What To Look For In A Chess Coach

In your quest to get better at chess, you may have considered engaging the services of a chess coach.

Chess coaches are not just for talented juniors. Nor are they reserved for elite masters. Adult improvers of all levels can benefit greatly from chess coaching too!

If you can find the right coach, it can really accelerate your chess progress.

However, choosing a chess coach can be daunting. There are literally thousands of chess coaches out there. Additionally, working with a coach involves a significant investment of time and money.

So, how can you tell if chess coaching is right for you? 

And if it is, how should you pick the right coach?

This guide is here to help. After reading it, you will know exactly what to look for in a chess coach.

You will learn:

• The profile of your ideal chess coach (spoiler: there’s more to it than just their playing strength).
• The right questions to ask your prospective coach in an interview before agreeing to work with them.
• Important factors most players do not consider before choosing their chess coach.

Should You Work With A Chess Coach?

Before we move on to choosing between different chess coaches, you must decide whether chess coaching is right for you in the first place.

Pros of a Chess Coach

The benefits of working with a great chess coach are clear:

• Having a knowledgeable expert who can design your chess training program for you.
• Accountability.
• Human assistance to help you understand positions that computer engines cannot easily explain.
• Someone to help you celebrate your wins and be empathetic about your losses.
• Faster rating progress.

Cons of a Chess Coach

However, there are also costs involved when you work with a chess coach.

• Money. The most obvious cost is financial. Chess coaches do not work for free! You must have a budget to pay for the coaching.
• Time. No matter how good your chess coach is, a certain amount of effort will be required on your part. If your coach is doing their job, there will be lessons to attend and homework to do. Just like with physical training, you need to put in the time into your chess training if you want to see meaningful results.

Related: Not yet ready to work with a chess coach? How To Reassess Your Chess by IM Jeremy Silman is a great self-paced alternative for the ambitious chess improver.

When weighing all of this up, take a step back and ask yourself: “Is chess improvement really important to you?”

This is a very personal question. Only you can answer it.

If the answer is “yes”, then you must keep this in mind on the (inevitable) days where you do not feel motivated to do the work your coach assigns to you - and push yourself to do it anyway.

Chess coaches love working with highly committed, passionate students. They are less enthusiastic about working with students who skip or cancel lessons, giving them the all-too-common excuse: “I’m too busy.”

If you are going to work with a chess coach, go all in. Be dedicated. Make chess improvement a priority in your life.

For the rest of this article, we will assume that you are indeed committed to working with a chess coach. In which case, the next question becomes: which one?

Your Goals, Their Experience

The best coaches will begin by asking you about your chess goals.

Of course, almost every chess student wants to get “better”: as in, to increase their rating and to start defeating stronger opponents. If that is your only goal, then that’s fine. A good coach will be able to analyze your games and to notice what your priorities should be in order to reach the next level.

However, try to go a bit deeper when identifying your chess goals.

Some examples could include:

• Learning a new opening.
• Strengthening your tactical skills.
• Improving performance under time pressure.
• Becoming better at converting winning positions.
• Preventing counterplay from opponents.

Your prospective coach may ask to see some of your games - particularly ones where you have “failed” in the area that you want to improve. Try to have these games ready to show them.

The coach may also have their own thoughts about whether your goals are really the “right” ones. Their expertise as a coach may suggest to them that the biggest thing holding you back may not be what you think it is. For example, instead of learning a new opening, it might be the case that you should spend your time training the endgame. Be open to this feedback, and be ready to adjust your goals accordingly.

Related: Become a tactical assassin with Improve Your Chess Tactics by Yakov Neishtadt.

Your Coach's Experience Matters too

Once you have established your goals, ask your prospective coach about past students of theirs who had similar goals. Where did they start? How did their training progress? How long did it take? What was the result? 

Being able to point to multiple testimonials from students they helped previously is a strong indicator that the coach should be able to do the same for you. 

If you want to go the extra mile, ask to speak to their past students directly. Get their honest feedback about how much the coach helped them and whether they would recommend their coach’s services.

The Right Rating For Optimal Chess Training

Naturally, your chess coach should be a stronger player than you. But how much stronger?

There should be a healthy rating gap between you and your coach - not too big, not too small.

• If the rating gap is too narrow, then your coach will not be able to add much value. Their understanding of chess won’t be very much more advanced than your own.
• If the rating gap is too great, then your coach may not be able to understand your challenges properly.

If you are a beginner (say, rated 1000 in online chess), you may get a better experience from a coach who is around the 1500 - 1800 level. Someone like that will tend to be able to better empathize with what a beginner is going through and what they need to progress.

Related: Everyone in chess was a beginner at some point. Accelerate your chess journey with GM Damian Lemos’ Absolute Beginners Course.

If you are already an advanced / expert player (rated around 2000) then you probably need to go with a coach of titled player strength (let’s say 2200 - 2400).

