Looking for a coach. Yes I have money.

Hello, I am pretty serious about chess and would like a coach. I would like to do a weekly skype lesson or if you live in the Oklahoma city area perhaps we could get together.

There is so much information out there and quite honestly it is a bit overwhelming. I am a good student and will study diligently (2+ hours daily).

I need a coach who is easy to understand and has patience will less expierenced players. I do not mind criticisim but I also wouldn't mind a little reinforcment either.

I am an older player (38) and have only been playing for a couple of years. I'm not trying to be a GM by any stretch but I sure wouldn't mind a rating between 1700-1800.

Thank you for your time.

I am afraid that you are just going to generate a storm of feeble humor with your thread. I hope I am wrong. It may help if you let out a little more about your chess experience. You have only been a chess.com member for less than a month. Do you have previous experience elsewhere? (Maybe you have played in over the board tournaments at some point in the past.)

When you say you want to achieve a rating between 1700 and 1800, which rating do you mean? One here on chess.com? A USCF over the board rating?  How did you decide that such a rating would be a reasonable goal?

Have you tried any over the board clubs or tournaments? I would imagine that even Oklahoma City has occasional tournaments.

I concur with notmtwain's concerns and simultaneously have decided he's one of the more constructive/levelheaded folks around here.

OP - are you definitely sold on having lessons? There are a lot of resources both on chess.com and elsewhere that will have a substantial impact on your game. My advice would be to try self directed study or even group study - I know you say that you have money, but it might be money better spent on books and other needs.

I am fortunate to have a small group of people at work who are fairly serious about improving their game and having a twice-weekly lunch session where we cover a number of different topics.

If you choose to self direct your study, I am not a strong enough player to provide any authoritative input - but there are plenty of books which can be filtered by amazon reviews that you can reference and set up for OTB analysis. I have been recommended to read "My System" by Nimzowitsch by many, many chess enthusiasts and several very serious players - so I'd like to think there's something to that, and have ordered it. Furthermore, there are lots of exercises that will boost your game, and different techniques you may be neglecting depending on your style of play.

The chess group I meet with at work is headed up by someone who has had professional  instruction, and incorporates it with what he shows us. Here's a breakdown of what we cover and intend to cover, directly or indirectly:

• Fast checkmates - every session we spend time on a fast checkmate sequence, for example, our first session was rook and king, we had a minute to pull it off, he kept resetting it until we could spot a decent technique, then he explained the fundamentals behind it (opposition, waiting moves, cutoffs, etc), then set the clock to 30 seconds, and made us chase him into a checkmate position, and the next class was 15 seconds, and every so often we revisit that, among other sequences.
• "Gotchas" - hitting the clock with the wrong hand gets us a scolding, touching pieces and not moving them, sloppy placement, outright stalemates (big big scolding!), 3 move repetitions, etc
• Tactics - we review 2-3 board positions per session, but they are typically more difficult than the chess.com ones i've encountered, and there is no moving of the pieces allowed. The guy who heads it up can see way out in his head. You call out the moves in algebreic notation, and are expected to have the whole sequence right. The tactics are often intentionally beyond our reach slightly, it is rare we nail the whole thing, and he will often jump in and say "well what if I respond Kg8" or something, and you need to already have an answer thought up to that.
• Technique - this is something we are going to cover and haven't delved into yet, but my understanding is it will be about gaining position, controlling the center, reinforcing pieces, how to gauge advantage and disadvantage (beyond point count) etc.
• Style - down to silly things like smacking the pieces down and shooting funny looks. It seems stupid and i don't know how much of that goes on and tournaments, but I know he's played a lot of blitz in the city, and he explains it as kind of a rough climate, and that just unnerving your opponent lends an advantage. I see chess as more of a gentlemans game, but to each his own - if you're not willing to be aggressive, you need to at least not be phased by an opponent who is.
• Actual gameplay - we'll be doing this soon, i dont think i need to elaborate here.
• Post match analysis - again, don't think i need to elaborate much, but I will say that while the leader could do the analysis for us, he prefers we do it initially so that we learn. I've actually taken a lot of pleasure in conducting analysis since it's really the cousin to tactics. I feel like there's this progression of Tactics -> Analysis -> Technique -> Oh suddenly you're a good player!
• Analysis of GM games - haven't gotten there yet but rumored to come
• Positional work - playing from different openings, reacting to openings, and middlegame work that goes hand in hand with technique improvement to determine what constitutes an advantage, except this is the part where you learn how to get said advantage (e.g. when to puncture a line of pawns, how to line an enemy up for a pin or a fork or a skewer)

