Improving Play-- Step Method versus Yusupov Courses

Thanks a lot.
I'm a scorekeeper, so I will read the book :)

If you are a scorekeeper you will really like it as it actually explains how to keep scores :-)

I would not recommend that book. Look at some negative reviews of it they are closer to the truth more then the positive ones.

@BestSiteEver nice to see you again. Hope you are not mad because i trolled you.

BTW, correct is 'than', not 'then' and the 'more' is also not necessary. See http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling :-)

Jussupow is really tough. 2003 he gave "home-training" lessons, 24x in a year. They each consist of a course to a certain topic and exercises, the solutions you figured out were sent to him back and he assessed them. (I did in that year the "2100" program which was really demanding...)

Eventually the courses for the different levels resulted in books, in German they are named "Tigersprung" (Tiger's leap?). Most players regard them as the best what you can do. They are really challenging because they force you out of the comforting zone and this is the only thing which works.

PS: Very good except for the titles: "Tigersprung 1500" means approximately 1800 FIDE Elo resp. 2100 lichess rating. ;-)

Thanks for all of the feedback!

@CM Sarg0n #15

"Jussupow...he gave 'home-training' lessons..."

Unfortunately he doesn't offer "Ferntraining" anymore, despite of his offer on his website. See http://www.jussupow.de/30112/home.html.

But there are still his summer bootcamps.

I have some contact to the "Stappenmethode" (step method), since in our club the juniors work with the booklets. You can get a first impression about the difficulty level in the weekly renewed tasks: http://www.stappenmethode.nl/en/puzzle.php

In the teachers hand books you'll find the solutions and many informations about how to work with a class of kids. In my opinion the material is not the best for an adult who is working himself btw. it is getting expensive with the trainers books.

The Jussupow books begins nearly where the step method ends.

In your case i would consider to work through
www.russell-enterprises.com/rei-publications/1001-brilliant-ways-to-checkmate
and
www.russell-enterprises.com/rei-publications/1001-winning-chess-sacrifices-and-combinations

or any other great collection of tactical problems and then go to the Jussupow books. The idea is to get enough tactical and calculation skills, which is required for Jussupows bootcamp chess books.

Step method is highly recommandable. The Yussupow / Dworetski books I can also recommand, but only AFTER you completed the first 5/6 Steps.

I have access to all of the step method workbooks so I will go that route. Would I still start with step 1 or would step 2 be appropriate given my level? Thank you for the help!