I was wondering the best way to find an online coach? I don't live near any Chess clubs but my husband used to play at one. The one thing we have learned is my husband is not the right coach for me (also why we didn't teach our daughter to drive lol).

Other than asking them to analyze a game and looking at their rating - what would you suggest?

Seeing what GM's and IM's they recommend reading/watching??

And or???

There's coaches in abundance in the directory here, but that is going to cost you. Also if you're a beginner I do not suggest a coach like that. If you do get that far, I would expect the coach to have a program. It can include the following:

Opening and endgame knowledge and technique.

Typical plans in the middle game.

Tactics training.

Thought process coaching.

I do not know what you mean, but indeed it can be worthwhile to go over your games with assistance.

There are plenty of online resources and offline books, really too much to list here. I can say that I really like John Watson, Neil McDonald and John Emms, but it really depends what you want.

For informal coaching I'm sure you can always make some noise here. A much stronger player can look at your games and play some games with you. It's not going to cost you anything and it will bridge the gap until you need a real coach, should you ever get that far.

Good luck.

Ty ! I will definately check out - John Watson, Neil McDonald and John Emms.

Right now I have a chess crush on Yasser Seirwan - I am downloading and watching alot of his lectures and have gotten his set of books - but don't know which to start first lol  Wonder what he suggests - off to see if I can find it

Sure,

Do not drown in the rich online sea. If you don't have an actual introduction book, just try to do a little bit of opening, some strategy/technique (positional features and middle game plans and basic endings), and a lot of tactics. You'll be fine if you gradually get better in those 3 areas.

There was a guy offering coaching recently I think his name was Edward, you can probably find him on route to the nearest Bank.

@Queen - that was the perfect way to NOT choose a coach lol

Ok, I'll be serious for once, Dutchdays advice was good, the problem is there are a lot of wannabe Coaches out there, don't judge purely by their rating. Rating helps you know they are strong players so thats a start but playing ability doesn't make a good coach. You may have to try a couple before you find the right fit.

Ty Queen takes.. will do that

For anyone that thinks I will add random people to my friends list think again - I do not want to keep in touch with people I don't know. Talk to me here in the foums - oh and if you want to coach me but won't analyze a game here in the forums then don't bother cause we are not the right fit.  ( Sorry got a few off the wall friend requests)

I learned a lot myself by just watching/listening to the YouTube chess articals . Yasser Seirawan I think is a good example , BackYard professor is a bad example.

There is also a splendid book : My System . It's writen by Nimzowich in the early 1900's . Now this looks anchient , but his theory still holds. It talks about general techniques (like Dutchday remarked) , things that are true in every game.

I would advise you not to start with deep theoretical opening-books , but read about the general aspects of the game. It does help to know something about openings , but keep it superficial , don't go too deep in anyone of them.

PS : Didn't realize that you are a sheila . Thanks for posting on my Grandfather thread. I will come back to that later.

Another great little book is Chess Made Easy, an Aussie publication by Purdy & Koshnitsky, its still in print after 73 years & is a great starter for beginners. C J Purdy was the 1st World Correspondence Champion (Australia greatest contribution to Chess) & my Father got a draw against George Koshnitsy in a simultaneous match during WW2 though I'm not sure what relevance that has.

http://www.amazon.com/Chess-Made-Easy-C-Purdy/dp/1446519546?tag=ap0a7eddd0-20

The human element is indeed a challenge. Here you would of course walk into a chess club, and if you showed the inclination the local chess community would of course help you until you're already a fairly strong player. Then, you help people. This doesn't happen in every country and it's a real shame you must turn to an online source immediately. I've helped beginners and intermediates in RL for years and I lend a hand online when I feel like it. I can tell you it's not always easy on the other side either. The best advice I can give is:

Please, please, do not give a Dutchman attitude when you're asking for a free favour. I mean, oh man, what are people even thinking? (I thought this was common knowledge but it turns out it isn't.) 

An other important thing , I believe , is to try to find out your inherent style. By that I mean , play a lot of games , use different openings and find out which ones suits you , make you feel good. Do I like fianchettoing my K-Bishop , do I like open-games with lots of tactics and so on ..

Go over your own games , replay them (computer) and find out the mistakes you made. In the end they will stick. Don't bother about the results , you will lose many games in the beginning , but gradually you will improve without even noticing it.

I preferred open games when I started but I'm studying some games with a closed center now & I may give it a try, I think open games are probably better for beginners as it focuses more on tactics in the middle game & you aren't overwhelmed by having to learn a heap of theory to understand the openings theme & goals

One of my biggest problems is like I am learning Queens Gambit accepted and declined - so I go through the opening and then what - where am I sopose to be looking - I am lost - I like plans even if they are a ok I am starting with the queens gambit and then ... well I don't know enough to know what should be my next move - do I plan an attack on something - I know to try to move pieces so they are always being moved into a better spot but don't know enough to know what is a better spot

Is this tactics I should be working on?  Since I have Yassare books should I start with his taticts?? Or??

I also have a problem properly utalising my Knights - are there I don't know puzzles or anything out there that I can work with??

These are the questions that I get stuck on...well some of them lol

I took the liberty to (rapidly) go over some of your finished games. What struck me first is that you often have a "bad" pawn-structure. That is , you allow for backward and isolated pawns in some of your games. Maybe you could start working on that. The good side is , you already have a sence of tactics.

Ty for that!! I should play more on here  -

I have played off and on since I was 11 BUT I didn't know about castling or enpassant till about 3 months ago and about a month ago I started learning a couple openings. I didn't even know there were openings or defenses or any of this till 3 months ago so you can see part of my problem lol I am starting to feel lucky I learned the proper movement of the pieces!!! hehehe

Finding a good coach will probably depend on what kind of instruction you are personally looking for, which is also related to your playing-strength. That is difficult to judge without seeing games in my opinion. Although based on your chess.com rating it's probably beginner or intermediate level? Sometimes ratings aren't that accurate though, especially online.

Your games contain the map to what you need to work on. At your (our) level, tactics puzzles are the main thing to work on. Submit your games to forums after you've annotated them. Listen to what people say in their comments to your games. Re-annotate your games after you've read the annotations you've received. Play another game. Annotate, submit, re-annotate, play another.   That's the best chess coach there is, online or off.

Somebodysson

That is not what I am looking for. I am not new to chess and need a coach who can work one on one with me on my game. My Husband is great and helps heaps but coaching your wife is not always the safe thing to do if you value your marraige LOL

Getting other peoples oppinions in a forum setting will not help me as many conflict or post just to sound important. I don't want to wade through that. As I said one on one is what I am looking for but ty for the suggestion! I am sure many people can learn like that and do quite sucessfully :)

Open a new thread titled "Who wants to coach me for free?"