IMPROVE your CHESS with INTERNATIONAL MASTER GARY LANE: Chess Coaching and Simultaneous Display

Chess workshop for aspiring junior players by one of Australian Player of the Year 2004

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Klang, Monday July 23^rd 2007:

The Chess Club of Sekolah Tengku Ampuan Rahimah (STAR), Klang officially announced that it is organizing an upcoming chess workshop by Australian Player of the Year 2004, International Master (IM) Gary Lane. The workshop, entitled “Improve your chess with International Master Gary Lane 2007: Chess coaching and simultaneous display”, is structured around the content of IM Gary’s recently published chess book, “Improve Your Chess in 7 Days”.

This chess workshop is a good opportunity for chess enthusiasts to learn more about the game from a world class professional chess player. The chess workshop will be held on the 18^th of August 2007 (Saturday), from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the school library of Sekolah Tengku Ampuan Rahimah (STAR), Klang. Registrations for the participants start at 9.30 am and the fee per participant is Ringgit Malaysia 80. Only a maximum of 20 participants are allowed for this chess workshop.

The Sekolah Tengku Ampuan Rahimah had in 2005 and 2006 hosted similar chess workshops by IM Atanu Lahiri of India and FIDE Master Brian Jones of Australia. The teacher-advisor of the Chess Club, Mr. P. Pandiyan, said that, “Following the successes of similar chess workshops in the past two years, we are happy to have the honor of hosting 2004 Australian Champion and world renowned chess book author, IM Gary Lane this time around.”

The chess workshop is made up of both theory and practice sessions. There will be about 2.5 hours of coaching by IM Gary. This will be followed by a simultaneous chess display by IM Gary against all 20 participants, which is an excellent practice session for the participants to pit their skills and apply what they have just learnt from the coaching session against the man himself!

IM Gary will use the coaching session to cover the most important principles / ideas from his recently published book, “Improve your chess in 7 days”:

- How to be good: Etiquette at the chess board and how to train to be a good chess player

- Opening ideas: Discussion of openings and how things change due to fashion and the increasing use of computers

- Avoiding blunders: We all play badly sometimes but a set of chess rules will help to avoid them

- Strategy versus Tactics: How to Attack and win in chess

- The Art of Swindling: When the game seems lost there is still hope in using a combination of psychology and fighting spirit

“We hope that IM Gary’s presence in the school will inspire the talented Malaysian junior players to become even better chess players,” concluded Mr. Pandiyan.

For more information about the chess workshop, please contact P. Pandiyan (012 315 7130).

About International Master (IM) Gary Lane:

International Master (IM) Gary Lane (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Lane) was born in the United Kingdom in 1964. As a professional chess player, IM Gary received his title of International Master in 1987 and also won the Commonwealth Chess Championship in 1988. IM Gary is currently rated at 2412 ELO points (http://www.fide.com/ratings/card.phtml?event=3203301) by the World Chess Federation’s (FIDE) (www.fide.com).

Having relocated to Australia in recent years, IM Gary won the title of Australian Champion in 2004 and Oceania Champion. He was also named the Australian Player of the Year in 2004. He has also represented Australia at the Chess Olympiad on a number of occasions, since 2002. The Chess Olympiad is the Olympics for the game of chess and is held bi-annually.

In 2005, IM Gary became one of the 64 players who reached the second round of the FIDE World Chess Cup that was held in Siberia. The FIDE World Chess Cup serves as the qualifier for the Candidates Stage of the World Chess Championships. Besides being a professional chess player, IM Gary is also a prolific chess coach. He is a popular coach for the English and Australian junior chess teams.

As an author, IM Gary specializes in writing books on chess game openings. In recognition of his expertise in the openings field of the chess game, he has been awarded the Chess Journalist of America award for Best Analysis, Openings. He has written many books including, Ideas Behind Modern Chess Openings: Black, and the recently published, Improve Your Chess in 7 days, both titles are published by Batsford Chess (www.batsford.com).

Although he grew up in the United Kingdom, IM Gary followed his heart and went Down Under to marry the love of his life. He has since settled down in the iconic harbor city of Sydney with his wife and two children. FIDE Master and editor of Australian Chess magazine, Brian Jones, is his father-in-law.