Survive & Thrive How to Blunder Less and Defend Better by FM Dalton Perrine

Many players deserve better results than they’re getting, and they know it. Surely some names popped up in your head, maybe even your own.

These players can put up an enviable level of chess for many moves and achieve dominant positions without breaking a sweat. But, unfortunately, their games often end abruptly, after just one mistake. The story keeps repeating on and on, and the saddest part is that this vicious cycle is one of the most significant progress holdbacks.

FIDE Master Dalton Perrine knows this well. In over seven years of coaching players of all levels, he has seen it happen too much. 

A common mistake in chess training

Few ever train the ability to prevent the opponent’s counterplay, defending an inferior position, or smelling trouble from afar and avoiding blunders. And in their absence, a good game can be traumatically turned over, and an able player can lose confidence and stagnate.

So, for his first Chessable course, FM Perrine set out to solve the issue once and for all. The result is a course with an original premise: 300 challenging puzzles to develop your survival skills. Yes, survival!

The answer to many of these exercises will center around not getting yourself in trouble. Often, the final position will only be equal or slightly better. In some, you will even end up worse, but with chances to thrive.

A guide to defensive calculation

The five core chapters focus on a different defensive calculation technique, laid within three difficulty levels. While some players may cruise through level 1, by level 3, puzzles are so hard that the pace of the timer will evoke real game feelings.

These are sandwiched between a ‘Warm-up’ chapter (1-3 move solutions) and a ‘Very Challenging’ chapter (it lives up to its title): free-for-all of the techniques explored in the main chapters.

These are the five core techniques in the course:

⚠️ Response to checks — Don’t move on autopilot; it will make all the difference in the world!

⚠️ Spotting the threat — Anticipate them by defending or creating a stronger threat of your own.

⚠️ Process of elimination — Figure out your best option by ruling out those which are not.

⚠️ Candidate Moves Evaluation — Assess the best move from multiple options.

⚠️ Blunder check — Consider the suggested move and decide if it’s a blunder or not.

It will all be easier after reading FM Perrine tips in the introduction -a disguised mini-masterclass on calculation– but by the end of exercise 300, you’ll notice your defensive abilities grow stronger.