How I became a FIDE Candidate Master ?

My name is Loris Tavernier, and I recently achieved a significant milestone in my chess career by securing third place at the European Chess Championship in the Under-2300 category. This remarkable performance elevated me to the esteemed rank of Candidate Master, a title that symbolizes a key step in my journey through the competitive world of chess.
Reflecting on my journey, it is astonishing to think that it has only been five years since I played in my very first chess tournament. From a newcomer to the competitive scene to now being recognized as one of the top players in my category, the progress has been both challenging and deeply rewarding. What started as a passion has turned into a lifelong commitment to honing my skills and sharing my knowledge with others.
My success on the board is not just the result of individual hard work, but also a byproduct of my dedication to coaching others. Currently, I am privileged to train a FIDE Master, a young National Master, and a talented Woman FIDE Master. Engaging with these players at different stages of their own chess journeys has been a tremendously enriching experience. Each coaching session requires me to delve deeply into the nuances of strategy, tactics, and psychological preparation. This process has not only enhanced my ability to teach but has also significantly improved my own game.
Coaching has pushed me to constantly refine my understanding of the game, as explaining complex ideas and guiding players through challenging positions requires a high level of clarity and depth. It’s an iterative process—each time I help them break through a barrier, I find myself overcoming similar obstacles in my own play. As a result, my knowledge has grown exponentially, and I’ve been able to integrate new ideas and concepts into my own style, making me a stronger player overall.

I also recorded a very long video on my youtube Channel analysing the most important games of the tournament.
Looking for some detailed insights ? Click here :
That's how I became a titled chess player... (youtube.com)

Opening :

How to Become a Chess Master in Practice ?

To become a chess master, theoretical knowledge is essential, but practical mastery is even more critical. One of the most important aspects of practical chess improvement is to develop a profound understanding of your *own* opening lines. Mastering specific lines that you play consistently is far more effective than trying to absorb every opening system ever created.
Imagine this scenario: you spend countless hours learning the complete theory of the Sicilian Defense, understanding every intricate variation and nuance, but over the board, you prefer playing the Caro-Kann. Such knowledge might enrich your general chess culture, but it won’t translate into direct improvement in your own games. You don’t need to know the entirety of opening theory—you need to know *your* lines inside out. In practice, that means knowing your preferred variations by heart, understanding their main ideas, and being ready for common sidesteps and traps.
If your goal is to gain universal opening knowledge, play correspondence chess with a chess engine. Such games will expose you to a wide range of ideas and concepts, but remember that your priority should be to master the openings you use in your over-the-board games.

Mastery Through Repetition: The Bruce Lee Approach

As martial arts legend Bruce Lee once said:
“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”
This principle holds perfectly in chess as well. Rather than being a “jack of all trades” who knows a little about every opening, aim to become a true expert in your chosen repertoire. Choose your main lines carefully and invest time in perfecting them through repetitive practice and constant refinement.

The Middlegame — Building Strength Through a Disciplined Routine

Mastering the middlegame is where a chess player truly sharpens their competitive edge. For me, the key to unlocking the intricacies of this complex phase has been a rigorous and disciplined training routine that I have followed every day since 2020.

Each day, I begin my mornings by waking up early and devoting the first hour to physical exercise. Staying fit and maintaining a strong body is not only beneficial for overall health but also vital for maintaining peak concentration during long tournament games. After almost an hour of sports, and before having breakfast, I shift my focus entirely to chess and engage in tactical pattern recognition exercises for about an hour.
This daily morning session is dedicated exclusively to honing my tactical vision. By repeatedly solving tactical puzzles, I have trained my brain to identify common tactical motifs—pins, forks, skewers, and other combinational ideas—almost automatically. Over the years, this routine has become the cornerstone of my ability to spot winning combinations quickly over the board. It’s not just about *finding* the tactics; it’s about *internalizing* the patterns so deeply that they become a reflex.

Afternoon Practice: Visualization and Puzzle Solving

In the afternoons, I focus on another critical aspect of middlegame proficiency: visualization. My goal is to be able to calculate multiple moves ahead with clarity and precision. To achieve this, I solve high-level puzzles rated around 2500 Elo on Lichess. Visualization is not only about seeing moves but also about evaluating positions accurately without moving pieces on a board. This rigorous training has pushed my main account rating to consistently range between 2800 and 2900 Elo.
This rating reflects more than just tactical sharpness—it signifies the ability to calculate deeply, foresee potential traps, and verify the accuracy of my moves. It’s essential to practice not only to find the correct move but also to develop a reliable verification process before making any decision. This helps avoid impulsive mistakes and increases overall precision.

Strategy: Understanding Through Experience

The key to mastering strategy lies in practice and self-analysis. During my training, I would meticulously analyze my own games, especially those where I struggled in my opening repertoire. Each mistake became a learning opportunity. By repeatedly playing and reviewing the same structures, I gradually understood the strategic patterns I needed to recognize to gain an advantage.
Over time, this helped me not only navigate typical middlegame positions in my preferred openings but also grasp how to transition them effectively from the opening phase. Experience, combined with focused practice, has made me more attuned to the critical nuances of the positions I play. I’ve learned which pawn structures to aim for, when to initiate tactical complications, and how to capitalize on even the slightest positional imbalances.

Learn how to grind :

One of the most challenging aspects of competitive chess is learning how to convert an advantage into a victory. Having a winning position on the board means nothing if you can’t transform it into a full point. For many players, this is where nerves, impatience, and poor decision-making often lead to missed opportunities or even disastrous blunders. This is an area I focused on intensely and one of the most crucial skills I developed over the years.
I began teaching my students how to convert the simplest winning positions—positions where they’re up a pawn, two pawns, or an entire piece. This is a fundamental lesson that every chess coach teaches beginner students, often starting with something as basic as winning with a King and Queen against a lone King. The goal is to learn how to deliver checkmate efficiently and understand the importance of coordination between your pieces.
Initially, this is what I practiced for myself as well: I focused on converting the largest advantages I could achieve. Whether it was being a piece up or having an overwhelming material lead, I made it my priority to secure the win without risking counterplay. Over time, however, I realized that my deeper success in chess required more than converting obvious advantages; it required the ability to win from smaller, subtler edges.

With continuous practice and game analysis, I gradually shifted my focus to learning how to convert smaller advantages—sometimes as slight as a single active square, a slightly better pawn structure, or a minimal lead in development. This is where true mastery lies. Winning from positions where the advantage is not immediately decisive requires patience, precision, and a profound understanding of positional nuances.
Each game became a learning process, where I refined my ability to exploit minor weaknesses, transform a small space advantage into an attack, and convert minimal material gains into a victory.

Through this approach, I developed a deep sense of how to increase pressure gradually, suffocate my opponent’s counterplay, and eventually transform these tiny edges into decisive outcomes.

Thank you very much, consider following me on YouTube and if you are looking for daily chess lessons, contact me per mail.
Anyway, thank you again, follow me on Lichess and hopefully see you in the future.
Take care !

Contact :
YouTube : Chess - FM Loris - YouTube
Email : lorischesstrainer@gmail.com
Instagram : @chessloris