Free Coaching

Hi chessfriends,

I ( Elo 2012) am doing more free coaching. I already coached some people and did blog posts, but it was a bit confusing for me because I had no list of the students who wanted to get coaching. So please, to all of you, who are interested in getting free coaching, write shortly in the comments. This will help me to get a better overview of whom I am coaching. For all personal questions, please write me a message. Thanks to all of you guys :)

Cheers, Till

Hi Till....I will definitetly take you up on your offer.  That is very generous of you.  I do the same thing for people when I can in other eares of life. I have been playing guitar for 40 years, and I always give people free lessons. It feels good knowing I am helping someone become better in their passion for music. And on a personal note, I was in a horrific accident about 18 months ago and haven't worked since.  I am almost 90% better.  But my finances are so low, I am almost flat broke. So your offer could not have come at a better time. I am almost always home except if I am at a Drs appt or physical therapy.  Not sure what flag your country is from or how our time zones work with each other. I am on USA EST time.  I really appreciate your offer and will pay it forward.   And I will leave you with this cool thought.  A classical guitar master, one of the top in NY state, recently offered me free guitar lessons. That's how the Universe works. Good Karma always comes back to you. Just tell what I need to do next. I wish you and your loved ones good health and happiness.  Peace  BobbyD NYC

if you are rated below 2000, coaching is a waste of time. At the lower levels you will learn alot more from studying books.

Is that how you got so great at chess?

You couldn't be more wrong Derek.

Till, out of curiosity.. what's your OTB rating?

I only picked up chess seriously not too long ago. But, I feel I am on the right track with it. I wouldn't waste my time with coaches until I am highly rated. What will a coach tell someone below 2000 other than what they can learn through experience and self study?

For starters, a coach can tell you, subjectively, your strengths and weaknesses. They can also ensure that you actually do understand the things you believe you understand.

@derek, with all respect, i think you are totally wrong.

Its obvious that you need to study, read books, do tactics, play games, analyze them, etc.... All those can be done alone, but coaching helps you a lot in other fields.

Lower rated players usually get bad habits in their repertoire, mostly because their opponet are in the same level.  So even if strategic mistakes are done, the opponet hardly will take advantage of them, so bad habits get consolidated and those become very very hard to spot.

Sometimes you need someone else ( a stronger player) to analize your games to see those stuff.

Obviously a coach cannot teach you everything, but he can easilly spot your weackness, so he can point you to the right direction. Its quite common that an amateur read toons of opening books be he doesn't improve as he's just weak in tactics. Or often you meet very good in tactics, but theya re very poor in endgames, so they loose a won match. There are toons of situation where an expert coulld help a weaker player. Then its up to the "student" to go deep and work where the coach point you.

Till posted his rating in the first sentence of his opening post here. 2012 FIDE. Derek, you claim to have just started. You've never had a coach either so how could you even know the worth of having one? You're clearly incorrect on this matter. I had a coach temporarily and my OTB rating has been climbing ever since as he quickly spotted several thinking flaws of mine and helped me understand how to evaluate positions better. Most, like me, just can't afford a coach long term. Its not that most wouldn't if given the means for it.

I am considering it Till. It is a good offer

I would love to take you up on this offer; but I can only really start in July because I have exams.

How are you planning to give this coaching?

Interested. Lets us know how you intend on following up. Thanks

Thank you guys!:)

Here is what I can do:

-Analyse games for you in which I can show you what you did wrong and what you should have done better. (I will also point out how you handled the opening/middlegame/endgame)

-Write blog posts or messages about the middlegame/endgame. I will do blog posts about many different topics and about every topic I will show you some examples to give you the basic knowledge and then give you some exercises for your own. You can determine the topics( For example: Isolated pawns or rook endgames...)

- Write blog posts about the opening. You can ask me every question about your openings so I can help you to improve your opening repertoire. For me its more important to show you the plans than to show you all theory lines. I know the following openings the best but I also know lots of other openings:

White: Trompovsky( D4 Nf6,Bg5), Queensgambit mainlines, D4 Nf6, C4 main lines, E4- Gambit repertoire as a suprise weapon( morra gambit, scotch gambit...)

Black: against d4: Kingsindian defence, Slav with a6 ( tschebanenko slav), dutch stonewall( surprise weapon)

against e4: Caro-Kann defence, Sicilian Najdorf( classical lines), E4 E5 open games + Marshall Gambit

So just ask me all your opening questions.

- Play some unrated 30 minutes games against me where I can give you tips and comment every move of you to improve your thinking process

Cheers, Till :)

Perhaps you should start a group. That might make it easier to organize everything.

Do you use Skype by chance, Till_98?

I agree with Kleelof. Create a team/group and invite your "students", Keep the team closed to not be overhemed by people, just accept only the number of students you can deal with ( I hope to be one of those ).

I dont have Skype, sorry. So should I do a study group?

Why not? It's free, you just need a microphone!

okay I will see what I can do learning2mate :)