Tick-Tock Winning Decisions Under Pressure PGN Only Jul 25, 2025 Chessable

“Chess is a game of decisions, and sometimes the most decisive factor isn’t your strategy or preparation – it’s how you perform under pressure.”

There is nothing more frustrating than losing a winning position under time pressure.

Whether it’s letting the clock run out in analysis paralysis – or even worse, blundering away your advantage in a hurry – time trouble is one of the most significant factors in your loss count.

But you can drastically reduce your “losses on time” statistics with…

A Systematic Guide to Handling the 4 Most Common Decisions
in Time Trouble

Grandmasters Alex Colovic and Danyyil Dvirnyy bring you Chessable’s first ever course on time management.

And they are the guys to do it. Both of them are seasoned grandmasters with years of tournament experience – and practical know-how of dealing with time trouble.

But most relevant for you, they’re veritably world-class coaches and authors. GM Colovic – Chessable’s first grandmaster author – has published over 20 courses, and continues to be one of Chessable’s most popular authors. He’s joined by 2-time Italian Champion GM Dvirnyy, who brings an uncanny ability to curate realistic exercises and explain them with club-player friendly breakdowns.

The two of them have joined forces to narrow down the 4 most common and critical decisions you’ll face in time trouble, and teach you practical decision-making methods to achieve clean, efficient wins in each. You’ll learn about:

⌛Safety – you’ll develop a sense of when the safety of your pawns and pieces trumps any other factor

…Rf8+ followed by …Rf6 to protect your pawns, or push your b-pawn? Both are “correct”, but
one is way more complicated than it needs to be!

⌛Preventing Counterplay – you’ll practice spotting the “tricks” and best defenses that your opponent can throw at you to steal your winning advantage

Where you retreat the bishop directly affects how easily you can win this game

⌛Exchanges – knowing what to exchange and when can be the difference between a win and a draw. Or if you’re on the other side, a draw and a loss!

Exchange the knight, win a pawn. Exchange the bishop, win the game

⌛Unexpected Moves – you’ll train yourself to stop playing auto-pilot continuations and throw in literally game-changing moves.

After White promotes, you promote too, right? Well…

After you practice the decision-making skills in each focus chapter, you’ll then take an integrated test chapter, which trains you to apply all the skills you’ve learned at once.

And what would this course be without the clock? In each exercise, you’ll train with the default timer set to 30 seconds, so you can get used to making these decisions under pressure. And of course, you can always adjust the clock based on your goals, level, and appetite for challenge!