One more quick tip: do not automatically assume that a coach’s playing strength is a perfect indication of their ability as a coach! Some of the world’s strongest chess players would make the worst chess teachers. Teaching chess is quite a different skill to playing chess.

Part-Time Coaches vs. Professional Coaches

One of the great divides in chess coaching is between:

• Part-time coaches - who are coaching students on the side, as a way of supplementing their lifestyle as a competitive chess player, and;
• Professional coaches - who have fully dedicated themselves to chess coaching. 

The truth is, it is very difficult to make a living as a professional chess player. The competition is cutthroat, and only those at the very top are able to financially support themselves purely through playing chess. Those outside this tiny elite (even most grandmasters) must find alternative income sources to make the chess-playing lifestyle sustainable.

One of the most common ways for strong chess players to supplement their earnings is by taking on chess students. That way, they can continue to do what they love (playing chess), while also making a solid base income through their coaching.

Related: You don’t need to be a chess professional to enjoy the game with a quality chess set. Check out our huge range of beautiful wooden chess sets.

However, from the student’s point of view, working with a part-time coach can be problematic.

• If a coach is mostly focused on their own chess-playing career, then their students are more of a “necessity” to them than their main priority.
• Coaches with many playing commitments may also become unavailable when they are participating in important tournaments. This is no good if you need their help when preparing for your own events!

One of the best ways to understand the mindset of your prospective coach is to pay attention to how they advertise themselves:

• Do they mostly list their own achievements as a player?
• Or, do they talk more about their student’s achievements?

All other things being equal, most chess students should go with a coach who is more student-focused.

Their Opening Repertoire

One of the most valuable parts of working with a chess coach can be working on your opening repertoire with the help of someone who already knows it very well.

I have experienced this first-hand through working with my own coach, Diego Villaneuva. When I wanted to learn the Sicilian Defense with Black, he was perfect for the job because he had already been playing the Sicilian for years. He knew the most important lines for me to study, as well as the middlegame plans for both colors. 

It meant that whenever I played a game, he could immediately identify the mistakes and potential improvements - something which would not have been possible if I had been working with a coach who did not have such deep experience with the Sicilian Defense.

If you have a particular opening in mind that you want to learn, ask to see some of your prospective coach’s games where they played it with success. If they play your desired opening themselves, they will be much better-placed to assist you in your own journey.

Personality And Chess Lessons Style

Ideally, you should enjoy your chess coach’s company. That way, you will actually look forward to the time you spend with them during your lessons! Things such as a similar age, sense of humor, and outlook on life matter more than you might think.

Availability And Responsiveness

If you are going to have regular lessons with your chess coach, then time zones matter. You don’t want to be having coaching sessions in the middle of the night, and nor will your coach! Try to pick someone in a similar time zone to your own.

Another factor to consider is whether you can contact your coach beyond the scheduled coaching sessions. If you are paying your coach by the hour, then your access is probably limited to that time you pay for. But it can be immensely valuable to be able to shoot your coach a quick question right after a game you have played, even if you aren’t scheduled to link up on a video coaching session for a while. Check if your coach is open to this type of arrangement.

Price

We left this one for last, because the cost of working with a chess coach is naturally influenced by all the other factors that have already been mentioned.

A highly-sought-after coach with a huge number of student testimonials that is always responsive to messages will probably be more expensive than a coach who does not have such a long list of achievements to their name. That is just how the market works!

If chess improvement is really important to you and you have the financial means to invest in it, then there is nothing wrong with paying a premium price in order to get a premium experience.

Even so, here are a couple of tips to avoid overpaying unnecessarily:

• Be wary of ‘celebrity’ coaches - Thanks to platforms such as YouTube and Twitch, some coaches have been able to build a large online following through the content they have created. By having so many followers, they become more in-demand, and can therefore raise their prices. That isn’t to say they cannot be excellent coaches - it’s just that, due to their fame, their prices will probably be a bit inflated compared to others.
• Consider a coach who lives outside the developed world - Coaches who live in the United States or Western Europe experience a higher cost-of-living than those who live in, say, Eastern Europe or Latin America. It may be worthwhile to investigate one of the many excellent coaches based outside the developed world.

Next Steps: Finding The Right Chess Coach For You

Now that you are armed with the information contained in this article, you are ready to commence your search.

First, decide on your budget. If, after a realistic assessment of your budget, it turns out that you cannot really afford the financial commitment necessary to work with a chess coach, then do not despair! There are plenty of excellent chess books and chess video courses out there which can help improve your chess.

Another alternative to one-on-one chess coaching lessons is joining a group class. The coach will naturally be unable to give you as much individual attention in a group setting as they can in one-on-one, but it’s better than nothing.

Next, it’s time to actually put together a shortlist of chess coaches.

• You can ask friends from your local chess club for who they might recommend.
• Another place to look is the coach database on lichess.

Then, it’s a matter of interviewing several candidates, going through the questions this article has given you, and making your choice.

Good luck!