Hi Nelson,

Thoroughly enjoyed the course. I had been on a win streak that started right before I started the course but I have been able to use some of what I learned in my games and I’m doing tactics with more intention.

In lesson 2.5 you talked about backward pawns. I wasn’t sure I understood why you didn’t also consider the pawn on f7 and h6 as backward.

Also on lesson 5.3 at about 5:30 mark you talk about pushing the c pawn vs e pawn (creating holes), but I need a bit of assistance as to why they aren’t equal evaluations.

Many coaches say that post-game review should be done without the use of the engine first. I know you didn’t cover this in the course (I haven’t reviewed the bonus material yet), would you mind discussing how you would go about doing this or do you recommend it at all? I feel that the engine has made me so lazy that I’m not very good at identifying what positions are worth further analysis and review.

When using engine analysis how much of an advantage in position is noteworthy? For example in reviewing a game I played, Stockfish evaluated my move (white) 0-0-0 as +1.16 but said that 0-0 was best at +1.18. This seems like something that only a computer would be concerned about (+.02 advantage) and I shouldn’t bother at my level (I won that game BTW).

I’m feel like the course was money and time well spent. Thank you.