Dream Room Advanced Level: Calculation Without a Board

Episode 8 states the thesis of the whole level in one line, quoted below. The method is unusual and very practical. Ramesh dictates a position piece by piece, the player puts on a blindfold, and the variations are discussed out loud — sometimes, as in the first episode, “20–30 moves deep.” Only then does the position appear on the demo board for you. His instruction to the viewer is equally direct: pause, think for ten to twenty minutes, write your lines down, then compare them with the grandmasters’ answers. nurtr bills the Dream Room as “40+ hours of cinematically recorded, comprehensive bestselling content,” and this is the most demanding slice of it.

How it differs from its siblings: the Beginner Level teaches rules and tactical motifs, and the Intermediate Level (90 videos, 25h 37m) builds strategy and endgame basics with junior students. The Dream Room Advanced Level revisits some of the same headings — prophylaxis, improving pieces, the two weaknesses — but with grandmaster guests, deeper calculation and longer, harder endgames. It completes the ladder in our RB Ramesh collection.

What the Dream Room Advanced Level Trains

Blindfold calculation and endgame studies

Eleven episodes of the Dream Room Advanced Level, just over four hours, are pure calculation. Praggnanandhaa analyses Smyslov vs Rubinetti (1970) blindfolded over two videos. Ramesh’s “three musketeers” — Pragg, Aravindh and Karthikeyan — solve a set of studies blindfolded and later prove they solved them by naming only the final move. Abhijeet Gupta and Divya Deshmukh tackle studies too, Gupta explaining his “method of elimination”, and Aravindh, who Ramesh says has been given “more than 200 or 300 studies”, takes on a single very hard one. Compositions by Afek (under-promotion) and Gurgenidze appear along the way. The coach’s advice on how to practise: solve from the book without setting up the pieces, then set up the board without moving them, and finally have someone read the position to you.

Technique: two weaknesses, prophylaxis and the initiative

The principle of two weaknesses is framed as a lesson in technique: improve your pieces, stop the opponent improving his, fix his weak pawns so they can be neither advanced nor exchanged — and do not expect him to keep making mistakes. In a Karpov example Ramesh warns that “prophylaxis is not passive play.” Manoeuvring is separated from improving pieces: it costs time, belongs in closed positions, and fails if the opponent can open the game. The initiative pair starts from Capablanca’s “initiative means superiority” and a rule of thumb — note one small mistake, punish after the second — then shows Kasparov vs Ligterink (1980).

Isolated pawns, passed pawns and attack

Two IQP lessons list what the isolated pawn gives (control of e5 and c5, open lines and files) and then calculate the d5 break in Kramnik vs Anand, Dortmund 2001, with Praggnanandhaa. Passed-pawn positions are solved blindfold, and one shows the idea a player missed in his own game. For attack, Ramesh shows his 1996 Richter-Rauzer game against Neelotpal Das, with a lesson for young players who fear castling, and Geller vs Velimirović; active defence comes from Abhijeet Gupta’s game at the 2012 Istanbul Olympiad.

Grandmaster-level endgames and Pragg’s own games

The endgames here are long and tricky: knight vs bishop with the wrong-coloured corner, king and pawn endings built around traps for two grandmasters, an opposite-colour bishop ending with two extra pawns against a fortress, and a 37-minute study of Spielmann vs Rubinstein (1909). Ramesh corrects the popular reading of Tarrasch’s “all rook endings are drawn” — it only means the drawing tendency is stronger — and adds that with fewer pawns rook endings become harder, not easier. Carlsen vs Hou Yifan’s king and pawn ending and two of Praggnanandhaa’s own games (against Awonder Liang, and from Gibraltar 2018), analysed with Pragg himself, complete the block.

Coaches on talent, motivation and tournaments

Five short discussions with two senior Indian coaches cover how to assess a new student, hard work versus talent, motivation, tournament routine and the mindset during an event. One coach’s line sums it up: “it takes 1000 factors to play a good game of chess and only one to spoil it.”

Dream Room Advanced Level: Course Index

Who Should Take the Dream Room Advanced Level

• Strong juniors and tournament players whose calculation breaks down after three or four moves.
• Graduates of the Intermediate Level who want the same coach and the same themes at a higher difficulty.
• Players who struggle to convert a better endgame — the two-weaknesses, rook and king-and-pawn lessons target exactly that.
• Coaches looking for a proven training format: dictated positions, blindfold solving, and answers checked by the final move.

If pawn breaks, the bad bishop and basic rook endings still feel new, start with the Dream Room Intermediate Level first. Players who want more calculation work after this level can continue with Ramesh’s Improve Your Chess Calculation.

FAQ

Can I follow the blindfold sessions if I can’t visualise that well?

Yes. The players solve blindfolded, but after the position is dictated it is shown to you on the demo board. You can solve with the board in front of you and try the blindfold method later.

Do I need the Intermediate Level before the Dream Room Advanced Level?

Not strictly, but the Advanced Level assumes you already know prophylaxis, improving pieces, pawn majorities and basic rook endings, which the Intermediate Level teaches. It does not re-explain them from scratch.

Which Praggnanandhaa games are analysed?

Two of his own games — a Najdorf against Awonder Liang and a game from the Gibraltar Open 2018 — discussed move by move with Pragg, plus his blindfold analysis of Smyslov vs Rubinetti and Kramnik vs Anand.

What files do I get, and how is it delivered?

42 MP4 videos (1.01 GB); no PGN or PDF files. Digital files. Crypto payment only. Fast delivery is handled manually after payment confirmation. Download links remain available for 7 days; save your files locally.