secretary General of the German Chess Federation welcomed the arrived participants. Afterwards the course leader GM Uwe Boensch explained the six-day course plan, followed by an introduction round where the participants described their developments briefly.
As in former meetings there were inexperienced representatives as well as experienced trainers like Martin Neubauer from Austria who started on 1st March 2006 his full time work as federal youth coach of the Austrian Chess Federation.

   World Chess Federation FIDE with various tasks
Following Horst Metzing disputed the first lecture on structure, activities and the various tasks of the World Chess Union as well as the European Chess Union. He provided both facts and internal matters, which were accessible to him through his many years’ active involvement in various committees of the FIDE. In particular he referred to the world-wide spreading of chess, in the meantime taking with 154 member federations in the world chess federation a front placement in the context of all 29 sport federations.
Front runners are the two sport play federations volleyball (218) and basketball (212) followed by athletics (211), soccer (204) and boxing (202).
53 countries belong to the European Chess Union.

   GM Yuri Razuvaev, FIDE senior trainer from Moscow, placed the topic “chess for children” into the centre of his lectures. It concerns to an early beginning in pre-school age or early school age. In consonance with the general intellectual development he judges the time span from seven to twelve years as the most favourable training age. Into this time fundamental information falls such as explaining the chessboard, moving and capturing of the pieces, the rules of the game also the creation of an opening repertoire, main principles in the opening strategy as well as important mate motives.

Beyond concrete subjects the well-known senior trainer referred to two distinguishable directions of teaching and learning chess: on the one hand, its use for the general development of children in school and on the other hand for obtaining sporty achievements. Not only a generally accepted theory of teaching and training is necessary. With priority the new conditions in the computer era containing chances and risks for education and educational processes. Especially in chess innovative computer based teaching and learning methods are meaningful, because it is so far the only sport in which can be played directly against the computer.
  
   GM Uwe Boensch spoke in the Sunday afternoon to two different topics. The first topic dealt with the chess strategy.  The important area of the centre structures used the example of the classical Karlsbad pawn structure, which can be found in five different openings: exchange variation in Queens gambit, exchange variation of the Caro-Kann defense, Bogoljubow system, Nimzowitsch Indian defense and Grunfeld Indian defense. Computer based example games contributed to a better strategic understanding and consolidation of the subject.
His experience as Federal trainer in competitive sports enabled him to present new technical equipment which already has been successfully used in other sport disciplines. The relaxing trainer "iSense" with bio feedback function, manufactured in Austria, for the first time unites two tasks: bio feedback and relaxing exercises. With the help of a finger sensor and appropriate software, stress and stressors can be recognised and transformed into positive energy. With a sensor located in the finger tip, peripheral body temperature, electrical resistance of the skin and actual stress levels can be measured. All measuring values are processed in a laptop and visibly presented as a curve on the screen. During the course some trainers could fix their stress levels via bio feedback by themselves and only few seconds later they had the possibility to read off their stress values with the help of the video projector on the wall.

   Chess trainers are demanded not only as experienced mediators, communicators and supervisors, but also as competent managers in interpersonal contact with the participants in the social surrounding field. They are arranging contacts, coordinate, motivate, negotiate and overcome conflicts. Their experiences form the basis for the continual development of interactive authority. As extraordinarily stimulating, action near and knowledge supporting teachware proved again a variant of the social-psychological behaviour training. According to the principle "Train the Trainer" the participants developed under guidance of the qualified psychologist and proven interaction trainer PD Dr. Marion Kauke a subject from her current pedagogical-educational chess practice. Up to the slogan: “A good trainer also must be a good actor” Xavier Partmentier (France), Henrique Pinela (Portugal) und Ali Oezen (Turkey) performed an international intoxicating scenario. The dramaturgical approaching impresses trainers worldwide even more than verbose lectures, literature study or detailed training instructions. Furthermore in the retroactive supervision due to modern multimedia technology favourable ideas and resources could be recognized together and playfully optimized as behaviour drafts. Social-psychological orientation bases completed the successful meeting.

