Smash the Barriers to your Chess Success

IM Anna Rudolf

The Anna Rudolf Method

Many players seem to get stuck at a certain level, no matter how hard they train. It’s like there’s an
invisible barrier preventing them from reaching 1600, 1800 or 2000. It doesn’t have to be this way.

IM Anna Rudolf (aka Miss Strategy) has found the solution. Instead of cramming our brains with
endless amounts of new knowledge, we need to fix the 5 holes through which valuable rating
points leak.

Blunders, missing winning opportunities, missing the strongest plan, underestimating your
opponent’s strategy and fear/complacency. These are the real barriers holding you back.

The 15 hour Anna Rudolf Method teaches you how to solve these problems and achieve your
potential by becoming a master of awareness, emotions and targeting weaknesses.

Smash the barriers to your chess success with Anna’s intensive training on self-mastery.

Summary:

Part 1: Opening
Chapter 1: How to choose an opening that fits you
Chapter 2: How to learn openings effectively
Chapter 3: How to build your opening repertoire
Chapter 4: What to do in unknown positions

Part 2: Middlegame
Chapter 5: Become a master of planning
Chapter 6: Perfect your strategic thinking
Chapter 7: Piece play: Improve yours, worsen the opponent’s
Chapter 8: Pawn play: “I want to break free”
Chapter 9: Attack like a beast
Chapter 10: What makes an attack successful
Chapter 11: Typical attacking plans
Chapter 12: How to spot tactical motifs
Chapter 13: How to stop blundering
Chapter 14: Defend like a pro
Chapter 15: Prophylactic thinking

Part 3: Endgame
Chapter 16: How to be a better endgame player

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Chapter 17: Endgame principles and concepts

Bonus: Calculation: Thought process

Final Words: The mindset of a champion

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 Part 1: Opening

Chapter 1: How to Choose an opening that

fits you
1. Openings are not the most important phase, but they do shape the course of
the rest of the game.
2. Think about what your chess goals and style are before deciding to study
an opening. These are the key elements in choosing an opening repertoire.
3. Think of the opening as a bridge to the middlegame.
4. Engines, elite players, the current trends… these shouldn’t influence your
opening choice.
5. Experience and knowledge of an opening is more important than the
objective evaluation of it.

Chapter 2: How to learn openings effectively

1. Rule #1: Do not memorize! Memorization is not the same as understanding.
2. Rule #2: Grab a chessboard - analyze on a real chessboard, not from the
computer screen.
3. Rule #3: Find model games to study from strong players (especially if they
play the opening on a regular basis).
4. Rule #4: Play through the model games and have fun!
5. After playing through the model games, if you like the positions, observe the
pawn structure, piece setup, patterns, ideas and basic plans.
6. Analyze verbally!
7. Only after knowing the main ideas and lines you should start looking the
opening move-by-move.

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Chapter 3: How to build your opening repertoire
1. Learn the main variations and the tricky lines (move orders, gambits and
traps).
2. Don’t learn sidelines. Learn as you go instead, i.e., check the variations you
have played during your own games and increase your knowledge through
practice.
3. Keep a written (or digital) track of your opening repertoire.

Chapter 4: What to do in unknown positions

1. If you get to an unknown position, don’t panic! Don’t play superficial,
automatic moves. Observe, compare and/or analyze to reach a conclusion.
2. Use logic and reasoning, not emotions, to evaluate.
3. Sometimes, having half the information is worse than not knowing anything.
Don’t try to remember, think!

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 Part 2: Middlegame

Chapter 5: Become a master of planning

1. To create a plan, you first have to evaluate the position.
2. To evaluate, take into account the material, the pawn structure, king safety
(in the endgame it can turn into king activity), piece activity and the context
(what was your opponent’s last move?)
3. Look the position from both static and dynamic viewpoints.
4. Use this evaluation to find a target.
5. When evaluating the material, don’t just count the pieces, also look at the
difference between them. For example, if there are different-colored
bishops, this should be noted.
6. To improve your analytical skills, practice a lot and increase your chess
understanding.

Chapter 6: Perfect your strategic thinking

1. The initiative is the most important dynamic factor.
2. You don’t have to reevaluate the position on every move.
3. Evaluate the position after a major exchange (piece exchange, a change on
the pawn structure).
4. In other cases, reassess the tiny changes of the position after the move.
5. Always consider how to improve the position of your pieces.

Chapter 7: Piece play: Improve yours, worsen the

opponent’s
1. Strong players don’t think about the numerical strength of a piece, but of
their relative value.
2. You should always try to increase the relative value of your pieces and
decrease the relative value of the opponent’s ones.
3. The pawn structure will free or restrict the pieces.
4. Don’t exchange an active piece for a bad piece.
5. A restricted piece is a bad one.
6. A pinned piece is a bad one too, as it can’t be moved.
7. Make your opponent’s weaknesses permanent, or at least difficult to get rid
of.

