Who can benefit from chess coaching? Anyone of any age,
from novice upwards is welcome. No minimum standard is required. In eastern
Europe it is not unusual for players of master strength to have a coach lower
rated than themselves. Some players are fairly new to chess, and understandably
want to establish a good grounding in the game. Some people just play socially,
and have a regular partner they would like to be able to beat more often. Many
players have reached a certain plateau and stayed there for years. Coaching may
help you look at chess in a fresh way and facilitate the natural process of
improving. Improving your understanding and results is one of the enjoyable
aspects of chess. It is fun to do with ease what you couldn't do previously, or
had to struggle to do. Whatever your rating is, its fun to see it go up and be
able to defeat people you couldn't previously. Good coaching can be the fastest
way to improve. You may just get enjoyment from deepening your understanding of
chess, without anything else to compare yourself with. This may help you enjoy
playing more. Coaching can be a fun end in itself.
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Can anyone be a successful chess coach? Being a strong
player does NOT automatically mean you can instantly be a good chess coach. Some
strong players aim over a student's head, or are impatient or sometimes even
arrogant if a student has not the experience to play well or appears slow to
learn. Coaches develop their own styles. Over time, I have abandoned some
methods in favour of others. Different students learn in different ways, and the
coach learns to adapt to the student. Receiving good coaching may help you in
time become a good coach, which has happened with some of my students.
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What if I am a novice? Chess beginners tend to be the
easiest people to coach, because they are not familiar with chess, there is
little danger of teaching them what they already know, material can be presented
in a structured manner. I have plenty of material possible for novices.
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What types of coaching are there?
Face to face coaching is best, but a serious alternative is coaching over the phone, which is better than coaching on a chess server.
Its better than you might think, with your chess set in front of you, a lot can be done. It helps to be fluent with algebraic notation for this option. Its cheaper too, as there is no travel time for me. You don't have to travel either and you have the possibility of using your computer.
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How is my coaching done? My favoured method of coaching
for experienced tournament players is the time proven "going over games". For
players who have not yet played in tournaments, any recorded games (or games
played on a computer and saved to hard disk) may be useful, such as games played
against a computer, games played socially, or games played on a chess server. In
the latter case, you can save the game to disk, and go over it again later. If
you want to play against a computer program, but don't have one, one possibility
is to download the freeware version of the very strong Rebel program. If you are
new to chess on the net, it is well worthwhile learning how to play chess on a
chess server. I have used other methods, but this will be my main method on the
net, for the time being.
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What can you learn by studying your own games with an
experienced coach? The coach is not only an experienced tournament player,
but his experience with students helps him to understand what areas in chess
tend to cause difficulty and which ideas are easier to comprehend.
The bulk of chessplayers, particularly those under about 2000 ELO often play
games in which one or both players missed tactical chances of varying levels of
difficulties, or strong attacking or defensive moves which could have turned the
game. Students are often surprised at how many winning chances they missed. A
coach can uncover many things, that otherwise the players were blissfully
unaware of.
Players are often quite strong in certain types of positions and are aware of
certain weaknesses, but on the other hand, have gaps in their chess skill and
knowledge they are unaware of, and have an unclear idea of how much better
developed a master's sight of the board and positional understanding is. They
are also unaware of how much better they could play.
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Which games can you learn the most from? You will tend to
learn far more than games you lose than games you won. Games you went wrong in,
but don't know why or where, or games in which you were completely lost for
ideas, are excellent candidates. Studying the latter type of games can be a
great help in developing the knack of being able to find a reasonable plan in
any position. Games which fluctuated a lot can also be useful as well as games
that are especially even.
Games you won easily or quickly, or made very few mistakes tend not to be as
useful, but still can be instructive.
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How can games be studied? The most natural method is to
identify mistakes made by the student, and to suggest possible improvements. It
is also useful to identify the opponent's mistakes, especially as this helps
develop the skill of "spotting errors by the opponent". Possible reasons for the
mistake can be suggested, as well as ways of avoiding that type of mistake in
the future. This applies regardless whether the mistake is a gross blunder or a
small positional inaccuracy. Games can also be used to identify strong play by
the student, and reinforce when he is using a good strategy and/or a good method
of finding moves. Games can also provide raw material for discussion. The
current position in a game, may just be an excuse for demonstrating some new
ideas. For example, "in positions similar position, this particular plan can be
quite effective ...or its no so effective in these sorts of positions.
