Valeri Lilov has found his true calling in life, that of a chess teacher. He is just as excited about your chess as you are and he is very friendly and easy-going. He makes the maximum use of technology to ensure your time together is spent efficiently. Training with him is fun and effective at the same time. Valeri doesn't teach you to find the best moves, he trains your mind to think about chess in the proper way. Of course, this takes some time and you need to be commited and do your part. But soon you will see the results of your work.

my first lesson exceeded my expectation.

i look forward to future lesson and feel confident

that my game will improve with Valeri instructions

I have known Valeri during his general training lessons. I was impressed by his enthuisasm way to explain chess. Most helpful for me are his "general rules" in concret situations. So he doesn't only explain the right move like a computer but also the principe to find the move. And this principe is tranferable to my own games. So I improved my rating from 1700 to 1900 DWZ.

Now I start with personalized training by Valeri and he identifies my weaknesses and gives me also for this principes which I can use in my games. Also his training is added by exercises and additional material. So I get step by step a deeper understandig of chess in a very inspiring and fantastic way which I enjoy every time.

I had my first lesson with Valeri last Sunday and I was very impressed with his teaching style. Aside from being very friendly and easy to talk to, I was especially impressed with his obvious passion for the game which comes out when he teaches. Positional chess is something I just started to learn, and already after one lesson I have a completely different way of how I view and approach the game in terms of development, planing, and execution. He is very honest, in the most respectful manner, with you if you are weak in certain areas, which is exactly what you need to improve (meaning he wont mislead you into thinking you are doing something right when you are doing it dead wrong). His teaching philosophy is one of deep understanding of the game, not memorization of a thousand lines and openings. As such, if you understand the game on a fundamental level, it is easier to develop naturally without need for memorization (at least at my stage). Being a teacher myself, I know how important this concept is. He gives homework and additional resources that fit your specif needs (such as videos, etc.). I think for what you get the price is amazing, considering some on here charge 75$ or more an hour. I look forward to more lessons and to continue tracking my progress.

Mike

One of the best teacher:very clear and effective!!to be raccomanded!

Hi, Valeri speaks very clear English. I understood all what he spoke. The 3 hours I had were the best. You learn so much with his coaching. When you had some hours with him, you dont want another coach.

2012

HI

Valeri is an excellent coach who has helped me improve my game tremendously!

I first started lessons with Valeri last year ahead of the Czech Open tournament, where I got royally trashed (TPR 1553). After a year of coaching with Valeri, I decided to play the Czech Open again to see how my chess has improved. This year I came 6th in the U2100 rapidplay and had an overall TPR of 1887 for the main tournament!! :) All of this is thanks to the wonderful coaching that I received during that year.

If you are looking for a coach to help you improve all aspects of your game, adapt the lesson plans to your strengths and more importantly weaknesses, someone who is genuinely interested in your games and is always available for advice - look no further! I cannot praise Valeri highly enough as a coach and as a friend. His lessons are fully of humour and tailored to your needs, he gives regular simul exhibitions for his students and makes extra videos to send you to cover special topics.

Thank you so much for all the great advice!!

My training game with Valeri was most helpful.

He is an attentative and responsive teacher who is very flexible to whatever needs or weaknesses you may feel you have.  I also have little doubt in his capacity to identify what weaknesses (and indeed strengths) you may have given the opportunity to see more games from you as a player and provide an adaptive coaching style.

At this stage I have only begun working with him to improve my chess, but look forward to future lessons with Valeri to help make me a stronger player.  I am confident in both his chess knowledge and his pedagogical abilities.

J.S.

Valeri is a great coach

He is very dedicated to hrlping you improve as a chess player no matter what your level is. I have had lots of lessons with Valeri and my level has risen sharply and i have learnt something new every lesson. He is also a very nice person. He also provides annotations etc which are extremely useful.

Overall, a great coach

Valeri is an inspiration when it comes to taking chess lessons. I have had the opportunity to take lessons from many chess instructors, including some noteworthy GMs. Valeri demonstrates a competency with relevant and modern chess tools that really adds to the instruction. If you are a serious student of the game and want to take advantage of tools such as chessbase, recoded lectures, screen sharing, then Valeri will exceed your expectations. Valeri is also not arrogant like some of his FIDE FM level or above contemporaries. He is willing to listen to your thought process, attempt to understand where you are coming from and tries to understand where you are coming from in order to help convert your amateur thinking into a more disciplined and organized thought process. There have been many times during my instruction with him where I have had these "light bulb" moments where I realize that the thought process that I was having was incorrect, or premature and he was able to give me a way to remember and incorporate new ideas into my chess play through thematic practice. Valeri also demonstrates a significant natural talent in opening play. If you want to work on an opening repertoire then he certainly can help you naturally understand opening patterns and help you develop a purpose in your initial play which gives you advantage when the the major pieces come into play.

