Simon is playing a local tournament with one round per day, it's part of the chess camp here. The games are not that important, nothing is at stake except ratings and categories. I'm preparing him for the games, and have been experimenting with a different way to structure the preparation.

Instead of showing variations, we focus on tactics. I pick out the tactical ideas from his likely opening and ask him to solve them, one by one.

He got one yesterday in his game, and then worked it out at the board, correctly. White to play:

The position was reached via 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qd8 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. Bc4 Bf5 6. Ne5 e6 7. Qf3 c6.

The opening we prepared for today was the 3. .. f5 Spanish, from the black side. Here are some tactical themes, all black to move:

The last one is really tough, obviously. Black should not allow 10. .. Kxd7 11. Qb5+, but what happens after 10. .. Nxd7 11. Qxe4+ Kd8 12. Qxb7? Of course Simon didn't find that, I probably wouldn't find it myself, but it's still maybe better to show it as a tactical quiz rather than as a variation to memorize.

There are also tactics for the opponent, those are just as important. For example, white to play:

I've never heard of a trainer using this method to prepare for "serious" games, but I wonder if this could be everything you do with the kid. Instead of telling him what to play, which is extremely prone to getting mixed up, you go over the tactics and then work out the repertoire backwards.

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