This has gotten quite lengthy, has any of that resonated with you or are you totally not interested in that route?

[Edit : on reread, by 'that route' I mean self study, and I know my huge list is from group study lead by someone who has had professional instruction, but I want to point out that he's often not teacing us so much as forcing us to teach ourselves, its more like he directs us toward what to focus on (which you can get from folks on this site or books), gives feedback (which you can get right here), and exposes us to new topics which we then research on our own (which again can be done right here). Also, if money isn't an issue, sort coaches by rating, and then pick one of the top 10 and check in with them every so often with a paid session to get some direction and feedback if they're willing - my guess is a directed study would be possible. Take a look at this profile http://www.chess.com/coach/yaroslav-zherebukh ]

[Edit 2: Picking one of the top 10 is not necessary, there are lots of good coaches I was just trying to narrow it down, in fact, you are probably better off going further down the list, as well as anticipating any language barriers or personality conflicts. You may also find better pricing further down the list.]

@notmtwain -

Thank you for responding. Yes there are some clubs here I believe I'll look in to them. I think that might be my best bet. The tournaments here are available however, I just cant bring myself to enter until I am rated around the same as the adults. I thank you for you input.

@gambit - Thanks for responding, I do have "My System" although I admit I have not studied it past the first 3 chapters. I shall endeavor to commit more time to study of that book. I am actually quite skeptical of online lessons but I feel I need a 'path' to follow. Honestly I wish I could just have fun playing and not care about the outcome. However I am the type to analyse and obesses about things i am not 'good' at (I am a musician and that was the product of obession). Anyhow I think I'll stick to seeking out other local players or perhaps go to a tournyment and see what happens.

Cheers.

I can be your coach

There are some really strong players in the OKC region. That said, I'm betting there are a number of lower rated adult players, so waiting until you are rated about the same as the adults could be right now :D.

Check out the USCF site for clubs in your area: http://www.uschess.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=198. I know the OCF runs a few events a year, both in the OKC area and some in Tulsa. The OCA may also do some but that area I think is mainly OCF.

You might also be able to find some of the local stronger players that offer coaching.

Thanks Martin! I will do it

Chess is one of the few games I prefer to lose. Why? Tactics. If you play a winning game, you knew the tactics involved or you relied on your opponent blundering (that's usually my hope!). If you play a losing game, you now have full incentive to learn from your mistakes.

I don't find chess fun when I win all the time, I find it fun when I am learning and when I am progressing in a measurable way.

At some point, you must decide where to draw the line - I draw the line at when chess becomes more about rote memorization and less about creativity and honed impulse. I don't need another grind in my life, life is full of that. When I've progressed to the point where I am busy memorizing opening books and various positions beyond the basics, I will probably not persist down that line of play. Tactics is what I love.

Ever look into Chess960? That might keep you away from the potentially unfun materials.

Also, if you (or anyone else) would like to form up as a group of folks who take this relatively seriously (read, 10 hours of solid commitment a week), we can start a group here, formal or informal, and keep guide eachother with the different things we are learning.

Vaporz....you can get to 1800 by just playing with 1800-1900 players and taking your games home to review on a computer program. To get to expert or higher takes making your brain do some uncomfortable..ie, exhausting..work.  It is said that the young Reshevsky took lessons from Akiba Rubinstein, and that the great master would not let him touch the pieces; "You must see the pieces move."

http://www.chess.com/coaches?page=3&sortby=distance&searched=1&titled_only=1&skill=2

You have plenty of choice...