   On Monday the international master Michael Richter demonstrated how valuable can be computer programs, data bases and the internet for chess teaching and training. The participants were especially interested in various ways of training with ChessBase 9. Thereby it doesn’t matter if it is about the preparation of one’s own game or the planning of training units. ChessBase 9 offers all information at a glance. The program continues to be smoothly adapted to user desires through regular updating.
In the second part, various ways of training were shown on the chess server www.schach.de. By the possibility of audio and video transmission, internet training has been established as an excellent form of training. Thereby it is unimportant how far away the opponent player is. Only a functioning internet access is needed. Of course, the brand new game program Fritz 9 was discussed.
Here the participants were mainly interested in chess courses. By new video chess courses and detailed training options, Fritz 9 is very well suited as a training program too. Once an overview was given, the subject could be usefully practised in the modern computer pool.

   An important component of the course work concentrates on the training samples on the last day of the course. The topics were as always quite various and reached from presenting own special ways of training up to technical questions in computer chess. On the average the training demonstrations lasted  30 to 45 minutes. Special value was put on the pedagogical skills of the chess teacher. The lectures and teaching practices, which were taught in English (another FIDE language would be possible too), concerned both statements on content and the friendly contact with the attendant people, the linguistic expression and the personality of the lecturer. For this reason some participants wished that their lecture was videotaped, which permits a useful didactic-communicative evaluation.

Training samples for the title FIDE Instructor (chess teacher) and/or FIDE-Trainer:

Henrique Pinela: Presenting a chess school – methodology for beginners.

Ali Oezen: How to teach the Dragon variant of the Sicilian Defense.

IM Martin Neubauer: Who wants to become a chess millionaire? An amusing quiz game during the training process.

Giovanni Vignato: To the history of the chess development in Italy – based on the Italian chess school in 16th Century.

Baris Akyildiz: The art of exchange – example games.

Dominique Wiesmann: Chess and computer - Schach und Computer – structure and function.

Xavier Partmentier: How to analyse games? Opening preparation with computer data bases.

Tal Granite: To training with a large group of young players. (Early beginning in the kindergarten)

Aykut Ilker Mete: The shortest way of giving checkmate with rook and queen.

Additionally submitted trainer-housework for the acquisition of the title FIDE-trainer:

IM Martin Neubauer: Opening preparation during a tournament.

Xavier Partmentier: Une boussole sur l’échiquier (A compass on the chessboard)

   At the end of the course, all participants came together for a glass of sparkling wine and a snack in the library of the Trainer Academy. Course leader GM Uwe Boensch gave an evaluation of the training course and presented together with GM Juri Razuvaev and German Chess Federation representative Christian Greiser the acquired international trainer certificates. An active exchange of opinions in English, German, Russian and French let end the fourth trainer course. In thank words to the hosts for the successful meeting the guests expressed, that they had not only much learned but also fun during the entertaining lectures. As particularly pleasant the participants felt the daily contact with the two grand masters and senior trainers and the enabled self experiencing and personal feedback in the context of the social-psychological training games. Also favoured was the blitz gaming and surfing the web during the breaks. It was inspired that in the future a half day off would make it possible to see the historical sights of Berlin. An attendance during lunch time at the 100 meters remote office of the German Chess Federation arranged for the guests a view of the various chess ranges. Thus they experienced from the Secretary General Horst Metzing from a competent view that among the German Chess Federation (DSB), the European Chess Union (ECU), the German Chess Youth (DSJ) and the Wirtschaftsdienst GmbH (DSB Shop) are based in the same building.

   In the last evening the foreign trainers received the possibility to get to know a private chess school in the city centre of Berlin. FIDE trainer Michael Richter who recently based his own chess school, described aims and perspectives of his institution to the guests. The “Chess School Berlin” is located in the Bayrische Straße 32 in the centre of Berlin (close to Kurfürstendamm). At a blitz tournament IM Martin Neubauer (Austria) and Guido Feldmann (Berlin) triumphed both (11), forwards IM Michael Richter (10,5), Christian Greiser (9) (both from Berlin) and Tal Granite (Israel) (5).

Further international trainer courses in the year 2006 are intended for the 21st till 27th July and 20th till 26th October.