IM Yevhenii Yelisieiev

Hi, I’m Yevhenii Yelisieiev, an International Master and the coach behind Journey to Grandmaster. Originally from Ukraine and now based in Germany, I have played chess since I was six and have more than ten years of coaching experience.

I work with adult and senior chess players who enjoy the game but feel their results do not reflect the time they put in. Perhaps you keep blundering, feel lost after the opening, or have been stuck at the same rating for years. My goal is to help you understand what is holding you back and know what to work on next.

Your own games are our starting point. We look beyond the engine’s best move to understand your decisions, the ideas you missed and the habits you can improve. I want you to leave a lesson with something you can use in your next game.

Explore the training that fits your chess: www.journeytograndmaster.com/start
Free lessons on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@journeytograndmaster

I am the winner of many international chess tournaments.
Here are few of my last achievements:
1) German Chess champion (U25): www.deutsche-schachjugend.de/2023/odjm-a/tabelle/9/
2) 1st place in the International Master chess tournament "Millennium-Normenturnier": chess-results.com/tnr750420.aspx?lan=0&art=1
3) 1st place in the International Master chess tournament in Budapest with the great perfomance 2710 second IM norm successfully achieved: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr300428.aspx?lan=11&art=9&snr=9
4) IM norm in the International chess tournament CZECH OPEN PARDUBICE OPEN with perfomance 2573: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr291823.aspx?lan=11&art=9&snr=140

I have more than ten years of experience coaching chess players from around the world. My teaching focuses on practical understanding: recognising what matters in a position, making clearer decisions and turning study into habits you can use in your games.

I hold the European Chess Union’s Certificate for Teaching Chess in Schools and Educational Organizations.

On my YouTube channel, Journey to Grandmaster, I explain the thought process behind real chess decisions: finding plans, checking threats, calculating variations and understanding openings and endgames. You can watch the free lessons to see whether my teaching style suits you.

www.youtube.com/@journeytograndmaster

I help you connect the opening to the middlegame, calculate with a clear process and understand what to aim for in the endgame.

A particular focus of my coaching is finding recurring mistakes in your own games. Instead of trying to study everything at once, we choose the work that matters most for your current level, goals and available study time.

We start with your games and your questions. I ask what you were thinking during the game, then we work through the important decisions together.

Depending on what your games show, we may work on:
• Understanding your opening repertoire and the plans that follow.
• Spotting your opponent’s threats and checking candidate moves.
• Finding a middlegame plan when nothing obvious is happening.
• Converting better endgames and defending difficult ones.
• Building a practical study routine you can keep up with.

You think through positions yourself before we discuss them. I explain why an idea works, help you recognise when to use it, and give you a clear focus for your practice. The aim is for you to become more confident making your own decisions at the board.