mizant
Titled Player
Diamond Member
Chess.com Coach

If you are a beginner level player looking for a coach to guide you step by step into the world of chess, you're on the right place! This is my brief chess and chess-coaching bio:

    • Full time, highly-professional chess coach.
    • More then 20 years in chess coaching.
    • You can play free correspondence games with your coach.
    • Homework after each session.
    • Fluent in English language.
    • Author of his own chess coaching programme, proven successful.
    • Teaching method based on understanding, not memorizing!
    • Teaching only what you can't do alone!
    • Extremely successful with beginners!
    • Have been coaching many national champions (including Carisa Yip).
    • Structural approach only.
    • More then 200 satisfied students.

 

BEST RESULTS AS A CHESS PLAYER
 

    • 1st place at the Yugoslav Youth Chess Championship (1998),
    • shared 3rd place at the European Youth Chess Championship for boys under 16 (Litohoro, 1999),
    • 1st place at the Serbian Youth Blitz Championship (1999),
    • 1st place at the International Niš Open Tournament (2000).

Those years were dedicated exclusively to chess and nothing else (6 hours per day, or more), with amazing level of enthusiasm for studying the game.

 

AS A CHESS COACH...
 

While still a professional chess player (I was about 17), I was asked to teach younger chess players, mainly beginners and intermediate players. We had camps for kids where I would join as a chess instructor among other titled players and coaches. Soon after I was asked to teach a young girl in individual lessons; she managed to win gold and silver medals on national championships of Serbia three years in a row while I was her coach. That's how my chess coach career started.

More serious engagement in teaching chess started about nine years later, when I started teaching chess on the Internet. In the first two years of coaching, I managed to develop a professional chess coaching program, suitable for players of various needs and understanding of the chess game. Although every student has a unique style, specific needs, way of thinking and (mis)understanding of chess, the program I created during the years of chess coaching proven to be quite accurate and successful.

Most of my students have made a significant progress and won many trophies. Among my most successful students is even a super-talented American young player - Carissa Yip (whom I coached only for a shorter time).

Nowadays, some of my program-lessons are being used by local chess coaches who teach kids in elementary schools.

 

COACHING METHOD & OPTIONS
 

In order to take lessons, you'll need to (1) become a member of Chess.com community (free), (2) send a message to me, and (3) add me as a friend here on Chess.com. In the message I should find your current chess level (rating), your interests in regard of chess progress, and, finally, expectations from your chess coach.

Mainly, I like to work with those who are more realistic and know how to determine their goals more objectively. For example, if someone wants to become a master FIDE in a year, with a starting rating of 1200, I can't take such a student. Also, you can't expect from your coach to bring you to the expected level without you working on it outside of online lessons with your coach. Coach is not there as a substitution for an individual work, he is there mainly to direct your studying. Also, coaches are not there to teach you things you can successfully do without their help - tactical puzzles, for example. Do not expect from me to do that, although it's the easiest thing for a coach to do. (There are some exclusions, of course.)

In order to connect with each other, we can use Skype. My ID is Mizant83; feel free to add me before the lesson, but in pre-lesson communication I prefer chess.com private messages or/and email (kekenj@gmail.com).

A student can choose whether to have an audio-only lesson, or audio-video lesson (same fee).

When it comes to the way the lesson is conducted, the first lesson should be done as a played game with a lot of talking about played moves. You are going to be asked to justify your moves, and explain your decisions during the game. Thus, I will be able to mark your misleading thoughts and get to know what are your weaknesses in understanding of chess. Afterwards, I am proposing the training plan and explaining why it is needed to be our subject in the following lessons.

After the lesson you will get the document used during the lesson (in case the lesson was conducted according to the program). Free of charge, of course.

A feature you should take advantage of is an option to play a correspondence game against me (unrated, 3-days/move). While you are a student of mine, you can play those kind of games free of charge (during our lessons we can take a look and discuss what was wrong in your moves and thinking process).

Finally, if you are willing to work on chess outside of our online live lessons (which is highly recommended), I advice you to ask for a homework (free of charge). You'll get a content related to our topic in past or future lesson.

 

REQUIREMENTS & FEES
 

I coach players of up to 2000 FIDE rating points (beginner and intermediate level), but my best performance can be seen when coaching players with rating up to 1700 FIDE. Thus, I recommend myself as a coach to those who are below 1700 FIDE.

Language I use in chess lessons is exclusively English. How good (or bad) my English is - you can find out if you watch video posted below.

Fees per lesson:

    • 30 minutes lesson - 20 EUR
    • 45 minutes lesson - 28 EUR
    • 60 minutes lesson - 35 EUR (or 38 USD)
    • 90 minutes lesson - negotiable

The payment method is Paypal (after or just before the lesson).

If you have any additional question, feel free to send a message and ask. I am willing to explain and answer to all interested in my coaching services.

 

EXAMPLE - One of my videos on Youtube