GM RB Ramesh – Nurtr Dream Room Advanced Level Index Review

Dream Room Advanced Review: The Verdict in 60 Seconds

Level 3 of the nurtr Dream Room changes the format. At the lower levels GM RB Ramesh explains while juniors answer; here he dictates positions to young grandmasters from his academy, they calculate blindfolded and out loud, and he pushes back with engine moves they did not consider. You are invited to do the same work before the answer comes. For strong club and tournament players who want to calculate longer lines without losing the picture, it is one of the most demanding video formats we have reviewed. The trade-offs are concrete: no PGN files, about 37 minutes of duplicated lessons, and a pace that rewards only viewers who really pause.

Depth and practice value are the reasons to buy: endgame studies, critical middlegame positions and long rook endings are analysed at grandmaster speed. Structure loses points for the two repeated lessons and the jumbled numbering, and study files score 5 because everything is video. The nearest fix is the separate Dream Room PDF Flip Books; for other calculation titles, see our chess courses list.

Meet the Coach

Inside the active-defence episode Ramesh tells how one of the grandmasters on camera started with him at about eleven years old. In a group session on Kasparov games, the coach showed ten moves and asked the children to imagine the rest; that boy left the starting position on his board and played the entire game in his head. The level is built on that kind of training: the grandmasters on screen are not guests reading notes, but mostly the coach’s own long-time pupils doing their usual work.

How to Get the Course

Dream Room Advanced Review: What the 13h 18m Contains

The product page lists the episodes by subject. For this Dream Room Advanced review we sorted them by the kind of work they ask from you and added up the real runtimes, including the two lessons that appear twice. Roughly a third of the level is pure calculation, a fifth is endgames, and the duplicated lessons take 37 minutes.

Almost every board episode follows the same training loop, and copying it is the whole point:

A Worked Example: Active Defence From an Olympiad Game

For the worked example in this Dream Room Advanced review we chose Episode 23, which shows the method at full strength. The position comes from a game Indian grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta played with Black at the 2012 Istanbul Olympiad, and two young grandmasters analyse it blindfolded.

1. The situation. Black has just played …h6 against the bishop on g5. The normal replies are a retreat or a capture on f6, but White chose Qb3, keeping every piece aimed at the king while Black’s a8-rook and c8-bishop are still at home.
2. The rule. Under attack with an undeveloped position, Black has to defend and finish development at the same time. Ramesh’s instruction is the same as always: make a list of candidate moves first.
3. The list. The players name …Re7, …Re6, …hxg5 and a capture on e4. Ramesh then adds moves they did not mention, taken from the engine, to see whether they can refute them blindfold — and they eliminate …hxg5 because too many white pieces gather around the king.
4. The game. Gupta chose …Re6, later added the risky …g5, and White went for a knight sacrifice on f7. It failed to a black knight move to d5 that White had missed, after which Black was winning.
5. The improvement. Instead of the sacrifice, the bishop move to c4 was stronger, and the analysis ends in a complex position with chances for both sides. The lesson: in a dangerous position, the defender’s best tool is a complete candidate list, not one hopeful move.

What makes the episode valuable is not the final evaluation but the process. You hear two strong players test, reject and rebuild lines without a board, and you can check your own list against theirs before the answer arrives.

Second Example: The Outside Passed Pawn as a Decoy

Not every lesson in this Dream Room Advanced review is a tactical storm. Episode 20 is a quieter one with a very practical rule. White has a king on c3 and pawns on d4, e3, f3 and h4; Black has a king on f6 and pawns on a5, e6, f7 and h5, and it is Black to move. The a5-pawn looks doomed, since the white king can head for a4 or b5 to collect it.

The players first eliminate what does not work. The black king has no entry on the kingside, and pawn moves achieve nothing. What remains is a king walk to the other wing: …Ke7 and …Kd6, and if White plays e4, …Kc6 and …Kb6 keep the a-pawn alive. That pawn then works as a decoy, tying the white king to the corner while the black king later goes after the centre and kingside pawns. Along the way Ramesh adds a rule that applies to every ending: when your opponent starts spending pawn moves, it often means he has no good piece move left, so you can simply wait.

The Index, Turned Into an 8-Week Study Plan

Episode titles and file sizes live on the course page. To make 42 demanding videos manageable, this Dream Room Advanced review uses the real runtimes to build a plan of under two hours of video a week. Each week pairs calculation with technique, adds one coaches’ discussion as a break, and ends with a task that forces you to calculate before the answer. Episodes 16 and 42 are left out because they repeat Episodes 6 and 33.

Test Yourself: Are You Ready for Level 3?

Every Dream Room Advanced review should help you judge whether the level fits, so here are four questions drawn from the episodes. If you can answer most of them without a board, you are the target viewer. Tap a question to reveal the answer.

Dream Room Advanced Review: Strengths and Gaps

Calculation training you can copy

Most calculation courses show you finished analysis. This level shows analysis being built, with mistakes and corrections, by players who are much stronger than the average viewer. The answer-by-final-move routine from the studies episodes is a ready-made training game for clubs and coaches, and the instruction to pause for ten to twenty minutes per position turns 13 hours of video into a much longer workout.

Evaluation, not just variations

Ramesh keeps reminding the players that a correct line is not enough without a correct verdict. In the wrong-corner knight-versus-bishop ending, a player sees that White can let the h-pawn go because the c-pawn will decide, and the coach praises the assessment rather than the calculation. This Dream Room Advanced review counts that as the level’s most underrated feature.

What holds Level 3 back

Nothing in the package is printable: every dictated position has to be rebuilt by hand. Episodes 16 and 42 repeat earlier lessons, which leaves about 12h 41m of unique video. The level also assumes the strategic basics of Level 2; if pawn breaks or basic rook endings are still unfamiliar, start with the Dream Room Intermediate Level. For more structured drills after this level, Ramesh’s Improve Your Chess Calculation is the natural next step.

Which Calculation Course Should You Pick?

The store carries the whole Dream Room ladder and several dedicated calculation and endgame courses. Pick by the problem you want solved; each link leads to a product page with its own file index.

FAQ

Is this Dream Room Advanced review based on the real episodes?

Yes. We timed all 42 files and took each example and quote from the transcripts, then compared the details with the official nurtr pages.

How much unique video is there?

The package runs 13h 18m. Two lessons appear twice, so the unique material is about 12h 41m; our 8-week plan skips the repeats.

Can I follow it if I cannot calculate blindfold yet?

Yes. Each dictated position is shown on the demonstration board afterwards, so you can solve with a board first and move to blindfold practice later.

How is the course delivered?

Digital files. Crypto payment only. Fast delivery is handled manually after payment confirmation. Download links remain available for 7 days; save your files locally.