New Student Form

The Chess Bud Portal is a safe online space for chess students to learn, play and work on their game. It includes databases of annotated games, quizzes and puzzles. Each Chess Bud student receives their own login to the portal. There is a game area to play friendly games against other students and a tournament area for friendly competition. See the Curriculum page for details of new courses and our annotated games database within the portal.

Chess Bud New Student Form

Hi there, Thanks for considering Chess Bud to guide you on your chess journey! Whether you are a complete beginner, intermediate-strength player or wily expert, Jonathan O'Connor and I are looking forward to working with you and helping you bring your game to the next level. As a new Chess Bud student, it would really help us if you could fill out the following questionnaire. If you are a complete beginner and don't know any openings yet, not a bother, you can leave the questions regarding your opening repertoire blank. We will kit you out with a dangerous starting-out repertoire in double-quick time. If you are an experienced player, the more we know about your current opening repertoire, what you perceive your current strengths and weaknesses to be, the easier it will be for us to focus your training on areas that will make a difference to your results not to mention your enjoyment of the game! As your coaches, neither Jonathan nor I will share this information with anyone else. And if we happen to be drawn against you in a tournament in the future, rest assured, we will not to use this information to our own personal advantage. Looking forward to hearing about your chesscapades to date and helping you achieve whatever ambitions and goals you may have. Let's Play Chess! IM Mark Quinn, Founder, Chess Bud Ireland

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Which Chess Bud Training Program are you interested in?

Individual Training with Mark
Individual Training with Jonathan
Bespoke Training Program with Mark and Jonathan

Your Name

First

Last

Your account name on Chess.com

Your account name on Lichess

Irish Rating & FIDE rating (if you have one)

Parent or Guardian's name if you are under-18 years

Tell us about your chess journey so far and any personal short-term or long-term chess goals you have.

Your Chess Style - Tell us how you see yourself as a player. Are you a tactical wizard, a positional player or a mix of both. Do you prefer Open or Closed or Even Semi-closed Games? What kind of player would you like to be?

Are there any specific areas of your game which you would like to improve or openings which you feel need work or new ideas? Feel free to invite Chess Bud Ireland to a Lichess Study of your recent games or copy and paste a link or two to a sample of your games on lichess or chess.com that highlight areas that you would feel you need to work on.

Who is your favourite Elite Chess player (e.g. Judit Polgar, Mikhail Tal, Magnus Carlsen etc.) from Past or Present and Why? What is it about her or his games that inspires you?

Ronaldo or Messi? Think Carefully, you're answer will tell is what kind of chess player you are!

Do you know how to input your over-the-board games into Lichess and create a Lichess Study so you can share those games?

Have you started using the chessbase program already? (Note: Here I am referring to the program that allows you to create your own databases, annotate your own games etc. and not just the free online database on chessbase.com)

If you are a King's Pawn Player what system/s do you play against the Caro-Kann Defence?

The Universal System - 2. Nf3 d5 3. Nc3
Advance Variation - 2. d4 d5 3. e5
Old Mainline 3. Nd2 or 3. Nc3
Panov-Botvinnik Attack - 3. exd5 cxd5 4. c4
Exchange Variation 3. exd5 cxd5 4. c3 / 5. Bf4/ Nf3 etc.
Breyer Variation - 2. d3 d5 3. Nd2
Half-way House - 2. Nf3 d5 3. d3
Currently have no System worked out against the Caro-Kann

If you are a King's Pawn player, what system/s do you play against the Pirc Defence

Old Mainline 1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Be2 0-0 6. 0-0
Spassky/ Schlecter System - 1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. h3 & 6. Be3
Byrne Variation - 1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Bg5
Austrian Attack - 1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. f4
Modern Mainline - 1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Be3 Bg7 5. Qd2 0-0 6. f3
Fianchetto Sveshnikov System - 1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. g3 Bg7 5. Bg2 0-0 6. Nge2
Currently have no Anti-Pirc System