"Slow Down When You Are Winning!" And Other Keys To Chess Improvement

GM Mykhaylo Oleksiyenko is a grandmaster, mathematics PhD, Chessable author... and August 2025 Chess.com Coach of the Month! Mykhaylo has counted GMs Bassem Amin, Ahmed Adly, and Alexander Ipatov among his students, not to mention the countless players he has helped on Chessable. Mykhaylo's new Chessable course "Crawl, Walk, Checkmate!" is on sale through August 10.

As a player, Mykhaylo was the Ukrainian rapid champion in 2014 and then won the 2016 Ukrainian Championship in classical. He has coached not only individual students but also the national teams of Ukraine, Egypt, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Dutch women's team. And in addition to his courses on Chessable, he has written two books with IM Vladimir Grabinsky, Turbo-Charge Your Tactics 1 and 2. You can also visit Mykhaylo's website at Oleksiyenko.com.

As Coach of the Month, Mykhaylo shared with Chess.com his top insights into the goals and responsibilities of a coach, how students can make the most of their coaching, the most important areas for players to improve, and more. But his story begins with family.

At what age were you introduced to chess, and who introduced you?

When I was four years old, we visited my grandparents, who lived more than 100 kilometers away. I saw a chessboard in a cupboard in the living room and asked what it was. My grandmother replied that it was a chess set. I asked her to bring me a chess set next time she visited me.

The next time she came to see us, the first thing I asked her was whether she had brought chess with her. She said yes! Then, of course, she taught me to play. I still have that set in my home office.

Chess also runs in the male part of my family. My father has a second category in chess. (In Ukraine, you start with no category, then you get fourth, third, second, and first categories. After that, you can become a national candidate master.) He had some chess magazines, and at one point was checking some position when I was very little. That may have been the first time I saw chess.

My paternal grandfather was an Ostarbeiter in the forced labor camps in Nazi Germany during World War II, where the punishment for leaving the camp was death. My grandfather was a strong chess player and the German officer in charge of the camp liked to play chess with him because everyone else was easy to beat. My grandfather—I was named after him—escaped the camp with other Ostarbeiters and was supposed to be killed, but the officer in charge did not sentence him to execution because of his chess skills. I would literally not be here if not for chess...

I would literally not be here if not for chess.

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

My main coach throughout my life has been IM Volodymyr Grabinsky. I was one of his first students when he finished his university chess education. I was five or six years old. He had no experience and was only starting his chess coaching career. There was this other coach, whose students were successful. My mom said that to Grabinsky, and he replied that she should do what is best for me, as long as I was playing chess. He saw my talent but did not want to keep me as his student all to himself.

So, I left and went to Yuriy Boreyko. He quickly helped me reach the first category. I was only eight years old, and the candidate master title seemed to be right around the corner. But then I stalled for a long time. Players that I used to beat were becoming better than me. My progress stopped for at least two years, which is an astronomical time for a child.

I wanted to stop playing chess. Then my mom remembered what Grabinsky told her years ago. He asked whether I could come back to him. He was happy to take me back. He changed my opening repertoire from the London System and Scandinavian Defense to open positions and gambits after 1.e4 and the Sicilian with Black.

I started to love and enjoy chess again and quickly got my candidate master title. While it took me five (!) years to become national CM, it only took three years to become an IM at 16 and less than three years to become a GM at 19.

I learned from Yuriy Boreyko how to thoroughly study chess and learn openings, and to know when my expertise as a coach ends. Also, I learned to know when to let your student go. In fact, my main goal as a coach is to help my students study chess well on their own.

My main goal as a coach is to help my students study chess well on their own.

I am happy to hear when my student says, “I know what to do now, I will take it from here”. I learned from Grabinsky to love the game, I learned that the student’s failure is the coach's problem, and the student’s success is the student’s success. I learned the importance of calculation, active play with pieces, initiative, and the importance of a single tempo in certain positions.

What is your favorite or best game you ever played?

I cannot pick just one! I would go in reverse chronological order.

Back in 2020, I was playing a banter blitz match with GM Alireza Firouzja. He, of course, completely crushed me. However, I managed to play a perfect game (even from Stockfish’s perspective!) and strategically outplay him.

Then, there is the game with the legendary GM Vasyl Ivanchuk. I always dreamed of playing him. Well, I did play against him in a simul when I was about seven years old. I was happy to meet Vasyl during the German Bundesliga. I dreamed of just playing with him as equals, and I was blessed to even win the game in a “boring” Berlin endgame with black.

