I came in and saw the friendly and engaging GM Malcolm Pein who told me Mark would be in at 5:30 pm and I decided to buy one of Mark's books for the book signing. I was told the time of the lectures and I wondered about the setting .It was a crowded shop with massive piles of chess books.

There were few places to sit and Malcolm did not provide drinks for a two hour lecture.

I know I will speak to Malcolm about this. I went out to internet cafes did my usual surfing and returned to find Mark in an interview. Mark is a soft spoken gentle soul. Modestly dressed and engaging in deep conversation with the interviewer. He was explaining how he made a living and his hectic travel schedule. It was then it dawned on me how adventurous the life of a recognized, experienced and successful chess coach could be.

I got my book signed and told him how helpful his books were. He smiled and said he hoped I would get the second edition. He was modest and gracious and his smile genuine.

In came Jonathan Speelman the chess addict. Malcolm handed out invitations to a Simul and reminded Jonathan to be there for his own simul to loud cackles of laughter.

Then half-joking, Malcolm said to Mark: "Mark pretend you are signing loads of books and you are busy." Malcolm then got a customer to shake Mark's hands so he could look busy for Chessbase.

Later Mark settled down to serious business. Malcolm introduced Mark to us and said that Mark had been engaged by no less than three Olympic teams: Brazilian, Norwegian and other teams.

Malcolm noted that the Russians stopped winning the Olympiad.

Anyway Mark went on to discuss the theme of the evening. Appropiately he took a position from one of Miles' games and went on to challenge us to assess the simple position before us.

The position was this.

Black: Pawns a6b5 e6f7g7h6

K on h7 Q on a7 R on c3 N on f6

White : Pawns a3b4 e3f2 g2h3

K on g1 R on d1 Bon f3 Q on d8

He first asked us to evaluate the short term medium term and long term prospects for both sides.He also asked us to look at both sides pieces.

Black's queen is trapped and white's bishop on f3 is

far superior to the black knight on f6.

It was white to move. Immediately someone came up with

Be4 Ne4 and Rd7 trapping the Black queen. And then we had to analyse black counterplay so we looked at wonderful variations withRc1 and Nf2 with ideas of Rh1 and Ne4 to look for perpetuals. For over an hour we found resources for both sides which were incredible. And then it dawned on me what Mark was really after.

He was not trying to teach us theory. He was trying to teach us move search algoritims.

Also he showed us that ideas in one variation could be repeated in other variations.

His sense of humour and command of the English language were remarkable and he gave us entertaining stories. Jonathan Speelman and all of us gave moves and tries. Nobody was fearful and Mark was receptive to all ideas.

He then moved on to the concept of desperado pawns and pieces according to him there are times when our piece and pawns only helpthe opponent and so we need to get rid of them.

He gave us some simple examples and then pushed us to more difficult examples constantly challenging us. It was quite engaging. I was happy to score a few points and marvelled of the depth of the resources in this vast ocean of possibilities called chess.

He spoke of intuitive moves and counter intuitive moves. It was wonderful to see even the GMs being challenged with the moves and the amount of  visualization required. my perceptions of chess training and my preconceptions of what a two hour session really meant in the world of Mark  Dvoretsky totally changed.