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 Chapter 8: Pawn play: “I want to break free”
1. Why should you play a pawn break?
• To open the position,
• free your pieces,
• gain access to the opponent’s king,
• expose weaknesses or
• take the initiative.
2. If your opponent’s pieces are badly placed, open the position on the side of
the board where they aren’t placed!

Chapter 9: Attack like a beast

1. Take care of your opponent’s plans. Prevent them and win the initiative.
2. Don’t lose time when attacking.
3. The king is the ultimate objective, so don’t be afraid of ruining your pawn
structure.
4. Expose the opposite king to attack it, even if it costs you a piece.
5. Bring your pieces to the attack, and chase away your opponent’s!
6. Long-range pieces (bishops and rooks) can attack a flank from the other side
of the board.
7. Not every attacking game will end with mate. If you end up on material, it’s
still a successful attack.

Chapter 10: What makes an attack successful

1. To create a successful attack, you need more attacking pieces than there
are defenders.
2. Time is more important than material. You can (and should) use sacrifices to
open lines and/or weaken the pawn structure.
3. You also need to consider the possible counterplay of your opponent.
4. A sacrifice doesn’t need to be winning on the spot. You can strengthen your
attack after a sacrifice too.
5. Weaken the king position to get access to it.

Chapter 11: Typical attacking plans

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1. Uncastled king
• Use many types of sacrifices to attack as fast as possible, before
the king gets to castle.
• Open the position.
• Bring as many attacking pieces as possible.
2. Opposite-side castling
• Time is the most important. If you lose time, your opponent will
mate you first.
• Attack with the pawns.
• Bring as many pieces as possible.
• Use forcing moves and create stronger threats than the opponent.
3. Same-side castling
• Attack with your pieces, as many as possible.
• Create weaknesses in your opponent’s castle by exerting pressure
with your pieces. Pawn breaks can be useful too.
• Eliminate or chase away defending pieces.
• Sacrifices will usually be possible in the final stage of the attack
(the winning combination).

Chapter 12: How to spot tactical motifs

1. There are the 3 factors that will help you to spot tactical motifs:
• Unsafe king.
• Loose pieces.
• Unfortunately placed pieces.
2. Knowing typical motifs will help you a lot, as most combinations are
repeated a lot.
3. Every opening has typical tactical ideas that should be learned.
4. Solve tactics regularly and train your eyes to detect the above mentioned
key factors. That will develop your intuition.

Chapter 13: How to stop blundering

1. Be a step ahead of your opponent to stop making blunders.
2. Pay attention to the opponent’s threats.
3. See what the consequences of your move are before playing it.
4. Be alert. Always.
5. Calculate precisely (no automatic moves!)

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 Chapter 14: Defend like a pro
1. When defending, stay calm and detect the real threats.
2. If you can, counterattack!
3. Then, search for candidate moves and calculate. Attacks can be driven by
intuition. Defense, on the other hand, is pure calculation.
4. Put up the maximum resistance. Your opponent is a human being too, and
he can fail in the attack. He can make mistakes!

Chapter 15: Prophylactic thinking

1. Prophylactic thinking is the core of the Rudolf Method.
2. Always ask yourself “what is my opponent trying to do?”
3. Apply prophylactic thinking in all stages of the game.

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 Part 3: Endgame
Chapter 16: How to be a better endgame
player
1. Most club players don’t dedicate time to studying endgame. So your efforts
will pay off immediately.
2. You need to know endgame theory and have good endgame technique.
3. Most of the skills we have already learned are useful in the endgame too.
4. The only key difference is the importance of the king. In the endgame, king
activity is key.
5. Improve step by step, creating lots of mini-plans. Schematic thinking
(thinking about where to place your pieces without “seeing” how to do it) is
a great way to do this.
6. Simplification can be used to get a drawn theoretical endgame.

Chapter 17: Endgame principles and concepts

1. Opposition: When your king stops his opposite number from advancing.
2. Zugzwang: When every move worsens your position.
3. Pawn square: The square where your king can catch the opposite passed
pawn.
4. Principle of two weaknesses: Attack on both flanks and your opponent won’t
be able to defend himself!
5. Triangulation: Moving the king in 3 moves to a square which could be
reached in only 2 moves. This way, you lose a tempo to get your opponent
into zugzwang.
6. Tarrasch Rook: The rook must be behind the passed pawns!

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 Bonus: Calculation: Thought process
1. The thought process can be divided into 4 steps:
• Evaluation. We have worked a lot on this topic in the previous
chapters. You have to answer the question “What does my move
need to achieve?”
• Choice of candidate moves. Consider forcing moves (checks,
captures and threats) and moves that address the position’s
needs. Don’t consider more than 4 candidate moves (most of the
time 2 or 3 is sufficient).
• Calculating the candidate moves (in order!)
• Deciding what move to play.
2. Save time and energy. When you decide on a plan, you just need to check
the variations. It’s during critical moments that you need precise and deep
calculation.

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