Want a course that hands you lines to memorize? Close this page. There are none here.

Half an hour of chess a night. Decision rules you run at work the next morning.

You have the SCAN. Four questions, every move. The sheet walks you through one game.

This turns it into a habit.

The split second before you act

This is not about chess.

You already ask the right questions when the stakes are clear. In a room where the deal is on the table, you slow down. On the twentieth email of the day you answer on reflex. It doesn't look important enough to stop for.

That's where the cost lives.

The board makes you ask a hundred times an evening, on moves that look like nothing. You run it at the board. Then you run it on the twentieth email.

Same four questions, different board

A client writes. He wants to push the deadline a week.

S — what changed? The date moved in his favor. Nothing moved in mine.

C — what is forcing? Say yes and the next ask is bigger. Say no today and I may lose the job.

A — what is loose? My week is under fire. My history of saying yes is loose.

N — now move, and name why. I answer tonight, ask two questions, hold the date.

It's the same procedure, on a board with no pieces.

What you get

Six parts: one the day you buy, then one a week for five weeks.

The day you buy — a map of their moves One page of the moves that break your plan, and the three jobs you fall back on when the position from the video never shows up.

Week 1 · September 15 — when they leave the line Run the SCAN on your own games until it runs without you.

Week 2 · September 22 — your own move The same four questions, turned on yourself before you let go of the piece. You'll see the cost of skipping it in your own games.

Week 3 · September 29 — they don't castle Punish a king stuck in the middle. By the signs, not by a line you learned.

Week 4 · October 6 — when they won't cooperate They refuse the trade. They turn down the gambit. They bring the queen out on move two. They grab everything in sight. You hold your plan.

Week 5 · October 13 — check it yourself Take a line from a video and find out for yourself whether it holds. You stop waiting for someone to answer you in the comments.

How it runs

Four evenings a week, twenty to thirty minutes each. Thirty evenings across the course, and none of them long.
You write your move first. The breakdown waits behind it. Watching is easy. Answering is the work.
One evening a week you take the rule off the board — next to a moment from your own job, in your own words.
Pages, not files. It opens in your browser. Nothing to download, no app, no account to keep.

Who this is for

You play in the evening. You know more theory than your games show. Your rating is not the point here — plenty of players come in without one.

Not for you if you want an opening repertoire, a rating promise, or a course you can finish by watching.

I build it in public. You're early.

A new part ships every week, on the dates above. Buy now and your questions go into the parts I write next — write to me and they land in the course.

Thirty days, no questions

If it's not for you, write one line and I refund it in full. Thirty days covers every part in the schedule above. Here is the whole policy — it's short.

Price

$49 through October 13. $69 after that. One payment. Every part that follows comes with it, and it stays yours.

Type the email your course should open with. You pay on the next screen.

Thirty days, no questions. If it's not for you, one line gets your money back.

Who's telling you this

Ivan Kosov — International Master · Entrepreneur

I won't promise you rating points. I'll show you the procedure I use when the board stops looking like the books.