Bottom line is that Valerie is an example of the new generation of chess players that have dedicated themselves to this game as a career. This is refreshing. At an amateur level you do not need to be taught by a GM that has been playing for years, rather, take lessons from someone who has recently gone through the mental struggle that you are currently experiencing. I have discovered that Valeri remembers what it is like to think the way I do during the game, and has been much more successful and helping me to realize how my thought patterns need to change to be successful.

He will give you more then you pay for. Unlike that busy GM that cant find the time to even remember who you are, Valeri actually thinks about you during the week, prepares by looking at your chess.com games, provides you homework, provides you with recordings of his lectures, provides you with extra video's he is developing. He will teach you how to use chess tools, he will introduce you to how to study the game, evaluate positions, how to practice. With Valeri you get much more then the hour of instruction that you pay for.

Take a lesson from him, you will see the difference between competent disciplined instruction aided by technology as opposed to lazy, arrogant  and vague instruction typical of GMs offering lessons today.

Very good coach, helps me alot on my openings and middlegame strategies.  His simuls are really helpul aswell in gaging my progress, and I appreciate that he can give me homeworks and videos of our lessons, aswell as some of his previous ones.

Highly reccomended

Since starting lessons with FM Valeri Lilov I have improved my theoretical knowleadge of the game tenfold. I have also developed a much deeper understanding of the game. As a consequence I have improved as a player vastly and I am well on the way to achieving my targets. Furthermore, Valeri is a great coach who is fun to learn with and he is very dedicated. Resources are never far away if you need anything. Thanks Valeri!

-Shane Frith.

Valeri is such a good chess coach. I strongly recommend his services.

I am taking chess lessons from Valeri for the past 2 months. We have finished 7 lessons and I have learnt a lot from those lessons. I got fide rating in 2004 but since then my rating has nearly always been going down after each tournament. Especially the last 3 tournaments before taking the lessons my rating had gone down hugely. But in the 2 tournaments that I played after taking lessons from Valeri my rating increased by nearly 10 points each time even though they were very strong tournaments. 

Time really seems to fly when he is teaching me. He is a confident, enthusiastic, dedicated and patient coach. He is a good listener too. He understands your weaknesses and provides ways to overcome them. The way he explains is very good and when you cannot find a move of his exercises he gently helps you along in finding the way by guiding how to think in a given position.

I recommend him highly to anybody interested in improving his chess understanding and performance.

FM Tiger Lilov is an excellent teacher. He has helped me develop my chess skills over the lessons we have had, from my openings to my strategy to different tatics. He has a clear plan of what to do in every lesson, whether it is analyzing games I played or going through professional matches played by world class players. For example, Tiger carefully selects a position created by two GMs and most importantly, highlights the main point(s) of the game such as an "outline" or a particular "strategy(neutralize,stablize)". However, that is not all, he then teaches me how I can apply these skills and techniques into my own game. Therefore making his lessons not only interesting but very much useful.

I cannot more highly recommend FM Lilov. Whether you are a beginner starting from scratch, or an intermediate player at a certain skill level, I am absolutely sure than his lesson will be of huge significance to your game of chess. Anyone who wants to vastly improve should seriously consider FM Lilov as a coach.

Thank you FM Lilov, I hope you the best in the future.

Yes, a good coach is Valeri. Very adept at explaining tactics, strategies, and where I went wrong on previous games. Hope to be working with him for a while to come...!

Valeri Lilov is an amazing chess coach.  He has a deep understanding of chess and is able to articulate himself extremely well.  He really cares about his students progress and provides recorded lectures about different chess topics that are not available for non-students.  These lectures are given in such a way that they help cement the ideas, concepts, and methods learned in your lessons.  He also provides homework assignments with various positional, tactical, and strategical themes for the student to try to "solve" in-between lessons.  These positions aren't just simple "solve this" type problems.  They have a deeper underlying concept that is revealed in the next lesson and it's almost guaranteed that you haven't thought of these concepts in your analysis before.  In addition to all that, the lessons are also recorded and broken up into sections like recent games played, opening analysis, homework, etc.  This is an invaluable resource because you always have these lessons to refer back to and review at your leisure.  I've been taking lessons from Valeri for a few months now and my game has improved by almost 300 points, and it keeps improving!  I see the board differently now and better understand a lot of the fundamentals that eluded me in the past.  I can't say enough good things about Valeri.  If you're interested in improving your chess game then look no further than Valeri Lilov!

Valeri Lilov is a competent chess coach that motivates his students to
work hard at chess. Valeri extensive opening, middlegame, endgame and
tournament preparation knowledge makes his personalized chess training
 very cost/effective. An important feature of Valeri training program
are his communication skills. Valeri speaks fluent english which
facilitates an effective exchange of ideas with his students.  

I really like that Valeri always follow up promptly on my questions
and trainning materials. I usually get the video lesson, the thematic
homework and any additional videos (from his large collection!) the
same day or the next morning after the lesson.
I enjoy working with Valeri and I can see results on my OTB results as
well as in my overall understanding of the game.

Valeri will help you to eliminate the recurrent mistakes that hold your chess back!

 Miguel,
 Florida (United States of America)