Yes, You Can Use The Engine To Improve—And Other Tips From A Data-Focused Coach

FM Nate Solon draws on his vast experience in chess, data science, poker, and more to offer a unique perspective to his students. Both a private coach and a popular, highly-rated author on Chessable, Nate is our Chess.com Coach of the Month for July 2025! Read on to find out Nate's thoughts on the value of puzzles, engines, blitz, his best piece of advice that more players should know, and much more.

At what age were you introduced to chess, and who introduced you? What is your first vivid memory from chess?

I learned the rules in third grade, around eight or nine years old. My dad and I learned at the same time.

The opening theory in my home went as follows: 1. h4 a5 2. g3 b6 3. Bg2 when Black had to awkwardly block the long diagonal. One day my dad innovated with 1...b6, allowing him to beat me to the diagonal and turn the tables. I was very annoyed!

Which coaches were helpful to you in your chess career, and what was the most useful knowledge they imparted to you?

My first chess coach was John Smalec, who owned a chess shop in Ann Arbor, Michigan where I grew up. He taught me to be more aggressive—I was initially quite a cautious player. In one game we were paired against each other and I sacrificed a rook, allowing his knight to take my rook in the corner and not even recapturing. It probably wasn't sound, but showed I had learned the lesson!

Later I started working with an FIDE master named Fred Lindsay who showed me more technical aspects of chess. I was not very diligent about doing the homework, but from my perspective as a coach now I understand what he was trying to do and it made a lot of sense!

What is your favorite or best game you ever played?

My game from the final round of the ALTO tournament in 2023 vs. WGM Dina Belenkaya was quite memorable. Going into the last round, she had 3.5 points and I was part of a big second place tie on three, so it was a must-win situation. The whole game was on the verge of fizzling out to a draw, and I had to keep coming up with things to try. There were a lot of mistakes on both sides, but it was exciting to face off against a chess celebrity.

How would you describe your approach to chess coaching?

Note: This answer is also part of Nate's Chessable Coach's Corner.

The big challenge with chess improvement is, out of the nearly infinite chess topics, how do you know where to focus your energy? I believe mistakes are the best clues about what you need to work on, so I look at the student's mistakes, and especially at patterns of mistakes. More often than not, many of a player's mistakes are the result of the same thought process error, so that's what we work on.

I also save positions that my students struggle with in their games. If it presents a challenge to one player, it usually has valuable lessons for other players around the same level, even though these positions often don't look like traditional puzzles.

Finally, I'm probably more open to technology and new approaches than the average chess coach, who tends to be pretty traditional. For example, I believe that the engine and blitz are two of the most powerful tools for improvement, but you need to learn to use them correctly!

How is blitz chess in particular helpful for improvement?

To get good at chess, you need to internalize a large number of patterns, which takes lots of practice. For many players—especially those starting as adults—it's not realistic to get the number of reps required purely from over-the-board classical chess. Blitz can be a good supplement (for many players, rapid is even better). Of course, as with any kind of chess, you need to review the games!

What do you consider your responsibility as a coach and which responsibilities fall on your student?

As the coach it's my responsibility to identify patterns in the player's games, help them create a study plan, and provide encouragement and accountability.

As the coach it's my responsibility to identify patterns in the player's games, help them create a study plan, and provide encouragement and accountability.

It's the player's responsibility to do the work—I meet with most of my students every other week, so the majority of the work happens outside the coaching session. I can show them what to do, but they have to do it.

What is a piece of advice that you give your students that you think more chess players could benefit from?

To win at chess, even against very strong players, it's not necessary to play the best move on every move. What's more important is to play good moves reasonably quickly and avoid big blunders. Trying to play perfectly on every move can in fact be a weakness.

What is your favorite teaching game that users might not have seen?

Here is a very instructive game by IM Zsofia Polgar that shows the power of a weak square. For players who don't know what to do when there are no tactics present, learning to recognize and exploit weak squares can be a huge game-changer.

What is the puzzle you give students that tells you the most about how they think?

I save positions from my students' games where they made a mistake or struggled to make a decision. Often, these positions don't look like traditional puzzles, but they are instructive for other players. This is an example I like because it's possible to get it right or wrong in many ways, each revealing something different.

Some players don't notice that a6 is attacked twice and only defended once, which could actually save you in this position, because taking on a6 is not a good move. But, in general, it's extremely important to notice when you can take your opponent's pieces!

Others may over-rely on calculation and try to make Bxa6 work with a forcing sequence, while missing the best idea in the position, which is starting an attack with Qh5.

Much stronger players may find the best move so obvious that they don't understand why the position is a puzzle. To me, that is a characteristic of the best puzzles.

Do you prefer to teach online or offline? What do you think is different about teaching online?

I do almost all of my teaching online. My students are from all over the world, and it's easier logistically to schedule a Zoom meeting than arrange to meet in person. It would be fun to meet up over a real chess board, but that's just not practical for me at the moment.

What do you consider the most valuable training tool that the internet provides?

It would have to be the engine. It's really amazing if you think about it that anyone anywhere in the world can access a tool for free that is stronger than Magnus Carlsen. That's why it's surprising to me how many coaches tell their students not to use the engine. Yes, there are pitfalls, but this is an incredibly powerful resource that's worth the time to learn to use correctly.

What is the best or "correct" way to use the engine?

The most important thing is that you are the one driving the process, asking questions and using the engine to answer them, not just passively looking at the engine's top line. If there's a move that looks good to you but isn't in the engine's top moves, there's usually a concrete problem with it. Make the move and see how the engine refutes it. If you're doing it right, you should be making lots of moves on the board.

If there's a move that looks good to you but isn't in the engine's top moves, there's usually a concrete problem with it. Make the move and see how the engine refutes it.

Which under-appreciated chess book should every chess player read?

Practical Chess Exercises by Ray Cheng is a book I recommend quite often. I like that the positions come from amateur (not grandmaster) games and they feature all sorts of positions, not only winning tactics. I believe this is better training for club players than only finding winning combinations from master games.