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In what areas can coaching improve your play? Coaching can
help all facets of your game improve your tactical vision, ability to plan,
endgame skill, ability to improvise in the opening etc. Your moves tend to be as
good as the ideas behind them. Coaching can help develop your methods of
thinking and using your intuition. Coaching can help you learn the methods of a
strong player.
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What can the coach learn about you? The coach can form a
view of your style, strengths and weaknesses. Based on this, he can suggest
approaches and exercises which can help strengthen your game. A simple example
might be the recommendation of studying books on tactics if you need work in
that area. He may also suggest openings which suit your style.
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What resources do you have? If you provide a list of
chess books and chess software you have, I can give you an opinion on the
relative merits of each, and which you should give priority. For example, one
student owned a book containing over 5000 chess positions to solve. I made
suggestions on which sections would be the most beneficial to him and which
order might best to do them in.
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What is the cost? Rates for email coaching are $15
a game, $10 each for 5 (or more) games. Rates for Fics coaching is $25 an hour (or $40/2 hours), at the main Fics I use the name "intuition". Post cheque or money order to: W.Jordan P.O.Box 2631 Cheltenham Vic 3192 Australia.
An alternative is to use PayPal. It is easy to set up your own account and send (or receive from)
to anyone who has an email address.
Send games by email. I will annotate the games when I receive them and email them when I receive your snail mail. You don't need to send all games simultaneously, for example if you choose a package, you pay up front and email the games at whatever rate you choose. You can email 2 short games (games under 20 moves) instead of one longer game. I will answer questions about my notes at no extra cost.
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How do I submit games? Email game(s) in
PGN format, else in short
algebraic. If not in PGN format, put the players names at the top (at least your
name and colour). Put the result (1-0,0-1 or 1/2) at the end. If games are in
PGN format, I will add notes in the same format so you can load the returned
game straight into your game viewer program such as Winboard. As an option you
could add the time limit, as this helps me establish the context, as does
players' ratings. Don't include computerised auto-annotations or times, apart
from perhaps noting if a player is short of time. You can include some notes of
your own. Simply send the game score within an email message.
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How are games annotated? You might like to create a
directory for received games. Your game/s will be returned to you with my notes
embedded. Notes will surrounded by curly brackets to form game comments. There is nothing
to stop you adding further notes as well, or questions with the game when you
send it. Notes will tend to result from intuition, developed from many years of
experience. I will using concrete analysis less and I don't guarantee 100%
tactical soundness for any moves or variations suggest. The notes to be concise and
convey important points. There will of a short summary of the course of the
game.
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How can notes be used? An advantage of this medium over
face to face for chess coaching is that you have a record of the notes. You may
choose to replay the game electronically with one of the many chess database
programs available and read the notes in a separate window, or replay the moves
on a normal chessboard.
You may wish to use the technique which applies to studying from well written
concise chess books, rereading parts of it from time to time. At the first
reading there may have been some points which were obscure to you, rereading
notes at a later date may make them clearer to you.
I tend to use a "talk" style, a cut down version of what I would say in a
standard coaching situation. I try to use simple clear language and get straight
to the point. From time to time I will mention various chess principles. If you
are unfamiliar with the principle take note. If you are familiar with them, take
note of the context within which it is used. I will also use various well known
chess terms which I presume the reader is familiar with. If you are not familiar
with a term I use, you will often be able to establish its meaning from the
context. I will tend to concentrate more on your moves, but I also will point
out possible errors by the opponent, as it is an important skill to be able to
recognise when the opponent has erred. Comments may apply to a single moves or a
group of moves. Moves with no comments on them, are usually moves that are
easily best or reasonable, based on my intuition. I am very interested in
feedback on my notes. Too long? Too short? Difficult to understand? Not deep
enough? Helpful? I will modify my style according to feedback. Any feedback on
my notes is welcome, particularly is something is unclear or omitted. I will add
to this document as more ideas are accumulated.
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How a chess server be used? Save a game for study to disk
and we arrange to meet at one of the FICS at a specific time. We can play over
the games and chat at the same time. You need to be experienced with FICs for
this option. E-mail me with times that suit you and what part of the world you
are in. Perhaps email a game to me in PGN notation, as an attachment first. In
E-mail messages, in the Re section, mention one of these. chess coaching email
chess coaching novice chess coaching fics
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What information do I need? Give me any information you
feel might be useful, including country and your time zone, your approximate
age, approximate rating, how long you have been playing, how and what you play
in, your playing style, what you would like to get out of coaching etc.
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