NM Sam Martin

Hello everyone! My name is Sam Martin, and I am a 26-year-old NM living in the United States. I learned the rules of chess as a child, but it wasn't until I was 12 that I first met other chess players, started competing in tournaments, and began to study the game seriously with the goal of improvement. During that time, I was helped immensely by having a wonderful coach, Mike Cornell, who I would work with in-person often two or three times in a single week. This intensive study allowed me to quickly improve, and within a short period of time I reached a rating of about 1850. In 2022, I returned to competitive chess after a break of several years, and soon became driven to become a titled player and to see how strong I could become. This was partly motivated by an early success, winning the under 2100 section of the Atlantic Open tournament in late 2022 with a perfect score of 5-0! In 2023, about a year later, I crossed the 2200 rating threshold, becoming an NM. I am still highly motivated to improve as a chess player, both out of a desire to see what I'm capable of and out of my deep, ongoing love for the game. I know what it takes to be an effective student of the game, so let me help you to reach new heights!

If you are interested in lessons, you can get in touch with me either at my email, sammartin01coaching@gmail.com, or with a private message on lichess. I do not work with students in-person, only online; serious inquiries only please.

I have been teaching chess for about 7 years. I began teaching part-time by offering my help to a number of scholastic chess players in central and northern VA; the most successful out of this group went from being unrated to having a peak rating of over 2000. Due to this, I've spent a lot of time working with kids, and I love fostering young talent! I have been working as a private coach full-time for over 1 year, during which time the number of students working regularly with me has exploded and only continues to grow. In addition to being a private coach, I also work part-time for DMV Chess, an organization based in northern VA that organizes tournaments, offers a number of classes for improving players, and puts on instructional camps for kids. For DMV Chess, I teach a class for adult improvers once a week, as well as occasionally filling in as a substitute teacher and leading camps for kids. New students of all ages, backgrounds, and ratings are welcome!

I am convinced that having a chess coach should not be a substitute for training and practicing chess. The best kind of help I can give you is to show you the tools and resources you need to study more effectively on your own. I believe that hard work pays off in the end, and though the road to chess improvement can be rough at times, having someone to help you overcome obstacles and point you in the right direction can be a big help. I give time and thought to preparing instructive materials for each student before our lessons, and I will always prioritize answering your questions and concentrating on the areas of the game that you are most interested in. In our lessons, I will use a variety of methods to help you succeed, such as reviewing your games, focusing constructively on recurring mistakes and weak points, and setting up a training regimen for you outside of our time together. I will also assign homework that builds on and reinforces themes we have already discussed together.