--- title: How to Choose the Right Coach description: A Guide to Navigating Chess Coaching image: https://image.lichess1.org/display?fmt=webp&h=550&op=thumbnail&path=LaJqerd4htbJ.webp&w=880&sig=fa223fd5addc4f0e36aaeadc398dd010aa8a22ad --- As a relatively strong player, I’ve been through my fair share of coaches throughout the years. Some have been good, and some have not been good. Today I’ll talk about what you should consider before choosing a coach, since the right coach can result in major improvements to your game. Additionally, everything I talk about in this blog costs money, so you should ready to spend some money in order to get your chess to that next level. ## **Should I even get a coach?** If you choose a bad coach, the answer is definitely no. So, I’m going to assume that the coach you’d be getting is good. Obviously getting a good coach will speed up your chess improvement, but I don’t think that it has a huge impact on one’s chess. Additionally, most of your improvement is not going to come from your lessons - it will be due to your own work ethic. If you’ve been stuck at a specific rating for a long time, it’s probably the time I’d consider getting a coach, since a significantly higher rated player can probably diagnose the problem in your game and give you action steps to fix it. Additionally, if you cannot afford coaches, then you should logically not get a coach. If you don’t want a coach, I suggest scrolling to the end of this article where I talk about the alternatives to paying someone to coach you. ## **Group or Private Classes?** ### Group Class Pros: 1. The topics you learn about generally cover chess more broadly 2. Homework is often given out, which is helpful 3. You often have access to a community of other chess improvers at a similar skill level to you 4. The classes are often cheaper 5. The classes are usually more trustworthy, so the coaches are experienced and good at coaching ### Private Class Pros: 1. Your coach can analyze your games and tell you what you need to work on 2. Your coach can give you material that helps you work on your weaknesses 3. The attention of your coach is focused on you 4. Your coach can give you a training plan that allows you to improve and work on your weaknesses 5. You can choose what you work on in the lesson, allowing for the lesson to focus on what you need to work on most Personally, I didn’t really learn that much with group lessons, which is the reason I eventually switched to private lessons. I took lessons from https://prochesstraining.com for about a year before quitting due to me not feeling like I was learning enough. However, I can confirm the lessons are high quality, and it’s probably one of the best group lesson plans out there. However, this blog is not about group lessons - it’s mainly about private lessons, so let’s get on with their criteria. Additionally, keep in mind that it takes time to find a good coach, and that time you spend is worth it. ## **The Criteria** #### **1\. Price** For me, the first consideration has always been the price. Obviously, chess is a relatively expensive game to play, but if you have a coach that you meet with weekly, that cost goes way up. So, if you’re even to get a coach for 10 dollars less than your budget, the amount of money saved balloons over time. For me right now, that cost is 30 dollars, with me only considering coaches that cost less than or equal to 40 dollars per hour. Back when I was lower rated, my coaches were 20 dollars per hour, and they were pretty decent. Also, not getting a US coach is ok because they all have super high hourly rates. I would also be wary about people who only offer 5 hour or 10 hour packages. This is because if you don’t like them or they’re just not a good coach, you’d have to keep attending their lessons in order for you to not waste your money. So, what I suggest is try getting a first lesson with them. If you like it, then you can take the package. If you don’t like it, pay for that lesson and then try finding a different coach. #### **2\. Rating** The next most important thing (although this could definitely be lower on the list) is your coach’s rating. The minimum rating for a coach should be someone that is able to beat you consistently **in classical**. The classical part is important because there are young phenoms who are 2800 or 2900 blitz but have a much lower rated FIDE, and FIDE is what matters and what serious chess players try to increase. After all, if you are able to upset your coach at times, that probably means that he doesn’t have much to teach you. So, if you’re a beginner, you don’t necessarily need an IM or GM coach - FMs, NMs, or even non-titled players are great options too, while also costing less. They will probably be teaching similar stuff anyway, so it doesn’t matter that much. #### **3\. The Biography** The first thing you should check for is if the coach put in effort in writing their biography. If they didn’t, you should skip because if they can’t even put effort into writing a biography, they won’t put in effort coaching you. Next, you should check if they have awards for their coaching or if they’ve coached strong players. If they’ve coached players better than you, they can probably coach you too, and if they have awards, they’re probably a good coach. However, just because they have awards for coaching doesn’t mean that you should pick them as your coach. If you know your weaknesses, then you should try to pick someone with your weaknesses on their best skills list. #### **4\. Communication** A couple months ago I had a coach who seemed very good. He was a grandmaster, taught very well, and gave very helpful homework. Additionally, he was in my price range. The only issue I had with him was that he only offered a 4 hour/monthly package for his teaching. So, I managed to get the first lesson at the same rate, not included in the package, and he taught well, so I went with his monthly package. However, the main issue I had with him was that after I asked him something, at the earliest he responded a day or two later. This was especially bad during tournaments since when I asked him for advice after all my games were done for the day (should be enough time, right?), I would get a response after the tournament ends. So, after a month I decided to stop getting coached by him due to his terrible communication. A similar thing to this is attitude - if your coach makes you feel bad about yourself often during the lesson, don’t continue taking lessons from him. I remember once I had a coach who gave me like 5 positions on calculation - one of my big holes in my chess since I asked for it, I went like 1 for 5, and I’m pretty sure he thought I was hopeless afterwards even though we both knew this was a big weakness in my game. #### **5\. Timezones** Generally, I don’t believe timezones are that important. However, it’s important when you’re picking a coach from across the world, and the potential hours for coaching are very limited. So, if you’re busy at the few times your potential coach would be free for lessons, you can’t really choose that coach anymore. #### **6\. Location** When I say ‘location’ I basically mean in-person or online. Logically in-person coaching should always be preferred, but it also costs a lot more. So, if you have money, I do suggest getting an in-person coach rather than an online one, but an online coach is also fine. ## **No Coach?** Now, I know some people may not have the money to afford coaches. So, how do you improve your game? Well, some book series are very good at teaching all aspects of chess. Two that are famous for this purpose are Yusupov’s Build Up Your Chess and Chess Steps (https://www.chess-steps.com/). I’ve personally done a couple of problems from the Build Up Your Chess series, so I’ll give an overview of it right now. Basically, the books were initially written for German ratings (aka DWZ). Nowadays, the German ratings and FIDE are very similar, so I’ll be basing it off of FIDE. There are three book colors - orange, blue, and green. The orange books are for people to get to 1500 FIDE, the blue books are for people to get to 1800 FIDE, and the green books are for people to get to 2100 FIDE. However, the rating ranges should be taken very lightly since the puzzles are incredibly difficult. From my experience, I’ve struggled with problems from the under 1800 level book as a 2000 FIDE. The book is set up so that each chapter covers a different opening, middlegame or endgame concept, with a test at the end with a point system to check if you passed or not. Since it covers all areas of the game, this definitely could be considered as a ‘coach’ of some sort, and it’s probably better than some real coaches out there. I won’t go into any of the other ways to improve as that’s oversaturated, and none of them cover all parts of chess like these series or like what coaching can accomplish. If you enjoyed this post, liking would be appreciated, and I have similar posts on my substack (https://chessgrindr.substack.com/) that also has content more related to my personal chess journey.