Article · Happenings
ಮಾಜಿ ವಿಶ್ವ ನಂಬರ್-10 ಜೊತೆ ಒಂದು ಗಂಟೆ: GM ಕ್ರಾಸೆನ್ಕೋವ್ ಅಧಿವೇಶನ
Half an hour of tactics a day, master games over online blitz, and why deep opening knowledge is really a time-trouble cure — five things a former World No. 10 told our players on 9 August.
On Sunday 9 August 2026, GM Michal Krasenkow sat down with 8by8verse for an hour of open questions. No registration, no fee, no filter on who could ask — and the answers were more direct than most players expect.
Who was answering
Krasenkow is not a coach who once played a bit. He is an elite player who has spent much of his career teaching:
- Peak FIDE rating 2702, and World No. 10 in July 2000
- Polish Champion in 2000 and again in 2002
- Board-one silver at the European Team Championship, Batumi 1999
- FIDE Senior Trainer — he has coached the Polish and Turkish national teams
- Part of GM Viswanathan Anand’s team for the 2010 World Championship
- Author of four chess books
Five things he told our players
1. If you have one hour a day, give tactics at least half of it
Asked by a player rated around 1600 how to structure a single hour of daily work, he did not hedge: a minimum of thirty minutes on tactics, every day. At that level tactics decide games more often than plans do, and half an hour is the floor, not the target.
2. Study master games — it is what made him
He came back to this more than once. Going through the games of strong players, properly and often, is what built his own understanding. Not skimming them: reading them. If you want one habit from this session, it is this one.
3. Play over the board. Blitzing online is not training
His emphasis was firmly on real, slow, over-the-board chess. Online blitz has its place, but it is not what makes a player stronger — and a player who only ever plays fast online is not practising the game they will sit down to at the weekend.
4. Dvoretsky, once you are past 2200
For strong players — his marker was 2200 and above — he recommended the books of Mark Dvoretsky. Note the rating: this was advice for a specific audience, not a reading list for a club player. Get the first three habits right before you go here.
5. Deep opening knowledge is a cure for time trouble
The question was about handling the clock. His answer was not about playing faster — it was about knowing your openings deeply enough that the opening costs you almost no time. The clock you save in the first fifteen moves is the clock you get to spend on the position that actually decides the game.
Watch it back
The full session is on our YouTube channel — an hour, unedited, with everything above in his own words.
▶ Watch the full session on YouTube
The next one is already scheduled
These run every week or so, and they stay free. Next up is FM Ojasva Singh on 26 August 2026 at 8:30 PM IST — Uncommon Tactical Patterns, open to every level.
One thing to do differently this time: register in advance and send your question with it. Questions submitted before the session get read out first, instead of being lost in a fast-moving chat.