Using Aimchess Annotate to reduce teaching load
Chess coaches can find shortcomings in their students thinking with an annotation tool that is accessible to students of any level
What is Aimchess Annotate?
Annotate is a simple tool to help a chess player begin to analyze their games at greater depth. It’s free and available for anyone to use with or without an Aimchess account.
To start a player imports a recently played game, after which Aimchess automatically grabs the 10 most critical positions from that game. Then the player is tasked with evaluating each position quantitatively (who is better) and qualitatively (what are the key factors and plans in the position at that moment).
After completing the process, players are given a grade and the opportunity to download their annotated file or review the positions with an engine.
How Aimchess Annotate can improve your coaching sessions.
Early feedback from the coaches who have been beta testing Annotate has been quite positive. The most common feedback we’ve heard is that Annotate makes for a perfect homework assignment.
Assigning annotations for students to complete before their scheduled lessons vastly reduces the time it takes for you to find and correct the flaws in a student’s thinking. Rather than walking through a game together and asking your student to repeatedly assess various positions, you can quickly find those teachable moments by scanning through the student’s annotation.
Beyond that, annotating their games forces your students to think critically about their moves and how to improve them, instead of simply spending time on the selective parts of chess that they enjoy e.g. only solving puzzles or only playing games.
Where can you find Aimchess Annotate?
If you’d like to get your students started annotating their games (or would like to annotate your own), head to www.aimchess.com/annotate to give it a try.
For other time-saving coaching tools, you can create a free coaching account at Aimchess.com. Any students with Aimchess Premium can add you as a coach, allowing you to track their statistical progress as well as access pgns for every position where they made a mistake or where unable to convert a significant advantage.
