Is coaching worth it?

To be more clear, is coaching worth it at my lack of skill level? I feel like I'd be wasting their time, even if it is their job. I like reading and watching all sorts of chess content, so I have a good grasp of the basics (in my brain), but I'm absolutely terrible at actually applying any of the knowledge I have the vast majority of the time. I don't know if that is even something a coach can help with.

Im not trying to be as good as someone like Hikaru because that will never happen even if I devote the rest of my life to the game but I'd settle for like, 1000+. But I feel like that won't happen either without years of dedication. I really do want to be a better player but I'm not sure if I have the capacity to be.

Hey! I personally have taught a kid who was beginner who reached 1200+ in a month or two (I am not fide rated). If you want to settle at 1200 or say 1400, I would say hiring a coach isnt best of the decisions you can consider. Cause 1000-1200 is the range where you can reach only by leaning few openings and working on theme based puzzles every day.

Chesscom premium will allow you to analyse your games and not repeat your mistakes. Feel free to comment if you have any query. Goodluck!

I have definitely thought about the premium account! I like the game review tool quite a bit (I make sure to use my one per day) and I want to do more of the built in lessons. 

Yes you can actually go for buying the platinum or gold membership, which will provide ample of features to you. I hope you reach 1200+ asap! Also, watching GMs play in tournaments on youtube broadcasts can be of some help but not right now maybe. 

I don't know about 1200+, lol. I want to be realistic with my expectations. I've watched some tournament play and while I can follow the games (if I pause between moves), I don't really feel I learn anything from it.

Whose broadcast you watch? Chess24 's broadcast when david howell does it seems good. Though I watch chessbaseIndia 's braodcast mostly. The guy explains every move and in between moves which we think why didnt they play it.

I don't watch live streams, I prefer edited videos as they are easier for me to focus on for a longer period of time.

Makes sense, well i dont think agadmator's videos will be useful because he explains less of what could happen. Gotham's videos and guess the elo series if fun. 

I've watched a few of Gotham's videos, particularly the ones where he looks at terrible games. I try to put myself in the players shoes and see what move I would make before they happen.

Thats good way to learn, knowing the idea of opening you play is of utmost importance for which you can check out hanging pawns on youtube. Watch him at 1.5x cause he speaks too slow. 

You will get bwtter on the journey, playing too much of bullet might ruin your chess just a advice. 

Bullet is not for me lol, it's too stressful! 5 and 10 minutes are my sweet spot for enjoyment.

Same for me no cap.

@MephiBlackburn That is a very interesting question! I have been teaching beginner to intermediate level (rated 0-2000) players full-time for the last 9 years and worked with hundreds of students. At the same time I have been coached myself in other sports like snooker. This experience allows me to state as a fact that one improves way faster with a coach than with any other resource out there. However, getting coaching is the most expensive option out of all learning resources, buying books, courses or premium accounts will definitely be much cheaper. Also, getting coaching more rarely than once a week would be a waste of time and money, and I don't recommend doing that. I myself was willing to spend 200$ or so a month on a hobby and for this reason I was paying for coaching in snooker.

One of the most important things a good coach will do is provide you with a training plan and the right resources so that you could study chess effectively on your own in between classes. It's personalized and tailor-made for you. 

Once you get to a certain level, you can train yourself way more easier, because what's written in the books will be making sense to you and you will be able to effectively analyse your own games as interpreting engine's suggestions will be easy for you. The problem at beginner to intermediate level is that one cannot interpret engine's suggestions well simply because they lack strategic knowledge. Not only a lot of books may not be making sense to you, but also most students don't want to read books at all, it's boring to them. Hearing concepts from a coach who can make it clear and fun is their choice of learning. And this is the reality, not speculation as that's what I hear every day from my students.

Hope this makes sense!

Best Regards,

Coach Kestony

If you have the finances or someone willing to dedicate some time to you then coaching is always worth it at any level. Beginners especially often struggle with how to learn chess and what things to focus on when, and a coach can speed up their initial understanding of chess and how to study chess more rapidly than self learning. The real question is are you able and willing to dedicate your time to that learning process, as a coach won’t allow you to bypass work, they just make the work more effective. 

-Jordan

@jg777chess If only we didn't all have to put food on the table! 🤣 I know coaches arent here for charity work. As much as I would like to be the best openly transgender player in the world, that would be a huge undertaking, especially at my age.

Coaching is something I will definitely consider. I think that for me, the biggest advantage would be having a more focused approach to learning, as I have really bad ADHD, and without structure I find it frustrating to learn many things.

Edited for spelling/grammar

Just my 2 cents here: I believe that chess, especially in the modern era, is one of those games where you can find an enormous variety of resources from which to learn and improve to a pretty high level. Between books and videos and online competition and computer analysis and tactics trainers, etc. etc., you can put together a terrific training and improvement schedule. 

BUT you have to go about using said schedule with some discipline and method. You can't spend 2 hours playing blitz and then work on endgames for 15 minutes. You can't play over several opening lines in one session and then say you've "studied" openings. You can't blast through half a dozen GM games in an hour--less time than the GMs themselves spent on the first 10 moves--and say you've examined some GM games. (Note, the above are all failings of mine, so I know what I'm talking about).

For openings, pick one or two as white and one or two as black (recommended for beginners) and then study the crap out of them. Play over the master games. Use them in your own games--win or lose. Watch videos on them. For master play, maybe enter the moves of a great game in an app (I use Kindle Fire) and then run through that game over and over, trying to predict and understand the next move until you've got a good handle on it. For tactics and endgames, use the resources here on chess.com and do the exercises repeatedly until you think you've got it. And for games, play nothing less than 10 minutes, ever. Longer is better. And don't try to rack up a whole bunch of games in one day. Play a couple a day and then devote the rest of your time to the above. 

This is great advice, and I wish I could follow it.

What if I just want to play for fun? I like 5 minute blitz a lot as it forces me to not overthink my moves and second guess myself. Switching from 10 mins to 5 and then back to 10, I noticed an immediate difference from before. It might just be confirmation bias since I imagine at my level I'm just naturally getting better through repetition, but it does feel like forcing myself to think more quickly helped my overall decision making.

Most of the other advice you gave us the exact reason I was thinking about getting a coach in the first place. I do not have the emotional/mental capacity to not only put together my own training regimen, but also to stick with it without guidance. It doesn't have anything to do with chess or anything, that's just how my brain works (I was one of those unmotivated "gifted" kids in school). 

I typically play variations of the queens pawn opening as white and the Scandinavian as black (if white opens in a way that makes sense to do so). It's what I'm comfortable with and enjoy.

I am a stats dork, so that's the thing I'm most likely to study for the sake of it, especially in a closed system like chess. Applying the data and insights to actual games however, is another story.

I wish I had the time/patience for longer than 10 minute games but I just don't see it happening in a digital setting. Too many distractions, in my brain and in my phone/computer.