GM Swapnil Dhopade leads the August 2026 edition of Tactical Thursday with a paired theme that addresses the two halves of every calculation — Looking for Options and Visualisation.
In this camp, the focus shifts to two skills that quietly decide far more games than tactics do: the ability to find the moves worth calculating in the first place, and the ability to see the resulting positions clearly enough to judge them. One is the breadth of your search, the other its clarity — and a failure in either makes the calculation itself worthless.
A central idea of this edition is that most missed opportunities are never calculated at all. The move that would have won was not rejected after analysis; it simply never entered the list of candidates. Habit, assumption and the pull of the natural move narrow the search before it begins. GM Dhopade will show how strong players widen it deliberately — how they look past the first idea that presents itself, how they force themselves to find the second and third option, and how they recognise the moments when the position demands a search rather than a reflex.
The second core theme of the camp is visualisation. This is the skill that determines how far and how reliably you can calculate at all: holding a position accurately in the mind several moves ahead, keeping the pieces where they actually are rather than where they started, and arriving at the end of a line with a picture clear enough to evaluate. Most deep-calculation errors at the club level are not errors of logic — the line was followed correctly, but the final position was seen imperfectly. This camp trains exactly that capacity, with methods that strong players use to build it systematically.
GM Dhopade will demonstrate how strong players:
Generate a genuine list of candidate moves instead of following the first idea Recognise the positions where a wider search is required Look past habit and assumption to find the hidden option Hold positions accurately in the mind several moves deep Arrive at the end of a variation with a picture clear enough to judge
Tactical Thursday is part of the Modern Chess Academy, meaning Academy members receive free access to all lectures and the final digital product.
🛠 Technical Details
✓ Dates: 13.08.2026 and 20.08.2026
✓ Platform: Zoom
✓ Coach: GM Swapnil Dhopade
📅 Program
13.08.2026 – Paris | New York
🕒 17:30 – 19:00 | 11:30 – 13:00 – Looking for Options – Part 1
🕒 19:30 – 21:00 | 13:30 – 15:00 – Looking for Options – Part 2
20.08.2026 – Paris | New York
🕒 17:30 – 19:00 | 11:30 – 13:00 – Visualisation – Part 1
🕒 19:30 – 21:00 | 13:30 – 15:00 – Visualisation – Part 2
🕒 21:00 – 21:30 | 15:00 – 15:30 – Q&A with GM Grigor Grigorov & GM Petar Arnaudov
🎁 Participants Receive:
Recordings of all lectures PGN files with all material (2–3 weeks after the event) Final digital product based on all four lectures Free access for Academy members
🔥 What You Will Gain
A wider, more disciplined search for candidate moves The habit of looking past the natural move to the hidden one Sharper visualisation several moves ahead More reliable evaluation at the end of long variations Greater confidence that what you calculate is what is actually on the board
This camp will help you fix the two failures that undermine calculation before it begins — the move you never considered, and the position you never quite saw. A key step toward becoming a more precise and complete player.
This event is completed.