Finally, the highest-rated player I have beaten in a classical game so far was GM Vugar Gashimov back in 2010. I did not know about his health issues, and I definitely did not expect him to pass away four years after our game. Nevertheless, I knew that he was the same age as me and a top-10 player in the world. That is all I needed for my motivation!

How would you describe your approach to chess coaching?

My approach to chess coaching is very personal.

My main objective as a coach is to show my students how to improve their chess on their own. During the first few lessons, I suggest a personalized training plan for my student, explaining why I am suggesting what I am suggesting based on my personal—often painful—experience.

After I make sure that my student is doing a good job on his or her own, then we address the problems that I can help with. For example, I will be looking for any recurring problems or mistakes. Once I identify those, the path for personalized improvement is clear.

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

Improving tactical vision and calculation is my student’s responsibility. I believe this “muscle” needs constant, if not daily, training. The problem is that there are many wrong, bad, or ineffective ways to do tactics. Believe me, I tried many of them!

There are many wrong, bad, or ineffective ways to do tactics. Believe me, I tried many of them!

For example, most of the time, when people solve a tactical puzzle incorrectly, they do not know what they did wrong. They just move on to the next one—which will only lead to a similar mistake in the future! When failing a puzzle, it is crucial to understand what you missed and, ideally, you should be the one finding refutation to your own incorrect solution.

I then explain from my personal, somewhat painful experience, the importance of training accuracy of calculation and the speed of calculation. The problem is that they contradict each other! If you want to be certain and careful, then it takes time! I suggest my way of reconciling this problem. Then I delegate that training to my student.

Another responsibility of the student is to analyze their games using Stockfish. The key is using Stockfish as the assistant, not the boss! Stockfish should give the position where the mistake happened, but you should be the one finding the better decision—otherwise, all you learn is that you failed, and that Stockfish is great!

 The key is using Stockfish as the assistant, not the boss! 

Fixing opening problems after every game is also my student’s responsibility, after I teach how to do it on your own.

My responsibilities are deeper or different. I can help with the positions my student does not understand, even after they've checked Stockfish. My main goal as a coach is to find what my student is great at and excel at it. More importantly, I am looking for recurring mistakes in my students' games. Then I help address the problem, change the work at home—or, even more often, change what people are thinking during the game.

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

Slow down and be patient when you think you are winning! We get excited, our pulse speeds up, and we act too quickly. Slow down in a winning position!

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

I like to use examples from my own practice because I remember what I was thinking when playing those games. The topics of calculation and active play with pieces are close to my heart, and since 2020, time management and queen exchanges have also entered my sphere of interest. My game against GM Tiger Hillarp Persson features all four topics in one picture. Here it is:

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

I prefer showing a game related to a topic, rather than one position, which is like checking a photo when you can watch a video. 

I think the best way to find out how a student thinks is to listen. First, I help my student study chess more effectively on his or her own. Then, we check several recent games with a decent time control (rapid or classical). And then I just listen carefully and make notes. I give personalized feedback on a variety of topics rather than pushing my own agenda. When I figure out a specific area of improvement, I will present the example relative to that topic.

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

It is much better to study in person for psychological reasons. I believe the training should be as close as possible to a real-game experience. Silence, a person in front of you, an actual chess board, perhaps a clock ticking, a pen and a piece of paper, no phones, no distractions.

Teaching online is much more comfortable for a coach since no travel is necessary, but that is inferior for the student. It could be more comfortable for a student, but I do not think that comfort is something we are looking for in training. On the other hand, online is still a great extra option that was not available to me when I was a child.

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

The internet provides endless opportunities for self-improvement! You can play, do tactics, watch instructive videos, and study openings basically 24/7.

The problem is not a lack of material, as was the case when I was a child and a teenager, but rather the lack of understanding of how to use the tools available to us wisely. You can play endless games, but without post-game analysis, you will hardly improve; you can do tactics all day long, and yet your tactical vision will barely improve.

I believe that calculation and tactical vision are the key areas for improvement. The internet gives an abundance of puzzles, and I believe that the best way to benefit from those is still doing them over the board, while writing down your variations. This is my online/offline hybrid way for your improvement.

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

I believe that chess, for most players, is much more about skill, rather than knowledge. Specifically, the skill of calculating various variations. Any book that has dozens of puzzles on each main tactical motif should be studied extremely thoroughly. That is your tactical foundation. Once you are great at solving puzzles with a single motif, you will be able to guess motifs yourself and start combining different ones in a single variation.