Reviews: The 10-Day Chess Challenge

On this page you can read how other chess players experienced the 10-Day Chess Challenge.

Feedback From Chess Players Who Did the 10-Day Chess Challenge

Note: I’ve actually closed the comment section because this page was getting way too long… Even so, I thank you for the wonderful responses!

Rodney
I have completed Days 1 and 2 of the challenge and find them to be extremely helpful. I now have some concrete steps to guide my thinking during a chess game which I very much needed.

Dr. Ranganayaki Srinivas
I am still on day 2. But I love this 10-day chess challenge. As a teacher of language and as a materials developer I appreciate the way this course is designed. I am told in very simple terms what I am going to learn, I am exposed to the learning material and I get a summary of what I have learnt. There is enough repetition to make me internalize the concepts using different contexts and I am able to learn with active involvement, without getting bored. Each video focuses on one thing that is important for me to learn, does not overload me with all the related ideas and the exercises make me practice that one concept in a real game situation. Thank you for this excellent free course.

Ian
Excellent course. You understand our level well. The repetitive element of it ensures that one remembers it!

Gregory Charles
A very enjoyable and informative course, my rating is currently 1250, and I struggled a bit with some of the Visualwize exercises.
However I feel it was worth my time and effort and I intend to do the course again to further embed the thinking technique into my thought processes.
For most people in the intended rating range, just paying attention to the first part of the thinking process (What is my opponent’s threat?) will significantly improve their game.

Dan Pohl
Say goodbye to reactionary chess and hello to attacking chess! I just completed the 10-Day Chess Challenge and I am already seeing improvements in my rating. More importantly, I am enjoying chess more than ever before. Louis Holtzhausen presents two easy to learn thinking methods that will put any beginner in control of their own games.

GJM Robin Crowley
It is an amazing experience, the 10 days challenge completely changed my view of chess strategy to the point that my rating went 200 points up in less than a week!, that had never ever happened before with any other training methods. Louis is great at knowing howvto help you understand both, the calculation thinking and the position evaluation methods. I highly recommend it!

Brett
This was a wonderful exercise! It heavily improved my thinking and evaluation processes and I have gone up many rating points! Very, very good program. I heavily agree with your idea at the end, that one needs to establish a good thinking process before learning tons of theory. YES.

Greg
This was an excellent tool for practicing methodical thinking; the feedback (in the videos) allowed one to correct thinking flaws immediately so in many ways, the 10 day course was very close to having a personal coach. I have already caught a few blunders that I’m not sure I would have caught otherwise. Thank you!

Ellril
This was a fantastic exercise. I did them in 2 days. I also agree with your point at the end of the last evaluation exercise to not focus too much on theory. These 2 methods to evaluate strength of moves i found incredibly beneficial. The theory of targets and why something is a target most improved my game personally. The visualwize exercises were also fun and added another layer of difficulty.

Really great job compiling this senpai. 10/10 -thoroughly enjoyable and informative.

Brian
Thanks a bunch for the instructions. I especially took note of how you repeated the reminder of “5 step evaluation” prior to every scenario. Eventually that sank in and I went from just taking guesses at calculation to actually applying those steps. My calculations got better thanks to the hearing it over and over and over.

Peter
Louis is certainly a gifted chess teacher. I appreciate the effort he has put into the course,and feel that many players can benefit considerably if they apply his chess methodology.

Many thanks Louis.

Phil
Just finished the course and it has made me much more comfortable with calculation and evaluation. I’d been informally and inconsistently applying similar techniques, but this course frames that process in a logically structured way.

I’m sure eventually players don’t use such a rigid approach, but as a relative beginner I found it very helpful. My eyes no longer dart around the board erratically, sometimes calculating checks but ignoring threats, other times calculating captures but missing obvious checks — now if I don’t immediately see a strong move I have a more methodical approach to fall back on.

Thanks a lot for creating the course and offering it for free!

Dave
I found the course interesting, and everything was clearly explained. I like the style with which the courses were presented, and Louis puts the ideas across in his commentary effectively, making the key points easy to understand. What I also thought was good was that Louis did not overcomplicate things, or try and explain too much, instead he focused on the most important aspects of evaluating and calculating.
Now it’s just a matter of applying the thought processes in real games, which should come naturally with practice.
Thanks Louis, and hopefully, there may be more to come. Nice work !

Tom
I was pretty skeptical when he told me about his program on chess.com forums, however after the very first day I already new that this was the program for me, im able to see things I never could before. One thing that this has really helped me with is seeing my oppositions threats and remembering that they are just as real as my own. 5/5 Great job Louis.

Dave
I found the course very enjoyable because the calculation and evaluation examples are very similar to a personal checklist I use when playing over the board games or puzzles. The examples were easy to solve and evaluate, but that is not a bad thing because simple examples are better to illustrate the concepts of what you are teaching. Thus, the material was just right, and I will recommend the 10-Day Challenge to my grandsons.

Dave Kolacz
The thing I liked the most about the 10 day Challenge was providing a short check list for the evaluation and calculation processes. -With so much to keep track of on the board, my mind can get overwhelmed and miss a lot. The check list helps me focus in a systematic manner.

Mark
I cannot recommend The Chess Fox highly enough. The Ten Day Chess Challenge gave me a systematic way of thinking through chess moves and helped me start playing chess instead of just making random moves for no reason. Of course, when you play better that opens the door to playing better as you understand what you’re doing and why. The Chess Fox’s material has really helped me up my game. Thanks so very much!

Jonathon
I am writing to you because I have recently completed the 10 day chess challenge and would like to give you feedback on the course. As a regular club player I have always looked for different ways to improve my game. I feel that studying the material in the 10 day chess challenge has taught me how to properly evaluate and calculate positions and variations. From the 5th and 6th days I could see a rise of approximately 50-70 rating points on the tactics trainer that is on chess.com. Your challenge has been well designed and it is clear that you have put a lot of effort into making up this course for which I would like to applaud you for. I feel that The material in the course is just the right difficulty for the majority of chess players and I felt that the material got progressively harder as you continued through the course. The lessons are a perfect length as it is rather easy to take 30 minutes out of your daily routine to study chess. I feel that you have manufactured a top notch course to improve your chess and I have definitely noticed an improvement in my ability to calculate tactics and evaluate positions. I must also add that the inclusion of the visualwise program was very helpful and I would imagine it would make a big difference to a newer players ability to visualize a few moves ahead. I can only hope that your course will be noticed by other chess players and coaches throughout the world. I am currently the captain of my school chess team and coach the players of the team on a regular basis. I would not hesitate to recommend your course to all of my students as I feel that it could make a substantial improvement to their game. I wish you all the best in promoting your 10 day chess challenge and I would be interested in taking part in any courses you may come up with in the future.

Robert
Having diligently read and studied many chess books and courses over the years I can say with full conviction and sincerity that The ten day chess challenge was not only the most enjoyable but the most practical. If you will apply the thinking techniques you will instantly be aware of your opponent’s threats and you will find ways to exploit the dynamics in the position. Louis treatment of targets is excellent and by providing a sound basis for evaluating the resultant positions you can play with confidence knowing that the thinking methods themselves are founded on bona fide principles. It was one of the few courses where I actually felt that I was being coached by a chess professional. My only regret was that the chess course lasted only ten days! Perhaps if we are lucky Louis may extend the course or make more illustrative videos of the study plan outlined at chessfox.com. Here’s hoping!